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Advocaat Makes Uncertain Start as Russian Manager
By Tobias Kuehne
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Russian manager Dick Advocaat. Photo Alexander
Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
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Wednesday's friendly match between Russia and Bulgaria (1:0)
was supposed to be the beginning of a new era in Russian soccer. The team's
first game under new manager Dick Advocaat was intended as a signpost,
hopefully pointing to a successful Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine. The
Dutchman Advocaat replaced his compatriot, Guus Hiddink, after Russia
failed to qualify for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
"I am convinced that Dick Advocaat's rich coaching experience will
help him to form a competitive team that has the strength to solve the
most challenging tasks," Russian Football Union (RFU) President Sergei
Fursenko stated in his introductory note to the game's program.
Bulgaria, a team that hasn't particularly distinguished itself as a powerhouse
in soccer (excluding a surprising semi-finals appearance in the 1994 World
Cup), was thought to be the right kick-off for the "Dick Advocaat
era."
Russia started the game well and capitalized on its first big opportunity
in the sixth minute. Russia's star player Andrei Arshavin flicked a free
kick from the left side into the penalty area. Bulgaria's goalkeeper Nikolai
Mikhailov caught the innocuous cross but, possibly blinded by the sun,
fumbled the ball, which landed in front of Roman Shirokov. Standing with
his back to the goal, Zenit's midfielder showed great control when he
turned and volleyed the ball into the left corner of the net. It was Shirokov's
first goal for the Russian team, and it would remain the only goal of
the game.
Everything seemed to be going according to plan at this point. "You
came here in order to lose!" a confident fan in the stadium shouted.
Russia dominated the game with play that already showed the first signs
of the signature Dick Advocaat style: short, precise passes in midfield,
keeping the ball moving along the whole width of the pitch before playing
the deadly pass onto the wing or to one of the strikers. Pavel Pogrebnyak
received a few chipped passes of this kind early in the game, but lacked
the necessary control to create compelling opportunities.
With fifteen minutes gone, however, Russia's game began to disintegrate.
Although Bulgaria's strikers were unable to pose a substantial threat
to goalkeeper Igor Akinfeyev's goal, its defense adapted to Russia's style
of play, which resulted in Russia losing ball control and passing accuracy.
Fans began to boo and whistle. Although the Russian defense didn't allow
any major chances for Bulgaria, the team revealed that it still has a
long way to go to fully internalize and sustain Advocaat's style of play
throughout the length of the game.
"We know what we have, and we know what we have to work on,"
Advocaat told reporters at a press conference after the game.
A Work in Progress
Advocaat's arrival as the new national manager has been highly anticipated.
"He's a real workaholic. He knows all our [top] players, which is
a big plus," Fursenko told reporters at the presentation of Advocaat
as the new team manager on May 17. In St. Petersburg, Advocaat has made
himself a name as the coach of local side Zenit. Under his guidance, from
2006 - 2009, Zenit won the Russian league championship in 2007, ending
a 23-year drought since Zenit's topping of the Soviet table in 1984. Advocaat
was the first foreign coach to win the Russian national championship ever.
The national title allowed Zenit to compete in the UEFA Champions League
the following year. The club finished third (out of four) in the group
stage, which relegated them to the UEFA Cup, the second most prestigious
European club trophy behind the Champions League. Zenit would go on to
win the UEFA Cup, their first European trophy ever. A second, the European
Super Cup, followed a few months later, as Zenit won the face-off against
Manchester United, that year's Champions League victor, which made 2008
one of the most successful years in Zenit's 85-year history. In recognition
of his stunning achievements, Advocaat was showered with national honors,
such as Russia's Coach of the Year 2008, and Honorary Citizen of St. Petersburg
(the first foreigner since 1866 to receive this honor).
Under Advocaat's guidance, Russia's current star and team captain, Arshavin,
29, stepped into the international spotlight. In 2009, he was signed by
his current club Arsenal London.
As the support in the stadium showed, Advocaat had not been forgotten
in St. Petersburg. Fans cheered at his introduction and chanted his name
during the first minutes of the game. Another supporter who evidently
remembered Advocaat's accomplishments with Zenit was Fursenko. The current
president of the Russian Football Union, who succeeded Vladimir Mutko
in 2008 after President Dmitry Medvedev's directive that all Russian sports
federations be run by full-time professionals, was the president of Zenit
during Advocaat's time with the club. When Hiddink failed to lead Russia
to this year's World Cup in South Africa, rumors surfaced that Advocaat
would succeed Hiddink.
Notwithstanding the fact that Russia missed the 2010 World Cup, Hiddink
led the team to its greatest success in recent years. Under his management,
the team put up a strong showing at Euro 2008 in Austria and Switzerland
by advancing to the semi-final of the competition. Russia came up short
0:3 against the eventual winners Spain, after having eliminated tournament
favorite Netherlands 3:1 in the quarter-final.
