To The Semifinals

As the glow of beating Italy fades, the reality of facing Guus Hiddink’s Russia side in the Euro 2008 semifinals begins to take shape.

Hiddink is no stranger to Spain. He’s coached Valencia, Real Madrid and Real Betis. And he coached a tenacious South Korean side to an undeserved victory over the Spanish in the 2002 World Cup quarterfinals, further ingraining the supposed Spanish football curse on the nation.

You can say what you want about the man, but he sure can coach.
The self-dubbed ‘traitor of the year’ in Holland eliminated his home country from Euro 2008.
In the process, he’s made Russia a European superpower and brought the nation to the brink of winning a major tournament, something unbelievable a few years back.

‘It’s quite amazing how Hiddink has managed to completely transform the team since the start of the tournament, especially at the back,’ says Igor Rabiner, a writer with the Russian magazine Sport Express. ‘In the first meeting with Spain, we had the sort of defensive performance we had feared before the finals, one that was slow-reacting and naive.

‘Villa and Torres were like footballers from another planet. We had no answer to their speed and movement. Compare that with the solid play of the back-four and defensive midfielders in the Dutch match. They were meticulously organized, strong physically and kept Holland out without major problems.

‘Hiddink deserves a medal, maybe a statue for the job he’s done. He’s brought on young players, taught his squad a modern tactical A-Z and given them great self-belief. They really do think they can go all the way now. I don’t expect the early defeat by Spain to weigh heavily mentally. We’ve grown enormously in stature in a very short space of time.

‘They see Spain in a different light now,’ concludes Rabiner. The desire to set the record straight is a powerful motivation.’

Check out this article from Norman Hubbard in yesterday’s soccernet.com which fully encapsulates the Hiddink effect.

In three continents, with four countries, he has reached the knockout stages of all five major competitions he has entered. In securing Russia a semi-final berth at Euro 2008, Hiddink has repeated a feat he performed with South Korea and Australia: taking a nation further than they have ever been before. The Soviet Union may have been European Championship finalists two decades ago, but Russia’s record was miserable. Until now, that is.

In the process, he has made a wider audience wonder why they had not previously appreciated the qualities of his countries. South Korea’s brand of high-octane, high-energy football made them irresistible in 2002, yet this is a country that - the Hiddink era apart - has only won one World Cup match. Australia’s blend of competitiveness and physicality marked them out as one of the strongest and most resilient sides in Germany, yet they had never emerged victorious on the biggest international stage before his arrival.

Now Russia are among the most accomplished sides at Euro 2008. Their speed and stamina makes them reminiscent of Hiddink’s Koreans, their invention and technical qualities bear comparison with the Holland side he managed a decade ago. Yet there are valid reasons why they were underestimated. Third seeds in their qualifying group, they laboured to a 1-0 win over Andorra to reach the finals. Eight months ago, there was no outcry when Russians were ignored when the 50-man shortlist for the European Footballer of the Year award was announced.

Accolades abound. On top of that, we have a new Russian superstar: Andrei Arshavin.
The lad’s quite good and now wanted by every club superpower in Europe. He’s stated he wants to play in Spain.
Might he be willing to help his new employer by laying low and not playing so good?

All jokes aside, this Russian squad is quite different from the side Spain disposed of with ease 4-1 just a few weeks ago. They’re quick, they’re aggressive, they have tremendous pace and they believe they can win this.

We’ll see how that goes.

As far as the Spain side, two bits of news.

One, Marcos Senna is hurt and might not play against the Russians. This would be a significant blow as Senna’s been one of the MVP’s of the Spanish side. But his replacements aren’t all that bad: Xabi Alonso. Cesc Fabregas. We’ll see. There’s still a chance he’ll play.

And coach Luis Aragones said he won’t return to coach the national side, no matter what.

“I’m proud that my work is being viewed in a positive light and still more proud that I’m going to be able to leave behind a really important group of players in the Spain squad. But I told the Federation and announced to all of you in the media that I’m leaving, no matter how this tournament finishes. So I’d like to put my thanks on record to those who supported me, sometimes when it was pretty hard. But even the critics have been good for me.

So thanks, too, to the people who didn’t give me support, their attitudes made me reflect and think even more about my choices and decisions. For any man, in any walk of life, that’s important.”

So that’s that.

Aragones did make an important decision for Thursday’s game. Spain will be wearing their yellow jerseys instead of their typical red ones.

Not sure how I feel about that one … Hmm …

One last word about Italy, this one from the great Spanish football scribe Phil Ball, who gets it right on the nose with his latest column regarding Spain’s semifinal advancement.

Spain were trying to win. It was Italy who were cheating - constantly interrupting the Spanish flow; whenever a player went down, he looked up carefully to see if an attack was forming, then rolled back over again to force the Spaniards to kick the ball out of play.

Surely, FIFA has the power and gumption to act on this sort of stuff? If a player recovers remarkably within 30 seconds of having required the play to stop, then surely he should be booked? It’s not rocket science. The rule of kicking the ball out of play was only instituted in the 1990’s to ensure that a player seriously injured could be attended to. Now it’s just daft, and sides like Italy will always try to take advantage of the loophole.

What was the point of the Italian performance in general? I fail to see it. With Pirlo and Gattuso injured, they still had some classy players to call upon, but in the end it was only the substitute Camoranesi who emerged with any credit. Too often this sort of negativity has won tournaments, but I for one won’t be crying if Donadoni gets the boot.

As always with Mr. Ball, I could not have said it better. Aupa España!!