[igor5]

Stuivenberg states Dutch dream

It used to be the case that the Netherlands' underage teams were never as threatening as their senior selection, but that has all changed.

Kaiser example
Not only did the Dutch claim the UEFA European Under-21 Championship title last summer, but the year before they had reached the U17 final for the first time and went on to finish third at the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Peru. Those 2005 successes boosted the reputation of coach Ruud Kaiser enough for Chelsea FC to make him their academy chief last summer but the man that has stepped into his national team role, Albert Stuivenberg, has not done badly either. In his first season in charge since leaving his position at Feyenoord he has led the Netherlands back to the U17 finals, and is delighted to have gained such an honour so quickly.

'Fantastic role'
"It is a fantastic role," said Stuivenberg. "I was at Feyenoord for 13 years as head of youth development. This is a different aspect of developing players. You are not on the pitch every day with the players but I am also assistant coach of the U16 team so I am quite busy. Up to now I am very pleased and I haven't found it a very big problem. And we are pleased we now have at least three tough games in which players can develop."

Deserved qualification
To reach next week's event in Belgium, the Netherlands had to travel to Turkey in the Elite round and defeat Wales, Belarus and the hosts - who two years ago pipped the Dutch in the European U17 final - in Antalya. Stuivenberg said: "It was well deserved I must say. In Turkey it was very tough but we won all our games without conceding. We did a good job over there. We have a good squad, and we deserve to be here in Belgium, but now we have to do the final job. They are all great teams over here. [In our group] Belgium is a nice match to play. Iceland and England we have not met but this is a nice challenge."

World Cup aim
His team showed their strength on Wednesday with a 2-0 friendly win against fellow finalists Ukraine, goals coming from Luciano Narsingh and Kaj Ramsteijn, to further boost hopes of emulating the 2005 performance in Italy that earned them that subsequent World Cup campaign in Peru . The development of members of that squad including Tim Krul, Vurnon Anita and Dirk Marcellis into promising senior players is proof of the benefits of those competitions. Five teams from the European finals will go on to this year's U17 World Cup in Korea Republic, and Stuivenberg is keen to get there. "We hope that we can go to Korea," he said. "That means we will have more top games for the players to develop in. That is our goal but first let us see what happens in the first match [in Belgium]."