World Cup Betting: Hiddink's next move

Teams / Jonathan Wilson / 04 March 2010 / Leave a comment Free £25 Bet

Guus Hiddink was in charge of Russia for the last time on Wednesday night

Even though it's yet to be officially confirmed, Guus Hiddink is likely to be in charge of the Ivory Coast at the World Cup. Jonathan Wilson tells us why he's the obvious choice.

"Hiddink lifted the mood of gloom and tension that used to hang over
Russian training so there is reason to believe he can do the same with
Ivory Coast. Crucially, he has the backing of Didier Drogba the eldest of the golden generation and somebody whose support should help spare Hiddink the meddling of the
Ivorian FA."

Last night, Guus Hiddink took charge of his final game as Russia coach in a drab 1-1 draw away to Hungary, an unobtrusive exit for a man who has so changed the status of football in the country. At the same time, Ivory Coast were losing a friendly 2-0 to South Korea at Loftus Road, in what might be their last game before Hiddink takes over as
coach.

It is easy so see why the Ivorians are so keen to appoint a man who, in international football at least, can be judged a success wherever he has gone. His critics point out that he has never won a major trophy in international football; more realistic is to point out that major tournaments come up only every other year and that, having left
the Netherlands, he has never led a country who would realistically expect to win anything on the world stage. His schtick, rather, has been to take underperforming nations with potential and take them as far as they ever dreamed they could achieve.

The complaints about the refereeing in the 2002 World Cup are legitimate, of course, but even had South Korea gone out to Italy in the second round, the style of football they played would have meant they had exited with honour. They were quick, moved the ball at pace and were tactically flexible. Those are the hallmarks of the Dutch game, but Hiddink had found a way to transplant them into a very different football culture.

It was a similar story with Australia four years later, as Hiddink took a country that had failed to qualify in 36 years, and led them to the second round against Italy where this time, they went out to a late penalty. He may have failed to qualify Russia for 2010, but he gave the country back their pride with sensational performances against
Sweden and the Netherlands in Euro 2008.

Broken down, none of Hiddink's hallmarks sounds that difficult: confidence, fitness, tactics. But it is hard to think of another coach who has been a master of all three. Even more astonishing is the fact that while he had a three-month training camp to prepare South Korea, with both Australia and Russia he was effectively working his magic on
the hoof - which perhaps explains Russia's stuttering form in the qualifiers for both Euro 2008 and the World Cup.

Even at Chelsea, where players had complained of a lack of intensity in training under Luiz Felipe Scolari, Hiddink was somehow able to instil fitness mid-season, which involves treading an extremely fine line. It is all very well to push players to the limit in pre-season, but do it when the games are coming twice a week and there is a serious danger of staleness - something Barcelona have perhaps suffered in recent weeks as they tried to take advantage of their Copa del Rey exit to prepare themselves physically for the season's final push.

As a large country with a realistic expectation of success that - the Euro 2008 semi-finals excepted - has never been fulfilled, Turkey looks another ideal destination for Hiddink come August, but even more enticing is the thought of him at a World Cup with Ivory Coast ([1.87] to make it through the group).

Here the issue is even more pressing that it was in Australia or Russia; this is not just a nation demanding of success, but one that knows its best chance of achieving it is with this generation of players. Vahid Halilhodzic, who was sacked as coach last week,
admitted that pressure had been one of the main reasons for his side's underperformance at the Cup of Nations.

Hiddink lifted the mood of gloom and tension that used to hang over Russian training so there is reason to believe he can do the same with Ivory Coast. Crucially, he has the backing of Didier Drogba ([44.0] to be top scorer at the World Cup), the eldest of the golden generation and somebody whose support should help spare Hiddink the meddling of the Ivorian FA. After Ivory Coast's performances in Angola, it seemed
Ghana ([2.24] to make the last 16) were the only African qualifier with a chance of making any sort of impression in the World Cup; with Hiddink, the Elephants could become very interesting indeed.