Dutch ambassador coaches Van Marwijk

Team manager Bert van Marwijk will inspect the venue where Oranje will plan their training session in South Africa. The Wits University grounds are selected by Ambassador Rob de Vos.

Van Marwijk will stay a week in South Africa and he will also visit Confederations Cup games by Italy, Spain and Brazil.

The Dutch Embassy has negotiated the availability of the grounds of Witwatersrand University, aka Wits University, for the KNVB.

The venue is north west of Johannesburg, 15 km away from Sandton where Oranje will stay at the Hilton Hotel.

The football team of Wits is called Bidvest Wits and plays in the Premier Soccer League in South Africa. The stadium hosts 5000 spectators and there is a rugby grounds, a athletics track, squash courts, cricket fields and a driving range.

J-burg is the preferred spot for Oranje due to the fact that it’s 1500 meters above sealevel. According to science, athletes perform better traveling from high to low than vice versa.

Ambassador De Vos: “The stay at altitude is an advantage. Too bad for Capetown, where they expected the Dutch to reside, due to the historic links. The council there said to have scientific research claiming it didn’t matter on what altitude you’d be, but when I asked them to forward it to me, I never received anything.”

The climate in South Africa could be a factor at the WC. In the different cities there’s different climates in winter. Dry and cold at altitude and moist and humid on the east coast, while the cape will be wet and cold. Games that start at 4 pm in bright sunlight will end in the dark and at much lower temperatures.

In Holland, there’s lots of debate about crime in South Africa. According to some media articles, the criminals are already waiting for the dressed up Oranje fans. Ambassador De Vos thinks it’s exaggerated. “There’s nine million tourists here every year. The tourism industry is really doing well. You can’t get those numbers when the nation is unsafe. We do work together with the government to further decrease youth-linked crime. Here at Wits, there’s a football project for poor kids and we even deploy the services of famous players in these projects. Frank Rijkaard was here recently to do community training sessions.”

“But you do have to watch out in certain areas. The WC is primarely in the urban areas where tourists normally don’t go to. We will deploy extra security measures in 2010. But paranoia won’t help. Fans are more than welcome to come. You can do that in an organized structure, or just come by yourself. When you rent a car, you can easily drive from venue to venue. Traffic however, is more dangerous than crime in my opinion. Traffic here is unpredictable and there’s a lot of accidents, relatively speaking. I wouldn’t venture away by car at night, for instance.”

Bert van Marwijk and his players won’t suffer from those circumstances. The daily trip from hotel to training will be a 15 minute ride and under escort as well. Van Marwijk: “I’ve send my conditions in some time ago. I know what I want to see at a training venue. The ambassador adviced Wits and I’m curious to see what it’s like.”