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Russia’s
Sergey Ignashevich, left, reacts on the field with team coach Fabio
Capello, center, and Alexander Kokorin after their draw with Algeria at
the end of their 2014 World Cup Group H match at the Baixada arena in
Curitiba June 26, 2014. Islam Slimani headed an ecstatic Algeria into
the last 16 of the World Cup for the first time with a 1-1 draw against
Russia that dumped Fabio Capello’s team out of the tournament. Reuters
Photo/Henry Romero
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Moscow. Russia coach Fabio Capello has been given a vote of
confidence by Russian sports officials in the wake of his side’s World
Cup flop in Brazil.
The Russians failed to qualify for the second round despite having a
relatively easy group and returned home without a single win.
That performance has led to calls for Italian Capello to be sacked,
but Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko said he did not agree.
“Capello’s competence is beyond doubt,” said Mutko, who was president of the Russian Football Union (RFU) from 2005-09.
“We have never had a coach of such a high level at the helm of our national side.
“Some hotheads are calling on us to sack Capello and install a young
manager, but the post of the national team’s manager is not a testing
ground and we should refrain from any unreasonable experiments.”
Mutko also said that simply qualifying Russia for the World Cup
finals for the first time in 12 years was a success story for Capello in
itself.
“Participation in the World Cup finals is without doubt a success for
us but our team could definitely have performed better in Brazil as
none of our group opponents looked that much stronger than our squad.”
RFU chief Nikolai Tolstykh has also opposed the idea of sacking
Capello, saying the 68-year-old former coach of England, had already
done a huge amount of work in Russian football and that would serve for
the benefit of the country’s game in the future.
“I think a huge amount of work has been done by our national team under Capello’s guidance,” Tolstykh said.
“He is without doubt a top-class manager and we’re seriously interested in further cooperation with him.”
Tolstykh added that while Russia’s team had tried to play at its best
in Brazil, the players still needed to improve their technical skills
if they wanted to progress further.
“We shouldn’t hold any grudges against our players, they showed their
best in Brazil but it was not enough to win a place in the knockout
stage,” he said.
“We just need to draw the right conclusions out of our team’s World
Cup performance to create in the future a team that will fit the demands
of modern-day football.”
Players to blame
Russian striker Alexander Kokorin agreed that Capello should not be
held responsible for his team’s early exit from the World Cup blaming
himself and his teammates for the team’s failure in Brazil.
“Our team had won a place in the World Cup finals for the first time
in 12 years and Capello’s part in this success is of primary
importance,” the Dynamo Moscow player said.
“And nobody should blame him for our lacklustre performance in
Brazil. It’s our (the players’) fault only! We had chances to score
more, to keep a clean sheet, to advance… but missed them… It’s our
fault, nobody else’s.”
Capello, the highest paid coach at the World Cup, signed a new
contract with the RFU in January, confirming him as national team
manager until the end of the 2018 World Cup, which Russia will host for
the first time.
“As long as they (Russians) still want me, I will stay,” he has said.
By Agence France-Presse on 04:51 pm Jul 02, 2014
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