Post by doctordubya on Jan 13, 2004 5:00:35 GMT -5
Netherlands are a long way from the side that won the Olympics in '96. Their 2000 team came within a whisker of beating eventual champions Yugoslavia in the quarters, but that side contained Bas Van der Goor, Peter Blange and Martin Van der Horst, all of whom have since retired from the international scene.
Netherlands beat France in the pool stages and swept Germany in the semi-finals of the tournament, but were shredded by Russia in the final (19, 17, 16 IIRC). This was not quite representative of their true ability because they lost Reinder Nummerdor, their best passer and one of their stronger servers, to an injury sustained in the semi. The receiving unit was blown off the court by the Russian jump serves, and the absence of Nummerdor allowed the Russians to key on blocking Gortzen and Schuil. Even with Nummerdor, Netherlands would have lost to Russia, but they still have a chance at one of the final qualification tournaments.
On his day Guido Gortzen is still one of the best outside hitters in the world - he has tremendous power and is a killer from the left or rightside. Having played well for much of the tournament, however, he looked totally uninterested in the final and played unusually poorly. Much of this was down to Russia's blocking tactics targeting him from early on and getting some big stuffs, but he looked a shadow of his usual self in all aspects of the game. Trommel and Van der Loo were tried on the outside against Russia in place of Nummerdor - Trommel has a slingy left-hand swing and quite good heat in the jump serve, but neither hitter really looked a top level player.
Netherlands' other world class player is their opposite, Richard Schuil. He has a very powerful jump service and is a strong hitter front and back, with a particularly good line shot. Like Gortzen, however, he was keyed on by Russia right from the start in the final and struggled to get into any rhythm thereafter. He has not been posting great statistics in Serie A recently and so is probably not on top form.
The setter, Nico Freriks, has good technique and distributes the ball well. He is a bit short to be an imposing blocker, and his serve is not very menacing. As a left hander I think Netherlands need him to develop his dump shots a little more. The libero, Marko Klok, looked his age against Russia and was not very effective either as a passer or defender. Some of this may be attributed to the disruption caused by the lack of Nummerdor, and the power of the Russian serves probably didn't make life any easier. I think Klok is considered as one of the better liberos in Serie A, so perhaps he had a bad day.
For me, the biggest difference between the Netherlands of today and 10 years ago is that their current crop of middle blockers do not form the imposing wall that guys like Bas Van der Goor, van der Horst and Jan Posthuma once put up. Mike Van der Goor is better looking than his brother and is an effective attacker, but he doesn't have the range of shots or the block reading ability or speed. Rob Bontje looks about 12 years old - apart from being 6'10", of course - and is similar in terms of skills. Against Russia, both were outreached on the 1-tempo by Kazakov and Koulechov, and didn't seal to the outside fast enough to get blocks there when Russia were in system.
If Netherlands have Gortzen, Nummerdor and Schuil fit and motivated then they have the talent to qualify for Athens. Once they get there, however, I would put them on the second rank of teams (alongside France and USA), below the top tier of Brazil, Serbia, Italy and (on this tournament's showing) Russia.