GROUP C/NETHERLANDS v ITALY:As the Netherlands prepare to face Italy tonight in Bern, don't expect manager Marco Van Basten to turn to the beautiful game, reports Paddy Agnew
ABOUT ONCE a month, Roberto Donadoni and Marco van Basten get on the phone to one another.
The two former team-mates in a truly galactic AC Milan of the late 80s, early 90s have stayed in touch.
"I ask him if those dodgy old ankles of his are still giving him problems and he asks me if my hair has got even greyer," Donadoni explained.
The curious thing about Donadoni (44) and van Basten (43) is their career paths have followed parallel routes. As players, they both represented important foundation stones in the construction of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's first great Milan side - the Como player Donadoni was Berlusconi's first player purchase, whilst along with compatriot Ruud Gullit, Ajax Amsterdam striker van Basten was the first "big name" foreign signing of the Berlusconi era.
Then, with their playing careers behind them, both men found themselves in the national team hot seat, at a relatively young age and despite having had precious little top flight managerial experience.
Van Basten took over the Dutch team in 2004 having previously coached only the Ajax youth team, whilst Donadoni had coached Lecce, Livorno and Genoa (hardly world beaters) before taking the reins from World Cup winner Marcello Lippi in July 2006.
Times have indeed changed and where once the two team-mates compared notes about the difficulties of getting past certain tough Serie A defenders, they now rabbit on to one another about the difficulties of being a national team manager for a country with serious expectations. As fate would have it, their paths cross tonight in Bern in a fascinating clash. Ironically, a long Italian shadow hangs over this game.
Van Basten might have been one of the most skilful and elegant goal-scorers of the post-war era but his Dutch team reflects the fact that all the most important years of his outstanding career were played out in Italy. You might expect van Basten to practise the "beautiful" game yet the reality is that, as a coach, he can be seriously cynical.
If you think we exaggerate, just cast your mind back to Nuremburg, Germany, two years ago when Portugal eliminated van Basten's Netherlands 1-0 in a bruising World Cup second round game that quickly disintegrated into a kicking match that saw four players red-carded. The point about that less than edifying encounter was that, if anything, it was the Netherlands who started the kicking.
Since then, van Basten earned himself plenty of home criticism in a qualifying round which his side ended with away defeats to Romania and Belarus. Worse still, in a warm-up friendly last March, his side struggled to beat Austria in Vienna, coming back from 3-1 down at half-time to win 4-3.
Those setbacks are partly responsible for the return of a familiar old phenomenon, namely Dutch player power. Team senators such as goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar and striker Ruud van Nistelrooy persuaded van Basten to adopt a more cautious line-up, not so much 4-3-3 as 4-2-3-1, with the two deep-lying midfielders, probably Demy de Zeeuw and Giovanni van Bronckhorst, called on to shore up an often wobbly defence.
It is not quite what we all had in mind when van Basten took over in 2004. During his first few months in the job, he said he was planning for the future, adding that whatever happened at the Germany World Cup, he hoped his side would be ready to win these European Championships.
Now that he is here at the finals, van Basten is all too aware the draw has done him no favours, pointing out that two of his three first round games are against the "two strongest teams in the world" (World Cup finalists Italy and France) and against one of most in-form Eastern European teams in Romania.
On the other hand, van Basten strikes a typically "Italian" note when he argues that maybe the tough first round group will help his team: "The advantage is that from the start you are straight into the tournament, from the first moment you realise it is super important, you have to have focus from the start or you will immediately get knocked out."
"Super important" indeed. With injuries ruling out Real Madrid's Arjen Robben and Arsenal's Robin van Persie and making Wesley Sneijder a doubtful starter, van Basten has plenty of problems as he prepares to face Italy, a team he rates highly.
Do not be surprised if it is the Netherlands as much as Italy who make this a tight, defensive game, with no quarter asked or given. By the end of the night, Donadoni's hair may have got that bit greyer while van Basten's ankles may be even more dodgy than usual.
