Four Dutch coaches all set to take on the world

AMSTERDAM, June 1: Dutch coach Marco Van Basten would like nothing better than to surpass the achievements of Rinus Michels who led the Netherlands to the World Cup final the last time the tournament was held on German soil in 1974.

And that's exactly what Dutch coach Leo Beenhakker and Dutch coach Guus Hiddink and Dutch coach Dick Advocaat would like to do too.

Realistically only Van Basten, the coach of the Netherlands, has a chance of even matching Michels' achievements of 32 years ago, but Beenhakker (Trinidad&Tobago), Hiddink (Australia) and Advocaat (South Korea) - all arrive in Germany optimistic they can get the best possible results for their adopted countries.

Only Brazil will be parading more coaches than the Dutch at the finals with five sitting in the technical areas in charge of Brazil (Carlos Alberto Parreira), Portugal (Luiz Felipe Scolari), Costa Rica (Alexandre Guimaraes), Japan (Zico) and Saudi Arabia (Marcs Paqueta).

However, unlike the Brazilians, all four Dutch coaches have at one time been coach of their national side with Beenhakker leading the Netherlands into the 1990 finals when they went out in the second round.

Advocaat took charge of the team from 1992-94 reaching the quarter-finals in USA'94. Hiddink had four years in charge from 1994-98 when the Dutch reached the semi-finals in France, while Advocaat had two years at the helm from 2002-04 after the Dutch had already been eliminated in the qualifiers for the last World Cup in Asia.

Van Basten, by far the youngest of the quartet at just 42, is now in a strong position to go one better than all his predecessors and succeed the ''father'' of all of them - the peerless Michels, the architect of ''Total Football'', who died in March 2005 at the age of 77.

Van Basten steered the Dutch into the finals with an unbeaten record from a very tough qualifying group that included Romania and the Czech Republic but ended with the Netherlands winning 10 of their 12 matches and drawing the other two.

The tournament also provides him with an ideal opportunity of erasing the bad memories when he was a player in Beenhakker's squad at Italia'90.

The Dutch went to Italy as European champions and full of optimism, but Van Basten, Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard all failed to live up to their role as one of the tournament favourites.

After three draws in the group phase against Egypt (1-1), England (0-0) and Ireland (1-1), the Dutch met West Germany in the second round and lost 2-1 in Milan to go home early.

Beenhakker will also have a chance to flush away the bad taste of 16 years ago with his Trinidad&Tobago team who go to Germany delighted to be taking part in their first-ever finals. Beenhakker goes to the finals claiming he is now ''more West Indian in outlook than Dutch.'' The 63-year-old said this week: ''Ive always thought it was probably a little mistake by God that I was born in the Netherlands.

''I feel very connected to the Latin American way of life. When I worked in Mexico that was a personal and professional paradise for me.'' Despite being inwardly upset perhaps that he was born in Rotterdam and not Rio, Beenhakker transformed Trinidad&Tobago's qualifying campaign when he took over after they had made a poor start, but recovering to booki their place in the finals with a play-off win over Bahrain.

Assisted by Wim Rijsbergen, a member of the 1974 Dutch squad, Trinidad beat the Gulf state 2-1 on aggregate for their first World Cup appearance.

While Beenhakker is coaching at the World Cup for the second time, so is Advocaat, who took the Dutch to the quarter-finals in 1994.

Advocaat is in charge of South Korea, but is unlikely to achieve what compatriot Hiddink did when he led the Koreans to the semi-finals on home soil four years ago.

For Hiddink, also responsible for the success of Dutch champions PSV Eindhoven this season and off to coach Russia after the finals, Germany represents his third consecutive World Cup.

In 1998 he took the Netherlands to the semis, repeating that feat with the Koreans. If he can do that with his Australian team this time around, he will have worked an even greater miracle.

Still, Hiddink did not hesitate when he received a request from ''Down Under'' and accepted the challenge of steering Australia to only their second World Cup finals.

The Aussies, whose only previous World Cup appearance was in West Germany in 1974, needed a heroic penalty shoot out to sink Uruguay in their play-off.

Just like Beenhakker with Trinidad, Hiddink is assisted by a member of the 1974 Dutch squad -- Johan Neeskens, who famously scored the Netherlands's first minute goal from the penalty spot in the final against West Germany.

Which is where the Dutch came in, under Michels, 32 years ago.

There is no doubt he would have been a very proud man if he'd have lived to see four Dutch men trying to emulate his achievements in the next few weeks.

Reuters