FOR THE GLORY, FOR A VODKA AND FOR THE MAT' RUSSIA

We are 30 days away from starting the biggest football party in the world, the FIFA World Cup, 31 teams fighting for the throne that Germany has today, and the Teutons of course looking to preserve it. I will write daily reviews about each of the participants of this great event that I am sure all football fans are looking forward to.

We follow.

The hostess, the European colossus, Lenin, Stalin, the USSR, the KGB, Chaikovsky, The Kremlin, there are few countries with a culture as diverse and as marked as Russia has, the largest country in the world will receive the center of the spotlights. Everyone who will be paralyzed for this party, but well, can the Russkaya Druzhina (Russian squad) stand up for their country and achieve great results at home?

To begin we must remember that the Russian section stamped its quota for hosting the event, which leads us to have to look at their friendlies and the cup confederations to perform an analysis, which by the way, do not go well unemployed. Taking a look at the rear-view mirror, we see how, for example, they were overtaken at Euro 2016 by teams of not so great level, such as Slovakia or Wales, and just as in the Confederations Cup they only managed to triumph against a weak selection of New Zealand. There are many doubts about the operation of this selection, but with the support of his background and the obligation to play a good role, Russia could struggle to qualify for the 8th final.

THE CRACK

And from here we started to see the faults of the Bears, and that is they don’t have a star or player whose command leads the team forward. His coach Stanislav Cherchésov has tried to design a team where nobody stands out above the rest, and where the collective, the fight and the claw are the predominant to achieve their goals. However, we can consider that his captain and goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev as his main reference.

THEIR WALK

The local team climbs the curtain of this event on June 14 at the Luzhnikí Olympic stadium, from Moscow it will be in charge of starting its way against the selection of Saudi Arabia, if Russia wishes to transcend it needs if or if unequivocally win this meeting. Then five days later he will face his similar from Egypt at the Zenit Arena in St. Petersburg, which is undoubtedly the key duel for both teams, who will be victorious part of the 16 best teams in the tournament. And finally they will face in the Samara Arena the Charrúa team, with the hope of having finalized their pass to 8th in the previous duels.

The Russian squad despite having an affordable group sees their options complicated, there is great uncertainty about the level they can offer. To achieve the long-awaited passes to 8th will need the highest level and discipline possible by their players, their strength can be in that core full of veterans like Zhirkov and Samedov who next to that great star (which went off on the road) called Alan Dzagoev, should be in charge of leading the balance and offensive of this local team that is a big question, but has the opportunity to prove to their own that they are made.