Hopeful rather than confident

Even someone who has experienced first hand the pressures and thrills of playing at a World Cup, it seems, is not immune from that strange mixture of feelings that grips every fan at this point on the football calendar. Hope springs eternal but realism has a habit of gnawing away at the back of the mind.

Looking forward to a month of high drama, Ronald De Boer, like many of us studying wall charts and mapping out our team's opportunities and pitfalls, can't decide if the glass is half empty or half full.

'I'm a Dutchman so I'd love the national team to win,' he says, 'it would be great for our country. I'm not confident but I'm hoping they will prove me wrong.'

Marco Van Basten's men topped a qualifying group that contained Romania and Czech Republic - previously a bogey team for the Dutch - keeping 10 clean sheets in 12 matches and amassing 32 points, the highest of all European qualifiers.

Cause for optimism, then? Perhaps, but they have a callow squad, most of whom will be embarking on their first trip to the finals, lacking authority and big match experience. And one of their first choice centre-backs was playing, badly, as a striker for RKC Waalwijk barely two seasons ago.

With the Dutch, contemplating a first World Cup in eight years, drawn in most people's nomination for the 'group of death', you can forgive De Boer a cautious assessment of the chances of the Orange ones.

'The three games they have mean it's going to be difficult,' he concedes. 'It is the hardest group. Argentina are a great team, Serbia are very organised and Ivory Coast are very physical and strong. It is not going to be easy.'

De Boer, a veteran of finals campaigns in 1994 and 1998 - where he missed a penalty in Holland's semi-final defeat at the hands of Brazil - amassed 67 caps for his country, scoring 13 goals from various attacking midfield positions.

A European Cup winner with Ajax, at 36, De Boer has now opted for the semi-retirement of the Qatar League with its year-round sunshine and agreeable pay cheques. His role for the national team is now restricted to a supporter's brief.

After missing out altogether last time round, thousands of his fellow fans are expected to make the short journey to Germany, bringing their own brand of vivid, monochrome colour to the event.

The last time they journeyed for a tournament there, of course, they left happy, having watched van Basten inspire their side to victory in the 1988 European Championships. The striking legend will once more lead the side, this time from the sidelines.

After initial scepticism that a man whose coaching experience stretched only as far as taking a few training sessions with the youth team of Ajax had been put in charge of the national team, Van Basten's brand of uncompromising 'new broom' philosophy has won everyone over. Including De Boer, who himself needed some convincing.

'In one way I have to give a lot of respect to Van Basten,' he says. 'He does things his own way and he has produced the results - only one defeat against Italy - and they went something like 22 games unbeaten when he took over so he does it well. And for me the most important thing is when he talks everybody listens. He has the authority; he has the respect of everyone in Holland.'

Van Basten jettisoned established names such as Edgar Davids, Patrick Kluivert and, most emphatically, Clarence Seedorf to whom he retorted, when the AC Milan midfielder questioned his exclusion, 'I am looking for great players, not great names.'

In came a host of relative unknowns, outside Holland at least, including Denny Landzaat, Ryan Babel and Khalid Boulahrouz, whose conversion to centre-back at Hamburg and subsequent formidable displays earned him a starting berth in the national side as well as the sobriquet 'The Cannibal.'

The net effect is a side that is shorn of the habitual infighting and ego clashes that have hampered gifted Dutch teams of the past, but has left them low on established leaders.

'They looked good in qualifying and they had no trouble so that is good,' says Be Boer. 'But my major concern is that the team is inexperienced.

'They have still have [Philip] Cocu, [Edwin] van der Sar and [Ruud] van Nistelrooy - but it is even his first World Cup, so that is a different level for him. But other than that there is not much experience in the side.'

Barcelona's Mark van Bommel, too, offers a seasoned calm but even he is largely out of favour in van Basten's youthful midfield where Landzaat and the penetrating Rafael van der Vaart or Wesley Sneijder are usually preferred.

But what of these fresh-faced newcomers?

'Dirk Kuyt is already one of the more experienced players despite his youth,' offers De Boer.

'He has come through a good season, though the last couple of weeks he went a little bit down. He is a guy who you can depend on; he has a good character. He may not have the skill of some others but he does a lot of valuable work and scores goals

'I think [Robin] Van Persie is excellent at the moment. [Arjen] Robben can do extremely good things. Van der Vaart when he is fit. My main concern is at the back; we have a great goalkeeper but Boulahrouz? I would go with [Andre] Ooijer, but I think he is only second choice.'

As ever, the Dutch boast a fine array of attacking arsenal, with the highly rated Kuyt even likely to act merely as van Nistelrooy's understudy as van Persie and Robben flank the Manchester United striker in a three man attack; the model pioneered by the Ajax of Johan Cruyff, and championed over the last couple of seasons by Jose Mourinho's Chelsea. But it is in defence where De Boer fears the team show signs of vulnerability.

'I saw them play against Italy,' he notes, 'and they were very weak at the back. The guy [Luca] Toni was very physical and strong and they just couldn't cope with him, so I'm a little bit worried about that.'

Switching effortlessly once more from doom to expectant optimism, De Boer spots a silver lining in the travails of one of the team's stars who enters the tournament under a dark domestic cloud.

'It is good that van Nistelrooy didn't play so much these last few weeks,' he says, though the player himself may not see such cheer in his spat with Sir Alex Ferguson that threatens his Old Trafford future.

'I think we will see the best out of him. And the same goes for some other players who are great players but didn't play so much recently because they were injured or whatever; or they were out of favour like van Nistelrooy - they can do something extra there because they are mentally strong now and physically strong.'

Many players will be arriving in Germany after gruelling domestic seasons and so those lucky few who, for whatever reason, have had chance to take a break, enforced or otherwise, could hold the key to unlocking defences manned by tired legs.

'The leagues are so demanding now,' says De Boer. 'Throughout the season you still play when you are not 100% fit. I had it in my own career, you are never 100% fit, there is always some annoying thing that is bothering you. I think that is the case with a lot of players now entering the World Cup.

'One team may be carrying injuries while another has fresh bodies and minds. That is why you sometimes see surprises at World Cups.'

A Dutch captain, from a team free of petty squabbling and a self destructive streak, finally lifting the World Cup this time round may surprise the bookmakers, commentators and De Boer himself. But it might just happen.

And a lot of glasses would be emptied, refilled and emptied again in Holland that night if it does.

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