Dutch hopes safe with De Haan

With the Netherlands having fallen dispiritingly short in their attempt to qualify for the 2004 UEFA European Under-21 Championship, coach Foppe de Haan believes a change in mentality could result in the current Jong Oranje side winning this season's edition in Portugal.

Coaching pedigree
Named Dutch coach of the year in 1997 and 2000, De Haan stepped down at SC Heerenveen in the summer of 2004 as the longest-serving club coach in the country's history, having survived 12 years at the helm and groomed the likes of Ruud van Nistelrooij and Jon Dahl Tomasson. Immediately named coordinator for youth football by the Royal Netherlands Football Association, De Haan also took over an U21 team which had finished eleven points behind the Czech Republic in qualifying for these finals two years ago.

Aims
Questions were asked and De Haan emphatically answered them - with his side ending this group campaign two points clear of their old nemeses before a play-off victory against Slovenia cemented their place in these eight-team finals. Why such a turnaround? "We had to change mentality and did," the 62-year-old told uefa.com. "When I took over, people were not really satisfied with the way things were going. I made my aims clear to the boys - telling them it was important for their futures and that of the national team that they play to their highest level at the highest level. And they've done that."

'Huge advantage'
De Haan's doctrine began to pay dividends as the country hosted the FIFA World Youth Championship last summer and has flourished since. He continued: "I brought six players from that team into the U21 set-up and from that point things began to go very smoothly. The team started to play some really good football and were almost unbeatable at the level they were playing. The fact that so many of them were playing regularly for top clubs also proved a huge advantage as before we mainly used players from second division clubs and youth teams."

'Exciting times'
The fact that Marco van Basten decided against taking the likes of €9m AFC Ajax striker Klaas Jan Huntelaar, the 33-goal leading scorer in the Eredivisie, club-mate Urby Emanuelson and Feyenoord duo Romeo Castelen and Ron Vlaar to the FIFA World Cup has also boosted De Haan's hopes of capturing a first European title at this level for the Netherlands. "When I compare the quality of our forwards now to when we started this campaign, we have improved a lot," he said. "These are exciting times and I'm glad to be involved."

'Quality'
All Dutch national teams from the U17s upwards play with the same system and philosophy, a tactic which has brought plenty of admirers but not too many trophies - a statistic De Haan is determined to change over the next fortnight. "I hope we will reach the final," he said, with Wednesday's opening Group B game against Ukraine looming large. "We will have to work hard to achieve that but that is our goal. The squad contains a lot of quality players, we are not vulnerable in any department and our strength in depth is excellent." A recipe for success, perhaps.