Dick Advocaat does not understand that the name of Bert van Marwijk has never been mentioned as Frank de Boer’s successor at the Dutch national team. The two former national coaches will face each other on Tuesday during the World Cup qualifier between the United Arab Emirates and Iraq. For both trainers, with two points from three matches, only the win counts if they still want to have a chance of participating in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Louis van Gaal was the only candidate for the KNVB this summer to take over the baton from De Boer as national coach of the Dutch after a failed European championship. Lawyer is surprised about this. “You know what I find so crazy? That Bert was not even mentioned as a candidate national coach of the Dutch national team”, Advocaat told Football International. “When De Boer left, I did not hear his name. If you look at what he’s accomplished in his career, that’s amazing, isn’t it? Won the UEFA Cup, KNVB Cup, brought Saudi Arabia to the World Cup and, in my opinion the greatest achievement, came second with the Dutch during the World Cup. Second!”
According to Advocaat, everyone is still talking about Van Gaal’s third place at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, but Van Marwijk’s performance four years earlier is at least as good, according to the Iraq national coach. “We were vice world champions, you know,” Advocaat continues. “Very special, it seems that everyone has forgotten that. But Bert is not yet seventy years old, is in the middle of life, has an awful lot of experience. I think Van Gaal is a top trainer, but Bert is also very good.”
Van Marwijk says that after his departure from the Dutch, he immediately said that the Dutch national team has visited him once. “Dick it was three times,” recalls the United Arab Emirates national coach. “Now Louis has also become the third time and the oldest national coach in the history of our football. Everyone his thing. I had a great time for three years, eleven months and two weeks. Only the last two weeks were not fun, because things went wrong during the European Championship in 2012. But two years before that we were second at the World Cup. That’s how close it is.”
According to Van Marwijk, being a national coach in the Netherlands is a tough job. “You are in the news every day, because you are discussed and weighed. And then?” he wonders. “Look at Frank de Boer, I found it painful how we dealt with such a boy. Even Joachim Löw, world champion in 2014, and Didier Deschamps, champion with France four years later, suffered.” The United Arab Emirates and Iraq will face each other in Dubai on Tuesday evening at 6:45 pm.