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Will Hiddink's magic work in Turkey?
By JOOST LAGENDIJK
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Guus Hiddink / Photo: cdn.wn.com
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Guus Hiddink is coming to Turkey again. Almost twenty years
after one of his few failures as a football coach, at Fenerbahce, everybody
in Turkey hopes this time around he will manage to raise the national
team's performance and take Turkey to Euro 2012.
That will not be easy, as was explained by Michael Yokhin on the football
website Goal.com. Of course, Hiddink has made his name as a very successful
coach of national teams. Against all expectations, he took South Korea
to the semi-finals of the 2002 World Cup and managed to qualify with Australia
for the World Cup in 2006. Two years later, Russia, trained by Hiddink,
made it to the semi-finals of Euro 2008 after beating the Dutch title
favorites.
But, as Yokhin correctly underlines, the expectations in all three countries
were low enough beforehand, making over-achieving results much easier
to get. Turkey is different. Hopes are always high here and replacing
a cult figure like Fatih Terim is a huge task.
Turkey did not qualify for this year's World Cup in South Africa and everybody
expects the national team to do better in the Euro 2012 qualifying round.
Unfortunately, the competition is tough, very tough. Germany is the favorites
to take first place in the group, the only result to guarantee a place
in the finals in Ukraine and Poland.
Most probably, Turkey will have to battle for second place and an extra
qualifying round with Austria, always an unpretentious but dogged opponent
and Belgium, under performing for a decade but now blessed with a talented
group of young players.
Juicy detail: coach of the Belgium national team is Hiddink's compatriot
and old rival Dick Advocaat, who could never accept that he was less successful
than the man who is one of the most respected coaches in the Netherlands
ever.
I think the only one to beat him in an opinion poll for Best Dutch Coach
would be the legendary Rinus Michels, architect of the best Dutch team
in history, Ajax with Johan Cruyff and Johan Neeskens, in the beginning
of the seventies, and coach of the only Dutch national team that won a
prize, at Euro 1988, with players such as Marco van Basten and Ruud Gullit.
It is not a shame to be in second place there.
Like Michels, Hiddink was not a star during his active career as a player.
He was a gifted left-legged midfielder but missed the brilliance and fighting
spirit to succeed at the top. Hiddink did not make it at PSV Eindhoven
and would not have gone down in Dutch soccer history if he had not become
a manager in the eighties.
In 1988 he led PSV to its first (and only) European Cup triumph, starting
an extremely successful period in the club's history that has lasted until
today. The 1988 team did not play the most attractive football but was
well organized and could rely on one of the best defense lines ever with
ruthless defenders Eric Gerets and Ronald Koeman.
Hiddink's breakthrough as a coach came ten years later when the Dutch
national team, under his firm leadership and with gifted players such
as Patrick Kluivert, Dennis Bergkamp and Edgar Davids, played some of
the most entertaining football at the 1998 World Cup. The team undeservedly
lost on penalties to Brazil in the semi-finals.
Hiddink left the Netherlands, only to come back from 2002 to 2006 for
a second spell with PSV, and became the "Dutch Magician," the
football Midas, apparently able to turn everything he touches into gold.
Let's hope he is able to use his magic in Turkey. With foreign players
dominating the league, the national team lacks outstanding stars who,
on the basis of individual skills, can outplay the Austrians and Belgians.
Turkey needs the experience, cleverness and team-building capacities of
Hiddink to make it to Euro 2012.
Hurriyetdailynews.com,
February 21, 2010
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