Canadians were no match for us 25.08.2010

In 2009 Alexander trained the Russian youth national team that took gold at the Universiade in Harbin. There were 12 players from hockey clubs of Kazan, Nizhnekamsk, Leninogorsk playing in the team.

- Alexander Yurevich, what was the biggest challenge for you during the Universiade?
- Personally for us – the Canadian national team. Our longtime rival was aiming for podium at any cost. We had a tough final game against them. We scored easy wins over the rest of the entrants since our hockey players outclass them.

- Were there any familiar faces among the Canadian players, someone that you had already played against in the World U18 Championship that had been held in Kazan last year?
- To tell the truth I haven’t noticed. But I’m pretty sure that there were no 19-year-old hockey players among the Canadians, all of them were adult, five of them are even in the NHL entry draft.

- Judging by your post-match comments you expressed dissatisfaction at your players only once – after the match against Slovakia’s national team that your team had won with a 8-3 score. You were displeased that the score was 3-3 for the most part of the game.
- I was concerned that we couldn’t shake our rival off and that put us at risk of facing the Canadians in the final. By the way the Canadians expected to see Slovakia in the final not us.

- Telling about a shameful defeat from the US youth national team at the Moscow Olympics great coach Viktor Tikhonov pointed out that the Russian team had competed against “no students but mature NHL players.” And now our youth team proved that our players could beat American students and even win with a 8-0 score.
- Specialists that watched the teams at the Universiade liked the US national team more than the Canadian one. It was a mighty and well-coordinated team… But they failed at the Harbin Universiade. They were burned-out so much that after losing to us they dropped the game to Japan’s team… Such things happen.

- You have only half a year left before the Winter Universiade in Erzurum. Were you offered to head the youth national team again?
- Frankly speaking there were only a few rumors about it. Everything was off the record. Do you remember how it happened last time? After a few not quite successful performances of our national team we were offered to form a national team on the basis of the Tatarsan clubs. We assembled youth hockey players from Kazan, Nizhnekamsk, Leninogorsk, strengthened the team with a handful of players from Bashkortostan, Moscow region and headed to the Universiade with a must-win attitude. If I’m offered this position again I’ll except it with pleasure. If not than I wish the best of luck to the new team.

- Did you participate in the Universiade as a hockey player?
- No, unfortunately not. In 1983 the national team was formed on the basis of the strongest USSR Championship team – Kristall from Saratov. Besides a few players from the Kazan SC named after Uritsky were selected in the national team. Rumors had it that I was also in the list. But eventually It was Alexey Puchkov and Oleg Kuznetsov who earned the national cap. As a result the USSR national team finished as a runner-up losing the final to Czechoslovakia’s team.

- There are close liaisons between the Kazan and Nizhnekamsk hockey schools. You are an educatee of the SC named after Uritsky, your counterpart Vsevolod Elfimov had worked both in Kazan and Nizhnekamsk, and now he’s back in Kazan. Are there any youth players that played for the teams of both cities?
- I don’t think that it’s a good idea to start attracting legionaries in junior teams. Still among the under-18 hockey players that we review there are two educatees of the Kazan hockey school that were not selected in Bars and moved to Nizhnekamsk. But it’s a rare thing.