Why all Russians want to be goalkeepers

MrJoeSoap · 01-11-2006 3:16pm #1

When British children play football, most of them want to be the centre-forward, scoring the goals and grabbing the glory. In the Russian schoolyard, though, the big argument is over who plays in goal. Even four decades after he inspired the USSR to the World Cup semi-final in 1966, Lev Yashin, the only goalkeeper to have been named European Footballer of the Year, regularly tops polls as Russia's greatest-ever sportsman.

Yashin is like the Dalai Lama - every generation has its own incarnation. Rinat Dasaev, although probably the best goalkeeper in the world in the late 80s, never quite escaped comparison with the Black Panther, while Sergei Ovchinnikov, the Russia keeper at Euro 2004, has been saddled with the 'new Yashin' burden for years. Latest in the great tradition of Russian goalkeepers is Igor Akinfeev, the 20-year-old who will line up for CSKA Moscow against Arsenal tonight.

Akinfeev made his debut in the Russian top flight when he was just 16, saving a penalty as CSKA beat Krylya Sovetov 2-0. "I was really nervous," he said. "After that first game I took a load of beer to the sauna to celebrate." That season, CSKA went on to win the title for the first time since the break-up of the USSR. The former army club have since established themselves as the pre-eminent side in Russia, becoming the first post-Soviet team to lift a European trophy by winning the Uefa Cup in 2005. Akinfeev is now a regular not merely for them, but also for the Russia national team, and the nerves have all but vanished. "He's got courage," said the CSKA goalkeeping coach Vyacheslav Chanov. "He doesn't get nervous. His main strength is his confidence, which transmits itself to his team-mates. It's very rare for him to make a mistake in positioning."

It will be a long time, however, before he emerges from Yashin's shadow. The Panther himself also had to wait for recognition, his frustration increased by the fact that the great from the previous age with which he was competing was keeping him out of the Dinamo Moscow first team. By 1953, Yashin was so sick at playing second fiddle to Alexei 'Tiger' Khomich (you see the difference? British keepers are nicknamed mundane things like 'the Cat' or 'Safe Hands'; Russians get to be sleek, feline and dangerous) that he almost gave up football for ice hockey.

Khomich, who had become a cult figure in Dinamo's 1945 tour of Britain, was so revered that when Rangers toured Russia in the early 60s that the Daily Express asked James Sanderson to interview him. After a desultory effort to track him down, Sanderson pocketed Khomich's fee himself and made up the column, after which he was terrorised for weeks by telephone calls from Rangers players pretending to be Soviet officials threatening legal action over the misrepresentation of a comrade.

In Western Europe, the goalkeeper is an outsider, the gawky misfit. Wim Wenders used a goalkeeper as a symbol of existential angst in his 1972 film The Goalkeeper's Fear of the Penalty, and the fact that Albert Camus, author of L'Etranger, should have been a goalkeeper feels entirely appropriate. In Russia, though, the goalkeeper is different; he is the hero.

The Russian love affair with the goalkeeper probably began in 1936 with the film Vratar (Keeper), Semyon Timoshenko's hugely popular comedy-musical adaptation of Leo Kassil's novel, Vratar Respubliki. Its hero, Anton Kandidov, played by the Russian matinee idol Grigori Pluzhnik, worked stacking watermelons onto a cart, and became so adept at catching those that fell that he was noticed by a scout and called up to play in goal for an unnamed Russian team. The climax of the film came when, having made a series of fine saves against a touring Basque side, he ran the length of the field to score a last-minute winner. Just in case anybody hadn't worked out the political message, the most famous song of the film contained the lines, "Hey, keeper, prepare for the fight/ You are a sentry in the goal/ Imagine there is a border behind you."

Late goals may be the stuff of fiction, but the real keepers - and Yashin in particular - were hardly lionised any the less. Any goalkeeper who keeps 100 clean sheets in his league career is said in Russia to have entered the 'Yashin Club'. Injury aside, the only thing that could prevent Akinfeev joining that club would be a move to a major western team. "If you get the chance to leave for a prestigious club, you must take it," he said. "Maybe not now, but certainly by the time I'm 25. In Russia, when you turn 30 everybody forgets about you. There are great actors who were famous across the whole country who die in poverty and oblivion."

