National Team Hybrids

January 2nd, 2010 | by: Jan |

Netherlands Germany If the auto industry can do it, why shouldn’t football?

Germany and the Netherlands have been waiting for a big trophy for 16 and 24 years respectively. Both will travel to South Africa with ambitious and quality teams. Both teams have to deal with a few understrength positions too, though. So I decided to follow Uli Hoeness’ and Louis van Gaal’s example at Bayern Munich and see what a Dutch-German hybrid national team could look like and what it could achieve.

Formation: 4-2-3-1
A 4-2-3-1 seems to be the formation of choice for Bert van Marwijk and Jogi Löw has also done some experimenting with it during the Euros and recent World Cup qualifiers. While I prefer a clean 4-4-2 for Germany, a 4-2-3-1 is a good compromise and with the Dutch influence should certainly work better than what Jogi Löw assembled in the past.

Neuer
Manuel Neuer is playing a flawless season at Schalke, is strong on the line and in command of his penalty box. He can save penalties and for a goalkeeper is a pretty good football player too. His goal kicks and throws are a real weapon and ideal for rapid counter attacks.

Lahm – Mertesacker – Boateng – van der Wiel
Joris Mathijsen could be an experienced and solid alternative to Boateng, but Mertesacker already brings a greater ability to anticipate attacks and organize a defense, so I will rather take Boateng’s pace and proficiency in one on one situations. Höwedes and Hummels would be first rate alternatives as well. Neither Germany or the Netherlands managed to produce a great right-back recently though, which might be the only weaker position in this team.

De Jong – Schweinsteiger
Since Louis van Gaal found Schweinsteiger a new position in Bayern’s midfield, he suddenly looks like the midfielder he promised to be but never lived up to four years ago. Alongside de Jong with his heart, tackles and workrate the two will be everywhere to clean up the midfield and support the attack and defense.

Elia – Özil – Sneijder
Technique, vision, creativity, pace and work rate of the highest order. You might want Özil and Elia to be a little bit older and mature, but I’m willing to take that gamble.

van Persie
I haven’t seen any of the current crop of German strikers perform effectively in a one striker setup so far. With the quality of service this player is going to get though, you could argue that an expert finisher like maybe van Nistelrooy would be a better pick.

Coach: Bert van Marwijk
Van Marwijk speaks German and Dutch, while Löw only speaks Swabian. Without any Stuttgart players in this team to translate, this could cause major communication problems. I personally also have my doubts about Löw’s qualities as a tournament and big match coach. Van Marwijk has yet to prove his abilities here, and as such receives the benefit of the doubt. He is being accused of favoritism though, which could mean he will somehow try and force Mark van Bommel into this team. But that’s still better than Löw’s Stuttgart favoritism, which might land Thomas Hitzelsperger a World Cup ticket. I chose the lesser of two evils.

Bench: Michael Ballack, Johan Cruyff
I’m a generous person and I always want people to do well and achieve their dreams in life. I don’t really need them in the team, but would sub them in late in the second half of the World Cup final, so they finally get their hands on the big one. Condition is though, that they don’t act as dressing room cancers. Ideally both spent most of their time in their hotel rooms. Ballack can watch LOST episodes on DVD. Cruyff can toy around with formations for the Catalan national team, for the next important friendly against a team coached by Diego Maradonna.

So, that’s my Dutch-German hybrid. Six German players, five Dutch players and one Dutch coach. I received word from German and Dutch diplomats that they approve of this selection. But you could obviously still tinker with this lineup and optimize it further I guess. It’s a team that will peak early and then defy physics by picking up steam still as the tournament progresses. It will win beautiful, ugly and on penalties. It will take an early lead and score four more on counter attacks. It will fall behind twice and come back thrice. It’s certainly a better bet to win the World Cup than either Germany or the Netherlands alone.

Now, which other country could join your national team to help turn it into world beaters? You can take the easy route and always pick Brazil or Spain of course. But you could also be more creative and/or you could factor in aspects like language and culture to create a hybrid that wouldn’t just look good on paper.

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Kanzu

Argentia/Brazil maybe? Spain/Portugal?
http://littlemissdiana.blogpsot.com diana

Interesting, Jan.

But for me as a born and bred Singaporean growing up with how the history of my country intertwine with our next-door neighbour Malaysia to some extent and the football rivalry which also exist between the two nations (or it is more during my father’s time), personally for me it will be impossible to create a hybrid or some sort on the football side of things between the two national teams.

