Russian Football History :
The Russian national football, team governed by the Russian Football Union, represents the country in international football competitions. The team is a direct heir of the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) and Soviet Union National Football team. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the team played its first international match with Mexico in the year 1992.
Russia, or the Soviet football team, started participating in World Cups from 1930 but unfortunately did not qualify until 1958. The first FIFA world cup it played as an independent Russian team was in 1994 when it did not qualify in the next world cup i.e. 1998, and again in the 2006 and 2010 world cups it was unable to qualify for the mega event. In the European championship, the Soviet team started participating in the year 1960 and played until 1988. The European championship 1992 was played as a CIS team and from 1996 it participated as an independent Russian team which continues till today.
As far as the participation in Olympics is concerned, the Soviet Union started participating officially from 1952 and after the year 1992 it was succeeded by the Russian national football team. On the whole it participated in 6 Olympics. From 1992 the Russian national football team has never qualified up until the last 2012 London Olympics.
Russia’s Success Story :
The competitive record of the national football team is not very impressive as its football history has been through many hiccups. As a Soviet Union team in the FIFA World Cup, it entered the quarter-finals thrice and finished at fourth place once. As a Russian team its record seems to be uninspiring. In the European Championships, the Soviet team holds a pretty good record emerging winners in 1960, runners-up thrice in 1964, 1972 and 1988 and finishing fourth in the year 1968. As a Russian team its success is only limited to a semi-finals berth in Euro 2008. In the Olympics, the Soviet team emerged as champions twice in the year 1956 and 1988. The Russian National Football team has also qualified for the upcoming 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.
Russia squad |
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| Goalkeepers: | Igor Akinfeev (CSKA Moscow) Yury Lodygin (Zenit St Petersburg) Sergei Ryzhikov (Rubin Kazan) |
Defenders: | Alexander Anyukov (Zenit St Petersburg) Alexei Berezutsky Vasily Berezutsky Sergei Ignashevich Georgy Shchennikov (all CSKA Moscow) Vladimir Granat Alexei Kozlov (both Dynamo Moscow) Andrei Yeschenko (Anzhi Makhachkala) Dmitry Kombarov (Spartak Moscow) Andrei Semenov (Terek Grozny) |
| Midfielders: | Igor Denisov Yury Zhirkov (both Dynamo Moscow) Alan Dzagoev (CSKA Moscow) Yury Gazinsky Roman Shirokov (both FC Krasnodar) Denis Glushakov (Spartak Moscow) Pavel Mogilevets (Rubin Kazan) Viktor Faizulin Oleg Shatov (both Zenit St Petersburg) |
Forwards: | Vladimir Bystrov (Anzhi Makhachkala) Alexander Kerzhakov (Zenit St Petersburg) Artem Dzyuba (Rostov) Alexei Ionov Alexander Kokorin (both Dynamo Moscow) Maxim Kanunnikov (Amkar Perm) Pavel Pogrebnyak (Reading/ENG) Alexander Samedov (Lokomotiv Moscow) |
Russia’s performance in all FIFA World Cups:
| World Cup Year | World Cup Hosting Nation | FIFA Qualification | Quarter Final Birth | Semi Final Birth | Third Place Secured | Reached Final | Title Won |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | South Africa | No | – | – | – | – | – |
| 2006 | Germany | No | – | – | – | – | – |
| 2002 | South Korea | Yes | No | – | – | – | – |
| 1998 | France | No | – | – | – | – | – |
| *1994 | United States | Yes | No | – | – | – | – |
| #1990 | Italy | Yes | No | – | – | – | – |
| 1986 | Mexico | Yes | No | – | – | – | – |
| 1982 | Spain | Yes | No | – | – | – | – |
| 1978 | Argentina | No | – | – | – | – | – |
| 1974 | West Germany | Disqualified | – | – | – | – | – |
| 1970 | Mexico | Yes | Yes | No | – | – | – |
| 1966 | England | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | – |
| 1962 | Chile | Yes | Yes | No | – | – | – |
| 1958 | Sweden | Yes | Yes | No | – | – | – |
| 1954 | Switzerland | Did Not play | – | – | – | – | – |
| 1950 | Brazil | Did Not play | – | – | – | – | – |
| 1938 | France | Did Not play | – | – | – | – | – |
| 1934 | Italy | Did Not play | – | – | – | – | – |
| 1930 | Uruguay | Did Not play | – | – | – | – | – |
| Total | 19 World Cups | 9 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
* 1994 onwards playing as Russia
# Till 1990 played as Soviet Union (USSR)