Netherlands’ Van Hecke seeks to emulate uncle’s success

DALLAS: If Netherlands defender Jan Paul ‌van Hecke is to keep up family tradition, he will need  to go all the way to the World Cup final. 

His uncle Jan Poortvliet ​played in defense for the Dutch in the 1978 final, where they lost the deciding game to hosts Argentina in extra time. Van Hecke is expected to be in the lineup on Sunday in Dallas when they get their Group F campaign underway against Japan, partnering captain Virgil van Dijk in central defense.
“An enormous feeling of pride,” he told reporters. “It’s fantastic to be here.” ‌Van Hecke ‌gets his chance after Jurrien Timber was ​ruled ‌out of ​the tournament by injury.
“It’s my dream, but it was also his dream,” Van Hecke said. “It’s a real shame that his dream has fallen apart.”
Ironically, Van Hecke’s uncle also broke into the Dutch team in 1978 in similar circumstances, having debuted for the Netherlands a fortnight before the World Cup kicked off and being picked for the squad as something of an outsider.
But when first-choice left-back Hugo ‌Hovenkamp was injured, Poortvliet got to ‌play.
“Hugo was in the form of his ​life, but that’s how things sometimes ‌go,” Poortvliet told Dutch NOS television.
He went on to play ‌six matches in Argentina, showing his versatility at left-back, right-back and as a defensive midfielder.

England team lose equipment

Meanwhile, England suffered a theft of training equipment ​ahead of their arrival in Kansas City, local police said, after a vehicle transporting the gear to their World Cup base was broken into.
The incident occurred while ‌equipment was being ‌transferred from ​England’s ‌pre-tournament base ​in Florida to Swope Soccer Village, where it was due to be in place before the squad begin training after their