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Dutch
combination suits Stam
Jaap Stam believes the Netherlands' talented crop of
youngsters can help his own generation of Dutch players to win
their first major tournament at EURO 2004 this summer.
Tuesday,
17 February 2004
The
32-year old defender, who is expected to retire from
international football after the competition along with the
likes of Frank de Boer, Phillip Cocu and Marc Overmars, knows
that this is realistically their last chance to become
national heroes.
And Stam believes this overwhelming desire to succeed, coupled
with the exciting group of young players also at Dick
Advocaat's disposal, could be enough to help the Netherlands
finally repeat their memorable success at the 1988 European
Championship, the country's only major trophy.
"The fact that it will be the last chance for a lot of
this squad will have a major bearing on how we do," Stam
told uefa.com. "The talent has always been there with
this group of players but in truth we have underachieved. I
know that those of us who won't be around for the 2006 World
Cup will be very determined to prove people wrong by winning
this competition. I believe we are still good enough - it's
our final chance to prove it.
"As for the new group of footballers coming through - I
think they are going to be another excellent generation. Boys
like Wesley Sneijder, Rafael van der Vaart and Arjen Robben
are the future of Dutch football and the rest of Europe will
see how good they are this summer. The future looks very
bright."
Advocaat's side begin their preparations for Portugal this
week when they entertain World Cup quarter-finalists the
United States at the Amsterdam ArenA. It is the first time
they have met as a squad since overcoming Scotland in the EURO
2004 play-offs and Stam believes it will be the ideal way for
them to get back into international action.
"I think the United States will provide us with a hard
test on Wednesday," he said. "The Dutch federation
has arranged some tough friendlies - our next two are against
France and Greece - and that is just what we need. It might do
more harm than good if we gave ourselves easy games ahead of
EURO 2004. At the European Championship there will be 16 top
teams, so to have five difficult warm-up games is great
preparation."
Stam is convinced that all of the best Dutch players will get
a fair crack of the whip in the forthcoming friendlies, thanks
to Advocaat's substitutions policy. "What Dick Advocaat
prefers to do is make just three or four changes at most, but
use different substitutions in different friendlies," he
said. "I think that is the best balance because the
first-choice team gets a lot of practise together, the fringe
players get a longer chance to impress, and the coach can see
new combinations develop too.
"As for our hopes at EURO 2004 - as always I think the
Netherlands have a good chance," he added. "On paper
we still have a squad that is good enough win the tournament
but as we've found out in the past, that doesn't count for
anything when the matches begin. We need to find our form at
the right time and if we can do that in Portugal I'd like to
think that we are good enough to be champions." -
Adrian Clarke
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