Holland would seem to be on a hiding to nothing when they hit the road to tackle Group E favourites Turkey in a European Championship qualifying game on Wednesday.

But Dutch coach Glenn Pinas is optimistic it will not be a thrashing, even though star centre Francisco Elson, of the Denver Nuggets, flew back to the US on Monday to start training for the new NBA season.

Holland coach Glenn Pinas is under no illusion as to the enormity of his task. The Dutch go into next month’s Group E qualifying games for the 2005 European Championships without a single international victory in two years.

Holland have ruled Milwaukee Bucks big man Dan Gadzuric out of their summer plans because of a knee injury.

The Dutch already had a mountain to climb with European Championship qualifying games against Turkey, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Estonia.