Netherlands team a young one

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33454, 8 February 1974, Page 10

Netherlands team a young one

The Actherland hockey team which has arrived in Christchurch for the international tournament next week, will not be as strong as that which won the World Cup in Amsterdam last August.

Six of the victorious World Cup team have retired, and the side in New Zealand is a very young one, said the tour secretary (Mr P. .1. Duinker) yesterday. The average age is 23 years, three months.

i “We lost the backbone of our team after the World Cup, so we have brought our younger players here to give them experience,” he said. “The older players who retired after Amsterdam did so because they had achieved a goal they had been working towards for several years.” To become acclimatised to the Southern Hemisphere summer, the team had an 11match tour of Australia beIfore coming to New Zealand, lit played four tests against I Australia, winning one, losing two, and drawing one. I The other matches, against (state sides, were won. I The team’s performance in I Australia had been credit-1 I able, said Mr Duinker. The weather had been very hot. the team was feeling the

top teams like India. Pakistan. Australia and West Germain, 'have to play tight. It is not our purpose to hit. collide. ; struggle with the opposition. VERSATILITY Vcrsatititv is the keynote of ’ the team. Apart from the goal | keeper and a few members of I the defence, the rest of the team can play attacking ot defensive roles. "It is not uncommon to see . our left wing playing on the i right wing.” said Mr Duinker. ■ “or the halves moving up into • the forwards.” t The team did not have a I centre half around whom the game pivoted in the more ortho- . dox teams. “We consider this the - modern way of hockey and our ; natural game.” Mr Duinker said "It has developed over the years ’ with European countries playing i each other, and the coaches have t worked on this type of play. •I Although the team play was based on defensive methods i* ■ I still included hockey skills in its ; training. And the team was able >!to train together two or three II times a week because of the i short distances they had to travel in the Netherlands, he :I said.

effects of the iong trip from the Netherlands, and it had to contend with the different interpretations of Australian umpires. The Dutch and other European countries, played a more defensive style than the orthodox pattern of the Asian and Australasian sides. Mr Duinker said. FORMATION A number of the team formations had been developed from watching top European soccer teams, and instead of playing the 5-3-2 formation used by India and Pakistan, it used a 4-2-3-1 formation. Mr Duinker would not com- , mit himself to saying the Euro- * pean style of hockey, which has developed over the last decade, i was over-robust. | “I only know when Pakistan ■ nr India plavs us. they don t have the room to move as they' would have against one another. “We play a man-to-man cover-: I age instead of giving players | I room to move. We don’t try to, spoil the game. We try to win in I a sporting way. and not with rough play. “To have a chance against the