Familiarity adds spice to Morocco-Netherlands last-32 clash

MONTERREY, Mexico, June 27 : Star-laden Morocco and the Netherlands have the potential to produce a riveting Round of 32 tie at the World Cup, underpinned by a societal subtext that adds a healthy spice to the game in Monterrey on Monday.

There is a large degree of familiarity, even if the countries have only played each other three times in the past, with Morocco having three Dutch-born players in their side and their top scorer here, Ismael Saibari, playing at PSV Eindhoven.

Morocco have drawn extensively on Dutch expertise over the last decade to build a team which reached the semi-finals at the last World Cup and have again impressed by finishing in second place behind Brazil in Group C but only on goal difference.

Morocco amassed seven points, beating Scotland and Haiti, and played with more pressing intensity and intelligent movement to suggest they are going to be hard to overcome.

"I'm not sure if we're the favourites in the match against Morocco. It's a good team with a lot of quality and they can score easily," Dutch coach Ronald Koeman told reporters after his side topped Group F on Thursday with a win over Tunisia.

The Netherlands started their World Cup campaign slowly with a draw against Japan but scored five versus Sweden and three against Tunisia and are also looking in good form.

“There are players who love to get on the ball. I’ve got a group of lads that work really well together and have a great team spirit,” added Koeman, who was captain of the team when the Dutch beat Morocco at the 1994 World Cup in Orlando.

LARGE MOROCCAN COMMUNITY

There is a large Moroccan community in the Netherlands, estimated last year at 430,000, and footballers of Moroccan heritage are prominent in the Dutch game.

Ibrahim Afellay and Khalid Boulahrouz were in the squad when the Netherlands finished runners-up at the 2010 World Cup but other Dutch-born players have chosen to represent Morocco.

Morocco’s squad at this World Cup has Sofyan Amrabat, Noussair Mazraoui and PSV fullback Anass Salah-Eddine, who played for the Netherlands at under-21 level before switching his international allegiance last year.

The tug of loyalty for Dutch-born Moroccans is a contentious point in the Netherlands and former international Rafael van der Vaart, now a plain-speaking television pundit, caused a stir in March with comments about Dutch Moroccan players choosing Morocco.

“I don’t mean to be rude, but all Moroccans here who aren’t good enough to play for the Netherlands go on to play for Morocco. Only (Hakim) Ziyech, I would have liked to have him in the team back then,” he said.

There is expected to be visible support in Dutch cities for Morocco, which could flare tensions.

Morocco fans have been out in the Dutch streets already during the tournament celebrating their team’s success, and police on Saturday issued a plea for calm around the game, which will kick off at 3 a.m. in the Netherlands on Tuesday.

The winners advance to a last-16 tie in Houston on July 4 against the winners of Sunday’s clash between Canada and South Africa in Los Angeles.

(Writing by Mark Gleeson in Atlanta; Editing by Ken Ferris)