Bragin's true team
Evaluating the start of the Russian team at the World Youth Championship, titled forward Andrei Nikolishin noted that it’s still too early to talk about the strengths and weaknesses of Valeriy Bragin’s squad: she simply hadn’t had time to meet the enemy, who is surprised by the “ ". Yes, domestic hockey players scored the maximum possible six points in the matches with Denmark and the Czech Republic and ahead of time guaranteed themselves a ticket to the quarterfinals, but did not show the most important thing - due to which they plan to win one of the tournament medal sets.
Something to clarify in this aspect could duel with the Swiss - a nation, gradually pulling up to the recognized leaders of the world hockey in the preparation of talented juniors, and the team, played by both youth and adult in their style, is closest to Canadian ( of course, adjusted for a noticeable difference with the naked eye in the class of performers).
Christian Wolfend's guys make a very pleasant impression in Vancouver: led by attacking Philip Kurashev, who has Russian roots, the Swiss team failed to beat the Czechs for the main time only by coincidence, and didn’t realize a double numerical advantage and a lot of chances to score in the course of the meeting, then put up serious resistance "Maple leaves". Which, as always, are considered almost the main contenders for gold.
An exciting exchange of fire with a total of 72 shots on target (the Russians performed 41 of them) and 11 abandoned washers did not give answers to all the key questions that took place on the last day of the outgoing year - and even gave rise to new ones that concern, above all, attention and concentration when playing own gate. But she allowed to understand that the “youth team” of the current convocation is a typical team of Bragin. The one that loves to create grandiose problems literally out of the blue, and then heroically solve them.
🇨🇭 VS 🇷🇺 We brought a squad for the third match of the group stage. Let's оле pic.twitter.com/1o4QBH5J8c
- Hockey of Russia (@russiahockey) December 31, 2018Dips on the coin and two bullets in one attack
In the two starting periods of the duel with Switzerland, the Russian team in no way played badly. Hockey players did their best to control Kurashev, who shared with Canadian Maxim Komtu, to take the lead in the list of the best snipers of the tournament. On the whole, they looked much more alive than in the victorious meeting with the Czechs. Another thing is that for every successful action of Bragin's wards there were one or even several mistakes - yes, those for which the opponent of a decent level had to be punished.
By the end of the 26th minute, Daniil Tarasov, who returned to the final line of the Russian national team, managed to capitulate as many as three times. The pucks of Marco Lehmann and Valentin Nussbaumer who scored double came from completely different game situations, but there was something in common between them: the defenders of the national “youth team” allowed the Swiss hockey players to shoot the goalkeeper with a penny after the transfer from the board, then as a result of a banal throw on the gate from the blue lines.
🇨🇭 VS 🇷🇺 Anyone who does not like statistics simply does not know how to cook it properly.
We admire the numbers and are already waiting for the New Year match with Canadians 🤞🏻 # WorldJuniorspic.twitter.com / Pvrp7myQv1
Fortunately, the opponent was also not perfect in defense, and, twice losing two goals (0: 2 in the first period and 1: 3 in the second), the Russians restored parity on the scoreboard to the equator of the match. Each effective attack of the detachment of Bragin came out in its own way remarkable. Vasily Podkolzin, who showed all the results for the “maker”, had the hand of the first, having all the makings of a future superstar of at least the national hockey. The second accurate throw was completed by the defender Dmitry Samorukov, who plays at the second youth world championship in his career, but until that moment had not gained points in Vancouver. The third was held in the majority at all: thanks to Grigory Denisenko’s efforts, the national team used the removal of an opponent for the second time in the tournament, blocking last year’s result of the work of the special teams for an incomplete group round.
It seemed that the puck of the forward at the club level for the Yaroslavl Lokomotiv forward would be a turning point in the meeting. Having missed a significant advantage in the account even by the standards of the fastest game on the planet, the Swiss lost their confidence in their own abilities, which allowed them to dictate their conditions in the opening 30 minutes. But here, too, the Russian team gave the enemy excellent chances to regain the lead. At first, Samorukov almost turned into an antihero fight, twice fouling on Lehmann, who was torn to meet with Tarasov, for which, after a lengthy clarification of the circumstances and nuances of the rules, the referees appointed two bulits to the gate of the national youth team (the second one, however, wouldn’t break through if the first was effective). And before the final break, the attacker Ivan Muranov, who hit the opponent with a stick and removed to the end of the game, thoroughly led the partners.
And again a minority!
However, the Swiss national team is therefore considered only a strong middle peasant, and not a competitor for the awards of the MFM-2019: “close” the matches, having everything necessary for this, the Wolfend guys absolutely do not know how. This backfired them and in a meeting with the Czech Republic, lost in overtime in the format of "three for three", where everything is decided by the individual skills of individual hockey players, and in a duel with the Russian national team, which simply could not be wrong all the time. Lehmann and Kurashev did not perform the free-throws in the best way, without creating the slightest problem for Tarasov, and a good half of the five minutes of the majority donated by Muranov, the opponent of the national hockey players, had difficulty entering the attack zone at all.
Moreover, in the second match in a row, the Russian junior team managed to score in the minority. Jet Cyril Blind had at least one opportunity to upset Schmid after each of the three deletions of domestic hockey players, and in the end wrote his name in the protocol. Moreover, Denisenko's partner in Lokomotiv did everything on his own - he intercepted the inaccurate pass of the Swiss defender, threw it on goal, picked up the puck after his attempt was blocked, and from the second time he got into the corner with an uncovered goalkeeper.
HIGHLIGHTS: @ russiahockey_en come back from a two-goal deficit to beat @ SwissIceHockey 7-4. A lot to watch in this #WorldJuniors video!
Read more: https://t.co/ftfivz1si3pic.twitter.com/Cxjmggf6Pb
After the third effective attack on the MFM-2019, with a shortage of one hockey player, the Russians literally got everything, and as a result, Bragin’s squad distinguished itself three more minutes before the final siren of 18 minutes. And I was a little offended: Vitaly Kravtsov, who established the final score of the 7: 4 fight, noted his success with the signature gesture of the Russian national football team striker Artem Dziuba, which made him smile with almost no emotion on the bench and an extremely youthful coach.
On the eve of the duel with Canada, with which the national team will close the program of the group tournament of the world championship, the final first place in the tournament table of quintet A will be at stake - the Russian youth showed that they can act confidently, effectively and efficiently. But this may not be enough to defeat the hosts: those misfires, for which Switzerland frankly forgave, who scored 22 goals in three matches of the World Cup, the ice masters can take full advantage.