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A new duel between old rivals

Portugal and Netherlands played nine matches in the last two seasons, and 16 if we go further down the past. There's rivalry between these two teams, but the Dutch have good memories of Matosinhos

The Portuguese are among the top four teams of the Division 2 only thanks to the fact they're hosting the final tournament. They didn't make an impression in any of the nine matches of the Intercontinental phase, quite the opposite, and they only got two wins. To make things worse, the coach Francisco Santos used his best players for most of the matches, and they lacked to show the quality needed for the Final Four.

- We definitely could've done better than 2-7 - Santos admitted, and added: - Everything is focused on the Final Four in Matosinhos and we timed our form for those two matches.

There are plenty of weaknesses in the Portuguese camp, the inconsistent reception, one-dimensional offense, great number of mistakes. Alexandre Ferreira is the best player of his team, the key player, and realistically, he can't win the matches in the Division 2 by himself. The setters Gaspar and Marco Ferreira showed almost nothing, and the mediocre Marcel Gil stood out next to A. Ferreira.

They've only managed to beat Korea and Finland, and gambled away 2-0 and 14-11 in the fifth set against Slovakia. The weakened Cuba beat them in five sets, and that says it all.

- We've worked hard for the last three weeks to improve our form for the Final Four we're hosting. We're playing Netherlands, a team that changed their lineup a lot compared to our previous duels, but they gave us a lesson in the first tournament. I'm sure we're going to be better this time, we don't want to settle with the semifinal - Ferreira made it clear.

It's no secret they are relying on being the hosts, but considering their questionable quality, we're not sure the audience is going to be a big help.

Gido Vermuelen, the Dutch coach, lost a few players just before the national team season began (Kooy, Klapwijk, Van Harskamp, Bontje), the setter Abdelaziz decided to change the position and will be the opposite next season, so there were certain changes in the team. The Dutch played with two new setters, new opposite, Diefenbach is now the captain and there were a lot of questions about their abilities.

Still, the first tournament showed they've got the quality. The opposite Ter Maat proved to be a surprise and he pushed out the experienced Van Dijk from the lineup before the latter one got injured, and he'll be out this weekend, too. The receivers Van Garderen and Rauwerdink confirmed they're good, and Netherlands ended the Intercontinental phase with 6-3 score. They almost got out of the Top 3 by the end of it, but the Canadians helped them by taking two sets against Finland in the last match.

- I think we deserved to get placed to the Final Four, the second one in the last three years, even though we had to wait for the outcome of the match between Finland and Canada. There were a lot of changes, and a rejuvenated team compared to the last season, so this is a great result for us, but my goal is to get the team back to the world elite - Vermuelen was optimistic.

The Dutch showed a versatile game in the nine matches played, so none of their players got to the Top 5 with the number of points, and Van Garderen is the second most efficient player of the Division 2 with 56%.

- It's a joy to be playing with these players, we're a team in every sense of the word and the progress is obvious since Vermuelen took over. We're ready for big things - Van Garderen pointed out.

The Dutch are the only team of the Division 2 that won the World League. It was in 1996, though, so the Matosinhos tournament is their chance to mark the anniversary. Something that should be kept in mind is that they've played in Korea last week, and had to travel a long way.

They've beaten Portugal 3-0 three weeks ago, but Vermuelen pointed out:

- The match in Matosinhos will be completely different than the one in Izmir for a few reasons. Portugal are a dangerous team when they get the rhythm. Alex Ferreira is their key player, but there are other dangerous ones. Let's also not forget that they're the hosts and they'll definitely get a big boost from the stands. Either way, we have to be careful.

As for the matches in Matosinhos, the Dutch won three of four...

The Netherlands have been in the competitive rhythm for some time, because they started the preparations early, but they look wasted. They didn't play their best in World League, they lost to the Czech Republic and Turkey, and in the last match, where they needed to win in order to get to F4, they lost to Korea, so they didn't do too well under pressure either. Luckily for them, Finland didn't beat Canada 3-0 so they made it to the F4 where they're up against the weakest opponents (on paper) in the semi-finals. The team have been youthened so they oscillate a lot, and playrs such as Kooy, Maan, Botnjeo and Abdelaziz, who are out this year, were an additional value. In the group part of the World League they didn't win only once with 3-0, and against Portugal, in the beginning. Portugal were bad in the World League and they recorded only two wins, but all of that is the result of the fact that they already made it to the final tournament as the hosts, and the coach used all of the players and was looking for the best system to work in the F4. Now we are expecting to see another face of Portugal, and surely they will play a lot better than three weeks ago against the Netherlands. A year ago even Slovenia had problems here in the qualifications for the EC, who at the same EC ended up second. The difference in quality is not as big as the betting houses think, and Portugal have been strengthened with the home court, and they can even surprise here and earn the finals. This margin for the total number of points is at least five points too low, and the match is completely open.