LOW START

While the Russian national team is preparing in Ufa for the home game weekend of the League of Nations, it makes sense to quickly analyze the first game round, held in Serbian Novi Sad. Or does it make no sense? obviously, that ours played against the backdrop of serious loads - otherwise how to explain, that the team played so tensely with the second lineups of the national teams of France and Serbia, and also albeit uncomfortable, but still Japan?

Ours were inferior to our opponents in speed, movement, have made an incredible number of their own mistakes - these are all obvious signs of either fatigue, or muscle congestion. We won’t talk about the jitters of playing for the national team – a similar psychological factor is present among professionals, it’s easy to “treat” with gaming practice. Unfortunately, Thomas Sammelvuo could not provide it to the debutants in full - the entire game was based on the currently uncontested pair of finishers Klyuka - Volkov. Egor is especially worth mentioning, who literally pulled the team out by the collar in the endings, carried the main load in attack and deservedly made it into the Top 5 players of the Nations League of the first weekend.

Let me remind you again, what if it hadn’t suddenly erupted (there were no signs!) at the most necessary moment, the Russian team serves, we could easily have given in to the Serbs (We lost in the tiebreaker 2:6, 4:7). And they didn’t even play second – rather, third team... In this context, there is no point in analyzing the Russians’ game in detail. Take, eg, Ilya Vlasova, who periodically did not have time to block at the edge of the net, – this is a consequence of technical and tactical shortcomings or a functional hole? And the weights on Viktor Poletaev’s legs are a pit or psychology? And Roman Martynyuk’s enchanting loss of eye and coordination? You can't answer for sure, until the players finally digest the load. We bounced back with two wins in three matches – and thanks for that.

Therefore, we are looking forward to the games in Ufa with special interest.. The Russian national team is not obliged to appear in front of its own fans in perfect functional condition - after all, there is a long season ahead. But we should see some positive dynamics, to understand, where is everything going?.