Russia hammered Solomon Islands 16-0 in their opening match at the 2012 Futsal World Cup at Nimitbutr Stadium last night.
The Russians, however, did not come close to matching their astonishing 31-2 victory at the 2008 finals, posted against the same opponents.Sergey Skorovich's team combined to produce some slick moves in the first half, often inspired by Robinho, allowing Eder Lima to score five goals to set up an 8-0 lead at half-time.
Russia scored another eight goals without reply in the second half. Lima added two more goals for a total of seven on his World Cup debut, while Sergey Sergeev and Alexander Fukin were each on target twice.
To the Solomons' credit, they did not stop striving to get on the scoresheet until the final whistle but they found Russia goalkeeper Gustavo in fine form.
The result took Russia to top of Group F, above Guatemala, who beat Colombia 5-2, on goal difference.
"My players did not need me to tell them anything to keep them concentrated," coach Skorovich said after the match.
"They played with full force from the beginning to the end. Now we will start thinking about Guatemala, a completely different kind of opponent who will give us a much tougher match."
Solomon Islands coach Dickson Kadau said: "Our concentration wasn't the best and we were not able to execute our game plan, which was to control the ball a bit more. At least my player fought until the end, because they did not want a repeat of the result from four years ago. Now we need to wake up and learn from our mistakes."