The choice is somehow unique. Firstly, the variant with the foreign coach wasn't accepted. Although, as newly-elected RFU President Vitaly Mutko noted, negotiations with experienced specialists as Serbian Bora Milutinovic, German Ottmar Hitzfeld and French Gerard Houllier were held after the appointment of Yury Syomin. However, it was decided that it would've been wiser to give the charge of the national team to a Russian, who in Mutko's words "knows the national soccer."
Secondly, Lokomotiv President Valery Filatov stated that in the course of his meeting with Syomin the issue concerning sharing the coaching posts of the national team and Lokomotiv was immediately put aside. "This will not be for the sake of Lokomotiv," Filatov categorically stated. Vyacheslav Fetisov, the head of the Russian Federal Agency for Physical Culture and Sport, shares the opinion of Filatov, having stressed that "if the coach of the national team wants to achieve positive results, he must be totally concentrated on the team."
However, Lokomotiv reserved an extra place for Syomin. Filatov hinted that if not all goes well for Syomin with the national team, the doors of Lokomotiv are always open for him. Syomin himself considers his appointment as a business trip, which can be over by the end of the year. Nevertheless, Syomin is facing a task of selecting a coaching staff, which will according to the agreement with the RFU consist of assisting coach and two members of his backroom staff.
Syomin repeatedly stressed that he always begins from the ground up. It was like this in Dushanbe in the 1980s, when a young coach took charge of local Pamir, in Moscow with Lokomotiv, where he worked for 15 years and even in New Zealand, where he worked in the early 1990s.
Syomin helped Lokomotiv to change from the weakest Moscow club into one of the Russian soccer leaders - two-times Russian Champions, four-times Russian Cup winners. Lokomotiv also defeated Inter and Monaco in the Champions League.
It's possible that Syomin first of all will try to make his bets on the players he worked with in Lokomotiv. He might try to return forgotten by previous head coach Georgy Yartsev goalkeeper Sergei Ovchinnikov, try to make the best out of young halfback Diniyar Bilyaletdinov and give more of the playing time to leaders of his club Dmitry Loskov, Marat Izmailov, Dmitry Khokhlov, Dmitry Sychyov. It's possible that he'll also render to experienced specialist Boris Ignatyev, who also used to coach the national team and then assisted Syomin in Lokomotiv.
On the other hand, first of all Syomin promises to change the playing style of the team, which according to him lacks the team speed. However, Lokomotiv lacks the team speed as well, while CSKA Moscow and Zenit St. Petersburg have no rivals in this sense and Georgy Yartsev used their players in the recent games. Therefore, one can hardly expect principal personnel shifts from Syomin.
The new head coach also mentions the necessity to form a favorable psychological atmosphere in the team, so that the players would enjoy staying with the team. However, a year and a half Yartsev started his work with similar statements. At first there were triumphant games in the Euro-2004 qualifiers, followed by hard times at the European Championship in Portugal and after the championship, when the team disintegrated and players openly stated their refusal to play for the team.
We will soon find out whether Syomin managed to fulfill his plans. On June 4 in St. Petersburg the Russians will meet with Lithuanians in a game within the frames of the 2006-World Cup qualifiers. Currently the Russians are three points behind the group leaders, who Portuguese and Slovaks and two points ahead of the Lithuanian team. Consequently, the game will be very difficult and determinative for the fate of the team as well as for Yury Syomin.