The country's most glorious period came in the '60s and early '70s, when
the Soviet squad won the 1960 European Championship in France, finished
runner-up at the 1964 and 1972 Euro, and reached the semi-final of the
1966 World Cup in England. The Soviet squad also won the 1956 Olympics
in Melbourne. During this period, the Soviet goal was tended by the legendary
Lev Yashin, who is widely considered to be among the best goalkeepers
to have ever played.
1988 marked another successful year for the Soviet soccer team, with a
gold medal in Seoul, and a second-place finish in the European Championship.
After Russia's score of first-round exits and failures to qualify for
World Cups and Euro Championships throughout the 90s and 2000s, Hiddink's
success at the 2008 Euro was a pleasant reminder of past soccer glory.
Hiddink's popularity, which was higher even than Vladimir Putin's during
the Euro 2008, began to wane in 2009. After controversies between Hiddink,
the RFU and Roman Abramovich's national football fund over his alleged
7 million euro ($9 million) annual salary in October 2008, and Russia's
less successful showings on the pitch, Hiddink decided to resign from
his post in early 2010. Advocaat was presented as his successor on May
17, 2010.
As the second half of Wednesday's game revealed, Advocaat still has a
long road ahead of him to bring the team up to par for the Euro 2012 in
Poland and the Ukraine. Advocaat made three substitutions at half-time,
one of which replaced Pogrebnyak, largely detached from the game in the
first half, with English Premier League striker Roman Pavlyuchenko. The
game continued where it had left off, although both sides began to commit
more fouls. Russia only became dangerous from set pieces, as the last
pass into the penalty area would often not connect.
The game opened up a bit after the 55th minute, and Bulgaria slowly won
control over the match. Their left flank in particular created a few runs,
with defensive midfielder Zhivko Milanov frequently sending his teammate
Martin Petrov into open space with a long ball. In the 58th minute, Petrov
dangerously crossed the ball into the Russian penalty area, but failed
to find the heads of the waiting Martin Kamburov and Dimitar Rangelov.
It was Rangelov again who appeared alone in front of Akinfeyev in the
69th minute, giving the Russian goalkeeper a chance to show his reflexes
and positional play skills in the penalty area. It was only thanks to
Akinfeyev and Bulgaria's lack of outstanding striking talent that Russia
was still up 1:0.
The Russian fans returned the poor showing of their squad with furious
whistling and booing. The team's players struggled to maintain their composure
during this phase of the game.
Arshavin put up a particularly disappointing performance, with many of
his passes going into empty space. He was substituted off in the 78th
minute and replaced by Dmitry Sychev, who reanimated Russia's game for
the remaining ten minutes.
Fans at the Petrovsky Stadium had their own way of dealing with the game
- in the 90th minute, fans began to repeat their pre-game chant of "Dick
Advocaat," only in a clearly derisory manner. The mood at the stadium
was largely humorous, with fans applauding an injured player who managed
to hobble off the pitch unaided.
Bulgaria, however, didn't manage to equalize, giving Russia a 1:0 victory.
Although Advocaat told reporters that "it is always important to
win the first game" and that "we have achieved a good result,"
Wednesday's game has left a lot of unanswered questions about the future
of Russia's national squad. It certainly takes time for a new tactical
concept to take root among a team, and Advocaat himself had stressed to
reporters on Wednesday that "I need to understand how the players
react to my demands. That concerns those players who haven't previously
worked with me in particular."
However, Advocaat doesn't have too much time left to make adjustments.
Russia's next game is a Euro 2012 qualifyer in Andorra on Sept. 3. While
Andorra should not pose much of a challenge to the Russian squad, their
qualifying group features two tricky opponents - Slovakia and the Republic
of Ireland (Macedonia and Armenia are also in the group).
Advocaat has demonstrated an ability to unlock a soccer team's potential,
especially with Zenit and two of his earlier clubs, Glasgow Rangers and
Dutch PSV Eindhoven. It remains to be seen if he will be able to do the
same with the Russian national side. With the five national teams he has
previously managed - the Netherlands (twice), the United Arab Emirates,
South Korea and Belgium - Advocaat's successes have been limited. Both
of his terms as the Netherlands manager were marked by media criticism
and unpopularity in his home country. Advocaat has also rarely coached
a team for longer than 3 years.
When Advocaat resigned as Belgium's head coach, announcing that he would
become Russia's new team manager, he told Dutch media that "Russian
soccer is of a higher level than Belgian soccer. It matches the level
I am used to working at."
Advocaat's task is to establish which event was more indicative of the
abilities of Russia's soccer squad - the successful showing at the Euro
2008, or the failure to secure a ticket to the 2010 World Cup.
The
St. Petersburg Times, August 13, 2010
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