But still, in vain at the European Championships, the match for third place was canceled at one time - a sort of consolation finale. He was removed to please the giants - he caused the wrong emotions among the Germans, Italians, French and Dutch who were eliminated in the semi-finals. But ours with the Turks would have come just right ... To continue the "banquet"
However, entering the top four is enough for us for now. Now it’s completely clear what Hiddink’s mission in world football is: for a couple of years he takes on a team that was completely unknown to him before, looks after it at first, as if from the outside, then tries it in work, and then turns on some such mechanisms, which allow him to squeeze the maximum out of the available players. Take it to a level that they may not even have suspected. So he did with the Koreans in 2002, with the Australians in 2006, and now with ours. Only with the first two countries he parted, to their misfortune, and a new maximalist has not yet been found in those parts, but Gus, fortunately, remains in our lands.
Evening with Hiddink
“Life has enriched me a lot. I met many different people, got acquainted with many cultures. When you visit all these countries, you see that there are no big differences between people. Education and traditional thinking suggests that there are many differences in the world, but as far as individuals are concerned, this is not the case. I can name about six people from different continents with whom I, a Dutchman, can have a great evening. An Australian from my team, a Korean from my team, someone from the Dutch PSV, a Russian from my team, a Spaniard and a Turk - and we will be fine together. I think so. And all these people of different races will be happy to play cards.
So Hiddink wrote in his book “This is my world”, published a couple of months after Gus's arrival in Russia. It was almost two years ago, and just the other day we realized that our football players were missing just such a coach - able to sit down at the same table with them and shake the deck. Let people finally understand that football is not hard work, no, it is a game from which, in addition to good money, you can also enjoy it. But there is one condition: if you don’t know how to play, don’t sit at my table. Now listen to what you need to do to learn...
Our football players accepted Hiddink immediately and unconditionally - on the first day he went to work in red pants and moccasins on his bare feet, and almost on the second, having visited the base of the national team in Bor, he said that the rooms were cramped, the beds were creaky, and the water was rusty. And starting from here, you want to surprise Europe? Oh well. And the team began to live at the training camp in the center of Moscow in a five-star hotel, where it was necessary to spend the night only before the matches, because Hiddink was hired to teach these people football life exclusively during the day.
“For starters, it would be nice to understand what criteria were taken into account here in the past when choosing players for the national team. After all, what I want to achieve must be combined with the Russian mentality, otherwise there will be no bearing surface for renewal. And if I manage to do this, then many other things will turn out, and the development of Russian football will go faster.”
And Hiddink groped for this “update” button disguised in our souls, though far and not immediately. And then he started pushing her. “You have the same system of training football players that you had 15-20 years ago, you stopped somewhere, not noticing how the world has moved forward in the development of football. And the more you mark time, the further it goes. My job is to propose certain projects, but you must be prepared for the fact that they will have to be carried out at an accelerated pace.
Without a loser complex
And as it turned out, people get used to good things really quickly - and even regardless of nationality. How many Russian coaches before Hiddink tried to educate the football player Sychev, so many ran into conflicts. And the Dutchman very quickly ruined everything. “A sociable, cheerful person came to our team, who does not force you to look up at him,” says Sychev. - And the atmosphere in the team almost immediately became liberated - it is very problematic for me to imagine such a situation with one of the Russian coaches. Gus played on trust - and we answered him. And if after the game it is allowed to drink two bottles of beer, then it will be so, and no one will burst into the room drunk at night. And this discipline is in everyday life, after all, it is transferred to training, and through them to games.
Hiddink's players can play worse or better - but we made sure that they are completely free from the complex of losers, which naturally developed from the experience of many years of failures. He, this complex, is so deeply ingrained in us that when, after the first loss to the Spaniards, the Dutchman began to talk about how “we made childish mistakes, lost not so much to an opponent as to ourselves,” we heard in his words all the minor intonations of numerous predecessors. Further - after the second defeat - arguments about the lack of experience should have followed, and after the third and always the last game - a piece from the eternally optimistic tragedy, especially if the opponents did not need this game and we did not lose it: this experience has been gained, and if only the homeland trust me to continue working with this growing team...
Jump over the bar
Motherland - she trusted, but the patriots deceived her every time. Yes, and they could not really not deceive. Having not jumped to the international podium, they returned to our championship and dissolved in it, like in a swamp. These are the coaches. And the players, on the contrary, took small-town revenge. Six years ago in Japan, still with a chance, the scorer Beschastnykh beat the Japanese goalkeeper, but missed the empty net. He said later that after such a failure he was almost going to quit football. But two weeks later, his Spartak had a cup match with the Chkalovets team from Novosibirsk. “I scored two goals there and gave a pass for a goal,” Vladimir recalled. - I gave autographs after the game and realized that I was still a football player. In the end, at the best you get to the World or European Championships once every two years, and the guys from Novosibirsk come across once a month on average. There is someone to break away.
Guus Hiddink sent the people after the Spaniards to break away on the Greeks, Swedes, and then the Dutch. And they did it! He himself has never been to Novosibirsk, and even hardly imagines where this city is located. (Although if he is there, he will instantly become one of his own.) He has a different bar, and there is a recipe for how to make people jump over it. With the Spaniards - yes, it didn’t work out, but the second time it didn’t work out already in the semi-finals of the European Championship! No, it's still a pity that the match for third place was canceled - I wanted, oh, how I wanted to "continue the banquet." Hiddink definitely deserved it.
Hiddink went to the Euro with a contract ending on June 30 - exactly on the day this issue of ours was released. In the prospect of prolonging cooperation, he only had "an agreement with the President of the RFU, Mr. Mutko." But for the quarter-finals with Holland, another Dutchman arrived to help Gus - his personal agent Kees van Nieuwenhuizen. He was appropriately dressed in red pants and moccasins. They have all the serious people dress up for work. Especially for signing a contract.
