Only victory counts…

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The depressing draw against Rumania put a lot of pressure on Oranje for the match later tonight.

The “obvious” win against Slovenia is suddenly not so obvious anymore. But very much needed, though. Winning is important for our chances to keep Rumania and Bulgaria at bay and stay boss in the qualification race for 2008’s EC.

Oranje arrived in Maribor yesterday, looking relatively relaxed. The humbug about Oranje is primarely in the outer realms of the team: with fans and press. The players do not see the draw against Rumania as a big drama.

Most fans though, according to the media, are fed up with San Marco. There is not a lot credit left for the team manager.

The theme of his three-year reign can be summarized in relatively ok results, lousy play. Oranje is constanly underachieving. Holland played better football under Dick Advocaat’s regime and even last year, in the build up to the WC2006, Oranje played better under van Basten.

Of course, one needs to admit that van Basten had better players to chose from (Cocu, van Bommel, van Nistelrooy), but still… The fact that the latter two are not longer present have everything to do with van Basten himself. And if you look at the objectives the KNVB and Van Basten and his team laid out, one of the more important ones was: reach a higher level of quality and bring Oranje closer to the public.

Van Basten may be successful with qualifiying for the EC, but the rest of the objectives are nowhere in site. It will be particularly painful for the KNVB that the public is fed up with the team, as they were under Advocaat and under van Gaal.

KNVB boss Kesler recently said that that relationship between Oranje and the public is underestimated by most, because it’s not just a goodwill thing alone. Oranje is also a money making machines (tv-money, sponsoring).

If people start to resent Oranje, the KNVB will feel that. Everyone thought that the combination Van Basten – Cruyff would be a secure one, in this arena particularly. And the end of the day, this does not seem to be the case.

The result against Slovenia will be vital. A victory won’t change the situation yet, although it will strengthen our chances to qualifiy, which at least is something. If the result is less than that, we can expect crisis-meetings in the KNVB HQ.

If we further focus on the development of the team, we have to conclude that two top players are deemed unfit for the high-brow tactics of Van Basten and only one player was able to differentiate himself from the mediocre rest. And that is the currently injured Robin van Persie.

Still, van Basten sort of declared the 4-3-3 system as holy and doesn’t even want to experiment with 4-4-2 in training-sessions. If you assess the situation objectively, you just have to conclude that the objectives for Van Basten and co. are nowhere in sight.

And the KNVB will listen to the people. The people will decide. They pay tv-levies, buy the Oranje shirts, buy tickets for games, make their kids member of amateurclubs, etc etc.