Netherlands coach Louis van Gaal hailed the efforts of his squad in fighting back from two goals down to force their World Cup quarter-final against Argentina into a penalty shootout even though their ultimate exit proved to be painful.
Coach Bert van Marwijk, Dutch officials and many of the press did not hear any racist abuse during Wednesday's session but it has since emerged that a handful of the squad did.
A season without injuries may never happen in the whimsical career of Arjen Robben, yet despite all the setbacks he remains the most lethal threat in the Dutch team.
PSV Eindhoven, unbeaten in all competitions this season, cruised to a 3-1 win at Heerenveen in the Dutch Cup fourth round on Saturday.
"The difficult thing about him is when we are attacking, he is chilling somewhere in a corner or something," remembered Van Dijk.
For the Dutch, opener Max O'Dowd came up with a valiant 71 not out from 53 balls (6x4, 3x6) but he lacked the final flourish, with hardly any support from the middle and lower order batters.
Manchester United have signed Dutch international goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar from Premier League rivals Fulham.
Germany may field just one man up front to concentrate on neutralising the dangerous Dutch strikers, including the prolific Ruud van Nistelrooy.
India's star batter Virat Kohli didn't join the team's optional practice session in Thiruvananthapuram due to personal reasons but is expected to link up with the squad before the second warm-up game against The Netherlands on Tuesday.
Feyenoord scored three times in the first half as they romped to a 4-0 home win over Roda JC Kerkrade and went top of the Dutch league on Sunday.
Images from Day 4 of the 2024 Australian Open in Melbourne on Wednesday.
It was the first time the US had beaten the Dutch whose defeat continued a run of mediocre results since they came third at last year's World Cup. It will also heap the pressure on them ahead of next week's vital Euro 2016 qualifier away to Latvia.
Pat Cummins on Wednesday said the five-time champions were slowly coming to their groove
Max Verstappen won Red Bull's home Austrian Grand Prix from pole position and with the fastest lap on Sunday for the team's 10th successive Formula One victory and ninth in nine races this season.
"They had a few biters, guys who are hot on your heels. Then you have to act quickly, and (we) could have dealt with that better. We should have done better in possession of the ball," said Dutch captain Virgil van Dijk.
Fear of further semi-final failure is all that stands in the way of a classic when slick-passing Portugal meet a fast improving Netherlands side.
This is India's fourth ODI World Cup final.
Tata Communications on Monday said it was considering challenging the Dutch court verdict, which has allowed access to its cable landing station in Mumbai for Anil Ambani Group's Flag Telecom. Reliance Globalcom on its part confirmed receiving a copy of the judgement and said the Hague court had rejected all claims made by VSNL. Flag Telecom, a subsidiary of Anil Ambani-led Reliance Telecom, wanted access to Mumbai landing station of Flag Europe Asia.
A JKLF spokesman said the Kashmir issue was discussed at the meeting, but did not spell out the details.
Holders Manchester City will take on RB Leipzig, Red Star Belgrade and Young Boys in Group G.
Manchester United goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar is making a brief Dutch comeback for this month's World Cup qualifiers. Netherlands coach Bert van Marwijk included Van der Sar, who retired from international football after Euro 2008, in his 22-man squad for the Group Nine games against Iceland in Rotterdam on October 11 and away to Norway four days later. Goalkeepers Maarten Stekelenburg of Ajax and Feyenoord's Henk Timmer, who is in the squad, are both nursing injuries.
The 71-year-old, who has battled with cancer over the last year, concluded his third spell as the Netherlands coach with their penalty shootout loss and will be replaced by Ronald Koeman.
'The results do matter to keep the dressing room lively. We are playing in India, there will be expectations. We wanted to do the job at hand. It's one thing to talk about it, but for everyone to buy into it is very important.'
The 24-year-old Indian went down to Anders Boesen of Denmark in the last 16.
"We are also a country that has a chance to become world champions because I hope we are the best team."
Chetan Anand's bid to win his third title on the trot came crashing as the national champion went down fighting against third seed Indonesian Andre K Tedjono in the men's singles final at the Dutch Open Grand Prix badminton tournament in Amsterdam on Sunday. Sixth seed Chetan lost 15-21, 21-11, 19-21 in a 51-minute gruelling battle.
National champion Chetan Anand and Aditi Mutatkar sailed into the semi-finals even as mixed doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and V Diju crashed out in the Dutch Open badminton tournament in Amsterdam on Friday. In the women's singles, Aditi defeated Indonesia's Rosaria Yusfin Pungkasari 12-21, 21-13, 21-18, while sixth seed Chetan got the better off 13th seed Ari Yuli W Hartanto of Indonesia 21-8, 21-16 in 29 minutes to stay on course for his third consecutive title.
France produced a scintillating show as they put memories of one of the most painful moments in their soccer history to one side by crushing Bulgaria 4-1 in a World Cup Group A qualifier on Friday.
Fit-again Arjen Robben and Wesley Sneijder scored either side of the break on Sunday to earn the Netherlands a 2-0 home win over Wales in their final friendly before the Euro 2008 finals.
Netherlands coach Louis van Gaal took advantage of the first official water break at the World Cup to switch tactics and conjure up a late win for his side over Mexico on Sunday.
Nude bikers take to the streets in Mexico City; the Pride parade in Istanbul; Ukrainians grads celebrate the last day of school in Derhachi; the Santa Claus school in Rio de Janeiro and yellow ducks float off Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong.
The 2023 World Cup culminated with Australia extending their World Cup title wins to six with a six-win over India in the final played here on Sunday.
Prosus NV, an investor in educational startup Byjus, on Tuesday said the troubled company's reporting and governance structure did not evolve sufficiently for a company of that scale and it "regularly disregarded advice" despite repeated efforts by the Dutch-listed technology firm's former director. Prosus, which this year slashed its valuation of Byju's to $5.1 billion from $22 billion last year, said the decision for its director to step down from Byju's board last month was mainly because he was "unable to fulfil his fiduciary duty to serve the long-term interests of the Company and its stakeholders." In a statement, Prosus said Byju's grew considerably since its first investment in 2018.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said the instructions originated from an Al Qaeda design for chemical weapons dating back to 2003.
Second-half goals from Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Robin van Persie gave Netherlands a 2-0 triumph over Romania on Tuesday, wrecking their hopes of qualifying for the Euro 2008 quarter-finals. Huntelaar sidefooted home in the 54th minute from a right-wing cross by Ibrahim Afellay and Van Persie made sure of victory with a fierce left-foot drive in the 87th after expertly controlling a free kick by Demy de Zeeuw.
'I don't like people talking before matches. That's not part of football. I always respect everyone, but I like to be respected too.'
Netherlands may be among the favourites to win the World Cup but they suffered a scare on Saturday when they narrowly avoided defeat by Japan in their first match since completing qualification for next year's finals.
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