荷蘭為什么不能贏得世界杯？
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When a country makes it to the final of one World Cup, they are generally among the favourites to go all the way at the next tournament four years later. And when said team qualifies for that next World Cup by recording nine wins and one draw in the qualification campaign, there is usually no further discussion over whether they are among the teams to beat. Yet things are slightly different with Netherlands. The Dutch hugely disappointed at Euro 2012 – where they crashed out at the group stages after defeats against Germany, Portugal and Denmark – and have since not only replaced head coach Bert van Marwijk with Louis van Gaal, but have completely overhauled their squad as well. From the team that reached the final in South Africa, only seven players have made the cut again for this summer’s tournament, with just four of them expected to make Holland’s starting XI in Brazil – Nigel de Jong, Robin van Persie, Wesley Sneijder and Arjen Robben. It’s therefore fair to say Netherlands are no longer the team they were four years ago, and expectations surrounding the team have changed, too. Holland might be one of only five countries to have made it to the World Cup final on at least three occasions – Brazil, Italy, Germany and Argentina being the other four - but they have still yet to lift the trophy and it seems unlikely that they will at last emerge victorious this summer. Oranje might have arguably one of the best coaches in the world in Van Gaal - who has won domestic league titles in Netherlands, Spain and Germany - but there’s only so much a coach can do. The future Manchester United manager has a squad that seemingly lacks the quality to compete with the best teams in the world, prompting the 62-year-old to change Holland’s famous 4-3-3 formation to a more defensive 5-3-2. "Netherlands are having a little bit more of a difficult time now than four years ago. We don't have the 10 or 11 world-class players in our team like before. We have maybe three or four," Holland legend Edwin van der Sar recently toldfifa.com. "And those world-class players are getting older, so it's about time that the young Dutch generation pick up the slack from the older ones and hopefully can achieve, first with their clubs and then the national team, a little more success than over the last three or four years." Holland’s impressive qualification campaign might suggest that Van der Sar’s comments are not an accurate reflection of the team’s strength, but there’s no denying that the Dutch starting XI this summer will not be as star-studded as at previous tournaments. Although Jasper Cillessen has proven to be a good goalkeeper at Ajax this season, Oranje’s No.1 is by no means at the same level as the aforementioned Van der Sar was during his best years and the 25-year-old has very little experience at the highest level. Cillessen’s C.V would have been less of a problem if Holland had some high-profile names in defence, yet their back five is rather inexperienced, too. Only Aston Villa centre-back Ron Vlaar plies his trade outside of the Dutch Eredivisie and even he plays for a relatively modest club. Daryl Janmaat, Stefan de Vrij and Bruno Martins Indi all have potential, but need at least a few more years to reach their peak. In midfield, De Jong, Sneijder and Jonathan de Guzman all remain well-respected