Marwijk: Now Who’s Laughing?
Netherlands coach Bert van Marwijk said on Friday in the quarterfinal victory over Brazil will silence those who laugh at his prediction that the team “Oranje” will be able to win the World Cup.
“When I was appointed, I let the Dutch Football Federation that we have a mission, we want the World Cup,” he said.
“People laugh at me, but if we want to achieve something we want, we must trust him. This is the message I was trying to convey.”
Feyenord’s former manager, who became Dutch coach after Euro 2008, now only two matches left to make predictions after an own goal and Felipe Melo’s header to make the Netherlands Wesley Sneijder historic 2-1 victory over five-time champion.
“We’ve shown that we can play fantastic football and beat a fantastic team. When I started, I say we do not go to the World Cup only to take part, but when we go, we’re there to win.”
“People might think I’m arrogant, but we have to beat Brazil, we are number three in the world, that’s the reality. We should not be afraid to talk about it.”
The Dutch entered the second round with 0-1 and missed the van Marwijk care team assured that victory can still be reached.
“We started the game well no, we are not ourselves, so I told the players that they must be desperate to play in the second round and playing by their own game,” he said.
“We have to play with the rhythm of the game itself and the courage to play, never retreat.”
“For example (back right), Gregory van der Wiel is not stable in the first round, but in the second half he played valiantly.
“In the second half we were more daring and truly believe in our self. That’s one reason why we won.”
The Netherlands suffered a blow a few minutes before the game starts when the van Marwijk was forced to make unscheduled changes after central defender Joris Mathijsen injury in the warm-up. Hamburg defender is listed in the official team, but when doing sprints before the game at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, he came back into the locker room and bandaged his right knee.
“When I first heard there was a problem with Joris, I asked Andre Ooijer to prepare him selves,” said van Marwijk.
