Guus Hiddink is currently the coach of the Russian soccer team. This past week, Guus Hiddink maintained his status as perhaps the greatest coach of the soccer world as he got the unheralded Russians through to the Quarterfinals at the European Championships (aka Euro 2008). Not only did he get the Russians through, they were simply relentless and attacked the entire game as they beat Sweden 2-0 (though it could have easily been 5-0 by my count).
I realize that most Americans may not know who Guus Hiddink is, so let's just go through his resume briefly:
1998 World Cup - taking the Netherlands to the semifinals
2002 World Cup - taking South Korea, a team that had never won a World Cup game, to the semifinals
2006 World Cup - taking Australia to the 2nd round at the World Cup (and possibly further had the refs not screwed up a call against eventual champions Italy)
Basically, Guus Hiddink does not fail. I really enjoyed this explanation by Grant Wahl of SI.com on the greatness of Guus Hiddink:
"Hiddink has mastered how to motivate players in short-term tournaments, but he also knows how to build teams over the longer haul, identifying talent (especially young talent), keeping one or two older players for leadership and experience and installing a balls-out attacking style. Bottom line: the man gets results when it counts"
As further evidence of Hiddink's impeccable resume and the fact that he does not fail, he has:
-a museum in his hometown honoring him, called the Guuseum
-honorary South Korean citizenship
-free flights for life with Korean Airlines
If only one day Hiddink could coach the US Soccer team!
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