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"The intellectualisation
of football has
always foundered
on a simple problem-
-the players. Doing
all your most
rewarding thinking
with your feet seems
to dull the philo-
sophical impulse.
Unless, of course,
you are Dutch.
According to legend,
Europeans played
a moronic, muscular
version of the world's
game, until Holland
proclaimed its vision
of total football in the
1974 World Cup,
and enlightenment
dawned."

From:
Brilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Football
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Coach and players not unhappy with draw

Friday 04 December 2009

The Dutch national team were handed a relatively easy draw for the 2010 World Cup Finals in South Africa.

In group E they will meet Denmark, Japan and Cameroon, starting the campaign to qualify for the last 16 on 14 June (13h30) in Johannesburg against Denmark.

Four Eredivisie players are currently part of the Danish squad: Dennis Rommedahl, Jon Dahl Tomasson, Simon Poulsen and Michael Silberbauer.

The other two opponents host one Eredivisie player each.

Keisuke Honda of VVV Venlo will be in South Africa with Japan, which Van Marwijk's team will meet on 19 June (13h30) in Durban.

Japan and Holland met last September when Holland beat the Asians 3-0 in Enschede.

Ajax-midfielder Eyong Enoh is a member of the squad of Cameroon who Holland will encounter on 24 June (20h30) in Capetown.

So far Holland and Cameroon have met twice. In 1998, while preparing for the World Cup in France there was 0-0 draw, and on the way to the 2006 World Cup in Germany a Dutch team led by Marco van Basten beat the Africans 1-0.

In advance people in the Netherlands feared they might yet again be drawn into a group of death, as they were for the last two big tournaments, but Giovanni van Bronckhorst wasn't too worried about the the fate of his team this time.

"It's a good group, but opponents like Denmark, Japan and Cameroon should not be underestimated. Lets not get carried away. We'll have to make sure we get through the group stage first," the captain, who will be glad to meet some current and former team mates, such as Jon Dahl Tomasson with whom he know plays at Feyenoord.

"And of course I know Samuel Eto'o from my days at Barcelona."

Van Bronckhorst did not want to look beyond the group stage. "But if we do progress we'll be up against a team from the group of Italy. Therefor it could be important to finish first in the group in order to avoid the World Champions in the next round."

Rafael van der Vaart thinks Holland are favorites to do so: "I don't know much about Japan, but we should be able to defeat them. It's a tough group in which we are the clear favorites."

Holland boss Bert Van Marwijk spoke of a dangerous group. "It's dangerous yes, even though it looks simple at first glance. People will be inclined to think that we'll progress without effort. But it's not that easy. Let's not consider this a done deal too early."

"Denmark won a qualifying group with Portugal, Hungary and Sweden. How can you underestimate them? We recently played Japan and the 3-0 result was more than we deserved, they're a dangerous opponent. And I consider Cameroon to be among the three strongest countries in Africa."

 

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