?The Russian team has no better “blue team” than the Vietnamese and Thai teams.
More than 6 years ago, Russia was still the world’s leading team. A specific example is that the Russian team reached the quarter-finals of the 2018 World Cup held on home ground.
However, for some reasons, in February 2022, the Russian national team was banned by the European Football Federation (UEFA) from competing in official tournaments at all team levels. Even friendly matches with European teams were completely banned by the Russian national team. After that, the World Football Federation (FIFA) also “intervened” and eliminated the Russian national team in the play-off match for a ticket to the 2022 World Cup finals against Poland.
Banned from official competition by FIFA and UEFA, the Russian national team (red shirts) will not easily find a “blue team”. Photo: AFP
At that time, the Russian Football Union (RFU) considered leaving UEFA to join the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) as a member of the Central Asian Football Federation. However, after conducting preliminary statistics, the RFU found that up to 28 members of the AFC were not really interested in their idea, so the “house change” has been suspended until now.
Because of such difficulties, teams at all levels of Russian football find it difficult to find strong partners as expected to compete when their options have been greatly narrowed. Specifically, Russian football cannot participate in tournaments in Europe, the Russian national team still gathers according to the FIFA Days schedule, but they can only find “blue troops” which are teams that are not members of UEFA.
Since February 2022, the Russian national team has played friendly matches with Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Iran, Iraq, Olympic Egypt, Cameroon, Paraguay, Cuba, Belarus and Serbia. Among these teams, the Russian national team’s most frequent opponent is Belarus. The reason is very simple: Belrus was also punished by UEFA by being banned from playing in official tournaments, so they can only meet Russia as the easiest contact.
Coach Karpin and the Russian team will compete in the triumvirate with the Vietnamese and Thai teams next September. Photo: RFU
Last March, the Russian team “circumvented the law” by playing a friendly match with the Serbian team. Because Serbia is a member of UEFA, in order to play together, the two teams arranged this as an unofficial match, which means no national flags, no national anthems, no national team stadiums, but instead played at the Sports Training Center in Saint Petersburg.
In fact, the Russian team’s professional level is still very impressive. The proof is that in the two recent matches against Belarus and Serbia, the Russian team won 4-0.
Therefore, when the RFU decided to let the Russian national team play friendly matches with the Vietnamese and Thai national teams in the upcoming FIFA Days, the media, former coaches, famous players and fans of this country had conflicting opinions. In the Soviet Sport newspaper, former Russian player Aleksandr Mostovoi commented: “I find it funny when I hear the names of these teams. Such matches have no meaning. You can play friendly matches with any opponent, but you must also respect yourself even if you are banned by FIFA.”
Former player Mostovoi does not support the Russian team competing with two Southeast Asian representatives. Photo: Marca
Agreeing with this view, former coach of Spartak Moscow Club Raul Riancho emphasized on RB Sport: “When you play against weaker opponents, it is the opponent who improves. These types of matches benefit the Thai and Vietnamese teams more than the Russian team.”
But there are also more positive comments about the Russian team competing with two representatives from Southeast Asia. According to veteran coach Yury Syomin, finding an opponent to play a friendly match at this time is a remarkable effort by the RFU. Mr. Syomin also affirmed in Championat: “The Russian team needs to defeat the Vietnamese and Thai teams because no opponent is easy. The whole team must be united at all times, everywhere, in all training sessions and friendly matches.”
Famous Russian TV presenter Dmitry Guberniev even commented: “Recent matches show that opponents still care about this country. We need to go our own way and attract more supporters of the national team. No matter who the opponent of the Russian team is, play and say thank you.”
Presenter Dmitry Guberniev said that it would be good for the Russian team to play any opponent at this time. Photo: Sovsport
If we analyze carefully, in the FIFA Days in September, the top Asian teams will compete in the third qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup, so of course they cannot play friendly matches with the Russian team. Therefore, if we look at it positively, meeting the Vietnamese and Thai teams in the upcoming training camp is the best possible choice that the RFU has for coach Valery Karpin and his students.
Currently, the Russian team is ranked 33rd on the FIFA rankings, 68 places higher than the Thai team and 82 places higher than the Vietnamese team. The triumvirate between the 3 teams will be held with 3 matches taking place on September 5, 7 and 10 at My Dinh Stadium (Hanoi).