Otto Rehhagel has certainly earned the title of "King Otto" with the the job he has done with the Greek national side guiding them to the Euro 2004 title and also since he took over in August 2001 hauling them from 61st position in the FIFA world rankings to a current 8th spot.
The 69-year-old Essen-born German has held the Greek coaching position longer than anyone else and his current contract will keep him there until the summer of 2010, after the World Cup finals.
A shrewd motivator, he has forced a number of top teams in the world to succumb to his controlled offense and defensive tactics. He has also completely turned around the previous Greek mentality of disorganization.
“I want Greece to be up there competing for the title, just as we did four years ago in Portugal,” Rehhagel said in a recent interview with the Russian sports newspaper Sport-Express.
“We will work hard to achieve our goals. We have to look at every match separately, starting with Sweden,” he said.
Greece also has Russia and Spain in its group.
After an embarrassing loss to Turkey at home last year in the Euro 2008 qualifiers, there were some in Greece who criticized Rehhagel for keeping faith with the same veteran players.
But he continues to believe in them and since that defeat they have produced some excellent results.
And the players believe in Rehhagel.
After a playing career in which he earned a reputation as a tough defender, he began his life in coaching in 1972 with FC Saarbrucken and after one season joined Kickers Offenbach where he stayed until 1975.
Rehhagel had a four-month spell with Werder Bremen in 1976 and then joined Borussia Dortmund where he continued until 1978.
During the 1978-1979 season he coached Arminia Bielefeld, in the 1979-1980 season he was with Fortuna Dusseldorf which won the German Cup and from 1981 to 1995 he again coached Werder Bremen where in 1992 he led the team to the now defunct Cup Winners Cup title in addition to two Bundesliga championships (1988 and 1993) and two German Cups (1991 and 1994).
He closed out his club coaching career with Bayern Munich from 1995 to 1996 and FC Kaiserslautern from 1996 to 2000 where in 1998 the team won the Bundesliga crown.
The highlight of his coaching career with the Greeks, without a doubt, was winning the Euro 2004 trophy.
To date Rehhagel has a record of 43 wins, 16 draws and 19 defeats as manager of Greece.
Hong Kong-based cricket team Hung See this weekend found success in their matches in Taiwan, even if none of the results went their way. Hung See played the Chairman’s XI on Saturday morning, the Daredevils that afternoon and PCCT yesterday, with all three home teams winning. The team for Chinese players at the Happy Valley-based Craigengower Cricket Club sends teams on tour to “spread the game of cricket.” This weekend was Hung See’s second trip to Taiwan after visiting Tainan in 2016. “The club has been traveling to all parts of the world since 1982 and the annual tradition continues [with the Taiwan
‘TOUGH TO BREATHE’: Tunisian three-time Grand Slam finalist Ons Jabeur suffered an asthma attack in her 7-5, 6-3 victory over Colombia’s Camila Osorio Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday cruised into the second round of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while Iga Swiatek romped into a third-round women’s singles showdown with Emma Raducanu and Taylor Fritz was just as emphatic in his pursuit of a maiden Grand Slam title. Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, the third seeds, defeated Slovakia’s Tereza Mihalikova and Olivia Nicholls of Britain 7-5, 6-2 in 90 minutes in Melbourne. Ostapenko and Hsieh — who won the women’s doubles and mixed doubles at the Australian Open last year — hit 25 winners and converted five of nine break points to set
HARD TO SAY GOODBYE: After Coco Gauff dispatched Belinda Bencic in the fourth round, she wrote ‘RIP TikTok USA’ and drew a broken heart on a television camera lens Defending champion Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while compatriot Chan Hao-ching on Saturday dominated her opponents in the second round, as world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka swept into the quarter-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia toppled Hungary’s Timea Babos and Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US 6-4, 6-3, hitting 24 winners and converting three of seven break points in 1 hour, 18 minutes at 1573 Arena. Although rivals at last year’s Australian Open — where Hsieh and Belgium’s Elise Mertens beat Ostapenko and Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok 6-1, 7-5
Dubbed a “motorway for cyclists” where avid amateurs can chase Tadej Pogacar up mountains teeming with the highest concentration of professional cyclists per square kilometer in the world, Spain’s Costa Blanca has forged a new reputation for itself in the past few years. Long known as the ideal summer destination for those in search of sun, sea and sand, the stretch of coast between Valencia and Alicante now has a winter vocation too. During the season break in December and January, the region experiences an invasion of cyclists. Star names such as three-time Tour de France winner Pogacar, Remco Evenepoel and Julian Alaphilippe
RSS