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Guus Hiddink has been hailed over the last decade as a Dutch Master, working wonders at the last two World Cups with South Korea and Australia, respectively.Wednesday in Maribor, Slovenia, Hiddink's luck finally ran out as his Russian team was stunned by Slovenia 1-0, to advance after the two-leg UEFA playoff ended 2-2. Slovenia gets through on the basis of its away goal scored in the closing minutes Saturday in Moscow.
For Slovenia, it's the nation's first trip to the World Cup since 2002.
Slovenian striker Zlatko Dedič became an instant hero as he scored the game's only goal in the 44th minute, leaping in the air to poke his right foot onto the ball just inside the penalty area and firing it just inside the right post past Russian keeper Igor Akinfeev.
It proved to be a great day for players from the German club Bocum, as Dedic and Algerian goal-scoring hero Antar Yahia each punched their countries tickets to the World Cup with goals on Wednesday.
Russia ended the match down to nine players. Striker Aleksandr Kerzhakov was sent off in the 65th minute when he kicked prone Slovenia keeper Samir Handanovič. Later in the closing minutes Yuri Zhirov was shown the door for picking up his second yellow card of the match.
With Russia missing out on qualification, the question arises what will happen to Hiddink, who did step in as the interim coach of Chelsea earlier this season. His contract only runs through 2010, but it's hard to imagine he'll be bound to it with Russia failing to qualify. The deep pockets of Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, who's helped to personally pay for Hiddink to coach Russia, could be a factor.
Perhaps host South Africa, which has gone through a couple head coaches, might spring for the Dutch genius to coach its team in hopes it could replicate what Hiddink did with South Korea, when he lead the Red Devils to the semifinals on home soil in 2002.
In the other UEFA playoff qualifiers, Portugual, which played without injured Cristiano Ronaldo, managed to squeeze into its third-straight World Cup, beating Bosnia-Herzegovina 1-0 Wednesday to win the two-leg affair 2-0. Rual Meireles scored the lone goal for Portugal, which controlled most of the match.
Earlier Wednesday Greece qualified for its first World Cup since 1994, beating Ukraine 1-0 on a goal by Dimitrios Salpigidis in rainy Donetsk.
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