The Emergence of Russia!

Football is not really the term that comes to our mind while discussing russia...probably nuclear weapons, may be the US cold war, or the communism..but not football...surely...here's how i will prove you wrong...

Let me start off with the so called 'group of death' i.e. Group C which had holland, italy, france & romania...Itlay and france being the winners and runnersup of last edition of world cup...obviously one would have expected them to go through to the knockout stages with considerable ease...but it had to happen otherwise...

The situation with the dutch team has always been ironical...they are coined as 'Dark Horse'...for they have it in them to knock off any team on their day...The so talented members of the dutch team owe a lot to their domestic league coz it's been the best breeding ground for european talent...Dutch's famous for its football exports..

Okay now...inspite of having such a strong domestic setup...they have failed to deliver on the big stage for quite a while...So now they had that ample opportunity to prove the doubters wrong with the Grp of Death...

Dutch started off with a bang and oh yes! they played the beautiful game beautifully with the counter attacking style...they murdered italy with a 3-0 victory and decimated france with a 4-1 win...the second string dutch side managed a 2-1 win over romania to complete the clean sweep...and dutch looked dangerous!!

But alongside the dutch team...another team gradually made its way into the quarters...yes its russia...They took it in the first match with a 4-1 heavy defeat to spain...and every1 said that this wud be the end of journey...but they fought hard against greece to make it 1-0...

And then they managed 2-0 win over sweden...that too..they did it in style...aresnal style i shud say...link up and counter attacking play...This was bcoz an unknown european entity brought the pace and the cutting edge the russian team lacked...

Yes thats none other than Arshavin...when i heard the name for first time...i thought arshavin who? whos this guy? he was the one who turned the game around against sweden...amazing player...a total footballer i must say...

skill, pace, control, vision, passing what not...u name it..he has it...who can simply ghost past defenders...not the Ronaldo type of player and never does those whicky whacky stepovers and silly tricks...Totally neat stuff...

Well...Now russia were pitted against dutch in the quarters...and the dutch totally lost the plot right from the beginning...probably overconfidence did cost them dear...after lots of pressing russia sqeezed out a goal...they kept creating opportunities one after another but they paid for poor finishing...Ruud van equaliesed with 4 minutes to go...and the game was dragged into extra time...

Arshavin kept those feeds comin onto the striker's feet and finally after some brilliant wingplay they took the lead...2-1...Dutch gave it up and arshavin capped off his brilliant performance with a sumptuous finish...thru the legs of vander saar...

Most of the football pundits predicted that russia would be a cakewalk for Holland...how ironical? Russia not only managed to get out of jaws of defeat but they managed to beat the winner of Group of Death...oh yes! in style of course...

Russia now, is surely a force to reckon with in World football...Manager Mastermind Guus Hiddnink deserves all the praise that has come his way...

And hence the emergence of russia!!

PS : I hope Liverpool sign Arshavin :)