Four years after a brilliant performance at Euro 2008, Arshavin was again chosen as captain national team, which, under the guidance of the Dutch specialist Dick Advocaat, went to the 2012 European Championship in Poland and Ukraine. The group was easy, but the national team failed miserably, unexpectedly losing in the decisive match to the outsider team - the Greek national team. Finished third in the group final part the team didn't make it. There was no limit to the disappointment of Russian fans.
However, the greatest resonance was caused even by the not shocking departure of Russia from the Euro, which failed to overcome group stage, a scandalous video of a skirmish of high-profile fans Russian team and international players in the lobby of the hotel, which appeared on the Internet the very next day.
On the video, lounging in a chair, he harshly responded to the words of a disappointed fan who accused the national team players of not meeting the expectations of a hundred million Russian fans. Whose expectations were these? Ours or yours? If we did not meet your expectations, these are your problems! ”Arshavin said. And he added that he sees no reason why he should apologize to the fans.
Roman Pavlyuchenko and Roman Shirokov immediately stood up for their captain. “What are you chasing him for?” Pavlyuchenko asked a particularly ardent fan. “What, you want to say that we lost on purpose?” Shirokov was indignant at the questions of the fans. Serious passions were in full swing, and only the arrived security officer of the national team managed to calm the players and fans.
Arshavin's scandalous phrase instantly became the hottest topic in the media, and society's attitude towards the popular football player changed to sharply negative. Calls have been made to strip the famed midfielder Russian citizenship and send them out of the country. Later, Arshavin nevertheless apologized for the failed performance of the national team at the European Championships, but, according to many, he did it clearly reluctantly.
This was to be expected, of course. That dissatisfied fans will go to the showdown with the players, that the players will definitely say something stupid in response, which will only increase the general degree. Stupidity said. “The fact that we did not live up to your expectations is not our problem,” said the national team captain. - It's your problems". And immediately the conversation moved on. In high tones.
“We don’t owe anything to anyone,” it was before the Euro, now this is Arshavin’s phrase. But you can take off in a completely different way. The Swedish coach, after his team put on a show against England but lost, joked at the post-match press conference. The Irish just apologized for the bad game and bad results.
Ours do not believe that something out of the ordinary has happened. Just think, they flew out of the group, which they themselves called "kindergarten", "yard teams" and so on. It didn't roll. It happens.
But to apologize, well, or just say some normal human words to people who spent money, vacation time and endured Polish antics to cheer for the Russian team - it's so simple. “I have nothing to reproach myself and the players with,” said the English team coach after the failure at Euro 2000 Kevin Keegan. - We simply did not fit into the turn, behind which there was a straight line, where everyone was equal. We are very sorry". And the fans just applauded the man who found the courage to admit that his team lost in football to a weaker opponent.
I agree with Arshavin that our high expectations are our problems. The main one is that we consider our team strong, while it is no different from Poland, the Czech Republic or Greece. We also get into major tournaments twice in the third one and also consider it lucky to reach the playoffs, which we have had only once in the entire Russian history.
Arshavin's generation is the most stellar in Russian history. The backbone of the current national team are CSKA players who won the UEFA Cup in 2005, and Zenit players who won the UEFA Cup and European Super Cup in 2008. The quintessence of this team was the successful performance at Euro 2008, where the Russian team reached the semi-finals and eventually shared third place with the Turks.
Of course, few people want to remember that in five matches at Euro 2008, the Russian team lost twice with a big score. Then there were misses at the 2010 World Cup and a failure at the current Euro. Not getting into South Africa after the hookah story eventually acquired a scandalous connotation, there will surely be something from the same series this time. Otherwise, we can't.
For Arshavin himself, this European Championship seems to have become the last major tournament in the national team. The captain of the Russian national team is not young, and good physics has never been one of his main advantages. Andrei has never been able to play more than two matches in a row on high level, in fact, this is exactly what happened at Euro 2008. Because of the children's red card, the leader of the Russian team missed the first two matches in the group, then played well against the Netherlands and was already barely moving around the field in the semi-finals with the Spaniards. Note that in the iconic semi-final of the UEFA Cup against Bayern, won with a score of 4:0, Andrei also served a suspension.
And at this championship in the third match, Arshavin was clearly tired ahead of time. Although it was he who had to lead the partners behind him. I had to shout, swear in the locker room, stomp my foot. However, it would all look too comical, try to imagine Arshavin yelling at Alexey Berezutsky.
35 year old Georgios Karagounis he showed us very well in contrast what the captain of the national team should be like. And just like any football player should give himself to the game. The Greek, like the Russian, also has problems with physics, but how much passion and charisma! Even on the bench, he brought his team more benefit than Arshavin on the field.
