Dream on, Dick
Advocaat believes Holland can score seven past Sweden
AMSTERDAM: Unless Holland can beat Sweden by a seven-goal margin today, the inventors of the beautiful game will be absent from the 2018 World Cup Finals.
Having missed the cut for Euro 2016, Holland sit third in Group A and can make the playoffs only with a high-scoring win over second-placed Sweden after a poor start to their campaign.
Coach Dick Advocaat, who took over from Danny Blind four games ago, is in no mood to concede defeat however.
“7-0 is possible,” he claimed. “Sweden have just beaten Luxembourg 8-0, so why can’t we do the same to them?” he reasoned.
Veteran Bayern Munich winger Arjen Robben takes a more realistic line.
“It’s over,” he said. “Mathematically, it’s still possible of course, but we need a miracle.”
That miracle will have to be achieved without fading 33-yearold Wesley Sneijder, who has been a cornerstone of much of their past success but whose cur- rent form is deemed not good enough by Advocaat.
“Personally, I’d have liked him to be here,” said Robben, “but the decision is with the coach.”
Robben, Sneijder and Robin Van Persie led the way for Holland in their celebrated orange shirts, romping to the 2010 final in South Africa only to be narrowly beaten by Spain.
At the 2014 Brazil World Cup under Luis Van Gaal in 2014, they ripped Spain apart and made a fine run to the semi-finals and a penalty shootout defeat, this time by Lionel Messi’s Argentina, them selves now on the brink of disaster.
Whether or not the Dutch scrape into the playoffs, assistant coach Ruud Gullit has warned of a worrying trend that sees young Dutch players moving abroad, but then not playing first-team football. “That’s the biggest problem that we have,” Gullitt said ahead of the game.
“We warned players, young players, to stay in Holland and play first-team football. Because then, later on when you’re good enough, you will get to places anyway.”
Sweden can still win the group should France lose to Belarus and they themselves beat the Dutch.
7-0 is possible. Sweden have just beaten Luxembourg 8-0, so why can’t we do the same to them? Dick Advocaat