Sports
AFP Photo / Sascha Schuermann
Super-Pav to miss Russia’s training session
Published 28 January, 2009, 20:26
Tottenham Hotspur striker Roman Pavlyuchenko was not on the list of Russia’s national players chosen by coach Guus Hiddink for the training session scheduled for late February.
The Russian team is planning to travel to Turkey and practice there for five days – from February 8 to 12. The Spurs have a very important Premier League game against its London rivals, Arsenal, on February 8, so the club decided to not to let Pavlyuchenko go.
Pavluchenko, who moved to Tottenham from Spartak Moscow last summer, has already scored 12 goals for his new team and has become a favorite of fans.
Hiddink chose all the familiar names for the training session, including Euro 2008 star Andrey Arshavin, who’s thoughts are now far from football as he’s in the middle of a transfer saga which seems to be endless.
His current club, Zenit Saint Petersburg, is now stuck in negotiations with England’s Arsenal about the player’s transfer.
“I am afraid that this whole situation will harm my position in the Russian squad because the national team is my number one priority,” said Arshavin in an interview with Russia’s Sport Express newspaper.
Another notable face on the list is CSKA’s youngster, Alan Dzagoyev. The midfielder is just 18 years old but he’s already made his debut for Russia in an important clash with Germany.
The Russian team is not planning to play any friendlys in Turkey as the Russian clubs are just gearing up for the 2009 season starting in March and the player have not reached their optimal physical conditions.
Russia is preparing for World Cup 2010 qualifiers. Guus Hiddink’s men sit second in Group 4, four points away from Germany with one game in hand. Their next rivals in the group are Azerbaijan and Liechtenstein.
Hiddink’s choice:
Goalkeepers: Igor Akinfeev (CSKA), Vladimir Gabulov (Dynamo), Vyacheslav Malafeyev (Zenit)
Defenders: Alexander Anyukov (Zenit), Alexey Berezutskiy, Vasiliy Berezutskiy, Yuri Zhirkov, Sergei Ignashevich (all – CSKA), Renat Yanbaev (Lokomotiv)
Midfielders: Diniyar Bilyaletdinov (Lokomotiv), Igor Denisov, Konstantin Zyryanov, Igor Semshov (all – Zenit), Alan Dzagoev (CSKA), Ivan Saenko (Spartak M), Sergei Semak (Rubin)
Strikers: Andrey Arshavin, Pavel Pogrebnyak (both – Zenit), Evgeniy Savin (Krylia Sovetov), Dmitry Sychev (Lokomotiv)
