World Cup Preview : Netherlands - Slovakia

Dutch Delight

As far as group stages go, the Netherlands will be pleased with their efforts so far, seemingly playing in second gear and managing to win all three games.

The opener against Denamrk was dull and required a bit of luck when a Daniel Agger own-goal opened the scoring. Afterwards, they were the only ones able to defeat a hard-working Japan side, eventually breaking them down with a Wesley Sneijder strike. Finally, a relatively meaningless match against Cameroon saw Robin van Persie and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar find the net, but more importantly winger Arjen Robben make a successful return from the sidelines.

Now it's time for coach Bert van Marwijk and his squad to hit top gear. The Dutch have typically been known as underachievers at the World Cup and can't afford any mistakes now. If they can play to their potential, Slovakia will fall by the wayside and the Oranje camp will be in excellent shape ahead of a potential quarter-final clash with Brazil or Chile.

Van Persie knows this better than anyone:

"Hopefully this will be our year, but we have to show now that we learned from the last two or three tournaments. Most of our guys have two, three or even four tournaments in their legs so hopefully we can show now that we learned from that. I do believe that we can win it, but we still need to do it.

"The match against Slovakia will be a tough game, very tough. I saw bits and pieces of their game earlier on and for them to beat Italy like that, it is unbelievable, so we need to be really sharp."

Slovakia Slay The Giant

After their opening two matches, in which they were extremely disappointing against New Zealand and Paraguay in Group F, no one gave Slovakia a chance against the world champions, even if Italy had not been up to scratch themselves. Nonetheless, the players finally clicked in unison and engineered one of the biggest shocks in World Cup history as they advanced to the second round and eliminated the 2006 winners in the process.Goal.com's Marcus Haydon described it as a "miracle".

They key pieces finally did their job. Centre-back Martin Skrtel was solid and decisive, playmaker Marek Hamsik's runs and passes caused problems, and Robert Vittek is in a rich vein of form in front of goal. The Slovakians will have to do even better than they did against the Azzurri to best the Netherlands.

On Monday, It will depend which Slovakia show up. Will it be the one who were abject against the All Whites and the South Americans or the team that shocked one of them ost successsful World Cup nations of all time?

Realistically, few will expect that coach Vladimir Weiss and his team could repeat the trick, but with the massive boost of confidence, they could provide a stern test.

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Scouting the Senior Bowl: Mardy Gilyard and Tony Pike

Cincinnati WR Mardy Gilyard (6-0, 179)

Gilyard’s one of the draft’s great stories, a player who’s gone from high school marijuana troubles to flunking out at Cincinnati to becoming one of the league’s best leaders. He’s been wildly productive on the field too (2,467 yards and 22 touchdowns in the last two years) and he’s a proven dynamo as a return man, which is always an added value come draft time. He has undeniably quick hands and feet, and in a phone conversation before practice started this week NFL Network draft expert Mike Mayock said, “He sure is fun to watch on tape.”

In person in Mobile, Gilyard’s been just as fun – and occasionally not. After running a lot of slants, bubble screens and crosses in college, he’s shown he can run solid NFL routes and ESPN analyst Todd McShay wrote that he “got off the line better than any other wideout” during press coverage drills early in the week. But he’s also dropped a lot of balls and Wes Bunting of the National Football Post echoed many voices who’ve worried over Gilyard’s – as Bunting called it – “frail” frame.

“He lacks the physicality needed to consistently fight his way through physical corners, (he) hasn’t looked real explosive out of his breaks and (he) has had a tough time separating vs. man,” Bunting wrote.

Mayock had Gilyard pegged as an early second round pick. He may have some work to do come combine time to prove that’s where he stays.

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Jeffcoat takes Texas over OU, Houston

PLANO, Texas — Defensive end Jackson Jeffcoat is going to be a Texas Longhorn.

The nation’s No. 2 recruit on the ESPNU 150 rankings ended the suspense Friday morning with an announcement in the Plano West High School gymnasium in front of a cheering student body. He said he finally came to the decision only days ago.

“It’s definitely a relief,” Jeffcoat said. “There’s been a lot of speculation. People think they knew what I was thinking. No one knew what I was thinking except my family.”

Jeffcoat had family to consider in his decision. The 6-foot-5, 225-pounder, who had 68.5 tackles, 8.5 sacks and two interceptions as a senior, had narrowed his finalists to three schools: Texas, Oklahoma and Houston.

Jacqueline Jeffcoat, his twin sister, already had committed to play basketball at Oklahoma. His father, former Dallas Cowboys defensive end Jim Jeffcoat, is on the coaching staff at Houston.

Arizona State, his father’s alma mater, didn’t make the cut. Neither did USC and Florida. A five-star talent, Jeffcoat was named to the First-Team Class 5A All-State team and was the defensive player of the year in District 8-5A.

“I felt most comfortable at Texas. It’s not that I didn’t feel comfortable anywhere else; everywhere else was great. That’s why it was such a hard decision and it took so long,” Jeffcoat said. “All these schools are great schools. I just felt right with Texas.”

At Texas, he said he hopes to follow in the footsteps of Brian Orakpo, a Pro Bowler in his rookie season with the Washington Redskins, and Texas senior Sergio Kindle, who attended Dallas’ Woodrow Wilson High School and is projected to be a first-round pick in April’s NFL Draft.

He might also follow in the footsteps of former Texas power forward P.J. Tucker. Jeffcoat said he hopes to join the Longhorns basketball team after football season. He said Texas coach Rick Barnes has given him the green light to pursue becoming a two-sport athlete.

“Basketball’s my first love,” Jeffcoat said. “It’s so fun to play and it helps you so much with football. I’ll just have to see how my body feels after football.”

Jeffcoat, who made his announcement seated next to his father, mother and two sisters, said deciding not to play for his father, the defensive line coach at Houston, was difficult.

“I believe my dad is the best coach in the country, but I didn’t feel like it was the right place for me,” Jackson said. “My dad has always been there for me and he always will be there for me.”

Jim Jeffcoat said from the beginning of the recruiting process he vowed to provide his son advice, but he would let him make his own decisions.

“It was his decision. We run basically similar schemes (at Houston),” Jim Jeffcoat said. “It was what he wanted to do. It was all about him.”

Jeff Caplan covers colleges for ESPN Dallas. You can follow him on Twitter or leave a question for his weekly mailbag.

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