Tournament football and Guus Hiddink are a match made in heaven.
Five
times the Dutch master manager has taken teams to major tournaments,
and five times he has successfully steered them out of the group stages.
To
the Netherlands in Euro 1996 and the 1998 World Cup, South Korea in the
2002 World Cup and Australia in the 2006 World Cup, now add Russia at
Euro 2008 to the roll of honour.
It is a remarkable record and
one made all the more satisfying for the 61-year-old from Varsseveld
because of the way his teams have always gone about their business.
For
Guus Hiddink is a football purist, as anyone who watched his brilliant
young Russian side dismantle Sweden in Innsbruck on Wednesday would
testify.
And now he has been rewarded with a quarter-final
meeting with his fellow countrymen and the chance to cause one of the
biggest shocks of the European Championship.
After a 4-1
drubbing at the hands of England and a last-eight defeat on penalties
to France when he was in charge of the Netherlands in 1996, Hiddink has
gone about his work like a man with unfinished business with the
European Championships.
As with underdogs South Korea in 2002
and Australia in 2006 at the World Cup, he was careful before the
tournament started not to put too much pressure on his impressionable
young charges.
Hiddink, much like Spain coach Luis Aragones,
claimed Russia - who did not qualify for the last World Cup - would not
reach their peak as a team until at least the 2010 World Cup in South
Africa.
A clever way to take the pressure off your players and
one that, especially after the 4-1 drubbing they were handed by Spain
in their opening game, has enabled Russia to play with a refreshing
freedom that took Greece and especially the Swedes by surprise.
It will be an intriguing sub-plot to see who comes out on top between Arshavin and Sneijder
Hiddink
plays his games with the media too, like cheekily suggesting he might
not necessarily recall playmaker Andrei Arshavin for the Sweden game
after he was suspended for the first two matches.
Arshavin's
sublime performance that immediately catapulted him into superstardom
made Hiddink's suggestion appear all the more like gamesmanship, but if
it was designed to help ease his most outstanding player into the
tournament, it worked a treat.
As for Arshavin, he gave a
frightening glimpse of his potential by ripping the ageing Swedish
defence to shreds and his majestic display will have given every Dutch
defender nightmares.
His link-up play with Roman Pavlyuchenko
was a constant menace and it will be an intriguing sub-plot to see who
comes out on top between Arshavin, surely now top of every major club's
wanted list, and Real Madrid midfielder Wesley Sneijder, who
brilliantly set the tempo in the Netherlands' victories over Italy and
France.
Despite their undisputed quality, Russia are still
second favourites to win in Basel, especially as worries over their
defence after their hammering by the Spanish remain.
But few
observers would bet against the maverick Hiddink inspiring his troops
to yet another triumph. It's just what he does, and he's better at it
than pretty much any other coach in tournament history.
It's
also why he is continually linked with all the top jobs in Europe when
they become available and why plenty of England fans were more than
frustrated that the Football Association chose not to pursue him more
vigorously in 2006 instead of settling on the disastrous Steve McClaren.
Maybe
Hiddink prefers it this way. Maybe his unique coaching talents are
better suited to a rapidly-improving, impressionable side like the
Russians, rather than the cash-heavy, pressure-laden world of English
football.
Once again, a major tournament has benefited from his
enormous expertise and, above all, quintessentially Dutch desire to see
the game played in the right way.
When the Netherlands played
USSR in the Euro 1988 final, Hiddink was a mere spectator as his PSV
Eindhoven charges Hans van Breukelen, Ronald Koeman, Berry van Aerle
and Gerald Vanenburg helped the Dutch lift the Henri Delauney trophy.
This time around, he is destined to have a far greater say on proceedings.