Van Marwijk: "You must start believing in that title"

Saturday, 5 June 2010

To be at the helm of the nation when worldwide so many eyes are looking at the World Cup; Bert van Marwijk awaits a beautiful task in the coming weeks. An interview.

- Your first World Cup. What are your expectations?

"I visited the World Cup in Germany, with Feyenoord I won the UEFA Cup and I have been in the Champions League. But the media attention for this tournament will be even bigger. Being together with a team for such a long period is new to me. It's one of the reasons I am so happy to have Frank de Boer and Phillip Cocu by my side. They do have the experience of big tournaments."

- All is taken care of...?

"All practical things are taken care of, but you can't plan everything ahead. And perhaps it is only better that way. There will be boredom, there will be conflict. And that's not only bad, it can make you stronger. The atmosphere that we provide as a staff is key to that, I think. But the players do know us by now."

- How important is Dick Voorn?

"We work with professionals, on every aspect. But Dick is my confidant. Very important. With that I also mean: he easily establishes contact with the players and he knows very well what he should and shouldn't tell me. He is a soundboard, he's out there on the training ground and makes a lot of analyses."

- Do you ever dream of wonderful result at the World Cup?

"You mean like I did in my childhood? Well, there have been brief moments where I thought that would be too good to be true. And then there's these moments where you get very enthusiastic, like when you're talking about the World Cup with your staff. We'd say: 'It has to be possible'. Stuff like that. But most of all you have to be realistic."

- That realism is about to come?

"When you don't bring across a sense that it's possible, then you know for certain that you will not be the one. But we have shown that we can beat anybody. You must start believing in that title. But I'm not the type of person who would say: 'I feel something beautiful lies ahead, lads'. Before you know it you might be on your way back home. Yet there's nothing wrong with healthy ambition, an attitude of 'let's have it, we are capable of a thing or two'. Yet without overdoing anything."

- Do you enjoy your job?

"I do this with a tremendous amount of pleasure. And South-Africa is an enormous challenge. To be allowed to experience a World Cup down there! We're going. We've qualified. That's great! But we also want to show a thing or two there."