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The Russia national football team is controlled by the Football Union of
Russia (RFU) and is affiliated with UEFA. Given Russia's communist history, the
country only started playing international football in 1992, following the break
up of the Soviet Union.
The RFU was founded in 1992, replacing the Football Federation of USSR which
governed the sport in the country from 1917 to 1992. Russia's national football
team played its first international match against Mexico in August 1992,
notching up a 2-0 victory.
Under the guidance of the RFU, the Russian national football team qualified for
its first World Cup in 1994, which was hosted in the United States. However, the
side was knocked out in round one after it lost to Brazil by 2-0 and to Sweden
by 3-1, finishing the tournament in 18th place.
Despite boasting some of Russia's most talented footballers at the time, the
team did not play well. The team's then manager, Pavel Sadyrin, was blamed for
this and fired.
While the Russia national football team failed to qualify for the 1998 World Cup
in France, it did qualify for the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan.
However, like in its 1994 World Cup outing, the team was also knocked out in the
first round after losing to Spain by 1-0 and to Portugal by 2-0.
A few of Russia's best players include Viktor Onopko, Valeriy Karpin, Vladimir
Beschastnykh, Dmitriy Alenichev, Yuriy Nikiforov, Aleksei Smertin, Sergei Semak,
Dmitriy Khokhlov, Yuriy Kovtun and Aleksandr Mostovoi.
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