The Oranje makes their return to the World Cup finals as one of the perennial favorites to win the entire tournament in South Africa this summer. Holland has won a lot of games, but have very few pieces of hardware to show for it. The side has made it to the World Cup finals twice – both times in the 70s. There are only a handful of squads that can match the Oranje in terms of overall skill, but the pressures of the World Cup always seems to get the best of the Dutch when it matters most. This year boss Bert van Marwijk will try to change that. The 56-year-old led Rotterdam to the UEFA Cup trophy in 2002, and spent two-years at the helm with Borussia Dortmund in Germany. He will have no shortage of players to get the job done, starting with Dutch playmaker Wesley Sneijder, winger Arjen Robben and the steady influence of midfielders Rafael van der Vaart and Mark van Bommel of Bayern Munich. Their deadly strike comes from Golden Boot contender Robin van Persie and Liverpool striker Dirk Kuyt. The rest of the team is rounded out by Joris Mathijsen, Andre Ooijer, and captain Giovanni van Bronckhorst who leads the current side with 97 international caps. The Oranje dismantled their competition during qualifying, picking up eight wins from eight games.
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Second in the group that is likely to advance is Denmark. After missing out on both the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany and UEFA EURO 2008, the Danes have returned to the World Cup after a six-year drought. Danish national Morten Olsen has piloted the Danes to one of their three World Cup appearances in 2002 FIFA World Cup as well UEFA EURO 2004, but has yet to get the side past the round of 16. The Danes, who are known for their stingy defense, are led by Liverpool defender Daniel Agger and Simon Kjaar. The two formed a brilliant relationship during qualification and worked together well. Keeper Thomas Sorenson, who played with Denmark in the 2002 World Cup, will once again be between the pipes. Denmark’s offense will be led by a trio of international midfielders, Daniel Jensen (Bremen), Christan Poulsen (Juventus) and Dennis Rommedahl (Ajax), along with national captain, striker Jon Dahl Tomasson. The side was a shocker to qualify for the World Cup beating Portugal, who was ranked 5th in the world, and Sweden to advance out of their group with just one defeat in ten matches. The Danes finished their Cinderella campaign with an overall record of 6-3-1, making them a serious threat to advance.
One team that most will tend to overlook will be Cameroon. Having appeared in more World Cups than any other African nation, the Indomitable Lions will look to duplicate their miracle run to the quarterfinals in 1990 after not managing to advance past the group stage in three finals appearances since then. New boss Paul Le Guen of Lyon fame, who took over for the fired German veteran Otto Pfister after a poor start early in qualifying, immediately began making radical changes that paid dividends–like stripping long-time captain Rigobert Song of the armband and giving it to three-time African player of the year Samuel Eto’o. The 45-year-old coach is best known for his staunch attitude, and leading French club Olympique Lion to the Ligue I title three times in succession. He will have the tools to get the job done starting with Inter Milan world-class striker Samuel Eto’o. The dynamic forward scored a total of nine goals in 11 qualifiers alone, and will be a likely candidate for the tournaments Golden Boot Award. Cameroon looked like they were about to miss their second straight World Cup after beginning their qualifying campaign with just a draw from their first two matches, but then completed an impressive turnaround recording four straight victories to ensure safe passage to South Africa.
Lastly, the groups most unknown factor Japan, will make their fourth consecutive World Cup appearance and will hunting for an elusive semifinals appearance after their failure to get out of the second round in Germany 2006. The Samurai Blue has one of the strongest squads in Asian Football and are winners of three of the last five editions of the AFC Asian Cup. Boss, Takeshi Okada, is considered to be one of the finest Japanese coaches in Asia. The 53-year-old led the Samurai Blue to their first FIFA World Cup appearance at France in 1998. Japan will play their first World Cup finals without former Italian Serie A and English Premier League midfielder Hidetoshi Nakata, who led Japan in each of the national side’s games at France 1998, Korea/Japan 2002 and Germany 2006 before hanging up his boots at the ripe age of just 29. His replacement will be former Celtic playmaker and free kick maestro Shunsuke Nakamura. The squad is rounded out with another European-based performer, 23-year old midfielder Keisuke Honda. Japan head to South Africa after a dominating display in Asian Zone qualifying, but we all know that solid results in Asia won’t necessarily translate to World Cup success.
On paper, the Netherlands appears to have all the necessary ingredients necessary to make a deep run this time around. The will need to work out of the group stage if they are going to make any noise, something they should do quite handily with wins over Japan and Cameroon. If the Danes beat Japan and at least draw with the Netherlands they may be able to squeak by Cameroon. Meanwhile, the Indomitable Lions will go as far as striker Samuel Eto’o can take them. As for the Samurai Blue, they will need no less than stellar performances from the entire squad as well as wins over Cameroon and Denmark. A draw in any match will most likely indicate an early departure.
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