Dutch coach out to avoid tendency to self-destruct

JOHANNESBURG (AP):

One game away from a World Cup final, the Dutch are hoping that their notorious tendency to self destruct does not come back to haunt them.

After five World Cup wins in a row, including a memorable 2-1 quarter-final triumph over five-time champions Brazil, the Dutch have an impressive record of results and are strong favourites to beat Uruguay in Cape Town tomorrow. But the team is well short of its best form, and coach Bert van Marwijk says the Dutch have a history of thinking too far ahead.

"We have witnessed it before in the past," he said. "Think about two years ago in Austria and Switzerland. We beat Italy and France and everybody already thought we would become European champions.

"But we didn't even survive the quarter-finals because we thought that we were already there. That's what I've tried to make clear, that this has to be different. Until now, the players have shown that they've picked that up very well but this will be another important test."

Van persie provides boost

The Dutch were boosted yesterday when main striker Robin van Persie was declared fit to face the Uruguayans after a scan revealed his left elbow injury was not as bad as first feared.

With defender Joris Mathijsen also available again after a knee injury, the Dutch no longer have any injury worries ,even though midfielder Nigel de Jong and defender Gregory van der Wiel are ruled out of the game through suspension.

"Everybody else is fit and available," said Dutch team spokeswoman Monique Kessels. "Van Persie trained, but not with the group, so that he did not have any physical contact with the other players. Mathijsen also trained on his own but later joined in with the others."

The encouraging injury news allows Van Marwijk to maintain his policy of making as few changes as possible to a team which has an impressive sequence of results.

The Dutch are unbeaten in 24 games going back to a 2-1 friendly loss at home to Australia in September 2008, and that defeat happened when they played the entire second half with 10 men after goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg was sent off for a professional foul.

Heading into this World Cup, they outplayed Ghana 4-1 and thrashed Hungary 6-1 in warm-up games. But they have not repeated that sparkling football in South Africa, despite the consistent results, and Van Marwijk is not letting his players assume that are going to beat underdog, Uruguay, and reach the final.

The Dutch have gained a reputation of being unable to stay strong all the way through competitions, losing in two World Cup finals in the 1970s when they played arguably the best football around. Despite winning the European Championship title in 1988 for their only international success, they have since reached three semi-finals and two quarter-finals.

Van Marwijk has labelled Uruguay as "fighters and survivors", not qualities traditionally associated with Dutch teams.

Dutch confidence can be fragile if things do not go so well on the field and if they struggle to break down Uruguay's well organised midfield and defence at Green Point Stadium tomorrow, there could be the sort of fallouts which have damaged Dutch teams of the past.