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Kyrgyz national team fans. Photo from FFKR press service
There is about a month left until the start of the 2019 Asian Cup. For the first time in history, three Central Asian teams will participate in the intercontinental tournament. In addition to the regular season – Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, which participated in the Asian Cup for the first time, and Kyrgyzstan have all received tickets.
For the first time in football history, three teams from Central Asia are participating in the continental championship. This is not only due to the development of the sport in the region, but also because the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) decided to expand the tournament, increasing the number of participants from 16 to 24. The exception is Uzbekistan, not considered a leader in continental football, but not an outsider either. Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan are both strong middle peasants, which is why these teams were included in the list of candidates. In fact, it was precisely because of such teams that they really deserved the right to compete at a higher level that the format of the competition was changed.
After the qualifying phase, teams start preparing directly for the Asian Cup, with most teams playing a few friendly matches, from which it is possible to (albeit partially) present how the teams will perform in the tournament and make predictions.
Second child
The Kyrgyz national team is a newcomer to the Asian Cup. Interestingly, the team is ranked higher than other Central Asian teams in the FIFA rankings (90th as of October 2018).
Kyrgyzstan has missed the draw for the past three Asian Cups and didn’t even make the qualifiers. Perhaps this is due to a lack of funds or a lack of confidence.
Kyrgyzstan also suffered setbacks in the World Championship qualifying phase. Judging by the data, it was not until 2014, when Russian Alexander Krestinin took over as national team coach, that Kyrgyzstan reached a new level. Of course, up to now, the Kyrgyz team has also won from time to time, for example in the AFC Challenge Cup, where Tajikistan was the only more or less serious opponent. But under Krestinin’s leadership, slow but gradual progress became apparent. It was under the Russian’s leadership that the Kyrgyz team broke into the top 100 of the FIFA rankings, and a picture of the game surfaced.
Coach Alexander Krestinen. Photo from Akipress.org
In the 2018 World Cup qualifiers that began in 2015, the team has clearly transformed into a strong team in the middle of the country. Literally, a win was not enough for her to enter the final group stage of the World Championship qualifiers as the second in the group. The first place in the group was won by the favorite Australia with 21 points, Jordan ranked second with 16 points, and Kyrgyzstan ranked third with 14 points. Next was Tajikistan with 5 points and Bangladesh with 1 point. In the end, Jordan still did not enter the next round because its performance was worse than the other second-placed teams in the group.
Therefore, if Kyrgyzstan gets three more points, the team will be among the top 12 teams in Asia. Kyrgyzstan’s path was also blocked by Tajikistan, who drew 2:2 in Bishkek, while Australia could have drawn with Australia at home instead of losing 1:2.
Granted, getting a World Cup ticket in that draw was next to impossible, but at least the team made a name for itself and ten games against the leaders of Asian football were good practice.
After a high-quality performance in the World Cup qualifiers, few experts doubted that Kyrgyzstan would be able to advance to the 2019 Asian Cup.
Kyrgyzstan qualified effortlessly. In the qualifiers, Kyrgyzstan faced India (97th in FIFA ranking), Myanmar (141st) and Macau (184th) in Group A. In order to qualify for the Asian Cup, Kyrgyzstan had to finish first in one of the two groups. Kyrgyzstan qualified for the Asian Cup one round before the end of the group stage. Two wins over Macau, one draw, one win over Myanmar and one loss to India. In the previous round, Kyrgyzstan defeated India, but finished second in the group due to the difference in goals scored and goals conceded in the head-to-head matches.
Kyrgyzstan national football team players. Photo from FFKR press service
A reassuring forecast
The Kyrgyz national team played four test matches this fall in preparation for the Asian Cup. The first match against Palestine (99) ended in a draw (1:1). Kyrgyzstan then won two more games. First, they defeated the Syrian national team (74) with a score of 2:1. This match will be remembered not only for its confident play against one of the strongest teams on the African continent, but also for its Turn off the lights At the stadium. Krestinen’s team won their second away victory over Malaysia (169) with a score of 0:1. In the previous friendly, Kyrgyzstan conceded four goals against Japan (50). Of course, this meeting blurred the impression of the performance of the Kyrgyzstanites, but it brought the team back to reality, of course, if Kyrgyzstan successfully ascends to these heavens and revealed all the shortcomings of Alexander Krestinen’s team.
Kyrgyzstan tried to play attacking football despite being an opponent and was successful at regular intervals. Japan is a team on a different level to Syria and even more so to India, and this tactic will not work against them. However, there will be no weak teams in the continental tournament and Kyrgyzstan will have to show everything they are capable of.
Kyrgyzstan is in Group C, where they face South Korea (53), China (75) and the Philippines (116). The leader of Group C is South Korea. The team with 9 points has a good chance of becoming the first of the top four. Kyrgyzstan has the ability to compete with China for the second place, or to take as many points as possible and enter the Asian Cup play-offs as one of the best third-placed teams in the group.
In recent years, the level of Chinese football has been continuously improving, and the team is coached by the Italian star Lippi, but this does not mean that Kyrgyzstan is incapable of fighting against China. The match between Kyrgyzstan and China will be held on January 7, the first round of the group stage.
