Van Basten praises 'improving' Sunderland

Tuesday 04 August 2008

Sunderland's showpiece game against Ajax boasted two of the greatest names of European football on their respective benches – Roy Keane and Marco Van Basten.

For Dutch goalscoring legend Van Basten, it was a first visit to the Stadium of Light, and a productive afternoon as his side carved out a narrow 1-0 victory.

He was the first to admit that Sunderland produced a real test for his side, and was delighted to see his defence put under pressure, especially in the second half when the home side dominated.

"We have a new defence which has not played much together, and I'm glad that they were able to experience that," he said.

"The clean sheet will help them with their confidence.

"I think we can be happy with the result. We know Sunderland are a club with a great history, a club that are improving, and we knew they would provide the sort of test they did."

Van Basten is currently in the process of building a new side which he hopes will rival the great Ajax teams of the past, and saw yesterday's encounter as part of their education in facing English sides in Europe in the future.

He said: "Sunderland are a physically strong side and they have a few good players, but I thought we controlled them pretty well.

"English teams play in a physical way, there's no doubting that, and the way to counter that style is to focus even more on playing your football, and that's what we tried to do.

"It's what you always have to do when you come up against teams more physical than you.

"That is the way we have a chance against English teams – by really focusing on your football because you know English teams' strength will be in their favour.

"In pre-season it is important that your players get that message – that you play football.

"We are still a young team and we are learning with each match, and we learned with this one too."

The game was won by a goal from striker Klaas van Huntelaar – easily Ajax's hottest property and a forward who leading English clubs have been tracking for some time.

But Van Basten plans to keep him away from the cash-laden English clubs.

"He is staying at Ajax," he smiled. "They have no chance of taking him."