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Guus Hiddink's experience and wisdom wins the day as
Russia beat Holland
by Roy Collins
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From Russia with love: Guus Hiddink celebrates
Russia's shock victory over the Netherlands (telegraph.co.uk)
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In terms of the respective coaches' experience, it was no
contest and Marco van Basten, as the national anthems were played (unlike
Guus Hiddink, he knew the words to his team's), might have been excused
a wish he and Hiddink could be tested on their ability to volley goals
from a narrow angle instead. Having been even a great player, as Van Basten
undoubtedly was, can be scant protection from the range of footballing
intelligence amassed by Hiddink. Nor did the seasoned tactician in charge
of Russia waste time in probing possible weaknesses in the Dutch. From
the start his men flew at the notional favourites, who had been more than
convincing winners of their three group matches, in the hope of discovering
how Holland would react to falling behind for the first time. It nearly
worked, long before Roman Pavlyuchenko gave Russia the lead. Right away,
in fact, for Edwin van der Sar would have been in trouble had Pavlyuchenko
got into position to head Igor Semshov's sixth-minute cross; as Andre
Oojier melted away, the centre-forward's effort drifted too high.
Hiddink, having promised attack would be his chosen form of defence, was
as good as his word. The heavy cannon represented by Denis Kolodkin's
long-range shooting was wheeled up and Van der Sar's hands took punishment.
The estimable goalkeeper also dealt with an impudent little curler from
Andrei Arshavin, stretching to fling out fingertips just time. But a perturbing
factor for Van Basten must have been that luck kept going Hiddink's way.
Rafael van der Vaart's free-kick agonisingly eluded both Nigel de Jong
and Ruud van Nistelrooy, when Igor Akinfeev spilled a Van Nistelrooy drive,
no Dutchman could profit.
On a warm night, Russia's youth and mid-season freshness were all too
evident from the Dutch point of view and Van Basten's introduction of
Robin van Persie at the interval had little effect. The Russians took
a resounding lead and, hitting on the break, might have extended it through
Aleksandr Anyukov, whom Van der Sar did well to thwart. And so, 20 years
after Van Basten's artistry had seen off the Soviet Union in the final,
the Russians had him at their mercy. Although their marking let them down
just in time for Van Nistelrooy to equalise, it was a temporary reprieve.
Sometimes a match slips away from the coaches and is given over to the
players and so it was with the Russians who could not quite find the target
in the first half of extra time. Dmitri Torbinski was one of them. But
eventually he and Arshavin delivered Hiddink his reward for having radically
improved Russia's discipline, concentration and general condition since
they began the tournament with a thrashing from Spain.
Compared with Van Basten (it is fair to say), Hiddink never quite hit
the heights as a player, spending much of his career in the midfields
of De Graafschap and Nijmegen while Ajax's first wave of notables, led
by Johan Cruyff, were dominating Europe. Hiddink is remembered as slow
and, perhaps in partial consequence, crafty and sometimes that can be
a good grounding for a coach. And Hiddink has proved an exceptionally
thoughtful coach, especially on the international scene.
advertisementHis most distinctive gift has been in harnessing national
characteristics such as Korean industry and the Australian distaste for
defeat. Russia is the fourth country Hiddink has guided to the knockout
stages of a major tournament in a decade (the first was his native land)
and now he plans to go all the way.
Telegraph.co.uk,
22/06/2008
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