The Chinese team did not play an official match this year, because they participated in the last round of the World Cup qualifiers, so according to the rules of the Asian Football Confederation, they automatically qualified for the Asian Cup. The Chinese team did not perform well in friendly matches. In March, they lost to Wales (0:6) and the Czech Republic (1:4) in the informal China Cup. Then they defeated Myanmar (1:0) and Thailand (2:0) in the control match, lost to Qatar (0:1), and then drew with Bahrain and India in two goalless games, defeated Syria (2:0) and tied with Palestine (1:1). It can be seen that the Chinese team has serious problems in offense, scoring only 7 goals in nine games. Defense also obviously only works in games against lower or equal-level opponents. In addition, after losing to Wales and the Czech Republic, the Chinese team did not encounter a really strong opponent. Judging from the data, the strength of the Kyrgyzstan people is not inferior to that of China. They also successfully played against Myanmar, India, Syria and Palestine, and in terms of losses, Japan is only two places behind the Czech Republic in the FIFA rankings.
Kyrgyzstan must beat the Philippines anyway. The team is a newcomer to the Asian Cup, and only made it to the finals thanks to Tajikistan’s mediocre performance in the continental qualifiers. In the Bangladesh Cup in October this year, the Philippines lost to Tajikistan 0:2. In general, the Philippines has always only defeated very weak teams, such as Timor-Leste or Laos. However, we should not underestimate them, because the example of Tajikistan, who underestimated the opponent, should appear before our eyes more often.
National team open training. Photo from FFKR press service
International
The Kyrgyz national team is a team of all ages. The average age of football players is 26.9 years old. Alexander Krestinin regularly introduces young players, but the core has remained the same for many years. The team relies on experienced players. Of course, this has its disadvantages, but unfortunately, the coach does not have many options. There are only eight clubs in the Kyrgyz top league. That is, we have to consider a maximum of 150 football players, from which we need to choose 20. Krestinin himself coaches Bishkek Dodoi at the same time, so he knows the situation of Kyrgyz football well. Obviously, there is a problem with young football players in Kyrgyzstan. Educating young people requires a lot of effort and money, which the government simply does not have. In response, Krestinin had to look for other ways to improve the national team, and the coach’s eyes periodically turned abroad.
The Kyrgyzstan national team has not only Kyrgyz and Russians, but also several Germans, republicans, who played in the European Championships, albeit at a low level. They are Gerhard Meyer and Vitaly Lux from the German regional league clubs Weidenbrück and Ulm, and Edgar Bernhardt from the Polish team Tychy. The football players are between 28 and 32 years old. The German joined the national team in 2015, just before the start of the qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup. It seems that Krestinen not only reminded the players of their Kyrgyz ancestry, but also explained that a weak national team is better than no national team at all. These players will obviously not receive an invitation to the German national team.
Earlier, Daniel Tego, a 32-year-old naturalized Ghanaian from Dodoi, Bishkek, appeared in the team. Local foreign players also play for the national team, including Valery Kitchin of the Russian Premier League Yenisey club, Azamat Baimatov and Bakhtiyar Dushanbekov of the Malaysian Championship, Pavel Matyash, who played in the Maldives Championship and now plays in Uzbekistan. AGMK. Finally, there is Anton Zemlyanukhin, an Asian Cup qualifier and one of the best scorers in the country’s history.
The footballer’s last place of work was the Kazakh club Atyrau, to which he moved in February this year, during which he made only four substitute appearances. In early July, the club terminated the contract with the player. As a result, Zemlyanukhin had to return to his homeland, where he signed a contract with one of the outsiders of the national championship, the Bishkek club Irbils.
Interestingly, the agreement with the player was signed despite the official closure of the summer transfer window in Kyrgyzstan. This decision was made with the concessions of the Football Federation of the Republic. Officially, the 28-year-old Zemlyanukhin was selected for Ilbirs-2, but he was given the opportunity to join the main team. The contract with the player expires until the end of the season. Zemlyanukhin received enough match training before the 2019 Asian Cup, which is very important for Krestinin and Kyrgyz football. Currently, the footballer is a free agent. But he continues to bring stable performances to the national team and brings benefits. Most likely, Zemlyanukhin will go to play abroad after the Asian Cup.
The young talent Ilzat Akhmetov from CSKA Moscow could have been included in the squad, but he chose to refuse and did not even answer the call from Alexander Krestinin. The coach looked at this from a philosophical point of view and pointed out that football players make their own choices. Moreover, Akhmetov had a good chance to enter the Russian national team, participate in the European Cup and the World Championship, and also have the opportunity to go to a good European club.
The Kyrgyz football team has lost a lot of time and has been trying to make up for lost time in the past few years. So far, a lot of things are going well, and participation in the 2019 Asian Cup is the main proof of this. The Central Asian football market is developing and, according to agents, it will soon surpass Africa in popularity due to a mentality closer to Europe. Kyrgyzstan seems to have every opportunity to make money from the sale of football players, but this is not enough to achieve local success on the international stage, it is necessary to invest in the development and construction of sports schools and boarding schools; quality stadiums, providing young athletes with everything they need. Today, all players and parents of young footballers are left to their own devices and are therefore often forced to leave in search of a better life in other countries. If this situation is not corrected, fewer and fewer Ilzat Akhmetov will respond to the call of the head coach of the Kyrgyz national team.
Alexander Trotsky
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