If There was a USSR National Team...

I enjoyed putting together the 'If there was a Yugoslavia National Team' post a while back, so I thought I'd try another hypothetical National Team, this time combining players from the former Soviet Union.

If there was a USSR national team today it would most likely consist of the current Russian National Team with a couple of Ukrainians thrown in the mix.

In this list, I attempted to come up with some other players from the former USSR (not including Russia) that would potentially be called in for a Soviet National Team. I don't know if any of these players would crack the starting lineup over the Russians, but they are quality players that could potentially make the team.




ARMENIA
NONE

AZERBAIJAN
NONE

BELARUS
GK - Yuri Zhevnov (Zenit St. Petersburg)
MF - Alyaksandr Hleb (Stuttgart)

ESTONIA
NONE

GEORGIA
DF - Kakha Kaladze (AC Milan)
FW - Alexander Iashvili (Karlsruher SC)

KAZAKHSTAN
NONE

KRYGYZSTAN
NONE

LATVIA
FW - Māris Verpakovskis (Ergotelis, Loan from Dynamo Kiev)

LITHUANIA
DF - Marius Stankevičius (Sevilla)
DF - Marius Žaliūkas (Hearts)
MF - Edgaras Česnauskis (FC Dynamo Moscow)
FW - Tomas Danilevičius (Livorno)

MOLDOVA
NONE

TAJIKISTAN
NONE

TURKMENISTAN
NONE

UKRAINE
GK - Andriy Pyatov (Shakhtar Donetsk)
DF - Dmytro Chygrynskiy (Barcelona)
MF - Anatoliy Tymoshchuk (Bayern Munich)
MF - Oleg Gusiev (Dynamo Kyiv)
FW - Artem Milevskiy (Dynamo Kyiv)
FW - Andriy Shevchenko (Dynamo Kyiv)
FW - Andriy Voronin (Dynamo Moscow)

UZBEKISTAN
MF - Server Djeparov (FC Bunyodkor)
FW - Maksim Shatskikh (Arsenal Kyiv)



EDIT: I had a minute and made an attempt at putting together an 18-man USSR game day roster. This lineup is assuming everyone is healthy.

Starting Eleven

GK - Igor Akinfeev (Russia; CSKA Moscow)

RB - Aleksandr Anyukov (Russia; Zenit St. Petersburg)
CB - Denis Kolodin (Russia; Dynamo Moscow)
CB - Dmytro Chygrynskiy (Ukraine; Barcelona)
LB - Yuri Zhirkov (Russia; Chelsea)

RM - Alyaksandr Hleb (Belarus; Stuttgart)
CM - Anatoliy Tymoshchuk (Ukraine; Bayern Munich)
CM - Konstantin Zyryanov (Russia; Zenit St. Petersburg)
LM - Andrei Arshavin (Russia; Arsenal)

ST - Roman Pavlyuchenko (Russia; Tottenham Hotspur)
ST - Andrei Shevchenko (Ukraine; Dynamo Kyiv)


Bench

GK - Vladimir Gabulov (Russia; Dynamo Moscow)
DF - Kakha Kaldaze (Georgia; AC Milan)
DF - Aleksei Berezutski (Russia; CSKA Moscow)
MF - Oleg Gusiev (Ukraine; Dynamo Kyiv)
MF - Diniyar Bilyaletdinov (Russia; Everton)
FW - Aleksandr Kerzhakov (Russia; Zenit St. Petersburg)
FW - Artem Milevskiy (Ukraine; Dynamo Kyiv)