Babel and Makaay score for Dutch in warm-up game
By Julian Linden
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Ryan Babel and Roy Makaay scored late goals to give the Netherlands a 2-0 victory over Cameroon in a pre-Olympic soccer tournament at Hong Kong's national stadium on Wednesday.
Babel, who came on as a substitute at halftime and turned the match around, broke the deadlock in the 87th minute when he calmly slotted the ball into the net after Makaay set him up.
He then returned the favour for his skipper to seal the win with a ferocious strike in stoppage time.
"Babel and Makaay can be a very good couple," Dutch coach Foppe de Haan told a news conference.
"Makaay is a real hunter, a real killer and Babel is really dangerous when he gets space. When you get two players like that, it's like having three."
Cameroon, who won the Olympic gold medal at Sydney in 2000, created plenty of chances but lost their way in the last 10 minutes when coach Martin Mpile cleared the bench to save his other players from wilting in the heat and humidity.
"It wasn't the tiredness that killed us, it was the changes. The players who came on at the end were not tactically ready," said Mpile, speaking through a translator.
"But apart from that it was a good game. We played well for 80 minutes. It will give us a lot of confidence." Continued...
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