“A Sarina-plus. Someone who can surpass Sarina, who understands women’s football well.” That was the profile of the KNVB for the new national coach of the Orange Women.
Whether Mark Parsons is the ‘Sarina-plus’ is still difficult to say. “But it is different from what we are used to,” says Vivianne Miedema. “We’ve had a lot of information in the first two days and that takes some time.”
There is hardly any time for the Brit Parsons and the football players. On Friday-evening, the team has to play against the Czech Republic in Groningen. No practice match to get into it, but directly a World Cup qualifier.
Switching
And that while a changing of the guard so soon after a disappointing Olympic Games asks quite a lot. “Many girls have to switch to English,” says Miedema. “We have several staff changes and there are some young girls. So the dynamics are a bit different.”
Watch below in the interviews with Vivianne Miedema and Jackie Groenen:
