Soccer: Van Basten knows his Netherlands squad have plenty in reserve

EINDHOVEN - The Netherlands struck twice early in the second half to offset Jared Borgetti's opening goal and beat Mexico 2-1 in a warm-up match yesterday.

John Heitinga equalised eight minutes into the second half and Ryan Babel sealed the win with a strike four minutes later.

Netherlands coach Marco van Basten used the match to test out his reserves after a virtually complete first choice team beat Cameroon 1-0 last Sunday.

In a poor first half, the Dutch had their most dangerous moment after 30 minutes when a 25m free kick from Wesley Sneijder forced goalkeeper Oswaldo Sanchez to make a good save.

Mexico had taken the lead on 19 minutes when their sole striker Borgetti headed home a Pavel Pardo corner.

Heitinga, of Ajax, levelled when he also headed home a corner, and then clubmate Babel sealed the victory.

The Dutch, who host Australia on Monday in their final warm-up match, start their World Cup campaign on June 13 against Serbia and Montenegro with Argentina and Ivory Coast completing a tough-looking Group C line-up.

Costa Rica lost 3-2 to a German regional soccer team of third, fourth and fifth-division amateurs yesterday.

With the exception of first-choice goalkeeper Jose Francisco Porras, who played the first half, Costa Rica fielded mainly substitutes in the town of Sandhausen, south of the team's base in Heidelberg. Germany play Costa Rica in the World Cup's opening match on June 10.

The other nations in Group A are Poland and Ecuador.

Costa Rica's central defenders, Jervis Drummond and Michael Rodriguez, failed to mark opponents, who scored easy goals in the fourth, 13th and 66th minutes.

The midfield, led by Christian Bolanos and Randall Azofeifa, could not penetrate the robust German team, but Kurt Bernard scored from a free kick in the 11th minute and Alvaro Saborio converted a late penalty for their second goal.

In Olso, Norway and South Korea drew 0-0 but South Korea's Dutch coach Dick Advocaat said he was happy with the result from a reserve-laden side ahead of the finals.

"I know from my time in the Netherlands that this is a difficult place to play," Advocaat said of the game, in which neither side created many scoring chances.

"I'm happy with the result. This was not our strongest team," he said.

"Five, six or seven of our best players were not playing ... but I realise that we must improve."

Norway had most of the possession and play in a game where the majority of shots were from long distance. Norway have not qualified for the finals in Germany. South Korea's scoring chances included a shot by Seol Ki-Hyeon in the final minutes that hit the outside netting.

South Korea's goalkeeper, Lee Woon-Jae, had to leave the field during the first half for about five minutes after hurting his head in a clash with Blackburn Rovers Morten Gamste Pedersen. He was not badly hurt.

Manchester United midfielder Park Ji-Sung, who recently sprained an ankle in training, sat out the match on the bench.

Advocaat said he would field a stronger side for another friendly against Ghana on Monday in Scotland.

Among Norway's chances, Lyon striker John Carew shot over the bar in the first half after he was played free down the right. Most of the game he was marked out of play by defender Choi Jin-Cheul.

"We were defensively safe," Norwegian coach Aage Hareide said. "But we lacked the last killer instinct."

South Korea, the 2002 World Cup semifinalists, will begin their Group G campaign against Togo on June 14, followed by France on June 19 and Switzerland on June 24.

Norway's next game will be at home to Brazil in August after the World Cup.

- REUTERS