Flying Dutchmen Plan Raid on Fortress Serbia & Montenegro
June 11, 2006
The two sides will be battling for vital points in their rightly-dubbed "group of death" that also includes two-time World Cup winners Argentina and this year's African Nations runners-up, Ivory Coast -- also the continent's strongest team in Germany.
Winning the group will ensure a much easier passage to the quarter-finals and will likely mean avoiding Brazil.
Dutch coach Marco van Basten, who won the European championship title in 1988 as a player, but is bidding to deliver the Dutch their first ever World Cup after two losing appearances in the 1974 and 1978 finals, has a wealth of attacking options from which to pick.
They include Chelsea's Arjen Robben, Feyenoord's Dirk Kuyt, Arsenal's Robin van Persie and Ruud van Nistlerooy, a feared goal scorer with something to prove given his current state of limbo at Manchester United after falling out with Alex Ferguson.
With van Basten employing a 4-3-3 system with two wingers, the onus will be on the forwards to break down Serbia and Montenegro's teak-tough defense.
Montenegro might just have voted for independence from larger cousin Serbia, but their defense was united enough to remarkably leak only one goal in 10 qualifying games, that in a 1-1 draw with Spain.
But they too recognize that they will have their work cut out to contain the Dutch, who had the best points-per-game average in qualifying of all of the 32 nations taking part in the World Cup -- despite being grouped with the Czech Republic, Romania, Finland and Macedonia in their qualifiers.
Legend van Basten remains grounded as team flies
"I hope that in effect our performances (in Germany) in 1974 and 1988 are not merely coincidental," said van Basten, who took over the reins from Dick Advocaat following Euro 2004 when the Dutch went out in the semi-finals.
"Instead I would like us to rubberstamp the idea that we feel good when we play in Germany."
"We should benefit from playing so close to home," van Basten said as 15,000 fans turned out to watch the first public Dutch training session in Freiburg on Thursday.
"We sense this enthusiasm. It is now for the players to take that onto the pitch," said the coach who raised some eyebrows before the tournament when he ditched several of the old guard such as midfielders Clarence Seedorf and Edgar Davids, who were often linked with dressing room dissent.
Winger Robben looking no further than opening game
Robben admitted that Group C was probably the toughest of the first stage and that a moment's hesitation could prove fatal in deciding who progressed to the second round.
"I don't really want to think about the tournament as a whole at the moment but rather focus on the first match against Serbia-Montenegro," said Robben. "They are a solid side with classy individuals. But we also have a squad packed with quality. We think together, we play really tightly and I am very confident."
"The Dutch have players who can take us a long way in the tournament," Robben added. "However we have to stay alert. Because in our group it may be the merest thing that makes the difference. It will be a shame to play well but to lose everything because of a slip of concentration."
Serb defender Goran Gavrancic, who plays for Dynamo Kiev, said: "It is realistic that we can record a good result against the Netherlands. We have the best defense in the qualifiers, and the Netherlands has the best attack. We want to stop them showing it against us."