Russian Federation – Preview
Coach: Alexander Alexeev
Key Players: Victor Furtsev (Line Player), Ruslan Dashko (Right Back)
Road to Qualification: Host country
History in Tournament: 2005-2009: DNQ, 2011: 13th, 2013: DNQ
Overview:
The Russian Federation qualified for the 2015 IHF Men’s Youth World Championship as hosts and organisers, which also gave them the opportunity to select their group at the tournament following the drawing of rows one and two. Russia opted for Group C, putting them in the same group as 2013 Men’s Youth World Championship title winners Denmark, Switzerland, up-and-coming Qatar, Algeria and 2013 silver medallists Croatia.
Russia’s national teams have had some disappointing results of late, with the women finishing 14th at the EHF EURO 2014 and the men ranking 19th at the World Championship 2015 in Qatar. The Handball Federation of Russia and both senior national teams are now under new leadership and have recorded positive results in qualifying for the Women’s World Championship 2015 in Denmark and the Men’s EHF EURO 2016 in Poland, respectively.
The focus now turns to the younger age groups, where Russia do not have a strong history. The side has participated in the Men’s Youth World Championship only once before, in 2011, when they finished 13th. Hosting the 2015 is therefore a significant opportunity for Russia’s young athletes to gain high-level international experience with the benefit of a home-crowd advantage.
Coach Alexander Alexeev has firm goals for the tournament:
“The forces of Europe's leading teams in this age group have aligned in the last year. We will fight for one of the two first places in Group C.”
Alexeev has been working with Russian Super League clubs since 2002, beginning with HC Kaustik Volgograd, where he developed the team to become silver medallists in 2009 and win the bronze in 2008. Since 2013 Alexeev has been coach of SGAU Saratov, taking on the position of Russia youth team head coach and beginning to work with players born in 1996 that same year. At the U18 European Championship in 2014 in Gdansk he led the team to their 12th-place finish.
At the Men’s Youth World Championship Russia will count on Chehovskie Medvedi line player Victor Furtsev, who played his first VELUX EHF Champions League season in 2014/15, as well as right back Ruslan Dashko, who plays for Dinamo Viktor Stavropol.
Group at Russia 2015:
Group C: Denmark, Switzerland, Russia, Qatar, Algeria, Croatia
Games at Russia 2015:
All times local
Friday 7 August: RUS-ALG (19:00)
Sunday 9 August: CRO-RUS (20:00)
Tuesday 11 August: SUI-RUS (20:00)
Wednesday 12 August: RUS-DEN (20:00)
Friday 14 August: RUS-QAT (20:00)
Click here to view the Russian Federation squad.
Click here to view all the matches of Russia 2015.