Oranje a place of refuge for Van der Vaart

Wednesday 25 March 2009

He is not of the grumpy type.

Watching Rafael van der Vaart on a spring night in Katwijk you see a careless boy with a smile on his face.

As if all the sportive set backs don't get to him.

"I am not the type of person to take these things home with me," Van der Vaart says.

"When I see my little boy toddling about the place I forget about all these things quickly."

That's a big contrast with his team mate Wesley Sneijder, whom you can read every bit of nuisance from his face.

Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, also on the bench for a while at Madrid, laughs a lot more often than he did a month ago,when he was starting to run out of patience.

Van der Vaart takes a different approach to life, more laid back.

"I am usually quite a happy fellow, upbeat," the midfielder says.

"But that doesn't mean these things don't affect me. Of course I feel bad about this situation. I try to gain some joy from the training sessions. One time that goes better than the other. The bad things I never know when I will get my chance."

Van der Vaart hardly plays in Santiago Bernabeu, and it' been that way since Juande Ramos took over from Bernd Schuster.

He played a total of 32 minutes under Ramos since Holland's last game against Tunisia, over a month ago.

He came off the bench twice: once in a league game and once in the Champions League.

"Far too little playing time" Van der Vaart feels.

"And just why I don't play I don't know either. The coach opts for others, that much is clear. But I don't get an explanation. No I don't ask for one. It's up to me to show why he should pick me."

The fact that Bert van Marwijk did name him for the upcoming World Cup qualification gams against Scotland and Macedonia meant a lot to him.

"I wasn't counting on it that I would be part of the squad, that seems only natural," Van der Vaart says.

"For that matter I am grateful to the coach. Would I have selected myself in a situation like this? Yes, I think so. I mean, all the other times I have played for Holland it didn't go so bad I believe."

Still, his position at Real Madrid will have consequences for his position with the Dutch national team.

Especially for the forward position competition is murderous.

"The performances of a player at his club play a part in my decisions, " Van Marwijk has said at an earlier stage.

So Van der Vaart will not be able to beat Sneijder, Van Persie, Kuyt, Robben and Afellay.

"I seems obvious that I will not start on Saturday. So that doesn't change for me. But it's still great to be here. A different environment, that can not do any harm."

Huntelaar proved that the tables can turn quickly.

Within a month the center forward transformed himself from failure to the crowd's favorite.

"I try to cling to that," Van der Vaart says.

"But at the same time Klaas is a very different player. He just puts one in the back of the net every week and there's no way the coach can ignore him. As a midfielder things are slightly more complicated."

Life is good in Spain, the country he had been dreaming about for such a long time.

He pads himself on the teinted cheeks with both hands: "Not that's not the problem, but it's not what it is about. In the end you just want to play. I am 26 and shouldn't be on the bench. That we have a nice place to live in Madrid doesn't mean that much at the moment."

It's too early to consider a transfer, only nine months after he left behind Hamburg.

"It's not that I have run out of patience, and that will not happen over the summer either. A lot can change at Madrid. I just want to succeed at Madrid. I will do everything to make that happen."