Hiddink: Russia not afraid of Oranje

When he got back in the Russian hotel, Guus Hiddink enjoyed a late supper and went to bed. But the sleep wouldn’t come. He enjoyed a fist-thick cuban cigar on the balcony, the adrenaline racing through his body

Hiddink: “At some stage, it was four am. I couldn’t release the tension. But I loved it. Watching the stars, enjoying a red wine with a cigar. Then I turned my mobile phone on and a hailstorm of text messages came in. From Russia, Australia, South Korea, Europe, South America. I had to empty my inbox every 30 minutes… It seems we made an impression. That’s good.”

His players were on cloud nine as well. Captain Semak: “We are very grateful to Hiddink. He makes us work hard, very hard even, but it works. We get results and we play Dutch style. Attractive and forward oriented. And his influence on the team is huge. But I can’t see us win against Holland just like that. I think they are the best so far. But, we’ll have two teams with the will to attack. I think it will be a huge game.”

A typical example of Hiddink’s methods. During the open training some weeks ago Hiddink made his team attack the B-side. Hiddink would stand on the middle line, behind the defenders and he had forbidden them to go over the middle-line, back to their own half. “Hiddink said: you can defend till here. You can’t go back to your own half. If you get in trouble, play yourself out of it by going forward.”

This was something the Russians had never done. They are used to clustering around their own box and waiting for space to counter. Hiddink doesn’t want to see that ever again. He wants modern football, thinking forward, turning possession around and push up the park. The players “get” him now. Semshov: “The quarter finals is not a result as such. We want to go on. Afraid of Holland? Why would we? We play Dutch style football with the best Dutch manager ever. Why be afraid?”

The press conferences with Hiddink are always fun. When he appeared at the press conference after the Sweden game, the Swedish press gave him a spontaneous applause. “Will you become team manager of Sweden?”, was the first question…

The coming match against Holland is obviously special for the former Oranje manager (1994 – 1998). “I am not patriotic in the sense that my loyalty is in distress. It’s just sports. I don’t play for the flag or anything and I look forward facing Holland. I know basically every one of Oranje. With some lads I’ve worked even. So, it’s special. I am planning to become the traitor of the year.”

Holland is the favorite? Hiddink: “Of course. Holland is world class and much tougher than Sweden. With all due respect, but Sweden is predictable. Holland is everything but.”

Semshov is not impressed: “We have a lot of confidence because we have faith in Hiddink. A day for the match he tells us, guys you do what you want to do today. That trust is paid back by us in the match.”