Bert van Marwijk may be the only man with the official title of Netherlands coach but whenever a major tournament comes around, every Dutch citizen also appoints themselves to that position.
The Netherlands then turns into 'the land of 16 million national coaches', it is said, although this might include babies and toddlers as well. Naturally, after their team began UEFA EURO 2012 with a 1-0 defeat by Denmark, all these coaches have their own plan. Should Robin van Persie play, or Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, or maybe even both?
However, it is Van Marwijk who has the task of setting a winning formation against Germany on Wednesday, but obviously he has no intention of revealing his plans quite yet.
"How do we beat them?" he said after travelling from their Krakow team base to match venue Kharkiv. "Well I won't tell you that because I'll tell my own team that. The Germans are very strong but we can also beat them. How we do that, I won't tell you now."
Now, looking back at the Denmark game, it is still unbelievable that no Oranje goal result from 28 attempts. The Danish goal just seemed jinxed. But still, creating so many chances is something to hold on to for the Germany match. Indeed, it was something to which Wesley Sneijder, sitting next to Van Marwijk, referred.
"We created lots of chances against Denmark and we have to take that with us against Germany," he said. "There's nothing nicer than playing against Germany; there's a lot of pressure but that's what's so nice about it."
Despite all the pressure, it was very nice to see that at the end of the press conference when leaving, player and coach were joking and laughing with each other. With a win against Germany, all the other 16 million Oranje national coaches will do the same tomorrow.
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