players, but the latter is by no means among the best in the world in his position, while De Jong and Sneijder are no longer at the level that saw them become key players for Oranje during the 2010 World Cup either. The Dutch have plenty of quality in attack, though, and Van Gaal is well aware of Robben and Van Persie's ability to single-handedly decide matches, having made them his only two "untouchables" after Kevin Strootman was ruled out of the World Cup due to injury. "Only Van Persie and Robben are sure of their spot, but I've said that for a year and a half," the Holland coach recently said about his 23-man squad. With Schalke hitman Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and PSV wonderkid Memphis Depay ready to make an impact, too, attack seems to be the one area where Netherlands can still compete with the best. Their prowess up-front does not make up for their vulnerability in defence, however, and Van Gaal’s men could face a tough task to even survive the group stages. "Spain-Netherlands is a very tough opening game. Holland should be happy if they survive the groups. That would already be a good achievement and something I would be satisfied with," Dutch hero Johan Cruyff stated last month. Netherlands have plenty of promising youngsters to support their two true world-class players, yet this summer's tournament will likely come too soon for the current crop of players. Another disappointing tournament could very well be on the cards for the 2010 World Cup runners-up following their Euro 2012 debacle. |
通常情況下，如果一支國家隊殺進了某屆世界杯決賽，他們在四年后的下一屆世界杯會一直被看好為熱門球隊之一。而說到這支球隊在預選賽中還是以九勝一平的佳績挺進決賽圈，那些關于這支國家隊是否身處頂尖球隊之列的疑問一般而言沒有衍生的空間。然而對于這支荷蘭隊，情況稍有不同。 荷蘭人在2012歐洲杯的表現極度令人失望—— 接連負于德國，葡萄牙和丹麥之后小組賽黯然出局。在此之后他們不僅用范加爾代替范馬爾維克成為了國家隊主帥，還已經完全地翻新了他們的陣容。 那支在南非打進決賽的隊伍中只有7名球員進入了今年世界杯的陣容，而在這些人之中只有4人是可預料的主力人選——尼格爾·德容，羅賓·范佩西，韋斯利·斯內德以及羅本。 因此公平地說，這支荷蘭隊和四年前的他們已經不是同一支球隊，并且圍繞在現在這支球隊身上的期望值也發生了轉變。盡管荷蘭是僅有的五個曾經三度打進世界杯決賽的國家之一（另外的4個巨人分別為巴西，意大利，德國和阿根廷），但他們仍然未曾贏得過大力神杯，而且也似乎不太可能在這個夏天實現凱旋。 橙衣軍團擁有可能是世界上最優秀的教練之一范加爾(曾贏得過荷蘭，西班牙，德國的頂級聯賽冠軍頭銜)，然而一個教練能做的畢竟有限。這位未來的曼聯主帥手下的陣容看起來缺乏能和其他頂尖的國家隊一爭高下的實力，這也促使了這位62歲的教頭把荷蘭隊的場上陣型從他們著名的4-3-3變更為更注重防守的5-3-2。 “荷蘭隊正在經歷一個比四年前稍為艱苦的階段。我們不像以前一樣，在大名單中擁有10或11名世界級球員。現在可能有3或4個，”荷蘭國家隊傳奇埃范德薩最近在接受國際足聯官網采訪時如是說道。 “而且那幾個世界級球員也正在變老，所以荷蘭足球的年青一代是時候從前輩手上接過這個爛攤子，希望他們能先是跟隨各自的俱樂部獲得一些成績，接著在國家隊贏取比過去3到4年更大的成就。” 荷蘭隊可觀的預選賽征程或許表明了范德薩的評論并沒有準確地反映出這支球隊的強處，然而無可否認，這個夏天荷蘭隊的首發陣容將不再如以往般星光閃耀。 門將位置上雖然賈斯珀·希列森通過這個賽季在阿賈克斯的表現已經證明了自己是一名不錯的門將，這位橙衣軍團現任1號的發揮仍是根本不能和上文提到的范德薩在其巔峰時期的表現相提并論，而且這位25歲的年輕人在最高級別的賽事中還相當缺乏經驗。 如果荷蘭隊的防線能有一些資深的后衛坐鎮，希列森的履歷本不是個問題，問題是他們的后防5人全都是菜鳥。其中只有效力于阿斯頓維拉的中衛弗拉爾有在荷甲以外的聯賽踢球的經歷，而且即使是他，所效力的也算不上大球會。達里爾·揚馬特，斯特凡·德弗里以及布魯諾·馬丁斯·因迪都是有潛能的選手，但他們至少需要多幾年的時間來到達各自的巔峰。 在中場，德容，斯內德和若納坦·德古茲曼都是口碑不錯的球員，不過后者在他那個位置上絕非世界頂級，而前兩者也已不再擁有在2010年世界杯的那支亞軍陣容中充當關鍵球員的水平。 荷蘭隊在攻擊線上倒是火力強大，范加爾非常清楚羅本和范佩西能利用個人能力獨自決定比賽，在中場凱文·斯特魯曼因傷無緣本屆世界杯后，他聲稱唯獨這兩人的主力地位在他手下是“不可觸犯”的。“只有范佩西和羅本能確保他們的一席之地，不過這話我已經說了一年半了，”荷蘭主帥在最近談到他的23人大名單時這么說道。另外攻擊線上還有效力于沙爾克的殺手克拉斯-揚·亨特拉爾和埃因霍溫神童孟菲斯·德佩，他們也已準備好隨時發揮作用，這樣看來進攻是荷蘭隊能和其他勁旅掰掰手腕的領域。 然而，他們彪悍的前場火力還是無法掩蓋防守的脆弱，對于范加爾的球隊來說，即使是小組出線也可稱得上是一個艱難的考驗。 “對陣西班牙的首場比賽將非常艱難。荷蘭隊能從小組出線就應該感到開心了。那已經是個不錯的成績，我會對此滿足，”荷蘭傳奇克魯伊夫上個月說。 荷蘭陣中擁有不少有前途的新星能輔佐他們的兩位真正的世界級球星，可是今夏的這屆大賽對于這支青年軍而言想出成績可能還是太早了。在經歷2012歐洲杯的崩潰之后，2010世界杯的亞軍可能又將記載一屆令人失望的大賽。 （譯者 sofiwong 編輯 齊磊） |
Australia had a bumpy ride through the Asian qualifying groups, losing to Oman and Jordan, En route to finishing second behind Japan to seal a world cup place. >詳細>>
