voldemort

Hiddink again exhibited his great ability to work with minimal resources as a manager as he steered Russia to qualification for this summer's European Championships ahead of England.
A Dutch native, Hiddink revealed his fascination with the history and sheer enormity of Russia, and said he would be honoured to meet the country's president and see the Kremlin.
"Russia is a big country, a superpower, and of course to meet such a powerful leader as Putin is a big honour for any person, especially a foreigner like myself," Hiddink told Reuters. "It would be a great honour for me.
"So if he invites our team to the Kremlin it would be great. But we don't want to come empty-handed, we want to bring some (silverware) with us as if to say 'Hey, look we did well. We made your country proud'."
He was then informed that no previous Russian national side had received such an honour, but his response was one of a man high on confidence and sure of success: "Well, it means our team has a chance to be the first."
Putin did however grant the honour to Italian Giovanni Caprara, who guided the Russian women's volleyball team to their first world title in 16 years in 2006.
He is apparently not a great lover of football, so Hiddink may have to do more than just exceed expectations in order to be granted the honour, especially as Putin is due to step down in May, as the Russian constitution prohibits any president serving three consecutive terms.
With Euro 2008 just a few months away, he will be hoping to cause further upsets, as he did managing 2002 World Cup co-hosts South Korea, knocking out Italy and Spain, albeit under slightly controversial circumstances.
"The whole four weeks was like a dream," said Hiddink of the World Cup. "No one expected it. I'm very grateful to the people of South Korea not only for the way they treated me but how they supported the team for the entire tournament.
"Of course, it would be very difficult to repeat such a performance now with Russia, but nothing is impossible. You just have to believe in yourselves and not fear anybody."
Despite being obvious underdogs, Hiddink will fancy his chances of relative success, as he has never failed to guide a team into the knockout stages at a major international tournament.
"Of course, no one treats us as favourites but that's even better," declared the 61-year-old. "It suits me just fine. Actually, I prefer it that way. Then we can surprise a few people."



source:goal.com