"They played against us as if we were Spartak

The next matches of the "Path of the Regions" of the Russian Cup are taking place this week. Following the results of the 1/32 finals, the Brock Boys media team was eliminated from the tournament, which lost at home in Krasnogorsk to one of the outsiders of the first league, Saratov Sokol (0:2). This time, even the star striker Fedor Smolov, who is playing for her in the Russian Cup games this season, did not help her. Now, of the representatives of the media league, only Amkal remains in the Cup, which on Thursday will host another first league club, Krasnoyarsk Yenisei.

In an interview with Izvestia, striker Pavel Yakovlev summed up the team's performance in the Russian Cup, criticized Sokol for its style of play, and also told what surprised him in media football, appreciated the current performance of his former club Spartak Moscow, for which he played in 2009-2016, and commented possible tightening of the limit on foreign players in the RPL.

— How would you rate the performance of the Brock Boys in the Russian Cup?

— It's a shame to lose the way we lost to Sokol. They could have gone further. We wanted to move up and go through as many stages in the Russian Cup as possible. In the match against Sokol, we did our best. It's hard, of course, to play with such a strong team. Moreover, we played four games in 12 days, which is a difficult schedule. In addition, there were losses in the squad — injuries and disqualifications. It was not possible to put a complete team on the game. And we really missed Ari, who helped us in the previous stages, but couldn't play with Sokol. In general, I consider our performance in this Cup to be successful for us — we went through several stages and played against an opponent from the first league. And the defeat should make us stronger — next year we will try to go even further.

— Do you have a forecast for when any media team will reach the stage of the Russian Cup, where they will be able to play against the RPL team?

— Well, Amkal is playing on Thursday. I fully assume that he will pass the Yenisei and then get to the stages when teams from the RPL will be added to the Path of the Regions (Amkal needs to pass the Yenisei and then win two more victories to get to the first stage of the quarterfinals of the Path of the Regions, where they will also get from the Path RPL" Premier League clubs that took third place in the group stages. — Izvestia). I believe in them and wish them to go as far as possible. Moreover, I believe that media gangs decorate the Russian Cup. We play football, it's obvious to everyone. Yes, sometimes we make mistakes on the field, but we try to show an interesting game. And hitting forward and earning standards is probably not football, but rugby. If we want to make our sport better, we must focus on the best teams. Watch Barcelona and other top European clubs play. They don't hit the ball forward — they try to keep it, control it. But they also win.

— Is it possible to play like them with our capabilities?

— I'm not saying that we're trying to play like Barcelona. I'm saying that we're trying to play football by looking at the best practices and trying to apply some of them to ourselves. When you gave up and opened up, instead of hitting forward and catching.

— Why did Fyodor Smolov and Ari, who played for the Brock Boys in the Russian Cup, perform so well in winning matches and helped you get so far?

— After all, the whole team gets the result. Someone does the rough work, playing without the ball, and someone scores goals, passes out. Often the rough work is invisible from the outside, but a lot of people in our team did it, and Fedor and Ari, being excellent performers, got the chances ahead and scored. This is a class of football players who can make a goal out of half-moments. Not everyone can do that. And for them, a half—moment is a possible goal.

— When you started playing in the media league, what interesting things did you see there?

— Other rules that had to be adjusted to. It's a little hard at first. Clear time, red ball (a team can take a red ball and play it for three minutes — if it scores a goal, it will count as two. — Izvestia), Azamat's out (putting the ball out with his foot, the rule was invented by Azamat Musagaliev, a comedian and president of the FC 10 media team. — Izvestia). This is a feature of media football. But besides that, I would also like to point out that there are few teams like Sokol playing in the media league.

— Like "hit ahead — the game will come"?

— Yes, "away from the gates — closer to the premium ones." Somehow, everyone is trying to play football, develop it and make it better. People try to beat their rivals individually. And it is not forbidden by anyone in the team. We don't have any "systems". There is just football that the audience likes, when we try to play beautifully, combine and get the balls through it. Hence, there are so many cool highlights from each match. The fans like it, that's why we have a large audience.

— When you leave the stadium after the media league matches, do more people ask for a photo or an autograph than during the RPL game?

— No, well, Spartak, of course, had more interest in this regard. There were a lot of fans in Samara and Makhachkala when I played there. Maybe there's a smaller one in Mordovia. But here you should not compare RPL and media league at all. Different generations watch them. I recently went on a tour to Belarus. And the young guys came up, recognizing me by the "Brock Boys", and the grown men remember me from playing for Spartak and Krylia Sovetov (smiles). But we do our best to draw attention to media football. Yes, there are sometimes scandals, but we can't go anywhere without them — after all, we have a fairly open tournament. And what a wide range of viewers cannot see in the RPL, we have.

