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Led by new coach, Russian team is back in action

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Moscow, June 4 (RIA Novosti) - On Saturday, June 4, the Russian national soccer team plays against Latvia in a qualifying match of the 2006 World Cup preliminaries. The Russian squad will be led by chief coach Yuri Syomin who replaced Georgy Yartsev on the post.

With half of the distance behind, Russia, with 11 points, holds the third place in Group 3, lagging 3 points behind the Group's leaders - Portugal and Slovakia. Latvia, which scored impressive results at Euro-2004 under chief coach Alexander Starkov (currently coaching Spartak, Moscow), poses the main challenge to the leaders in their bid for a place in the 2006 World Cup Finals in Germany. At present, led by a new coach, Yuri Andreyev, the Latvian team is forth with 10 points, but with good luck on their side Latvia may well prove to be a major contender for the second place in the Group 3 final standings.

Syomin, however, is set to achieve that same goal too. After his recent nomination, he said that Russia still had a good chance of making it to the 2006 World Cup Finals. He repeated his statement on Friday at a traditional pre-match press conference, acknowledging, however, that the situation is not an easy one.

The Saturday match is of decisive importance for the Russian team, particularly with due account of the fact that on Saturday the Group 3 leaders face each other in Lisbon (their first match in Bratislava ended in a 2-2 draw, with Portugal trailing behind most of the game). Whatever the outcome of either match, Russia will not lose its chance to qualify into the next round, but it is clear that Syomin must steer his squad to victory on Saturday. Otherwise, the situation will get yet more difficult. At things stand now, Russia has a chance of getting up to the second place on Saturday in case they defeat Latvia and Slovakia goes down to Portugal.

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