Well, presence of the Russian team at the European great venue adds the adrenaline but decreases significantly the esthetic component of the event.   

The World Cup 2006 in Germany went perfectly without Russia. And in European Cup 2004 and the World Cup 2002 our guys released quickly the Russian fans from additional worries. Now we are doomed for worries yet. It only remains to recollect the year of 1988 about which today’s generation of 20-years-old have only theoretical knowledge. Olympic champions, European vice-champions – all that was about other national teams, other country and other life.   

We have never passed the group stage since then. We had different teams, coaches and circumstances. The only thing that was permanent was that we fell out of the struggle ingloriously at the far approaches. This scheme formed finally four years ago in Portugal. Only future champions, Greeks, were defeated by us, which is a comfort on the eve of the next rendez-vous. But after the match vs Spain this comfort seems to be poor.     

Some say that the situation is different about us. Well, if we take a look at it, we shall see that the only “different” thing is the figure of the Dutch Gus Hiddink. Everyone takes him into account, while no one considers the players themselves to be something valuable. “Your team is fair to middling, but you have Hiddink” such is the tenor of the comments during last two years about our football team. If this is true, then we haven’t made much progress. If I were our players, I would have got hurt. But they don’t’ seem to be offended with pejorative comments.   

The worst thing is that the non-attractive thesis about Gus Hiddink as about the best merit of the Russian team is added with the point about his magic good luck. But good luck is nonsense when we talk about future; it is possible to be talked about only after the fact.

Gus Hiddink and his staff had three weeks to get the team prepared for the first match at the Euro-2008. During this period Russians became the champions of Europe in unofficial matches with three victories gained with the score 12 to 2, lost Pavel Pogrebnyak, tried two different options for our problematic defense, and confused our rivals about our first team composition. Unfortunately, we all know what the result of the match versus Spain was.