THE WINGS ARE HOLDING BOMBS
Algarve, Portugal - Advocaat was hoping he could keep it a secret but Holland's sports journalists are among the best in the world and today unanimously agreed that the line-up against the Germans will look as follows.
Most noticeable is the starting position for Ajax defender Johnny Heitinga. The talented flank defender is a champion in going forward and was presumably selected because he won't have a direct opponent against the Germans, the same goes for Giovanni van Bronckhorst.
Johnny Heitinga will start
The return of the wingers is now written in stone. The disastrous attempts to make a 4-4-2 formation work have crashed horribly in recent friendlies against the Belgians and the Irish and it never worked very well before those two uninspirational losses either. Advocaat resorted to 4-4-2 at the beginning of this season because the wingers were all out of form but recent trainings saw them regain their deadly precision and strength.
The classical Dutch formation sees Van der Meyde soar down the right flank and Van der Vaart down the left, supported by Sneijder and Davids. Cocu will aid the defence and Van Nistelrooy will be waiting down the centre, eager to slam home every single cross two of the world's best flank players will provide.
The formation succeeded on the training, the chemistry has returned. But will it work in the real world? The Germans are by no means a push-over on major tournaments. Nevertheless, the Dutch are ready. The count-down has begun.
By Erik