And at CSKA they are all too aware of how fate can intervene. Fifteen years ago they believed that, in Mikhail Yeremin, they had the heir to Dasaev. He was hugely impressive in the USSR side that won the European Under-21 championship in 1990, and the following year played in the CSKA Moscow side that won the last Soviet Cup. The night of the final, though, he was involved in a car crash; he died a week later.

As the goalkeeping production line dried up in the early years after fragmentation, there were those who saw his death as the end of the affair: a romance that began in musical comedy and ended in tragedy. Ovchinnikov never lived up to the hype, but Akinfeev is determined that he should eclipse Yashin as surely as Yashin eclipsed Khomich. "I believe that one day I will play in a Champions League final," he said. "And I hope it is with a Russian club."

If he achieved that, Russia would never forget him.

Jonathon Wilson

http://football.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1936536,00.html

Just a little side-note to the Arsenal game tonight, because anyone who has played Football Manager will know how good Akinfeev is and will be. Only 20 years of age, and he already has two domestic titles, two domestic cups and a UEFA Cup winners medal, as well as already being into double figures in terms of Russian caps.

It would be quite easy for the guy to be ignored, playing nearly 3,000km east of us, but he certainly has what it takes to become the best in the world.

ziggy · 01-11-2006 4:16pm

This post has been deleted.

Royale with Cheese · 01-11-2006 4:17pm

Noooooo, not another keeper saves everything and Arsenal end up with a draw game.

MrJoeSoap · 01-11-2006 4:32pm

ziggy67 wrote:

Never seen the guy but saying he is going to be good cause he is in a computer game seems to be a bit silly.

Well it wasn't wrong about Zlatan Ibrahimovic when he was back at Malmo, or many many many other players. I saw the article and happened to mention the fact that he has been an outstanding prospect in what is the worlds most researched computer game.

I'm not solely basing this on Football Manager of course, which is why I included the article, as well as all his (fairly incredible) achievements to date. I've seen him play a few times, against Lisbon in the UEFA Cup Final and the semi-final demolition of Parma, where he kept a clean sheet in both legs. Didn't do too badly at all against Liverpool in the Super Cup either.

Royale with Cheese wrote:

Noooooo, not another keeper saves everything and Arsenal end up with a draw game.

Bet its a 5-0 drubbing after me posting this thread.

Rollo Tamasi · 01-11-2006 4:38pm

ziggy67 wrote:

Never seen the guy but saying he is going to be good cause he is in a computer game seems to be a bit silly.

it's actually pretty accurate 87% of the time, everytime

ziggy · 01-11-2006 6:41pm

This post has been deleted.

Chucky the tree · 01-11-2006 7:42pm

Rollo Tamasi wrote:

it's actually pretty accurate 87% of the time, everytime

er, no its not.

Rollo Tamasi · 01-11-2006 7:52pm

tut tut chucky! you must never have seen Anchorman.

Royale with Cheese · 01-11-2006 8:40pm

Chucky the tree wrote:

er, no its not.

Poor, just poor. I banish you from this thread until you go watch Anchorman.

Xavi6 · 01-11-2006 9:13pm

ziggy67 wrote:

Yeah well if it is all the same i will judge him on what he does on the pitch

Then make sure you do. His performances so far in this year's Champions League have been outstanding. If he was playing in one of the more 'glamorous' leagues he would have managers falling over themselves to snap him up.

Ronan|Raven · 01-11-2006 9:35pm

90% of the time it works every time.

Rollo Tamasi · 01-11-2006 10:08pm

Sex Panther by Odeon

Xavi6 · 01-11-2006 10:28pm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/6103152.stm

2125: Gilberto has a header brilliantly turned around the post by CSKA Moscow keeper Igor Akinfeev. It's not looking like it's going to be their night.

MrJoeSoap · 01-11-2006 11:53pm

Just two goals conceded in their four games now, including two clean sheets against the Gooners.

