FanHouse Russia

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.

Guus Hiddink's Russia looked about ready to start calling a travel agent to book its arrangements for South Africa in June. The Russians held a comfortable 2-0 lead against Slovenia in Saturday's UEFA playoff in Moscow thanks to a pair of goals from Everton's Diniyar Bilyaletdinov.

To Slovenia's credit, the World Cup hopefuls didn't stop charging and its effort paid off when substitute Nejc Pecnik headed home a rebound from a shot by Robert Koren to make it finish 2-1. For Slovenia it was a crucial away goal as the two-leg playoff heads to Maribor on Wednesday.

Ah yes, it's a beautiful Saturday afternoon. I'm lounging around, checking email when all of a sudden a KHL press release pops up in my inbox with the latest posturing from them in their cold war with the NHL. All of a sudden, things are a bit chilly.

It's clear that these two organizations don't have a lot of love for each other, clearly not taking the Beatles' advice that 'all you need is love'. They have been fighting over the transfer of players for the past few months -- the same amount of time that the KHL has been an actual, existing organization. But remember, they have yet to actually play any hockey games. Nonetheless, they know who their main competition is when it comes to the top players and the KHL is refusing to back down to the Old Guard.

In the release that I received today by email, the KHL had sly course of action. The beginning of the headline reads "KHL Extending Moratorium on Transfer of Players from NHL..."

I thought to myself, 'wow, are they actually starting to get along?'

But when you assume things like I did, well, you know how that goes. The rest of the title told the story and I didn't even need to read the release itself. I had a good laugh when I saw the words "... Until First Violation by NHL" as the end of the title.

Clearly, this is a cold war that probably isn't going to end anytime soon -- at least not with little shots like that across the bow. If you're interested, the release in it's entirety is after the jump.