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Russia and Australia are eagerly awaiting a new miracle from Guus Hiddink

There is a favorite in this group - the current and five-time world champion team of Brazil, which will be accompanied by a strong Croatian team, the Japanese, who offended the Russians at the last world championship, and the Australian team , which has not been at world football forums for a long time. This is where we will begin our acquaintance with group “F”. After all, the Socceroos are no longer led by a stranger to the Russians, the Dutchman Guus Hiddink .

For more than 30 years, the Australian team could not make it to the finals of the World Championships, largely due to the imperfection of the qualifying tournament formula. Play-offs often became an insurmountable obstacle for the team from the Green Continent. Last year's Confederations Cup, in which Frank Farina's team performed unsuccessfully, brought sad thoughts to the leaders of Australian football. To ensure that the World Championships in Germany would not take place again without the participation of Australians, it was decided to invite an eminent specialist. Who else to call if not Hiddink, who performed a miracle with the Koreans. And although the Dutchman combined work in the Australian team with his main job at PSV, the end justified the means. The Socceroos managed to overcome the Uruguayan barrier. But Hiddink was not invited for two meetings with the Uruguay national team; they expect results from him in the final part as well. Of course, it will be difficult for Australia to repeat the achievement of the Dutch (fourth place in 1998) or the Koreans at the home championship (also fourth place), but Hiddink is Hiddink, he is used to producing quality products.

In Brazil, only “gold” is expected from Carlos Alberto Parreira . And Parreira himself is not against leading the ball wizards to a new peak for the second time. He has all the trump cards in his hands. The composition of the Brazilian national team is more than stellar, the foreign continent has never bothered the Seleção, and the Pentacampeons’ coach is also authoritative. Even though he didn’t play football himself.

Carlos Alberto Parreira came to football unexpectedly. A graduate of the Institute of Physical Education was assigned to work at Botafogo as a physical training coach - as an assistant to Mario Zagalo. After a short business trip to Ghana, Parreira again began assisting Zagalo, already in the Brazilian national team. He also contributed to the Brazilian victory at the 1970 World Cup. But Parreira emerged as an independent figure in the Middle East. First, he coached the Kuwait team for a long time and very successfully, then there was the UAE team, which Carlos Alberto also brought into high society for the first time. During the break between the two Middle Eastern voyages, there was a short period of work with the national team of his native country, but the Brazilian stars of the mid-80s - Socrates, Zico, Falcao - did not want to play under the leadership of the “Bedouin”. The generation of Romario, Bebeto and Taffarel turned out to be much more flexible. It was with them that Parreira achieved his main success - victory at the 1994 World Championships.

If Carlos Alberto Parreira did not play football at all, then Arthur Antunes Coimbra was an outstanding football player, considered one of the heirs of Pele. Don't remember this? Quite possibly, because Coimbra is better known as Zico . The famous Brazilian midfielder spent the last years of his career in Japan , where he began his coaching career in the J-League. The Kashima Antlers club became the national champion four times, and the grateful Japanese erected a monument to Zico at the entrance to the stadium. After such a triumph, White Pele believed that he could help his country’s national team. But in Brazil they didn’t really believe in Zico’s coaching talent, and the position of technical consultant of the national team could not meet the ambitions of the Coimbra lord. And when an offer came from Japan, Zico, without hesitation, agreed to lead the national team of the Land of the Rising Sun. A special intrigue is that the coach of the Japanese national team was one of those who rebelled against Parreira in 1984.

In the Croatian national team you can find two Kranjcars at once. Coach Zlatko Kranjcar and midfielder Niko Kranjcar. Father and son. When the 72-year-old coach of the “checkered” Otto Baric left his post after the European Championship, the national team was entrusted to the coach of the strongest club in the country - Dinamo Zagreb. The Croatians performed well in the qualifying tournament, taking first place. It was as if the generation change carried out by the new mentor was not noticed, it passed so painlessly. New faces appeared in the lineup, including 19-year-old Niko Kranjcar, Zlatko’s son. But there is no point in looking for protectionism here. Kranjcar Jr. is one of the most talented young football players in the country.

Oleg TIMOFEEV