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Originally Posted by Crapshoot
No offense intended - its just one of the explanations I've heard for Dutch strife in the past, not there are any shortage of reasons.  It just seems perverse to leave the guy who's probably the second best Dutch midfielder (after Van Der Vaart) instead of adapting him to your system. Also, you know more than me on this, but Seedorf did get his start at Ajax and was pretty good there - moreover, Van Basten (from all the reports I read) has shifted away from "Dutch" football to a more defensive system. Again, I'm curious as much as anything. |
Sorry for the use of "bullshit", but it applies to anyone who thinks racism is the reason for the non-selection of Seedorf. It wasn't ment to you personally, but it's getting annoying how that keeps coming up. Jari Rantanen's Shorts post above is dead on, Seedorf has some myths around his performance and this national coach decided to avoid the trouble and keep Seedorf out. In the end, with guys like Van der Vaart, Cocu, Van Bommel, Sneijder, Landzaat and Maduro at his disposal, it's easier to ignore Seedorf and leave Davids out.
Your assesment of Van Basten's style is right. This dutch team didn't use the score-more-goals mentality in the qualification round, it used the allow-less-goals mentality. For the finals, he's again employing a more defensive version of the "Dutch" football, however, it will still be close, with three midfielders rotating as assistance to the three attackers. And the three attackers will be two traditional wingers (Robben, Van Persie) and a classic goalscorer (Van Nistelrooij). From what I've seen, there isn't much different from past seasons, except for the absence of a playmaker behind the striker. But to be realistic, we don't have a world class player to play that role and since Johan Cruijff retiredin the early 80's, only Dennis Bergkamp was able to play there.