Attacking the Enemy Within

By now, it ought to be stamped with a watermark onto the World Cup charter:

United we stand, divided we must be Holland.

Labeled, and for good reason, as the Best Team Never to Have Won the World Cup, the Netherlands is again loaded with enough talent to overcome any team in France this summer--up to but not necessarily including itself.

The Dutch have defeated the Dutch so many times in major soccer tournaments. They had the best team in the world in 1978, but wound up losing in the World Cup final to Argentina after the greatest player in the history of Dutch soccer, Johan Cruyff, stiffed the tournament because of a dispute with national team officials.

In 1990, a team revolt forced the firing of Coach Thijs Libregts weeks before the World Cup, leaving the reigning European champions in disarray. Not surprisingly, the Netherlands was out by the second round.

In 1994, Ruud Gullit, the best Dutch player of the post-Cruyff era, stormed out of training camp just before the team was to embark for the United States, clashing, as Cruyff had, with team officials over tactics. Without Gullit and goal-scorer Marco Van Basten, sidelined with a leg injury, the Netherlands still advanced to the quarterfinals before losing, 3-2, to Brazil.

The most devastating implosion occurred at the 1996 European championships, with Holland among the favorites. Before group play was over, midfielder Edgar Davids went sent home after charging Coach Guus Hiddink of bias against the team’s black players, and the racial tensions between the squad’s Surinamese and native-born players made cohesion on the field a near-impossibility.

Scotland stunned the Netherlands by holding the Dutch to a scoreless draw in their Euro 96 opener, and England routed Holland, 4-1, in the game that decided first place in the group. The Netherlands advanced only as the group runner-up, failed to score again against France and went out, quietly, on penalties.

Somewhat surprisingly, considering the Dutch, Hiddink kept his job in the aftermath of the Euro 96 disaster and has recalled Davids for World Cup duty. Davids’ commanding play for the Italian club team Juventus this season has been impossible, even for Hiddink, to ignore.

Hiddink has also changed formations, trashing the 3-4-3 system favored by Dutch power Ajax Amsterdam and its youth academy, a national team staple for years. Hiddink has the Dutch now playing a standard 4-4-2, which, along with the introduction of some young, fast fullbacks, has tightened up the defense.

The racial cliques remain, which is why Hiddink has hired former Dutch defensive great Frank Rijkaard, who is black, to counsel such key Surinamese players as midfielder Clarence Seedorf and forward Patrick Kluivert.

The great hope in Holland is that Hiddink and his players can bury their differences for a month a suck it up for the good of the Oranj.

Because, on paper, the track is paved for a Dutch run into the World Cup quarterfinals--and possibly beyond.

The Netherlands is easily the class of Group E, which includes troubled Mexico, non-contender South Korea and a Belgium team the Dutch outscored by an aggregate margin of 6-1 in Cup qualification play.

From there, the Netherlands would face the runner-up from Group F--Yugoslavia, probably--and then would probably draw Argentina in the quarterfinals.

With key players such as forward Dennis Bergkamp and Seedorf coming off the best seasons of their professional careers, the Netherlands rates among the best in-form teams heading into the tournament.

Bergkamp was named 1997-98 English player of the year after leading the London club team Arsenal to the prestigious English “double”--winning both the Premier League championship and the F.A. Cup.

Bergkamp should break Faas Wilkes’ Dutch record for most goals in international competition sometime during this World Cup, yet he is as much a playmaker as he is a goal-producer. Bergkamp’s only real weakness as a player is a paralyzing fear of flying, which kept him out of several pre-World Cup tuneup matches.

Good news for Holland: France is easily accessible by train.

Seedorf, at 22, is already a two-time winner of the European Champions League Cup-- in 1995 with Ajax Amsterdam and again last month with Real Madrid. Seedorf gave Juventus fits during Real Madrid’s upset victory in the Champions League final and is considered among the elite midfielders in the world.

The Netherlands also has a world-class goalkeeper in Edwin Van Der Sar; depth at forward with Marc Overmars, an Arsenal teammate of Bergkamp’s, and Kluivert, who starts for AC Milan; and an improved defense, led by central defenders Frank De Boer, the Dutch captain, and Jaap Stam, who recently moved from PSV Eindhoven to Manchester United for a $15-million transfer fee, the largest amount ever paid for a defender.

It is a side capable of becoming the true dark horse of France 98, the team most deserving of a longshot wager, provided it agrees to play with a sweeper.

A land-mine sweeper.

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GROUP E

The Schedule

SATURDAY

S. Korea vs. Mexico, 11:30 a.m. (ESPN2, Ch. 34)

Netherlands vs. Belgium, 3 p.m. (Ch. 7, Ch. 34)

JUNE 20

Belgium vs. Mexico, 11:30 a.m. (ESPN, Ch. 34)

Netherlands vs. South Korea, 3 p.m. (Ch. 7, Ch. 34)

JUNE 25

Netherlands vs. Mexico, 10 a.m. (ESPN, Ch. 34)

Belgium vs. South Korea, 10 a.m. (ESPN2, Ch. 34*)

* Highlights