Van Basten taking nothing for granted

WHILE WE Irish were fondly remembering that famous 1-0 win over England in Stuttgart on its 20th anniversary yesterday, the Dutch have been getting worked up about the fact that on Wednesday week two decades will have passed since they won their one and only major international title.

Ray Houghton's header aside, of course, Marco van Basten's stunning goal in the final still endures as the tournament's most magical moment and after Monday's rampaging defeat of World champions Italy, there are growing expectations back at home that the now 43-year-old national coach is about to deliver another continental crown.

Not surprisingly van Basten played down the significance of the win over Italy.

"It was a remarkable victory," he said, "but that match can't be made the benchmark all of a sudden. I've seen wonderful stuff that we will use to build upon but we can't suddenly be favourites on the basis of one good performance."

Given the number of teams who have started tournaments well down the years only to quickly come apart again, he's clearly got a point but what the Dutch are now is favourites to come out of the competition's toughest group and if they can capitalise on Monday's win then at least one of the World Cup finalists will be going home early.

And what is causing so much excitement amongst supporters as their team prepares to play France this evening is the manner of the victory in Bern where the Dutch not only inflicted Italy's worst defeat since 1970 but carved open Roberto Donadoni's defence with such regularity that the margin might easily have been more.

Traditionally, of course, the Dutch have been associated with a brand of attacking football that tended to yield goals but van Basten has surprised many since taking over as coach with the emphasis he has placed on defence. His team qualified for these finals having scored just 15 times in 12 games but conceded just five.

The shift in emphasis within the team did not impress everyone by any means and when they finished their campaign with a 1-0 win over Luxembourg and a 2-1 defeat by Belarus to wind up three points behind Romania in their group, there were quite a few commentators predicting that they would fare very poorly at the finals.

The team's build-up has been better with 16 goals scored in six warm-up games to four conceded, an improvement that is in part the result of a change in tactics from the more traditional Dutch 4-3-3 to the 4-2-3-1 system employed by Portugal's Luis Felipe Scolari. The change was adopted by van Basten after consulting with his senior players who believed it would enable him to get more out of the pool of talent available to him.

Also, Ruud van Nistelrooy's return to the side last autumn after some 18 months of self imposed exile, the result of a falling out with the manager, has clearly provided a significant boost.

Van Basten and van Nistelrooy have now made up although the former Manchester United man makes no secret of the fact that their relationship is "strictly professional". Still, the important thing is the striker is here and looked entirely committed against the Italians on Monday.

He described the team as being a "joy to be a part of," after the game, a suggestion perhaps that the sort of divisions that have dogged Dutch sides at previous tournaments are absent here.

The side benefited on Monday from the unlikely return to form of Khalid Boulharouz, a defender who has barely played in the last six months, was twice omitted by van Basten from his squads for this tournament and then, having received a late call-up as a replacement for injured striker Ryan Babel, rose to the challenge of dealing with Luca Toni.

Giovanni van Bronckhorst also revelled in his old role of left back and Edwin van der Sar chipped in with a couple of cracking saves while Rafael van der Vaart, Wesley Sneijder and Dirk Kuyt all succeeded in tormenting the Italian defence. With Arjen Robben and Klaas Jan Huntelaar still to return from injury there is clearly the potential for the team to build on their early success.

NETHERLANDS v FRANCE

MARCO VAN BASTEN must decide whether to change a winning side for what will be his 50th match in charge of the Dutch with Arjen Robben having recovered more quickly than expected from the groin strain that kept him out of the win over Italy.

However, France's manager Raymond Domenech says he is considering up to four changes to the side that played so poorly against Romania. With Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira both fit again, Nicolas Anelka and Jeremy Toulalan look set to be dropped. Domench is also considering ditching his full-backs Willy Sagnol and Eric Abidal. If so, Patrice Evra is sure to start.