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Holland coach Bert van Marwijk today trimmed his provisional FIFA World Cup™ squad to 27 players after confirming Otman Bakkal, Wout Brama and David Mendes Da Silva would not travel to South Africa.
Van Marwijk made the decision ahead of a training camp in Austria. "I think the balance in the group is better now," the coach said. Vurnon Anita survived the cull with Van Marwijk talking up the chances of the Ajax left-back.
"He is versatile, fast, aggressive and dares to attack," he said in De Telegraaf newspaper. He can play right-back as well for example. We have some problems in certain positions. (Giovanni) van Bronckhorst is not yet fit while (Khalid) Boulahrouz and (Edson) Braafheid have had little playing time and are lacking rhythm."
The party which travels to Austria will be missing Bayern Munich duo Arjen Robben and Mark van Bommel and Inter Milan's Wesley Sneijder with all three due to participate in next Saturday's Champions League final in Madrid.
