The battle for Russia's 23 tickets to Brazil is about to get a little more intense.
Russia head coach Fabio Capello named a strong 30-man provisional roster for this summer's World Cup on Monday, one he will have to trim by seven players by June 2. Capello included usual suspects like veteran goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev and midfielder Igor Denisov while leaving off, as expected, Andrei Arshavin and Roman Pavlyuchenko, who have struggled for playing time this season.
The one big surprise in Capello's primarily domestically-based team was the inclusion of Reading's Pavel Pogrebnyak. The 30-year-old forward's international career appeared to be over after failing to make an appearance since Capello took over Russia, but the Italian manager deemed Pogrebnyak worthy of battling for one of the final spots for Brazil.
GOALKEEPERS (3):
Igor Akinfeev (CSKA Moscow - Russia / 28yrs)
Yuri Lodygin (Zenit St Petersburg - Russia / 23yrs)
Sergey Ryzhikov (FK Rubin Kazan - Russia / 33yrs)
DEFENDERS (10):
Alexandr Anyukov (Zenit St Petersburg - Russia / 31yrs)
Aleksei Berezutski (CSKA Moscow - Russia / 31yrs)
Vasili Berezutski (CSKA Moscow - Russia / 31yrs)
Vladimir Granat (Dynamo Moscow - Russia / 26yrs)
Andrey Yeshchenko (Anzhi Makhachkala - Russia / 30yrs)
Sergei Ignashevich (CSKA Moscow - Russia / 34yrs)
Aleksei Kozlov (Dynamo Moscow - Russia / 27yrs)
Dmitri Kombarov (Spartak Moscow - Russia / 27yrs)
Andrei Semenov (Terek Grozny - Russia / 25yrs)
Georgi Schennikov (CSKA Moscow - Russia / 23yrs)
MIDFIELDERS (12):
Vladimir Bystrov (Anzhi Makhachkala - Russia / 30yrs)
Yuri Zhirkov (Dynamo Moscow - Russia / 30yrs)
Roman Shirokov (Krasnodar - Russia / 32yrs)
Igor Denisov (Dynamo Moscow - Russia / 29yrs)
Alan Dzagoev (CSKA Moscow - Russia / 23yrs)
Viktor Fayzulin (Zenit St Petersburg - Russia / 28yrs)
Alexander Samedov (Lokomotiv Moscow - Russia / 29yrs)
Oleg Shatov (Zenit St Petersburg - Russia / 23yrs)
Aleksei Ionov (Dynamo Moscow - Russia / 25yrs)
Yuri Gazinsky (Krasnodar - Russia / 24yrs)
Pavel Mogilevets (Rubin Kazan - Russia / 21yrs)
Denis Glushakov (Spartak Moscow - Russia / 27yrs)
FORWARDS (5):
Artem Dzyuba (Rostov - Russia / 25yrs)
Maxim Kanunnikov (Amkar Perm - Russia / 22yrs)
Aleksandr Kerzhakov (Zenit St Petersburg - Russia / 31yrs)
Aleksandr Kokorin (Dynamo Moscow - Russia / 23yrs)
Pavel Pogrebnyak (Reading - England / 30yrs)
