体坛英语新闻：Netherlands hold Germany to goalless friendly

AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- The Netherlands and Germany remained goalless in an uninspiring friendly here on Wednesday.

With Germany missing Holger Badstuber, Jerome Boateng, Mario Gomez, Sami Khedira, Miroslav Klose, Toni Kroos, Mesut Ozil, Marcel Schmelzer and Bastian Schweinsteiger and the home team playing without Jeremain Lens, Luciano Narsingh, Robin van Persie, Wesley Sneijder, Maarten Stekelenburg and Kevin Strootman, the highest quality of both teams was not available in Amsterdam.

Despite the numerous absentees Dutch coach Louis van Gaal marked the match as an important "benchmark" for the development of his team. He lined up one debutant with Ajax goalkeeper Kenneth Vermeer, while Dirk Kuyt was the center forward and Klaas-jan Huntelaar started on the bench.

The German team included four players from Borussia Dortmund ( Mats Hummels, Ilkay Gundogan, Mario Gotze and Marco Reus) and three of Bayern Munich (Manuel Neuer, Thomas Muller and Philip Lahm).

Looking at the clubs represented Germany had the most impressive B-team and this was the case on the field. The Germans had most of the ball possession. The best chances also were for the German team with Gotze, Reus (post) and Gundogan coming close on the stroke of half-time.

In the second half, the pace of the game went down and the highlights rare. Both coaches substituted five times and the Netherlands lost Ibrahim Afellay through injury. Debutant Marco van Ginkel replaced him. The Dutch were better in the second part and substitute Daryl Janmaat came closest to a goal, but German goalkeeper Manuel Neuer prevented a home win.

The 40th encounter between the Netherlands and Germany ( including west Germany) ended in a 0-0 draw. It was the 15th draw, the Netherlands have won 10 times and Germany 15 times. For the Dutch it might have felt as a little rehabilitation for the 2-1 defeat during Euro 2012.