For the second weekend in a row and with just nine days to go to their Euro 2004 opener against arch-rivals Germany and the Dutch are in disarray.
Holland may have beaten the Faroe Islands 3-0 in midweek but they have fallen to successive 1-0 home losses to Belgium last weekend and Ireland on Saturday in warm-ups with some of the world’s top strikers failing to score.
Dutch, who have the likes of Patrick Kluivert, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Roy Makaay and Pierre van Hooijdonk to chose from up front, failed to get off the mark. “We played a very poor match,” Advocaat said. After the break, with Robbie Keane having scored for Ireland seconds before halftime, Rafael van der Vaart came in for Van Nistelrooy while Clarence Seedorf replaced the totally out of form Kluivert.