Courtesy: UEFA.com


Russia ready to rule in St Petersburg

Friday 5 December 2008

by Dennis Novitsky

Russia, the hosts of the next week's inaugural UEFA European Under-21 Futsal Tournament, have quite a lot to live up to.

Senior example
In 1999, the senior Russian side beat home nation Spain on penalties to win the first full UEFA European Futsal Championship. Oleg Ivanov, who has coached the senior team since 2003 but has been in charge at U21 level for two years longer, is aiming at similar feats having had plenty of practice in the annual friendly tournament held each December in St Petersburg, the venue for the finals from Monday.

Winning aim
"Our team have the highest goal possible – we are going to fight for first place," Ivanov told uefa.com. "In that annual Autumn competition, we took first place in 2006, while last year we were second, losing to Spain in the final. We have been preparing seriously for this European tournament for a long time. I'd say for almost a year we have been working closely with all the U21 players, and this will help us prove ourselves."

Talent
Indeed, Ivanov is convinced that many of the junior side are ready to make an immediate step up into his full squad and emulate Dmitri Prudnikov, who bridged the gap when he featured in the team that finished fourth at October's FIFA Futsal World Cup in Brazil. "I'd name goalkeeper Sergei Slemzin, Kirill Pogorelov and Dmitri Prudnikov among those who are ready for the senior national team," Ivanov said, before adding that he hopes that maturity will aid his team in dealing with the pressure of being hosts. "We have talked to the team about that, and we'll talk more about the matter. But if you are a skilful player, you have to perform under any conditions. Psychological pressure should not affect us, and we'll play to win in every match."

Opposition
Aiming to thwart that latter ambition are their Group A opponents Croatia, Slovenia and Italy. Ivanov mused: "Italy are a technically gifted team, very quick and tactically acute. We saw them playing last year, and I'm sure that they'll be stronger now. Croatia are always in great physical shape and in any team sport they show their character and commitment. Slovenia are progressing as well, and we don't have the right to underestimate them. Everybody is working hard to develop young talent, and futsal is on the rise all over Europe. There will be no weak teams in St Petersburg."

Hard work
Consequently, he is working hard to get his team into peak condition. "We didn't have any problems in preparation, but still we have to improve our teamwork, tactics and converting set-pieces," Ivanov said. "And, of course, we have to take our scoring chances more often. It could be said that we have the same problems as our senior team, but we still have time to make the team better."







Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com