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Journalism of Courage
Two days after their agonising defeat by the Czech Republic the Dutch are desperately trying to look forward to their match against Latvia.
The squad is still visibly bruised after the fall-out from their wasted opportunity to take a huge step towards the quarter-finals after throwing away a 2-0 lead to lose 3-2 to the Czechs.
Two of the three Czech goals were caused by defensive errors. “It wasn’t only back luck, we made too many mistakes,” captain Philip Cocu said.
Despite all the goals and the hype surrounding a magnificent match, the decision which appeared to settle it was Robben’s substitution in favour of defensive midfielder Paul Bosvelt.
“We had some discussion among the technical staff about that change,” said assistant coach Van Hanegem. “But I think we are over-rated. We have quality players but not a team who will run over every opponent.” (Reuters)