— Amkal staged various shocking PR stunts during the Cup matches, setting records in official Russian football matches when a 14-year-old boy became the youngest player in history, 212-centimeter basketball player Pavel Podkolzin became the tallest, and Alexander Medvedev, a 70—year-old adviser to the head of Zenit, who played in the last round. — the oldest. How do you feel about such stories?

— This is their method. They decided to create such information channels to be talked about. This did not affect the team's result in any way, because it passed on. As far as I know, the president of the media league will be playing for them now — it will also be interesting to see. If this prevented them from winning, if they had assembled the entire squad from media personalities playing for them in just one match, then it would be ugly. As it is, Amkal wins by integrating famous people, the tallest, the youngest, or the oldest... That's why it's their business.

— Doesn't it make you sad for the level of the second league if its teams lose to Amkal when they release such people, actually playing in the minority of some matches?

— I don't know, I think that Kaluga and Saturn, who played against them in the last rounds, who are from the second league, showed interesting football. Better than Sokol showed against us. It's hard to call it football at all. We tried to play, but they just hit us behind the back.

— Were you annoyed by such teams when they played in the RPL in a similar style against Spartak of your time?

— This is still a different moment. If, for example, in the next round of the Russian Premier League away against Spartak, Pari Nizhny Novgorod will play like this, then it will be possible to understand. I do not know how they will play now, but last season, for example, Nizhny Novgorod played vertical football under the leadership of Viktor Goncharenko. We hit forward, caught the ball somewhere, and tried to score from a counterattack or a standard. Because, losing to Spartak, it's difficult to win in any other way. We are playing a rank below the "Falcon". We are not in professional football at all. But a team from the first league comes to us and plays against us as if we were Spartak. We go on the attack through a short and medium pass, and they hit forward... And that's in the 90th minute, when they're already leading 2-0. I don't know how else to comment on that.

— What can be transferred from media football to professional football?

— I would like to make professional football more open. Many things are being integrated into it now. We can make sure that people see what is happening in the locker rooms of the teams during the break and after the matches. As far as I know, in Spain now, during water breaks, they used to make sure that when the coach says something to the players, there is a microphone nearby. And you can listen to his thoughts. Personally, I'm always interested in hearing how a coach reacts to situations during games. I think the audience is also interested in this. Plus, I think it's possible to introduce timeouts in big-time football — at least one minute.

— How do you like the current Spartak of Deyan Stankovich?

— Four points to first place. It's all good. Now everyone is criticizing the team. I just don't understand why.

— After all, a lot of money has been spent on transfers. No coach in the history of Spartak has ever spent more than under Stankovich.

— The time is different now. Previously, relatively speaking, good transfers cost €30 million. With this money, you could buy players who make a difference— Hulk, Witzel. About 70-120 million euros are needed for such performers now. And a football player for €30 million now is about the same as a football player for €9-10 million used to be.

— Then what's the point of buying 20-30 million players now, like Spartak and Zenit do?

— They always want to get results. Here and now. There is no time to integrate young boys and give them the opportunity to develop. It's a normal story. If the clubs don't have money, like Spartak, then they are already giving way to their youth. And the top clubs always want to move forward and win trophies.

— In this regard, how do you feel about the desire of the Ministry of Sports of the Russian Federation to tighten the limit on foreign players?

— I probably feel good about it. If they bring foreign players, I want them to be strong. Just like in my time, when there were Alex, Bocchetti, Stranzl, Emmenikke. Or Yura Movsesian. If they come to Russia, then the Russian football players become stronger next to them. Now, if you look at the RPL, not all foreigners make a difference. I'm not talking about foreign players in big clubs, but in the middle ones, foreign players are not very high-level, as a rule. They just close positions, they play consistently average, but they don't give anything to the league. And our boys are sitting on the bench.

— How do you like Valery Karpin's work at Dynamo?

— He has never had such big teams as Dynamo in the long run. We don't take his time at Spartak — I mean, Valery Georgievich hasn't had any big teams lately. Rostov is still different, there was no mandatory task to take the first places. But I believe that Karpin will succeed at Dynamo. I am grateful to Valery Georgievich — he gave me the opportunity to play at Spartak. And in general, I believe in his coaching ideas. The situation at Dynamo is improving now — Tyukavin and Maukhub have recovered. And the team is playing well — it defeated Orenburg (3:1) in the championship, defeated Sochi (4:0) in the Cup. Yes, he is in seventh place in the RPL, but he is only seven points behind the first. Everyone is losing points now, so this distance can be regained.

— What are Karpin's ideas that you are talking about?

— His football is very difficult to play. It is very energy-intensive. Valery Georgievich tries to focus on the best Spanish teams. Exit the defense through a medium or short pass. Someone can do it, someone can't. We need strong performers. I think that now that many of Dynamo's leaders have recovered, this football can be built. They have a competitive team.