Van Basten names preliminary squad on Tuesday

May 5th, 2008 | by: Jan | Comments(4)

Next Tuesday, Marco van Basten will name his prelim squad for the EC this summer. The first selection will have 30 names. On May 28 the Dutch team manager will need to communicate his final 23 names to the UEFA.

Van Basten said that the chance is slim that there will be new, surprising names among the elite. “That wouldn’t be logical. We have been working towards a fixed group for four years. But with us, you never know. We’re so close to the EC, the chance that a new player emerges from nowhere is very small.”

Why a preliminary selection. “There are still games being played all over Europe. You never know, players can get injured. Anything can happen in this phase.”

The future Ajax manager says he is up to speed with all players in the international competitions. “We keep in touch regularly, I know what’s going on. We watch most matches, we either see them on tv or we travel abroad. We are definitely up to date.”

Oranje starts it’s campaign on May 20. First there’s the training session in Noordwijk, later on they move to Hoenderloo. Oranje will play a friendly against the Ukraine on May 24, Denmark on May 29 and Wales on June 1. After that game, Oranje willl move to Lausanne to prepare for the first EC match against Italy on June 9.