Former Chelsea and Bayern Munich winger Arjen Robben has given a strange motivational message to the Netherlands women's team ahead of the forthcoming World Cup.
Robben, who won 96 caps for the men's Dutch side, was speaking to the squad at their ongoing training camp in an open Q and A format. The women's squad will fly out in the coming weeks for the World Cup finals, joint-hosted by Australia and New Zealand.
Netherlands are in Group E with United States, Vietnam and Portugal, facing their European counterparts in their opening game on July 23. But before that Robben was on hand to offer some unique advice before the women's side travel to Auckland.
"If you start thinking 's***, the World Cup final, maybe I'll never experience this again', then you're already wrong," Robben told the team. "You know what to do, you know what you are capable of. Because when you're this far in a tournament, you know what makes you strong. Go do that.
"You have to think: 'yes, today we will make sure we become world champions. Or that we will be in the final or semi-final.'
"That defines the best, the strongest. Doing exactly the right thing when it counts. Because they know: this is what I’m good at. If you go onto the field with s*** in your pants, you might as well stay inside."
Although Robben's choice of phrase was unusual, the former Dutch star does know how to it feels to fall at the final hurdle in the biggest tournament on the planet. Robben was part of the Netherlands' men's team that reached the 2010 World Cup final in South Africa.
In a bad-tempered final, Robben and his teammates were narrowly beaten by Spain, 1-0, thanks to an extra-time strike from Andres Iniesta. The women's side were beaten finalists in 2019, after a 2-0 defeat to USA in Lyon.
However they have experience of winning major trophies, following their triumph in the 2017 Women's Euros on home soil. With the likes of Jackie Groenen and Danielle van de Donk in their squad, the Dutch are expected to be one of the main contenders for the trophy.
Robben also referred to his mentality when winning the treble with former club Bayern Munich in 2013 and how that could help the Oranje leeuwinnen this summer.
"How do you respond to that pressure," he added. "How do you deal with that?Are you going to highlight it negatively or are you going to highlight it positively? I experienced that very well myself at the Champions League final, for example.
"At that point we had already lost it twice. If you lose it again, you become a bit of a loser who loses everything.
"I only had one thing on my mind: no matter what happens, we're just going to win today. That is really the most important thing."
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