I still remembered back when there were murmurs of whether Singapore and Malaysia could become one country (it was the case in 1963 because up till then my country was still controlled by our British colonial masters to a certain extent as we were attaining gain self-government, before two years later in 1965 both nations went separate ways and my country became a fully independent state as a result) again, the reaction in the press were swift and fast. No way is this going to happen again.

The school of thought is that given we have been doing fine and well since we were being left on our own (as in my country), why a merger of the two nations again? During those times from 1963 onwards, even if you are born in Singapore, your nationality is a Malaysian. That was until what happened in 1965. I am being brought up in a post-independent nation where we enjoy our progress and success (that is apart from outside events which do affect us, like the financial crisis for example), away from the years where it was a time of change and turbulence in my country during my parents’ early childhood days.

I can just imagine if it translates to the football side of things, it will be a disaster. And after all, the first-ever football match I watched live in a stadium itself involve both my country and Malaysia and I remembered I was delighted when we won (it was a regional tournament, and we were through to the final after the penalty shoot-out). That was the feeling I had, like as if we have won the World Cup (we actually eventually went on to win in the final itself).
ED

Jan, you made some good choices, but I would still take Loew as the coach because he is a master tactician and was in the semis in 06 and Euro 08 final! Robben could be in the mix for a winger spot and I am not sure about Van Persie as the lone striker up top because he is not a back to the goal guy at all, Kiessling or Gomez would be better in that formation IMO.

The Elia, Oezil and Sneijder combo in attack would be deadly though and with that combo it might not matter who the lone striker is!
Jacob

“Now, which other country could join your national team to help turn it into world beaters? You can take the easy route and always pick Brazil or Spain of course.”

It’s hard to imagine many US players making the team if it were a US/Brazil or US/Spain hybrid anyway. How about US/Canada? Then the fans would be arrogant, yet unfailingly polite.
ish

how about what team Great Britain would produce, england, ireland, wales and scotland could make a decent team, even if most of them would be english im guessing quite a few from the other countries might get a look in.
Jacek

Lets hope germany annexes netherlands agian so we can see this beast. I’m sure no one would oppose if it meant the world (cup)
Michel-Olivier

neuer
v.d.wiel-heitinga-mertesacker-lahm
de jong-ballack
schweinsteiger-sneijder-robben
kiessling
mlyons

Heitinga? You haven’t been watching too many Everton matches this season, I’d guess.
megan

US & Mexico. You’d have speed and technical ability matched with athleticism and defensive solidity. Plus, great fans.
megan

Howard, Rojas, Marquez, Onyewu, Bocanegra, Bradley, Pardo, Donovan Guardado, Dempsey, Vela in a 4-2-3-1. I’m still not sure about the rightback position though.
http://bcfcgoals.blogspot.com Chris

How about an hybrid team of English speaking nations? They could play a Spanish speaking nations team and French speaking nations team plus any others that want to get together. That could be interesting
David

How about re-uniting the old USSR?
arshavinist

How about a world XI?
Jose62

“How about an hybrid team of English speaking nations? They could play a Spanish speaking nations team and French speaking nations team plus any others that want to get together. That could be interesting”

Now that’s an interesting idea. Though English speaking nations would mostly comprise the Home Nations, USA and Australia… The USA might contribute Tim Howard, but England would likely dominate the starting XI.

The Francophonie would kill as well… imagine a France, Ivory Coast, and Algerian team.

Without personal bias (I try :P ), though, it’s the Spanish speaking nations that have it. Always the most represented language at the World Cups, imagine the Spain national team mixed in with Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Mexico, Ecuador, Uruguay… The best team you could get along language lines.

Special mention to the Arab speaking countries, as they would definitely comprise a large swathe of talented countries (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Tunisia, Algeria again, Morocco).
Jacob

The Portuguese-speaking (including Brazilian Portuguese) team wouldn’t be too bad either. This could have the makings of a global tournament: the World Languages Cup. A pretty fun tournament, imagine the field of Spanish, French, English, Portuguese, Arabic, Korean, Russian, and German. Single-nation languages need not apply.
Loewsmilesbetter

The German-speaking team: Germany, Austria, Switzerland – and watch that: Liechtenstein ! Unbeatable ;-)
Juliet

The German/Dutch team sounds like a wall of iron. If I were any other country, that kind of team would make me pack up my bags and head home. :) I like the idea of picking Neuer for GK, though he seems shaky lately (surely temporary). Happily, Germany doesn’t lack GKs, and there’s always Adler (even Butt has surprised me, I think he’s more reliable than Weise).

