"Dutch optimism is always good for a laugh"
Sunday, 13 June 2010
Algemeen
Dagblad
The Netherlands aren't very popular
yet among journalists in South Africa. During the first
training there were a large number of foreign journalists,
but in the days that followed it was very quiet around
Oranje.
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| According to France Football Wesley
Sneijder is not among the best 50 players in the
world |
At the press conference, Saturday,
there were some Danish, some Japanese and some German
reporters. But that was about it. In international media
few reckon with the Dutch doing well. Where every South
African daily or weekly are covered in pictures of Lionel
Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Steven Pienaar or even Landon
Donovan, Dutch players are a blind spot here.
The cover of the special World
Cup magazine Shoot, a conglomerate of five South
African newspapers, earlier this week showed the faces
of almost all international top players. There wasn't
a single Dutch player among them.
Nevill Ntysiso Khoza, one of Shoot's
reporters, quickly apologizes: "I must admit that
the people at the Shoot desk had noticed as well. I
guess they just forgot. Because let's be honest: I can
see Holland getting to the semifinals. Mark van Bommel,
Wesley Sneijder, Arjen Robben.... Those are players
you can show up with."
Not everyone agrees. One of them
is Belgian François Colin, the Flemish walking
talking football encyclopedia. He has been the conscience
of Belgian sports journalism for decades en reports
for the Standaard. "It's very optimistic to think
that this team is going to win it just like that. I
know the Dutch journalists don't think that way, but
the people in Holland seem to think so. In Belgium that
optimism is always good for a laugh. If Belgium go to
the World Cup we hope we can win a game and if we get
to the next round, well, we've won the Cup. And of course
the Dutch think Holland will just go and win it. Holland
and Belgium are complete opposites for that matter.
There's no in-between."
Brian Glanville, 79 years old,
and indeed a senior writer of the English magazine World
Soccer does consider Holland to be one of the favorites.
"Spain, Brazil and the Netherlands are the strongest
sides. Holland have three players of exceptional individual
class; Van Persie, Robben and Sneijder. All three can
decide a game. Few countries come close to that."
Belgian Colin doesn't agree: "There
was a reason why Sneijder and Robben had to go at Madrid.
They weren't considered good enough."
France Football last month published
a list of the 50 most remarkable football players in
the world. Sneijder wasn't even in it. Only two Dutch
players were. Robin van Persie was on place 16, right
after Kevin-Prince Boateng of Ghana. Arjen Robben -
Germany's best player according to Kicker, came in 41st
spot You don't count internationally Colin thinks.
"Holland have a great forward
line," English daily The Guardian writes. "But
with a feeble defense it remains to be seen whether
Holland can finally live up to the expectations."
Besides, the newspaper warns: "Sooner or later
they end up bickering anyway."
"I will not be very original
when I agree on that one," says Colin.
"Holland are rated higher
than Germany over here," says Kicker reporter Klemm.
"That's because of Arjen Robben, the best player
in the Bundesliga, but also because of Van der Vaart.
But the big question is whether Holland can live up
to those expectations."
But who will be World Champions?
Colin knows the answer : "Not Brazil, not England,
not Spain, but Portugal. It's time Ronaldo proves he
was the best player in the world in 2008. I believe
he held his bolt in Madrid this season to put it on
display in South Africa this summer."
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