Battler Van der Vaart out of Real shadows

Wesley Sneijder might be grabbing the headlines with his two-goal salvo to knock out Brazil – but Rafael van der Vaart has also been quietly getting on with his job for the World Cup semi-finalists.

Like Sneijder, Van der Vaart has known difficult times recently at club level. After both pitched up at Real Madrid, the Spanish giants decided they would offload their Dutch connection and Sneijder went off to lift the Champions League with Inter milan.

Van der Vaart in contrast has stuck doggedly to his dream – his mother is of Spanish origin – of making a name for himself at the Bernabeu and Dutch coach Bert van Marwijk is clearly a fan having made him a regular in the ‘Oranje’ line up which now hopes to land a first World Cup for Holland.

“Rafi”, 27, is a veteran in the orange of the national side with 81 caps but he might have feared that Real’s attempts to force him out would have impacted on his form for the national team.

Real turfed out Sneijder for Inter, as well as Klas-Jan Huntelaar and Arjen Robben – to AC Milan and Bayern Munich respectively.

But, benefiting from injury to Brazilian star Kaka, he stuck to his task and netted six times from midfield in 26 league games last season to start winning over his employers as he did previously at Hamburg and Ajax.

Although Sneijder has primarily caught the eye, Van der Waart has still featured in most of the action so far and is likely to do so again in the semi-final meeting with Uruguay.

With Dirk Kuyt and Eljero Elia both providing some width, as well as Sneijder, the man nicknamed “VDV” as well as the “Dutch Beckham” is likely to play in a more withdrawn role against the South Americans as Nigel De Jong is suspended.