Dutch strike force has 'very good feeling'

While Mick McCarthy finds himself without at least three of his regular first-choice defenders for Saturday's game against the Netherlands, Louis van Gaal appears to have hit upon his best striking partnership for the visit to Dublin.

Born on precisely the same day, July 1st, 1976, Patrick Kluivert and Ruud van Nistelrooy have forged a formidable partnership in their few outings together and with the Manchester United striker expected to start a competitive international for the first time this weekend, the Barcelona man says that he delighted with the qualities the more recent arrival brings to the Dutch team.

"Ruud is a very special player, he has everything," says Kluivert. "He's strong on the ball and has great pace. I think that he and I play so well together that it has been quite something.

"The way we clicked was almost telepathic," he added. "Normally you have to play together a few times to get used to someone. With Ruud, we understood each other immediately and it was a very good feeling."

While the pair are the same age and now look set to establish themselves as the Dutch coach's first-choice pairing in attack, their career paths have been very different with Kluivert establishing himself as a teenager as a first-team regular in an Ajax side that won and lost European Cup finals while Van Nistelrooy was still a low-key second-division player at Den Bosch.

In 1997, as Kluivert was moving to Milan, Van Nistelrooy was finally getting a crack at top-flight football thanks to a move to Herenveen. Thirteen goals in 31 games there was enough to earn him a £4.4 million move to PSV and at Eindhoven he did enough to establish a reputation for himself internationally, scoring 60 goals in 57 games before suffering the knee injury that delayed his move to Manchester United.

"Their paths were very different," says Voetball International journalist Ramon Min, "because Kluivert was taken in and developed by the coaches at Ajax which gave him a great advantage.

"Van Nistelrooy had to do things the hard way, proving himself first in the lower divisions so that he could get a move to a good club like Herenveen and then there to prove that he was a ready to play for one of the big three."

Kluivert, meanwhile, kicked off his fourth season at Barcelona in some style over the weekend when he scored both goals in his club's win at Seville. Afterwards, Barcelona boss Charly Rexach said: "He's very fit and more confident than ever." "

Having scored in his last four competitive internationals, he's likely to arrive in Dublin with a spring in his step, too.