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Boulah is ready: "I don't need match
practice"
Thursday 13 May 2010
History repeats itself for Khalid
Boulahrouz. Just like in 2008, coming up to the European
Championships, he arrived in Hoenderloo for the first
training session without any match practice. It's been
a rotten year in Stuttgart and he seemed to be out of
the picture, but he says he feels ready for the World
Cup.
In 2008 Boulahrouz had hardly played
before the European Championships but much to everybody's
surprise bondscoach Marco van Basten took him along
to the tournament, and he was one of the stars in the
first group games against Italy and France. The fact
he had hardly played in the six months previous didn't
bother him. Boulah listened to what the coach told him
to do, eliminated his opponent en didn't do anything
stupid. No problem.
At his current club VfB Stuttgart
he has hardly played since the winter break. For a long
time his name wasn't on the list of the Oranje-squad.
But he still was invited for the first training session
in Hoenderloo on Monday. The fact that Van Marwijk hasn't
forgotten about him was a bigger boost for his confidence
than anything the Stuttgart coaches (Babbel and Gross)
have done for him over the past season.
The 28-year-old has only one thing
on his mind: kick ass at the World Cup. He doesn't want
to talk about his tough time at Stuttgart. "There's
no point in talking about that. I want to forget about
the past six months as quickly as possible and show
what I am capable of for Holland. Of course there have
been moments I thought I should forget about the World
Cup, as I wasn't playing. But the coach knows what I
can do for him. I am Boulah, he knows my qualities."
He doesn't need match practice,
he emphasizes. "At Stuttgart no one had paid much
attention to me for 3½ months. But away to Bayern
Munich they needed someone to play against Ribery. They
picked me and it went well. No problem. And indeed,
coming up to the European Championships I lacked match
practice as well."
According to Boulahrouz it's all
a matter of character and approach. "Every player
has his basic qualities. When you haven't played for
some time you have to be strong enough mentally to find
back to these qualities instantly. I can do that and
I am trying to show Van Marwijk just that during these
training days in Hoenderloo. I don't know whether it
will be enough," he says. "You'll have to
ask the coach. He's the man who makes the decision."
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