Competitions in one of the most spectacular and popular sports - ice hockey - have started at the Olympic Games in Vancouver. Despite the fact that the first matches don't influence the final one and it doesn't matter whether a team wins or not, all sportsmen are victory-oriented. Therefore, the sport fans had bought all tickets long before the tournament started.
Seven teams, including those of Canada, Russia, the USA, Finland, Sweden, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, have been the main medal claimants for many years. The Russian team arrived in Vancouver as a winner of the two latest world championships, but this is not enough for victory. The Olympics are the most important competitions in the life of every sportsman, and the rivals are also determined to fight to the bitter end.
The full hockey team of Russia will gather several hours before the first match with Latvia, due on February 16th, and coaches will have to make all decisions by ear, according to the great goalkeeper and Olympic Champion Vladislav Tretyak:
Our rivals have been training and preparing for this match, they are playing together for long and, besides, have already had friendly matched here, in Vancouver. They are happy to compete with the world champions and consider the victory over our team to be of paramount importance.
The coach of the Russian team, Vyacheslav Bykov, who led our sportsmen to victory in the two latest championships, is looking forward to their success:
They are professionals and know how to prepare for any competition. We will exert every effort to raise their emotional and functional state to an adequate level, so that they can show their paces. It doesn't matter that some of them play in the Continental Hockey League, and some - in the National Hockey League, this is our country's team, making up a whole.
"We came to Canada to defend the honor of our country and win. The main thing is to concentrate and take a grip on oneself, as we did at the championship in Quebec, when we defeated the Canadians in the third period," says the top scorer of the National Hockey League Alexander Ovechkin.
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