Monday, June 11, 2012

Beats Working For a Living - This is Team Netherlands

The tournament is well and truly under way. The Netherlands players are now in Krakow again but only stay here for two days before travelling back to Kharkiv for the crucial showdown with the Germans.

Today I will conduct more sit-down interviews for UEFA TV and UEFA.com. I'll go to the Dutch team hotel, the Sheraton, approximately two hours beforehand so there's enough time to set up the room. In the spotlight this time round are Dirk Kuyt, Maarten Stekelenburg and coach Bert van Marwijk.

All of this takes place thanks to the good cooperation between the Royal Netherlands Football Association (KNVB) and ourselves. As always, the KNVB press department are extremely helpful. Monique, Martine, Hans and Kees give us all the assistance we need.

Maybe that is down to their professionalism or the mutual trust we've built up. On the other hand, maybe it could just be due to the down-to-earth mentality of the Dutch. "Doe maar gewoon, dan doe je al gek genoeg," they say – just be yourself, that's already crazy enough.

Although I've been doing this job for many years, I still get butterflies in my stomach as interview time approaches. But then the first player comes in, we shake hands and chat a bit, I fire off the first question, and before you know it you're in the flow.

After saying goodbye to the last 'victim' we can sit back, relax and – hopefully – consider it a job well done. And it's a job I always love doing. In fact, it's so enjoyable that I'm not sure the word job does it justice.

The Oranje players and staff will undoubtedly start to feel nervous as well, ahead of the job they have to do on Wednesday. Let's just hope that after the game they'll be able to look back and say 'job well done' too.


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