Netherlands defence brings best chance to finally win World Cup, says Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink

Centre-back Virgil van Dijk will captain the Oranje as they start their World Cup campaign in Group A along with hosts Qatar, Ecuador and opening opponents Senegal

The current Netherlands side are capable of doing what the 1998 team should have, and finally winning the World Cup, according to Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink. The former Chelsea forward believes they are much more than “dark horses”.

Hasselbaink was part of the squad that went so close in 1998, only losing to Ronaldo’s Brazil in the semi-finals on penalties, and says French clubmates told him that they were glad they didn’t have to play the Dutch. While that speaks to the immense quality of that Netherlands team, Hasselbaink believes that this side can go further.

“I do think they have got the talent,” he told The Independent. “I think they will go far. I think they are the dark horse, and I even think they might win it.

“Why I’m saying that? For once, they’ve got the solid defence, a lot of good defenders, and also we can now score goals with set-pieces and all that kind of stuff. Before, we could only score perfect kinds of goals, with combinations and getting chances. The only thing we are missing is an out-and-out striker. But World Cups have been won without out-and-out strikers, they haven’t won without a good defence. France was playing with a striker who had not one goal.

“So it has proven that it is possible, defensively I expect quite a lot from the Dutch. They have been football-wise, tactical-wise, always good, so I expect a really good Dutch World Cup.”

And to finally do what they failed to do in three finals. While the Dutch sides of 1974, 1978 and 2010 went further than 1998, Hasselbaink remains adamant that was their best chance.

“We were very unlucky in the semi-final against Brazil. That was the year that the Dutch should have won it. That was the year that we were very close to winning it. We have never won it, even now thinking back to the players who have never won it and were part of the team…we lost it on penalties against Brazil.

“Speaking to Marcel Desailly, who won it that year and was playing with me at Chelsea, they didn’t want to play us. They wanted to play Brazil, because they felt that they had a better chance beating Brazil instead of beating us. We were so much more fluent, we were playing really well. So for us not to have won it yet, and not win it in 1998 was a big disappointment.”

Hasselbaink now lauds Louis van Gaal as an “absolutely top manager” who has brought the squad together, in similar way to Guus Hiddink in 1998, albeit through different means. Hasselbaink praises Hiddink for bringing Edgar Davids back in after he was sent home from Euro 96.

“What Hiddink did really, really well is, even though he sent Davids home, they patched up afterwards. They had a good chat together, and he saw where Davids came from. While other managers would have never patched up, I think he acknowledged that with Davids in his team he would be a lot stronger, but also Davids was under pressure to perform straight away as well.

“That helped the Dutch national team. I think he was one of the best players in that World Cup. He was the engine that kept a lot going. That brought everybody a little bit together as a squad. That’s why we were so strong. Don’t get me wrong, we had a lot of talent, but the Dutch national team has had always a lot of talent. What they didn’t really have was the team ethics, and that year we had it really well.

“In 2010, against Spain, where the team ethics were really good as well, but they weren’t playing well. They were solid, and it was a really non-Dutch team. They played a different formation and that was a big thing that was going on in Holland, because the Dutch really have to play 4-3-3 - which they have stepped away from now as well.

“So, yeah, not winning it in 1998 was a big disappointment.”