The new head coach of the Dutch football team, Guus Hiddink, completed his next blitz mission to Russia . When flying home to deal with tax authorities , the mentor said that his list of candidates for the friendly game with Latvia, which will be held in Moscow on August 16, includes 25 people. However, he did not name a single surname, promising to announce them on his next visit in a week. Izvestia, through its sources, managed to get the treasured list: there are no super-sensations in it.
Initially, it was planned that the list of candidates for participation in the national team’s only test match before the start of the European Championship qualifying tournament would not differ much from the squad that held the match with the Spaniards in Albacete in late May. Hiddink in each interview emphasized that at first he formed an opinion about his new wards, based on what he heard from Alexander Borodyuk, who led the team in that game. And the Premier League is not so rich in cool football players with a Russian passport, so that you can count on some surprises. Novelties were to be expected from the starting lineup, tactics, goals and objectives set for the old-timers of the team, but not from the choice of candidates. However, the crisis, which at the same time befell almost all the favorites of the Russian championship, could not pass by.
The goalkeeper line, once the most conservative in the team, will undergo major changes. The disqualification of Sergei Ovchinnikov and the loss of the status of a stable first team number by torpedo Borodin, apparently, remove them from the list of people invited to the base of the Bor team. Those who have left should be replaced by Malafeev, who has returned to the gates of “Zenith” and is increasingly playing for “Wings” Makarov.
With the defenders easier. There is an army trio, Anyukov, Kolodin and Evseev. You can add to them only two defense players of FC Moscow - Godunka and Kuzmina. The latter is also a station wagon, confidently closes any flank in defense, is familiar with the role of the “shuttle” and is quite young. So his debut in the team is fully justified. Godunka is hindered by age, and in the center of defense the Russians have no particular problems. Bugaev could still be on the list of candidates, but he has a reputation as a player with a difficult character.
Midfield will remain in its current composition. Surely Hiddink would like a younger, faster one, but there are simply no other players in the country. A similar situation develops with forwards. After the injury, Kazan’s citizen Bukharov, who brightly played in the spring, Hiddink's assets remain two “kids” - Zenit Kerzhakov and Arshavin, Sychev, who recently scored Kirichenko’s hundredth goal, plus a couple of blond grenadiers - Pogrebnyak and Pavlyuchenko.
In general, again, there should be no surprises. But then she and the team.
Candidates for participation in a match with the national team of Latvia
Goalkeepers: Igor Akinfeev (CSKA), Alexander Makarov (“Wings of the Soviets”), Vyacheslav Malafeev (“Zenith”). Defenders: Alexander Anyukov (Zenit), Alexei Berezutsky, Vasily Berezutsky, Sergey Ignashevich (all - CSKA), Vadim Evseev (Lokomotiv), Denis Kolodin (Dynamo), Oleg Kuzmin (FC Moscow). Midfielders: Evgeni Aldonin, Yuri Zhirkov (both CSKA), Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, Marat Izmailov, Dmitry Loskov (all “Lokomotiv”), Vladislav Radimov (“Zenith”), Sergey Semak (FC “Moscow”), Alexey Smertin (“ Dynamo "), Yegor Titov (Spartak). Forwards: Andrey Arshavin, Alexander Kerzhakov (both Zenit), Dmitry Kirichenko (FC Moscow), Roman Pavlyuchenko (Spartak), Pavel Pogrebnyak (Tom, Russia), Dmitry Sychev (Lokomotiv).
Igor BLINKOV