Dick Advocaat like its predecessor Guus Hiddink, believed in Arshavin unconditionally. Both Dutchmen, it seems to me, saw in the player a pure and great talent without many impurities. So, probably, a gold digger looks at a huge nugget and sees in it only what he wants to see. Andrei is really capable of making a goal out of nothing, as the now former coach of the Russian team put it, but I would change the time: he was capable. It used to be that Arshavin constantly climbed forward, tried to beat, aggravated. It's all gone in London. And the Advocate was still waiting for this nothing, from which his captain would make a goal. Not wait.
Both foreign coaches (even three, let's count more Arsene Wenger) due to their ignorance of our realities, they did not want to see in Arshavin a capricious player bombarded with money to the very ears, who does not like to work too much and does not have any leadership qualities. Remember how Andrei moved from Zenit to Arsenal. Complaining that the St. Petersburg club actually enslaved him, although shortly before that he signed a five-year contract on very favorable terms for himself. Then he bargained with the Gunners for a long time, trying to bring his salary into at least some correspondence with the Zenit one. All this "Arshaviniada", which continued around Andrei's move to London, now looks especially comical, because there was only enough Russian in England for a year.
Deep down, of course, we knew that everything had to end this way. A weak-willed game against an average team, to which we lost not in football, but in desire and passion. And we knew that after the match our “collectors” would definitely say something like that. Who owes whom and how much. And in general, we have already managed to understand that we all owe it to the players of the Russian national team in general and Andrei Arshavin in particular. It will be necessary to offer Zenit to urgently increase the salary of the captain of the Russian national team. Maybe even chip in with the whole world, in case of refusal.
But this team had everything to go down in history, and not remain a team that once played football well and defeated the Dutch. It looks like it's really time for us to build a completely new team for the 2018 World Cup. In which there will be no place for Andrei Arshavin.
On the birthday of the former captain of the Russian national team and the best domestic player,XXIcentury, "Sokker.ru" spoke with the words of Andrei Sergeevich, his best phrases.
About childhood and the main problem: “My family lived in a communal apartment, and we had to share a bathroom, kitchen and toilet with neighbors. The biggest problem in the apartment was me, because I played football all the time.”
About father: “My father played football but was never a professional. However, people who have seen him play say he played better than me."
About who you dreamed of becoming as a child: “I wanted to quickly grow up and become a bus or trolley bus driver. The driver's seat seemed to me the ultimate dream.
About children's toys: “Toys, soldiers, cars - all this did not interest me at all. I was constantly walking with the ball, playing ball, sleeping with the ball.”
On the main sports choice in his life: "My draughts coach was very offended when I made a choice in favor of football."
About errors: “I am calm about other people's mistakes, but strictly about my own. People close to me say that I am even too self-critical.
About failures: “They happen, it happens, these are whole periods. I never had the desire to leave football during the black period. In my opinion, this is a manifestation of cowardice.
About relationships with dentists: “Once I had a toothache as a child, and I was sent to the doctor. In the dentist's office, I sensed something was wrong and began to break free. I was held by four people, and the fifth was with tongs. But I still got out! Then some stronger uncle came to their aid, and they tied me up ... After that incident, I didn’t go to treat my teeth for twenty years.
About driving license: “I passed my driver's license exam on the second try. For the first time, I didn’t see a woman who was about to step onto a pedestrian crossing.”
About traffic police: "Rules traffic I don't break. Traffic cops stopped me four times. Mostly for talking on the phone while driving. Turned the wrong way one more time. I'm standing at a traffic light and I don't see a police car behind me. How do I even play football?
About autograph requests: “I can agree, I can refuse. Depends on the circumstances. If it’s normal, politely treated with such a request, then no problem - I’ll sign and take a picture. And if: “Hey, Andryukha, come here, sign it!” - why should I do this?
About the best Russian player: "Egor Titov - the best player in history Russian football. Of those Russians with whom fate brought on the field, he is the strongest.
About the captain's armband: “The bandage never put pressure on me either at Zenit or in the national team. The captain has more responsibility and more attention, but I have never been deprived of attention and I have never been afraid to take responsibility.
On the failure of the Russian team at Euro 2012: “The fact that we did not live up to your expectations is not our problem. It's your problems".
About money: “It doesn't matter where you live. It matters how much money is on your bank card.
About life in Russia and England: “The quality of life in Russia is higher than in England. I mean for people with money. There are too many rules, laws, restrictions in England. In Russia, if you have money, you are free. You can even break the law."
On the importance of an apology: “If I am wrong, I will definitely apologize. That's what my father did, and I think it's right."
About the ideal coach for the Russian national team (2012): "I will name three names - Capello, Mourinho and Hiddink."
About the most fashionable footballer of the Russian national team: “As a designer by education, I can say that the most fashionable football player of the Russian national team is Yuri Zhirkov.”
About "Multipersonalities": “My mom and grandma didn’t like it when they showed me in Cartoon Personalities. Now with a bottle, then with a hookah ... My grandmother never saw me with either a cigarette or a bottle.
About Arsene Wenger: “I can’t represent Wenger outside of Arsenal. It seems to me that this is impossible. He is more than a coach for the Gunners. Arsen not only works with the team, but also creates a club.”
