Brekkie Crumbs (Notes from the NewsRadio Breakfast team) for Thursday November 19th
Debbie - Sport: …
Who’d have thought when Guus Hiddink departed the Socceroos for greener pastures at the end of the last World Cup campaign that we’d be going to the next World Cup finals and the Dutch Master would miss out?
Hiddink’s Russian team were beaten this morning by Slovenia in Maribo in a European playoff.
Russia had missed direct qualification when they finished second in their qualifying group behind Germany. But, like other group runners up in Europe, they got a second bite of the cherry. They had a playoff over two legs against Slovenia — for which they were hot favourites. They won 2-1 in Russia on the weekend, but lost this morning 1-nil. That meant it was 2-2 on aggregate, but Slovenia had an away goal and Russia didn’t. Net result = Russia gone-ski.
Wonder how long before the rumours start that Hiddink might bump Pim Verbeek out of the Socceroos gig before South Africa 2010?
Sure, Verbeek’s got us there, but he seems to have some entrenched critics in the Australian media. I’m not one of them, by the way. I think he deserves more respect than he’s been getting. Nevertheless the prospect of Guus without a guernsey for a World Cup will probably have a few coaches looking over their shoulders.
Earlier this year, I would’ve thought the first cab off the rumour rank would be that he’d go back to Chelsea in the English Premier League, but Fabio Capello has the Blues top of the table and the Italian is one of the few in the world who matches Hiddink in terms of managerial clout.
Actually, here’s a random, off the cuff prediction.
What about Hiddink for France? Given the trouble France had even qualifying (they got taken to extra time by the Republic of Ireland this morning) the immensely unpopular and apparently barely competent Raymond Domenech has to be on borrowed time. Last week, he and the French team turned up at the Paris Masters tennis. When the big screen showed Domenech in the crowd, the stadium erupted with booing and hissing.
By the way, there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth this morning in the NewsRadio office — and the odd bewildered cry of “you’re kidding!” — when the coverage of the World Cup qualifier between Greece and Ukraine finished. Given that the France v Ireland and Ukraine v Russia matches were about to kick-off, it was something of an anti-climax when ESPN crossed to their coverage of a women’s billiards championship in the US.
I’m all for women’s sport getting a fair crack of the whip, but …. aarrrghhhh!!!!!!
