England National Football Team Match No. 824

Wednesday, 9 February 2005

England 0 Netherlands 0 [0-0]

Netherlands Pre-Match

Notes

Friday, 4 February 2005 - Marco van Basten has named two English based players in the Netherlands squad to face England at Villa Park on Wednesday.  Fulham's Edwin van der Sar and Birmingham's Mario Melchiot will both take on England next week.  Mark van Bommel of PSV Eindhoven and former Arsenal star Giovanni van Bronckhorst have been called up by the Dutch boss, while forwards Dirk Kuijt and Roy Makaay have also been included.  There are also some unfamiliar names included by van Basten, and David Beckham could be in for some competition in the free kick stakes after Ugur Yildirim was named for the first time.  Yildirim, who has Turkish parents and only pledged his loyalty to the Netherlands this month, recently won the World free-kick Championships in Marbella - easily beating French star Zinedine Zidane amongst a host of other world-wide names.  He is almost certain to feature in the game at some point, as van Basten will want to ensure the Heerenveen forward is no longer eligible for Turkey.  

Tuesday, 8 February 2005 - Young Ajax-star Wesley Sneijder has been ruled out of Netherlands’ clash with the English in Birmingham.  The offensive midfielder picked up a hamstring injury during the first practice session. Van Basten has not called a replacement for the player who featured most in Netherlands’ first six matches under Van Basten.

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CG