The most popular spectator sport in the World and in Russia
Andrei Voronin, Captain of Moscow Dynamo soccer team and Ovi's friend, came to SOVSPORT.RU office and answered the questions submitted by their readers. It is really interesting to read and it gives some perspective how popular soccer is in the whole world and in Russia in particular. Here are some excerpts from his answers to the readers of sovsport.ru:
Thanks for showing the English style of soccer on the field.
At the moment we are playing the combinational football, which is more similar to Spanish and Italian than to power style of English soccer.
From the style of your game which team would you compare with current Dynamo team and what style appeals to you personally?
I don't want to compare our style to anyone's. Dynamo must have it's own style. Like anyone I am impressed with Barcelona and the Spanish national team style. Over the last 100 years, nobody was better than FC Barcelona, and I am not sure if there ever will be anybody else better than them.
...
Are you a believer?
In a way, yes. There are people who constantly go to church, confess, fast. I'm not entirely like that, but I do go to the church, put a candle and pray to God that all my relatives will be healthy.
How do you refer to the footballers who during Ramadan keep a strict fast, sometimes at the expense of their own game?
I can understand them, they stick to their faith. I have repeatedly seen such cases when I played in Europe. The Ukrainian national team [Voronin is a Ukrainian - tj] once played on the road against Turkey. They had Ramadan, and I think the whole team was fasting. I don't know if they were eating or drinking at all. As a result we beat them 3-0. Whatever you say, but you lose a lot of strength while fasting.
Are you planning to attend Moscow Dynamo hockey games this season?
Until I met Alexander Ovechkin last year, I was not particularly fond of hockey. And now I follow the Washington Capitals and team Russia games.
Does Ovechkin support you?
Yes, Sasha, even when he was in Washington, was sending me text messages at night, "Please annihilate Spartak!" He was at our last game vs Terek and is planning to be at the "Spartak Nalchik" game if he won't have to fly back to Washington. He's rooting for Dynamo bad and he loves football [soccer - tj] in general. Last year he came with his friends to our facility and I saw him playing football. I didn't risk myself to play against him. In general, he is very good considering his weight and height. He didn't want to get injured and at first played goalie. But when his team started to lose, he got out and went on the offense. He also has a very good left kick!
What about you, can you skate?
It's not my business. Once in Germany I went to the rink and fell twice before even getting to the ice. Haven't tried since then yet.
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3 comments:
Interesting. I'm not a soccer fan but I enjoyed his comments on Ovi. Because I'm a dork, I went to sovsport.ru and looked up the dates of the games Voronin mentioned to see if they would tell us anything about when Ovie is coming back to the US.
The game against Terek was 8/13/11, and they play Spartak Nalchik on 8/28/11. Since the charity hockey game with Kovy is on 8/31/11, this doesn't really tell us anything about when Ovie plans to return to the US, despite Voronin saying Ovie might not be able to make the 8/28/11 game due to returning to the US. I think he will stick around for his charity game!
I did see that Dynamo plays an away game at Anji on 8/21/11. That's the team where Ovie went on the field and got the crazy furry black coat and hat to wear.
Ha! AB, you and I are on the same page... :)
My take away was that he was considering coming back that early... so maybe he will be back that first week of Sept...
I'm on the same page with AB and Steph too! IMO Ovie is planning to return to DC earlier than last year rather than wait for the last minute deadline to report to camp. Maybe he wants to get acquainted with new teammates and start the team bonding process sooner.
I also have another thought about the August 31 date for the charity game. Ovie's contract with CCM expires at the end of this month so the game date is the last date he can use CCM equipment. Maybe Ovie doesn't want to reveal which company he will endorse next or still hasn't decided. Or maybe it's just part of his grand master plan to keep us guessing and speculating about what he will look like when he finally arrives at training camp. :)
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