The time of giving players opportunities and experimenting is over for national coach Andries Jonker of the Dutch football players. Jonker will start in Malta this week with forging a team that “can play a good World Cup next summer”, the national coach said a day before the first of two exhibition games against Austria.
,,We are five months before the start of the World Cup, it is too early to say: this is the basis. But I’m going to start modeling now,” says Jonker. “I choose players that I think are ready to carry the team at the moment.”
Friendlies
After the ‘Leeuwinnen’ had qualified for the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand in September with hanging and strangling, Jonker used a few practice matches to see some talents at work. He also experimented with a 5-3-2 system, as an alternative to the familiar 4-3-3.
,,It went wrong against Norway, but in the next two matches it went well with that alternative system. They got the hang of it very quickly. After the next four games I can decide which system is best for us. Also depending on the quality of the opponent and the players I have at my disposal.”
Program Orange Lionesses
Friday February 17, 6 p.m. Netherlands – Austria (exhibition game)
Tuesday, February 21, 6 p.m. Austria – Netherlands (exhibition game)
Football players auction shirts for earthquake victims
The Dutch football players have the shirts they wear on Friday in the friendly match against Austria auctioned online. Proceeds go to Giro555, which raises money for the victims in Turkey and Syria of the earthquakes early last week.
The ‘Leeuwinnen’ play in the first of two friendly international matches in Malta against Austria in their white away shirt with red and blue accents. The kits will be auctioned through the website matchwornshirt.com. At the moment, the highest bid has been made for Jackie Groenen’s shirt with number 14, namely 483 euros. More than 400 euros have also been bid on the uniforms of Daniëlle van de Donk and keeper Daphne van Domselaar.
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