MOSCOW, August 12 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian national football team's major problem before the Germany-2006 FIFA World Cup qualifying match with Latvia on August 17 is that players will not be able to join the squad on time, the team coach said Friday.
National team coach Yury Syomin told a news conference at a squad training facility in the Moscow Region that players at foreign clubs will be joining the team only three days before the match. For example, Sergei Semak (who plays for the French club PSG) and Andrei Karyaka (Portugese Benfica) will not arrive until Sunday.
Lokomotiv Moscow players returned home from Austria late Thursday after drawing 1-1 with Rapid Vienna in the third Champions League qualifying round, Syomin said. Zenit St. Petersburg, who drew 2-2 with Superfund, will return on Friday.
When asked to comment on the appearance of the new faces in the national team (Daniyar Bilyaletdinov of Lokomotiv Moscow, Konstantin Zyryanov of Torpedo Moscow, and Pavel Pogrebnyak of Shinnik Yaroslavl), Syomin said Bilyaletdinov is one of the leading players in Russian championship, Zyryanov is a reliable player and a lynchpin for Torpedo Moscow, and Pogrebnyak is young and has scored many decisive goals for Shinnik.
Russia have been battling with Portugal and Slovakia in Group 3 of the Germany-2006 FIFA World Cup qualifying rounds, and currently holds third place having gained 14 points in seven games (Portugal and Slovakia have 20 and 17 points respectively after eight games). Fourth-placed Latvia with 13 points in eight matches still has an outside chance of qualifying through play-offs.
Russia won its first qualifying match against Latvia in St. Petersburg 2-0 in June.
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