Guus Hiddink, center, added a few new names to the list of battle-tested fighters compiled for Europe’s championship
Photo: Kirill Tulin
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Hiddink Headed for Europe
Chief coach of Russia’s football squad Guus Hiddink named yesterday 25 candidates to the Euro 2008 championships that start June 7. Two of them will be crossed out of the final list to be announced May 28.
At first sight, the list of candidates that Guus Hiddink announced in the Football House yesterday appears rather intriguing. Indeed, it sets forth three pure debutants – Alexander Pavlenko of Spartak, Renat Yanbaev of Lokomotive and Oleg Ivanov of Krylia Sovetov have never played for the national squad. Two more players, Roman Shirokov of Zenit and Roman Adamov of Moskva, were summoned to the team this year and played only in the friendly match with Romania, which was lost 0-3.
But there is no sensation in the list. The coach picked out nearly all players of the team in strength of the qualifying happy-end, including disqualified leader Andrei Arshavin, who won’t play against Spain on June 10 and Sweden on June 18.
Of all players, who had done a lot to advance Russia to Euro 2008, only forward Alexander Kerzhakov couldn’t be found in the list despite that he played in nine games at the qualifying level and kicked six goals during them. Hiddink said he preferred forwards playing at flanks and Kerzhakov doesn’t fit the pattern.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of May 15, 2008
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