What was the base of the USSR?

Before the Seventies it was mostly Russia, with a lot of help from the Ukraine and Georgia.
After the Sevienties, the Ukraine dominated (1975 and 1986 national teams were almost entirely Ukrainian), with Russia and Georiga helping out. Occasionally, there was a great player from Belarus like Aleynikov and Malafeyev, (although the latter was born in Russia, he made his career in Minsk), or Armenia (Oganesyan).
As far as club football was concenrned, it was all between Ukraine and Russia, represented exclusively by Moscow. Four Moscow teams won the Soviet league a combined 32 times, three Ukrainian sides - a combined 16 times (13 - by Dynamo Kiev).
However, when the USSR disintegrated they quickly found out that their strength was in unity. Russian football seems to have a lot of money invested in it, but they are mostly spent on mid-level foreign talent, which hurts the development of domestic players (there is no foreigner limit in Russia). In the Ukraine, all the capital is concentrated within two clubs (Dynamo and Shakhtar Donetsk) who also indulge into foreign trade extensively.
In the Soviet days, Georgian and Armenian football used to be very good, thanks to the clubs like Dinamo Tbilisi and Ararat Yerevan, who fielded only local talent and were, for all intents and purposes, the republics' national teams. The same could be said of the very respectable Lithuanian (Zalgiris Vilnius) and Byelorussian (Dinamo Minsk) representatives. However, they have seen their level dragged down to the surrounding mediocrity of their own national leagues.

 

What about Euro successes by Dinamo Tbilisi , championship by Ararat , and National team players from Neftchi and Pahtakor?

 

Not to mention the great Moldavian export, Igor Dobrovolsky.
I am sure all of them have something to be proud of too.

 

May be an intersting question but it ain't gonna happen.

 

I personally think that Russia, Ukraine and Belarus will eventually reunite, politically and footballwise. The divisions and differences between them are so artificial and superficial, I can't see them going on pretending to be foreign countries for much longer. Besides, with the rest of Europe going towards unification, its eastern parts should follow the trend.

 

Actually, it is not that easy to find an ethnic Ukrainian without Russian blood, seeing that this is basically the same exact people.
From what I know, most of the Ukrainian east has nothing against Russia, but the west, with their prevalent Polish/Catholic population and a rich history of separatist movements, would be the ones violently opposed.

 

I wonder if all the references to "the Russian spirit" and "the Russian heroes" in Hohol's great (if staunchly anti-Semitic) patriotic epic Taras Bulba are now hastily being "updated".

Seriously though, what you are seeing now is the inferiority complex acting up. This will pass and the harsh realities of "living in the now, man" will set in. Otherwise, they will have to insert a couple of countries between themselves and Russia just to punctuate their distance from the hated (for whatever reason) Moskali.

 

My feeble attempt at current USSR national team :
Lomaia ;
Kaladze , Luzhny , Stepanov ;
Karpin, Gleb , Semshov , Mostovoi ;
Shevchenko, Sychev, Pahar'.

Subs : Poom , Shovkovsky;

Solomatin, Samusevas, Chugainov, Ignashevich,Luhvich, Kovtun, Nikiforov;

Tihonov, Aleinitchev, Kinkladze, Kormil'tsev , Gurenko, Smertin, Khokhlov, Izmailov, Karyaka, Zvingilas, Oganyan,Gorshkov, Bystrov,Titov, Kanchel'skis, Kovalenko, Los'kov, Aldonin;

Jankauskas , Arveladze, Rogachev, Bulykin, Miholap, Rebrov, Venglinsky, Simutenkov, Pimenov , Kerzhakov, Kutuzov, Monarev.


And right now we are at :
Ovchinnikov;

Two young oaks by the surname of Berezutskie , Ignashevich ( the feared goascorer) , a very old birch by the surname of Onopko;

Smertin, Karyaka, Titov , any CSKA benchwarming midfielder;

Popov, Semak.


As our old teacher and friend - Necrasov , said : " Komu na Rusi zhit' horosho? " ,
which can be loosely translated as :" If you don't beat Albaniya , Georgia and Switzerland , please resign from your post ."
Any suggestions , raw (as opposed to rotten) tomatoes, critcism and or ridicule are welcome.

 

While we are on the subject of faded glory here's IMHO current USSR hockey team :

Nabokov;

Salei-Ozolinsh;
Zhitnik-Volchenkov;
Zubov-Kasparaitis

Yashin-P.Bure-Kovalev;
Fedorov-Mogilny-Koval'chuk;
Grigorenko-S.Kozlov-V.Bure;
V.Kozlov-Datsyuk-Chistov

 

Russian hockey, however, did not fade because of the absense of Ukrainian, Byelorussian, Latvian and Kazakh stars.

My USSR team would be as follows

Khabibulin, Nabokov

Gonchar-Zhitnik
O.Markov-Ozolinsh
Bykov-Khavanov

Without assigning forwards to particular lines:
Fedorov, Kovalchuk, Nikolishin, Brylin, Kovalev, Datsyuk, Yashin, Mogilny, V.Kozlov, Zhamnov, Ovechkin, Grigorenko.

Only Nabokov, Zhitnik and Ozolinsh do not represent the Russian school of hockey in this gorup (yes, I know Fedorov started with Dinamo Minsk, but he grew up in Pskov).
Although, you could add Peter Bondra, the native of Lutsk, as a Ukrainian represenative for a really formidable line-up.

 

Yeah , but they do not play hockey whre the lakes do not freeze .
In my version you would have to add Salei and Kasparaitis ; and how could you leave them out with Zubov and P. Bure?
BTW , how good is Ovechkin?

 

Staying on the subject of former USSR , what a horrible day for all of the former republics at Euro'04 Qualifiers today , 'cept Azerbaijan.

 

Must've been a fun day to be in Baku. Maybe having your soccer federation in turmoil's not as bad as it's made out to be.

 

I can't beilieve you forgot that Moldova beat Austria!

Zubov and Zhitnik are the same kind of player, and I just picked the one I liked more. Besides, it would have decreased non-Russian representation even further.
The Bure brothers are both finished. At this point they would do more harm than good and Kovalchuk, the same kind of forward only bigger, is better than both of them combined.
Ovechkin is very good. Some experts are talking Mario Lemieux kind of good. I won't go this far, but he is a sure first pick in the 2004 draft. A LeBron James kind of sure pick.

 

I was talking just 'bout 6/11 , Moldavia got their ass handed to them by Bounced Czechs 0-5.

 

When you are a small country most famous for [yet to be determinned], beating one part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire should be quite enough.

 

I am not sure that Uruguay is that much bigger than Moldavia.

 

I may be late but I'm here! Shurik, Ukraine will unite with Russia when Moldova unites with Russia, that is as much as I can tell you about reunification. I have to say, I am a 50% Hohol and 50% Moskal, but I do not want to see Ukraine reunited with Russia. I'm sure you know enough about early Soviet history to understand why, or do I really need to explain?

 

Don't bother. I am not sure how much you know about the history of French-German realtions, but they are virtually living in the same country right about now.
One hopes that whatever interest there still remains in that fun and exciting game of Let's Establish Our Grudges will dwindle soon enough. Otherwise, as I said, the next logical step would be to start inserting other countries along the Russian-Ukrainian border.

 

Well, no.

All Europeans (beside the very east, Russia etc.) are now virtually living in one country. Its not special between Germany and France.

I don`t know much about Ukrainians and Russians, but it seems hard to imagine that the Ukrainians want to give their souvereignty away again towards Moscow.

 

This is exactly what I meant. Europe is unifying.
Eastern Europe is dividing.
Sooner or later they will catch up.