Seedorf fighting windmills

Column from VI

The biggest humiliation wasn’t in Slovenia, where Ibrahim Afellay got the nod instead of Seedorf and was enabled to debut for Oranje.
The most painful moment was on Tuesday August 21 in Geneva. Oranje was training, the last session before the friendly against the Swiss. Seedorf was again part of the B-team. The A-team was experimenting: Babel on the left wing, Van Nistelrooy central, Raf van der Vaart on the right wing. On midfield, Gio was the controlling man, Sneijder played left and on the right we saw Van Persie. This experiment stayed what it was: a trainings form. A day later, Oranje lost 2-1 with Demy de Zeeuw als right midfielder. But it must have felt like a blow to Seedorf’s face.
In the winter of 2006, the AC Milan midfielder made a big gesture towards Marco van Basten. The Dutch team manager selected the player immediately and gave him a starting position in the friendly against England. Seedorf played 84 minutes as left midfielder and the last minutes on the number 10 position. Three months later, against Russia, Seedorf started again and in the second half he played together with Sneijder on the same midfield and that went pretty good. A combination that San Marco didn’t believe in. Oranje hungered for some experience in the youthful, inconsistent and unpredictable Oranje group. The unpredictability and inconsistency never left the team. Seedorf however, did.

Against Rumania, he was allowed to come on the pitch for the last four minutes. In the Slovenia away game he got an extra minute, replacing the teenager Afellay. Van Basten had said before the match that Afellay debut wouldn’t be at the expense of Seedorf. Van Basten wanted one defensive midfielder (Gio), one controlling midfielder (Afellay, De Zeeuw) and an offensive midfielder. And Seedorf belongs to the latter category. But he has to accept Sneijder as option numero uno.

The Geneva Experiment on that particular Tuesday made clear that Van Basten – again – uses different norms. The arguments to keep Seedorf benched seem chosen randomly. Apparently, Van Persie is capable to play with Sneijder on one and the same midfield. Seedorf must have noticed that he is on a mission impossible.
Two weeks ago, Seedorf tried again and used all his diplomacy. He would really like to play with Sneijder on the same midfield, he told RTL. The Oranje play-system needs to be altered, he realized that. But, he said, after we qualify that shouldn’t be a big issue.

It seems to be the last pledge, the last prayer almost, of a professional who will come to see that he is chasing windmills. If Van Basten decides to bench Seedorf again versus Rumania later this month, with Sneijder suspended, there is only one thing Seedorf can do… Basta y ciao, Marco…