About Barcelona: “I dreamed of playing at this club. If I played at least a year at Barcelona, it would be the crowning achievement of my career. I clearly understood this after Arsenal played against the Catalans in the Champions League. At that moment, the high feeling of playing for Arsenal turned into a feeling of dissatisfaction with the fact that I could not play at Barcelona.
On jokes about chips: "And there is computer game where I catch cucumbers! It's cool".
About legionnaires in RFPL: “Calculate how much in total has been invested in legionnaires in recent years. Calculate what kind of return from them, what they left behind. And imagine how much money could be made in Russian football schools.”
About Lionel Messi: “You look at him and think: ‘Why did I even go to play football?’”
About goals:"Of course I enjoy scoring goals, I especially enjoy celebrating them."
How to score a goal: "It is important not only to hit the goal, but also to miss the goalkeeper."
About protection:“Protection is like life. You never know who will grab you by your underpants.
About games and training: "I don't like to practice too much and it's not always good for my game."
On the mental state of the player: “It's a fine line. On the one hand, it is psychologically necessary to be an impenetrable robot, but at the same time it is important to remain a living person in order to improvise on the field, take risks, come up with non-standard moves.
About good and bad coaches: "For me good coach- a teacher, a bad one - a tyrant who does not hear anyone but himself.
About Gagarin: “I would like to be Yuri Gagarin or talk with him, understand what he was thinking before he was sent into space. For some reason it seems to me that his thoughts were obscene.
About football commentators: “A commentator is a person who professionally interferes with watching football.”
About Russia and concepts: “Russia is arranged according to concepts. The majority of our population spent some time in the same prisons and colonies, therefore, it seems to me, everything is on concepts, everything is through the soul. We think with the heart and communicate with each other through it. And the Europeans - everything comes from their heads. Everything is according to the rules, according to the points.
About my talent:“I believe that my talent, my technique is a gift from God. I knew that I had a talent from the age of seven, from my first training session. All my coaches always knew that I was special.”
About your home: “My home is Petersburg. I can't even call any other place home."
On a soon-to-be-finished career: “I am close to the end of my career, the end is near, it is very close. It scares me a little, life will change completely. But I'm going to stay in football even after I stop playing."
Andrei Arshavin, in an interview with the St. Petersburg TV channel "100 TV", explained what happened in his ill-fated conflict with State Duma deputy Anton Belyaev, and also apologized to the fans not only for the team's performance, but also for the fact that the players did not thank the fans after the match with Greece.
"First, a few days after we flew out of the tournament, I would like to turn to the fans of Russia, to tell them many thanks for the support they gave us at the championship, and not only at the stadium, but also in the city, in Warsaw "Near the hotel, on the streets and wherever the players met them. Of course, there may be many who want to hear excuses. From my side, from the side of the players. I would like to say that we wanted to win this championship for at least four years back in 2008. Yes, the result that we showed upset us and, of course, the fans.We understand this, and I, on my own behalf and, as a captain, on behalf of the players, would like to apologize for the result that we I just wanted to say that this is football, and one way or another, someone has to lose.This time we were the losers, and, of course, I and all the other players are very sorry about this, so, naturally that we're not in the best mood right now."
Arshavin also commented on his conflict with State Duma deputy Anton Belyakov, it was in a conversation with whom the sacramental was said: “Your expectations are your problems:“ I want to say that in that video my words were addressed to a specific person in a specific given situation. It had nothing to do with a lot of people, fans, fans all over the country. National team players never complained about the support of our fans, our fans do everything. Everything possible that is possible. They shout and support. We can't make any claims against our fans."
Arshavin expressed regret that after an unsuccessful match with the Greeks, the team did not come up and thank the fans of the Russian national team who filled the stands: “Naturally, we had to applaud our fans, of course, this is wrong and we have something to learn from the players of other teams, not only on the field, but also how to behave outside the match, outside the stadium.But everyone makes mistakes, and I think that after all, the fans should still understand that we wanted to win just as much as they wanted to win in the stands, and that responsibility and understanding that we did not do what everyone wanted - this is the only thing I can explain."
Andrei did not determine the reasons for the defeat - however, what is the point of looking for reasons now, because, unfortunately, the matter has already been done: “We didn’t talk much, neither in the locker room, nor on the bus. Because everyone had an understanding of what happened, everyone was worried "Practically no one slept. All the staff packed things, because, of course, before the game no one did this. Families came to many to support in difficult times. We had a good team during the Euro, in principle, why should it break out of "Yes, an insulting defeat? We've been together for many years, we've been through a lot, there were situations even worse, so it's natural that there was little talk. Everyone was waiting for the return home. "Of course, there will be an update, there will be young players. Already at this Euro flashed Alan Dzagoev. I think that a few more guys who were in the lineup, but did not play, are able to replace those who left, or who will leave. So I think our team will be fine."