Chucky the tree · 01-11-2006 11:56pm

haha, sorry lads.

MrJoeSoap · 02-11-2006 5:41am

Best player on the park according to the Sky Sports fan ratings -

http://home.skysports.com/matchratings.aspx?fxid=307254&clid=3&cpid=5

gosplan · 02-11-2006 12:26pm

MrJoeSoap wrote:

because anyone who has played Football Manager will know how good Akinfeev is and will be.

Yeah, that's pretty daft JoeSoap. I've never played it but I guarantee it works off the ability of the players and then where they're from.
So a promising player from Russia or say Sweeden is marked up so Russians and Sweeds don't say 'this game is crap there's no good russians or sweeds here'.
Will some of the players that are good in football manager become great players? Yes without a doubt.
Will some of them not become great players? Yes without a doubt.

I mean wasn't Freddie Adu the best player to sign in the version out a couple of years ago. Were you saying back then how great he was going to be?

Jivin Turkey · 02-11-2006 12:52pm

While I, or I'm sure MrJoeSoap, don't subscirbe to the notion that because he is good in that game that he is definitely going to be amazing in real life, are you trying to imply

gosplan wrote:

So a promising player from Russia or say Sweeden is marked up so Russians and Sweeds don't say 'this game is crap there's no good russians or sweeds here'.

that there is possibly no promising Russians or Swedes knocking about the European game, and that the makers of this just pick a few randomers to sell some copies in those countries?

gosplan wrote:

I mean wasn't Freddie Adu the best player to sign in the version out a couple of years ago. Were you saying back then how great he was going to be?

And I mean, hasn't he already been capped? And linked with both Chelsea and United?

MJS used this game, almost tongue in cheek at the start, but then listed the honours and achievements of this 20 year old keeper. They are more than a lot of good players could earn in their careers.

ziggy · 02-11-2006 1:05pm

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DerekD Goldfish · 02-11-2006 2:54pm

Yeah, that's pretty daft JoeSoap. I've never played it but I guarantee it works off the ability of the players and then where they're from.
So a promising player from Russia or say Sweeden is marked up so Russians and Sweeds don't say 'this game is crap there's no good russians or sweeds here'.

The makers of the game dont directly decide player ratings football fans do stats come from fans of the game volentering and giving plaer ratings for as many clubs in thier leage they have reasonable knoledge with this data is then compiled with other peoples ratings to get an adverage overall picture of a player. Then the head resercher for each region makes sure their isnt to much bias in any of the stats and they are reasonable before submiting them for the game. So if a player is good in the game its because a number of people who watch him regularly rate him as so. While the game can be wrong its because some player fail to acheive the potential people who watched them saw in them not because the game makers decided we need more good x country internationals.

while I agree that people sometimes go overboard with the validity of FM stats its a well scouted game and gives you about as good an idea of the standard of a large number of players that you are likly to get anywhere.

anyway back on topic Russan keepers eh?

MrJoeSoap · 02-11-2006 3:06pm

ziggy67 wrote:

I will, just as i said i would. It is the people who think he will be good just because of a computer game you should be having a go at.

Even the guys Wikipedia page up until recently mentioned Football Manager, it was just a side-note to my original post, which seems to have been backed up by the guys recent performances.

Gosplan wrote:

I mean wasn't Freddie Adu the best player to sign in the version out a couple of years ago. Were you saying back then how great he was going to be?

As for Freddy Adu, at the time he was big FM news he was unassigned and 13 years of age. Since then he's...

(1) been 1st pick in the draft,
(2) become the youngest player in the MLS' history,
(3) scored at the age of FOURTEEN,
(4) made nearly 100 appearances in the MLS and has only turned 17 in June,
(5) won Player of the Week and Goal of the Week on numerous occasions.
(6) been named on the MLS All-Star team twice,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6-XV3UVm60 (Especially the last minute goal against LA and the run against Salt Lake on the crazy looking American Football pitch)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYm3-TPm6co (11 more minutes of Freddie)

'Nuff said really. Just because he hasn't done it over here doesn't mean he hasn't done it. Same with Akinfeev.