With regard to the youth team, the phrase “change of generations” sounds especially menacing. Here it is not a gradual attraction of new players, but work from scratch. It is she in the Russian team that is now beginning.
Arriving in Holland is very helpful, and not even because of an hour and a half of good gaming practice. The Dutch attitude to the youth team can be put on display - so that everyone can watch. The thoughtful coach Fopp de Han, who led the national team to victory at the European Championships last summer, continues to build the team. He would probably be very surprised to find out how his Russian counterpart Viktor Losev led the team in a butt match with Portugal. A game without attackers, convulsive phone calls to Alexander Borodyuk ... I would like to call the circumstances of that failure an unfortunate misunderstanding, but months later the Russian “youth team” begins a new story with the same baggage.
However, the suspended status of the trainers contributed to the emancipation. On the very clean sheet, they applied a bold attacking scheme and several not yet too well-developed names: Ryazantsev, Rodenkov, Yarkin. In combination with the well-known Kontsedalov, D. Kombarov and Shishkin, these guys had a cool fifteen starting minutes. It turned out almost everything - the game in the pass, and pressure, and control over the ball. It was easy to be deceived in these minutes: wow, generation! But it seems so "wow!" met any new call, creating a dangerous effect of high expectations.
Further in the match, optimism was worth scooping only in fleeting episodes. The cunning Shishkin perfectly covers the ball with the body, the strong Nagumanov knows how to bump. But ... it's like with a rifle on a tank. After all, the Dutch are now at a different stage of evolution. She has something that we just haven’t thought of yet.
The wise Fopp de Hahn has a smart team. She does not force events, playing quite in an adult way. In the same way, today's leader of the Dutch championship PSV lures into the trap of rivals. The well-known strategy of a boa in the "fight" with the rabbit.
The author of two assists Ismael Aissati Gus Hiddink, being a PSV coach, let out in matches of the Champions League. Today, the puny playmaker with Moroccan roots is the leading player in the youth team. Both times, Aissati passed to another ethnic Moroccan, Bakkal. The gene pool of the Dutch team is rich, as are its game options. And the connection here is not metaphorical at all, but the most direct.
Russian youth played with a very strong opponent. It's great. Russia saw how to relate to the youth team. This is probably even more important than anything else. Hiddink, sitting on the podium, was very thoughtful and even sad. No, the diligence of the Russian guys could only please him. It's not about the players at all ...
Hiddink understands this too well.
Timur CRANES