Oranje flush away Robben scare

Monday, 7 June 2010

The first training on African soil was the start of a new phase for several reasons for the Dutch national football team. They can smell the World Cup now, so they flushed away the scare about Arjen Robben's injury with joking around on the greens grass in Johannesburg.

"Now that it seems that Arjen will join us next week we are all very relieved," said captain Giovanni van Bronckhorst.

In the meantime there was plenty of room for a joke. Especially Dirk Kuyt was the victim as he had to concede a 'panna' three times, once by a sheering Rafael van der Vaart.

But foremost the training session at 1741 meters altitude in Johannesburg was calm and relaxed. That also had a lot to do with adapting to the circumstances and the unexpected high temperatures. The bright blue skies and 23° Celsius weren't expected.

So Oranje spared their physiques and limited their first training to an introduction to the perfect pitch at Wits University and a stretched position play.

In between there was time for a joke. "Yeah, everyone was very upbeat," said Van Bronckhorst. "We all got a big scare on Saturday because of Robben's injury. When you then hear that it's not as bad as feared the next day, that's a great relief. We're a tight group and you want to keep everyone together as soon and as long as possible."

Those who are expected to start against Denmark stayed out for about an hour. The reserves had a go at a fanatic practice match after which they too went inside again. It's seven more days until Denmark!