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Van Marwijk hopes for serious test
Wednesday 12 August 2009
Both Holland and England have won
all of their seven World Cup qualifiers so far.
But it remains to be seen whether
tonight's friendly in the Amsterdam Arena will be a
game of top quality.
Most players lack match practice
as for the majority of them the league hasn't even started
yet.
Bondscoach Bert van Marwijk
emphasized after the last training session in the Arena
that his team will take the game very serious.
"But my team is not as strong
yet as they were two months ago when we played some
excellent games against Iceland and Norway,
he realized.
"In England and Spain the
league season hasn't started yet, so you can not expect
the players to be at their best already. Do I know when
my players will be in top shape again? Hopefully in
June, because that is when the World Cup starts."
The friendly against England is
the start of a season for the Dutch national team with
games of which the result will be of no importance.
Holland have one game left against
Scotland in their qualification campaign, but they are
already qualified for the finals in South Africa.
The rest of the preparations consists
of only friendly games.
"But that doesn't have to
be a disadvantage," says Van Marwijk.
"Because my players have so
far shown that they can motivate themselves for every
game."
It helps that Van Marwijk has good
alternatives for every position in his team.
Competition among the players has
increased over the last year and it's because of that
that players don't easily waive an invitation for a
friendly.
Apart from that all players realize
that it's very important that they get a lot of playing
time at their clubs.
Especially for those at Real Madrid
that is a very important thing at the moment.
Van Marwijk has to do without the
injured Mark van Bommel and Giovanni van Bronckhorst.
The latter will most likely be
replaced by Edson Braafheid.
Stijn Schaars would have been a
logical replacement for Van Bommel, but the AZ-captain
was carried off the pitch with a knee injury on Friday
and only resumed training yesterday.
It's unsure whether Van Marwijk
will take any risks with the midfielder.
Besides Demy de Zeeuw and David
Mendes da Silva can also replace Van Bommel.
Van Marwijk has all his top class
forwards at his disposal against the English.
He thought Klaas-Jan Huntelaar
and Rafael van der Vaart left a very eager impression
during training but he also realized that the duo has
hardly played a game in recent weeks.
A forward line of Robin van Persie,
Wesley Sneijder, Dirk Kuyt and Arjen Robben therefore
seems more likely.
Have
a look at the head-to-head record.
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