World Cup Postcard - Watching the hosts at home

From Macdara Ferris in St. Petersburg

There was still something special about being in the St. Petersburg stadium with such an expectant crowd on Tuesday evening. The Russian team have confounded the critics to score eight goals in their first two World Cup games. It was an atmosphere and a second half performance that could almost have raised the stunning venue’s openable roof!

Over 2.4 million tickets were sold for this World Cup. Unsurprisingly most of them have gone to Russian fans (871,797) but eye catchingly enough, the second highest numbers sold were to fans from the USA (88,825) who aren’t even in the tournament! Brazil (72,512), Colombia (65,234) and Germany (62,541) round out the top five. 

For those high profile teams, with many supporters who have the means to travel to Russia, there will be large section of fans in Russian stadiums supporting their country but nothing like the backing that is given to the host nation over the month long tournament.   

From the press box it was a great opportunity to look around and see how the home crowd reacted and furiously cheered on their home players. It was a tight affair against Egypt but the Russian support was reciprocated on the pitch with an excellent second half performance in the 3-1 win over the Pharaohs. 

It was a result that had the home fans going home happy. Asked in the post-match press conference was it his happiest day ever, Russian Head Coach Stanislav Cherchesov simply said that he hoped that of days like these “there are many more to come.”

His game plan paid off as he exploited Egyptian nervousness as the match went on. “The longer we played today the more the opponents needed the result. We scored at the beginning of the second half and they became more nervous and we used that and we scored a couple more.” 

He also admitted that Artem Dzyuba was the perfect foil for this game where he needed a strong presence up top for his team. Dzyuba got his second of the tournament by combining some excellent close control and a well timed shot.

“After the (World Cup group) draw, we started studying our opponents. It is sometimes strange to see big attackers but we know their weaknesses. Dzuba is in good shape and tactically speaking for this game he was more fitting to the purpose.”



In the last five tournaments, the only host to fail to top their group and make the knock-out stages is South Africa. After France won the tournament in 1998, four years later the joint home teams out-performed expectations.  Japan made it to the last 16 while South Korea made the knock-out stages for the first time after six attempts eventually finishing fourth in the tournament. 

I feel I’ve been lucky to watch the hosts play on a couple of occasions down the years at the World Cup. Back in 2002 I watched the South Korea and Portugal group game. The raucous if regimented crowd, each wearing a red t-shirt, worked through the small repertoire of songs to inspire the ‘Red Devils’. 

With such vocal supporters, it seemed like it was 12 men against 11. Although Portugal probably reckoned it was 13 v 9 as Argentinian ref Angel Sanchez sent off two Portuguese players. 

Joao Pinto’s response to his first half straight red card was to punch the referee in the stomach earning the Porto player earn a six month international suspension!

The Koreans would beat Giovanni Trapattoni’s Italy in the next round, helped by some dubious decisions by Ecuadorian referee Byron Moreno who would some years later be convicted of drug smuggling! 

The mood music around South Africa in 2010 matched that for Russia but at this current World Cup our Russian hosts are exceling. 



I was in Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria for the host nation’s second game of the tournament.

Ahead of kick off against Uruguay, there was an amazing atmosphere listening to the South Africans sing their anthem – it was hairs up on the back of the neck stuff – but there wasn’t much for the Bafana Bafana fans to sing about in the game. Uruguay’s Diego Forlan silenced the vuvuzelas with a brace to eliminate the hosts.

There is no such early exit for the hosts this time around as the Russians, thanks to their two wins and excellent goal difference, are set to make the knock-out stages of a World Cup for the first time since the team played as part of the Soviet Union.

A tournament is usually better for having the home team progress and it was certainly party time in St. Petersburg and right across Russia after they made it back-to-back wins in the group stages on Tuesday.

“We are very happy that we have two wins under our belt and giving that joy to our supporters,” said Cherchesov. “We got the three points to the joy of our supporters.”

 

    About Macdara Ferris

    Macdara Ferris is a contributor since 2007 to Hoops Scene (Shamrock Rovers' match day programme) and is the co-author of two books on Shamrock Rovers - 'Tallaght Time: Shamrock Rovers 2009 to 2012' (with Karl … View Full Profile