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Poor display food for thought for De Haan
FC
Update
Friday 11 July 2008
The poor display of the Dutch Olympic
team yesterday against Belgium (1-0 win) was food for
thought for Olympic coach Foppe de Haan.
The 65-year-old Friesian says he's
a long way from making up his mind about the starting
lineup for Holland's first game against Nigeria on 7
August.
"It isn't good yet,"
De Haan said Thursday.
"But in the past two years
we have always managed to work things out and in the
end win two European Championships. So I am not overly
concerned. Still it's no guarantee."
Among other things De Haan was
unhappy about the interaction of his two strikers Gerald
Sibon and Roy Makaay.
"The Belgians closed down
the path to Sibon very well. Gerald is a player who
needs moving players around him. The idea is to start
with Sibon and Makaay, but that could also be Makaay
and Babel. I still have some time to see what's best."
But it's too early to write off
Sibon, De Haan says.
"Sibon is a player who needs
some time to settle. So you must give him that time.
But when we get this team to play football, it will
go with a swing."
De Haan was surprised by the poor
physical health of some players.
"Most have done their bit
during their holidays, but others have been flat on
their backs for a few weeks. That was the outcome of
the tests we did with the players, they weren't all
positive results. I partly based my selection policy
on those results," said the coach.
"For this tournament you must
be totally fit and healthy, otherwise you'll fall through
after five seconds," says the man who thinks Nigeria
will be their toughest opponent in the group.
"Nigeria are very strong physically.
We must arms ourselves against that. That's why it's
good that we first play Cameroon and Ivory Coast in
Hongkong. However I would have liked to play as South
American team as well."
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