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Belgium masters 'underdog speak'
Posted: Friday June 09, 2000 03:17 PM
Belgium's footballers are high on selling themselves short. When asked about their chances here in Euro 2000, which they co-host with the Netherlands, you will get a standard answer. "Getting to the second round would satisfy us," they insist. "After that, anything else is a bonus." It's your typical "underdog speak," the kind of thing the Dutch boys dare not ever say. Oh no. Holland has to start among the favorites.
But as Dutch football great Ruud Gullit told me in Amsterdam this week, the Belgian way is a little "sneaky." You see, should Belgium go out of the tournament in the quarterfinals -- the second round, in other words -- it will have lived up to expectations and fulfilled its own prediction. Should it move into the semis or even the final, it will be applauded as an over-achiever. The exact opposite is true of the Dutch. True, Holland does have a great array of talent: Patrick Kluivert, the de Boers, Dennis Bergkamp, Edwin Van der Sar, Marc Overmars, Edgar Davids, Jaap Stam and so on. That kind of talent immediately lifts a team to the lofty echelons of favoritism. Belgium, in contrast, has few headline attractions. Captain Marc Wilmots is about as good as it gets for them.
But, you know, the Belgians really aren't at all bad. Their recent results include a 3-1 win in Italy and 5-all and 2-all draws with Holland. On home soil, Belgium is no pushover -- and hasn't been for quite some time. Don't expect them to say that, though. The players the World Sport team has spoken to this week have poured out the same old lines: "we'll do our best," "the second round would be good for us," "we hope to get to the second round and then perhaps make a run," "why look further than the first round? It's stupid." But one player, reserve goalkeeper Geert de Vlieger, gave us a further insight when he said: "We're very clever about all this." Very clever indeed. A fine way of covering one's tracks. But it makes Belgium the most dangerous team in the finals in many ways. They're solid, playing in front of home fans on home ground, have an upbeat coach in Robert Waseige and are setting the bar just low enough to not fall flat on their faces. Belgium kicks it all off against Sweden in Brussels on Saturday (June 10). I wouldn't be surprised to see this purposely modest squad still playing into week three. Phil Jones is co-host of World Sport, the international sports show that airs live on CNN/Sports Illustrated and CNN International. Jones is part of the World Sport crew that is in the Netherlands and Belgium covering Euro 2000.
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