The headlines of the Russian press on Sunday tell a story in themselves.“A Dead Team” said Sovetsky Sport. “It’s a disgrace” was Gazeta.ru’s take, while Sport Express simply wrote “‘Favorites’…”.How did it come to this?Expectations among most pundits were not high for Russia coming into the tournament. The team had stuttered through qualifying and were sticking with an aging group of players that had failed even to qualify for the 2010 World Cup and whose bright patches were overshadowed by consistent mediocrity. Don't Miss Low weighing up Boateng replacementsUEFA opens disciplinary against EnglandDel Bosque extends contract with SpainSneijder: Portugal not just Cristiano RonaldoThis continued into two qualifiers, where Russia drew first with an uninspired Uruguay side and then with a toothless Lithuania outfit in a match so low key that the players themselves described it as similar to a training game.But then, out of the blue, something clicked. A 3-0 victory over Italy was followed by a 4-1 demolition of the Czech Republic pret a porter. The stilted, uninspired side of the qualifiers was suddenly displaying scything counterattacking football and, for the first time in his Russia tenure, the mutterings of disaffection with coach Dick Advocaat had more or less become silent in Russia’s national press. Suddenly, all onlookers, including this author, expected Russia to tear through the rest of the group with ease and ask serious questions of those the side would meet later on.But these flashes of magical play from the likes of Andrey Arshavin, Roman Shirokov and Alan Dzagoev only served to paper over the cracks of the problems that had troubled analysts before the championships. These were the seeming lack of a tactical plan B, the absence of an out-and-out leader in the team and questions over the players’ fitness after a grueling 18 month season that had seen many of the team play over 60 games. All these issues began to creep slowly back in the draw against Poland. Russia looked strong for the first half but was thwarted by a Jakub Blaszczykowski wonder goal in the 57th minute. After that the players began to tire noticeably and their aging bodies did not seem to have any new ideas to turn to, as they ended up stumbling to a 1-1 draw in a game that will be remembered not for the events on the pitch but, sadly, for the fan violence off it. Despite this result, no-one expected Russia to not progress from the group stages. The team needed only a draw to do so and we were all assured by the players and coaches that fitness was not a problem Oakley outlet.But a problem it seemed to be, as the players looked sluggish from the opening whistle. They were given a number of chances by defensive errors from the Greeks but failed to capitalize on them and once their opponent began to snuff out Russia’s counterattacking threat by sitting very deep in large defensive numbers, the team looked lost for further ideas. It is astounding that a team with players of the creative ability of Russia’s midfield and wings could not manage any more stringent attempts on Michalis Sifakis’s goal than the speculative pot-shots to which it resorted. Advocaat was heavily criticized throughout most of his tenure for never trying other attacking systems and Russia paid dearly for this failure to experiment on Saturday, as he threw on attacking players in Roman Pavlyuchenko, Pavel Pogrebnyak and Marat Izmailov but none of them seemed to know what they should be doing on the pitch. A real leader was sorely needed here, too. Arshavin is undeniably a wonderful player when he has got the bit between his teeth but a leader he is not Oakley sunglasses. When it came to the crunch, Russia needed someone to drag the team forward but the diminutive winger had been missing for the whole game, looking tired, lost and disinterested and the rest of his team looked the same by the end. Russia returns to Moscow now but will not bring its coach with it. He leaves to PSV in his native Netherlands. The new coach will be tasked with clearing out many of these unarguably talented old players and giving chances to the likes of Artem Dzyuba, Taras Burlak and Magomed Ozdoev, all of whom many would have taken to the tournament.As for Advocaat, he will not be remembered overly fondly in the country where he had such mixed success. He never managed to charm the media, not attempting to learn Russian in the six years he worked there, and seeming a gruff, unwelcoming figure at times Sport Sunglasses Cheap. One of Russia’s main football commentators famously named the Dutchman a “lame duck” during his time with Zenit and it is a nickname that stuck and will continue to stick in the memories of Russian fans.Follow GOAL.COM USA on