MICK McCARTHY could have had an easier task for his first game as manager of the Republic of Ireland. While Jack Charlton's team stumbled from defeat to disaster in the closing stages of the Euro '96 qualifiers, next Wednesday's visitors, Russia, went from strength to strength.
Russia were unbeaten in their qualifying group. And the new Irish manager was among the attendance who were highly impressed with Russia's displays in the Rothmans Cup in Malta last month Russia beat Malta 2-0, beat Iceland 3-0 and defeated Slovenia 3-1 to win the tournament.
Russian manager Oleg Romantsev has announced an experienced 19 man squad for the game in Lansdowne. It is a relatively young squad with an average age of 25, but the team is also highly experienced ten of the squad played in world cup `94, six played in the 1992 European championships, and mid fielder Igor Shalimov is a survivor from the USSR team in Italia `90. Indeed, five of the squad played when Ireland and Russia drew 0-0 at Lansdowne Road two years ago.
Eight of the players are based in Russia, while others ply their trade in Spain, Italy, Germany and England. Irish fans will be most familiar with Andrei Kanchelskis (Everton) and Chelsea keeper, Dmitry Kharine. Millwall's recent signings, Vasili Kulkov and Sergei Yuran, are omitted, however.
Kulkov has just returned to London after an operation in Portugal, while Russian newspapers claimed that Yuran was in a bust up with manager, Jimmy Nicholl, over his drinking. Nicholl refused to comment when contacted by The Irish Times, saying it was "nothing to do with football."
While it was a bad week for Russian football in Europe Spartak Moscow and Dinamo Moscow went out of the quarter finals of the champions league and the cup winners cup respectively there were some positive signs. Spartak Moscow's brilliant mid fielder Yuri Nikiforov scored two superb goals against Nantes on Wednesday, while Russia's footballer of the year, Ilya Tsimbalar marked his return from a long term injury with an impressive display in the same match.
Russia's foreign based players are also in form. Real Sociedad's elegant mid fielder, Valeri Karpin, is his side's leading scorer in the Spanish league, while Sergei Kiriakov (Karlsruhe), Alexander Mostovoi (Strasbourg) and Dmitry Radchenko have also been among the coals recently.
The Russians qualified in style for Euro `96, winning eight of their ten qualifiers the only blots of the copybook being two draws with Scotland and scoring 34 goals in the process.
Their warm up for the European finals is intense, taking on Ireland next Wednesday, before facing Belgium, Quatar, the United Arab Emirates and Poland. Italy are, their first opponents in the finals, followed by Germany and the Czech Republic.
In the last three major competitions the 1990 and 1994 world cups and the 1992 European championships, the Russians qualified well, but were a huge disappointment in the finals, failing to get past the first round each time.
But national team trainer, Boris Ignatiev, feels that Euro `96 will see an improvement. "I think we have very good prospects," said Ignatiev. "We are well organised this time and we have Russia's best footballers with us." A player mutiny before the 1994 world cup left Russia without a dozen of their best players.
Ignatiev says Russia is treating Wednesday's game seriously and points out that they have studied videos of recent Irish games. "We know the Irish football well, but we are not afraid of any player. We know Paul McGrath is getting old, but he is still a world class player."
