Netherlands favourites against Brazil, says Henk Ten Cate

PRETORIA - Dutch club Ajax Amsterdam’s former coach Henk Ten Cate feels that the Netherlands can upset five-time champions Brazil in the quarterfinal of the World Cup in Port Elizabeth Friday.

“At this stage of the World Cup, all teams have chances. We Dutch are optimists and we believe in our team. We have a good chance against Brazil,” the 55-year-old, former Barcelona and Chelsea assistant, told IANS.

Ten Cate’s said that Dunga’s boys had not been impressive so far in the World Cup.

“The Brazil I saw is not an offensive Brazil that the world knows. They give the ball a lot to the opponents. I saw their match against Chile, and the South Americans enjoyed more ball possession as compared to Brazil in the second half. Chile also created some chances,” Ten Cate said.

“Everybody expects Holland to play spectacular football. In fact the whole world expects that, but you can’t satisfy everyone,” he said.

Ten Cate praised Dutch coach Bert Van Marwjik’s style.

“Van Marwjik is from a different school of coaching and the team he has is also different. I think Marwjik had done a good job and the Dutch approach towards the game is more realistic and a lot more like the other teams playing in the World Cup.

“We are on a 23-game unbeaten run and that too against good teams. I think it is impressive performance by the team. And mind it… we played good opponents as well. The credit goes to Van Marwjik.”

Ten Cate rubbished reports of rift between Wesley Sneijder and Robin Van Persie.

During the team’s 2-1 win over Slovakia, Van Persie reacted badly and was substituted 10 minutes before the hooter. Reports suggested that he told Van Marwijk that Sneijder should have been the man to be replaced and not him. Sneijder later denied the reports.

Ten Cate said the team was not dependeing on the big four — Van Persie, Sneijder, Arjen Robben and Rafael van der Vaart.

“There is nothing called big four in the Dutch team. There are 23 players, and that is the biggest strength of this team. If you look at Barcelona you will see that Barcelona operates as a team while Real Madrid depends on two or three players. That is the biggest difference between Barcelona and Real Madrid,” he said.

(Abhishek Roy can be contacted at abhishek.roy@ians.in)