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Russia National Football Team

Head coach: Guus Hiddink
Captain: Andrei Arshavin
Top scorer: Vladimir Beschastnykh
FIFA ranking: 24

The Russia national football team is the national football team of Russia and is controlled by the Football Union of Russia.

Since the breakup of the USSR, Russian football has struggled to show the level the USSR team showed in past. The team qualified for two World Cups (1994, 2002) and two European Championships (1996, 2004), but failed to get beyond the first round on either occasion.

FIFA considers the Russia national team the direct descendant of the CIS and USSR national teams.

After the break up of the Soviet Union, Russia played its first international match against Mexico on August 16, 1992 winning 2-0. Many former USSR players from the other republics played for Russia.

In the 1994 FIFA World Cup, Russia was drawn into group B with Cameroon, Sweden, and Brazil. Russia lost its first two games 2-0 Brazil 3-1 to Sweden. Eliminated already, Russia defeated Cameroon 6-1 with Oleg Salenko scoring a record of five goals in a single world cup match. Russia was eliminated from the tournament with three points from one win and two losses.

Two years later Russia qualified for the Euro 96 and was drawn into group C with Germany, Czech Republic, and Italy. Group C was considered the 'group of death' with Russia dubbed the weakest team. In their first game Russia lost to Italy 2-1 and to Germany 3-0. In their last game Russia fought to a creditable 3-3 draw against the Czech Republic. Euro 96 also saw the departure of many late Soviet era players.

Between 1997 and 1999, Russia was in the top twenty FIFA world rankings but failed to qualify for the 1998 FIFA World Cup and Euro 2000. However the Euro 2000 qualifying campaign witnessed a historic victory 3-2 over France in Paris on 5 June 1999.

At the 2002 World Cup in Korea-Japan, Russia was drawn into group H with Belgium, Tunisia, and Japan. This was considered by many as the weakest group of the tournament with Russia and Japan to qualify to the second round due to weak Belgian and Tunisian sides. The Russian squad, led by Oleg Romanstev, contained a mix of experienced veterans and fresh debutants. In their first game Russia achieved a comfortable 2-0 against Tunisia. After much media hype and determination from Russian fans, Russia were determined to defeat Japan. However in the 51st minute, Japan took a 1-0 lead and held out to win the game while riots erupted in Moscow. In their last game against Belgium, there was again much determination for victory. In the 7th minute Belgium took the lead with a goal from Walem but a 52nd minute Russian equaliser from Titov leveled the score. Drama began to unfold in the last 12 minutes when Belgium restored the lead with a goal from Sonck and took a 3-1 lead with an 82nd minute goal from Wilmots. A goal at 88 minutes from Sychev could not save Russia as they lost 3-2. Russia were eliminated with 3 points, from one win and two losses. The 2002 campaign was regarded as one in which Russia could have avoided simple mistakes to qualify for the second round.

In the Euro 2004, Russia was drawn into group A with Greece, Spain, and Portugal. On the first day of the tournament Russia lost to Spain 1-0 and four days later lost to Portugal 2-0. However on June 16, Russia surprisingly defeated Greece 2-1 with Kirichenko scoring in the 2nd minute and Bulykin later scoring in the 17th minute. However Russia was eliminated from Euro 2004.

In the World Cup 2006 qualifying tournament Russia was drawn into group 3 with Portugal, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, Luxembourg, and Liechtenstein. Portugal quickly took first place and Russia trailed Slovakia for second place. On October 12, 2005 Russia needed to win against Slovakia in Bratislava. After a suspenseful 0-0 draw Slovakia advanced to the playoffs. Russia finished third with 23 points from six wins, five draws, and one loss (their biggest lost ever, 7-1 against Portugal in Lisbon) failing to qualify for the play-offs by 1 point.

Russia are currently playing in the Euro 2008 qualifiers in group E with England, Croatia, Israel, FYR Macedonia, Estonia, and Andorra. Russia began their Euro 2008 campaign with a relatively poor start by drawing with Croatia 0-0 and Israel 1-1 at home. They picked up momentum with a 2-0 win against FYR Macedonia, and 2-0 home and away wins against Estonia.

Russia Team
No.	NAME	POS	Height	Weight	Age
-	Dmitri Borodin	G	6-2	181	29
16	Viacheslav Malafeev	G	6-1	168	28
30	Vladimir Gabulov	G	6-1	163	23
-	Roman Shishkin	D	5-10	148	20
-	Sergei Efimov	D	6-1	179	19
2	Vasili Berezutsky	D	6-2	181	25
5	Sergei Ignashevich	D	6-1	181	27
22	Aleksandr Aniukov	D	5-9	143	24
25	Denis Kolodin	D	6-2	181	25
27	Alexei Berezutsky	D	6-3	181	25
-	Alexei Rebko	M	5-10	143	21
-	Diniyar Bilyaletdinov	M	6-1	165	22
7	Dmitri Torbinsky	M	5-8	132	23
17	Konstatin Zurianov	M	5-9	159	29
18	Yuri Zhirkov	M	6-1	165	23
20	Igor Semshov	M	5-7	141	29
23	Vladimir Bystrov	M	5-8	143	23
28	Viktor Boudianski	M	5-10	159	23
9	Ivan Saenko	S	5-10	170	23
10	Andrei Arshavin	S	5-8	137	26
11	Alexander Kerzhakov	S	5-9	148	24
13	Pavel Pogrebniak	S	6-0	168	23
26	Dmitri Sychev	S	5-9	157	23

Group E
	GP	W	D	L	GS	GA	GD	P
Croatia	7	5	2	0	16	4	12	17
Israel	8	5	2	1	17	7	10	17
Russia	7	4	3	0	11	1	10	15
England	7	4	2	1	12	2	10	14
Macedonia	7	2	1	4	6	7	-1	7
Estonia	7	0	0	7	0	14	-14	0
Andorra	7	0	0	7	1	28	-27	0