Brazil/Portugal or Spain/Argentina are pretty scary, as well. Perhaps we can put Italy/France together as a “rebuilding time” team. ;)
http://goodsportblog.wordpress.com Mike de Vries

My friend Jan, I don`t know what to say. The idea itself is a little crazy.

I`ve been brain-washed perhaps but I look at your team – and its a good one – and I wish to myself that it had a Dutch spine.

This has more to do with my own feelings of inadequacies about the Dutch team than anything but I would much rather see van Bommel in for the `Steiger and a fully fit Robben on the left alongside Sneijder in the middle behind van Persie is my choice.

And why is Cruyff on your bench? Lol, I really dig your team I’m just so biased.
Nick

Jan, since you are talking about the EM I think you meant 14 and 22 respectively. History aside, I don’t think a Dutch German combination would work. The Dutch style has turned into an unnatural counter-attacking one, it’s like calling a grapefruit Oranje.

Also the German style has changed too. It used to rely on defense for its counterattacking style, but now there are only too few trustworthy German defenders. Seems Loew wanted to change Germany into Oranje or Seleção without quite getting there and with a similarly shaky defense as the two.

Well the end result would probably be much better than a Germany-Austria combination like in 1938!
Samuel Oudegeest

For Oranje, I would prefer all low countries.

OK I was really hoping to snag Vermaelen. That spark he’s added to Arsenal is what Oranje used to get from de Boers, Stam and other big defenders.
http://goodsportblog.wordpress.com Mike de Vries

I don’t think I would call it an unnatureal counterattacking style. Given the young speedy attackers we have available it makes sense to adopt such a style.

The formation still resembles the old 4-3-3. What we saw at the Euro2008 tournament against France and Italy is what that formation is all about.

The midfielders we have now, de Jong, van Bommel don’t allow us to run the game but they do allow us to break up attacks and start the counter quickly.
Alex

Although this hybrid team would have the Brazilians and Spanish shit 7 different colours, it’s sadly a utopia, if Germany wasn’t totally German speaking but a bit in between Dutch-German and vica versa, like the former Diets, it would have a link. The only link now is that they’re both Germanic languages. Maybe someday, 2800?? it’ll change, but I doubt it, we’ll all speak English by then.
I’m quite unhappy with being a citizen of the Netherlands right now actually. I’d rather had it either having a successful conquering frenzy in the European mainland and be one of the big boys, with Belgium, Luxemburg, parts of western Germany and Northern France and perhaps Denmark. I curse all of my former and weak statesmen throughout history for letting us remain a bouncing ball or asset between the big countries.
Or, I’d prefer it just having been gulfed up and integrated by a bigger country like France or Germany. At least we would have a clear future, influence and some perspective in club and country football.
Alex

But a less far away hybrid team is Dutch-Belgian, I’ll leave Luxemburg out of it since I can’t remember a top footballer ever coming from there. Though LB is an uncertainty, I’ll just put my own preference.

—————————V.d.Sar
V.d.Wiel—-V.Buyten—Vermaelen—Lombaerts
——————–Fellaini-De Jong
Robben—————Sneijder——————Elia
————————V.Persie

Bench:
Stekelenburg, Bailly, Heitinga, Mathijsen, Vertonghen, Kompany, De Zeeuw, V.d.Vaart, Afellay, V.Bommel, Dembele, Kuyt

Thats 7 or 8 Dutch, and 3 or 4 Belgian in the starting line-up
7 or 8 Dutch and 3 or 4 on the bench, so a total of 15 Dutch and 8 Belgian making 23.

Reserves: Witsel, Vlaar, Maduro, Babel, Drenthe, Emanuelson, Braafheid, Bouma, Pocognoli, Mirallas, Wuytens, De Guzman, Bakkal, Bruma, Fer, Mertens, Hazard, Lukaku, Krul, Vorm, Velthuizen, Boulahrouz, Defour, Martens, Wijnaldum, V.Wolfswinkel, VandenBorre, Lamah, De Sutter, De Camargo, V.Nistelrooij, Huntelaar.

And a possible U-21 looks mouthwatering in potential

———————Krul
Janmaat-Alderweireld-Bruma-Pieters
Hazard—–Witsel—–Fer——-Wijnaldum
————Lukaku-Castaignos

Mignolet, Janmaat, Viergever, De Laet, Kuiper, Carcela-Gonzalez, Vadis Odjidja,V.Wolfswinkel, Strootman, Falkenburg, Barazite.

7 Dutch, 4 Belgians in starting XI
7 Dutch, 4 Belgians on bench, 1 keeper missing :)