The justly-dubbed "group of death" also includes two-time World Cup winners Argentina and Ivory Coast, and the scrap for points should be ruthless.

Dutch coach Marco van Basten has a wealth of attacking options from which to choose. They include Chelsea's Arjen Robben, Feyenoord's Dirk Kuyt, Arsenal's Robin van Persie and Ruud van Nistlerooy, a feared goal scorer with something to prove given his current state of limbo at Manchester United after falling out with Alex Ferguson.

With van Basten employing a 4-3-3 system with two wingers, the onus will be on the forwards to break down Serbia and Montenegro's teak-tough defense. Montenegro might just have voted for independence from larger cousin Serbia, but their defense was united enough to remarkably leak only one goal in 10 qualifying games, that in a 1-1 draw with Spain.

But they too recognize that they will have their work cut out to contain the Dutch, who had the best points-per-game average in qualifying of all of the 32 nations taking part in the World Cup - despite being grouped with the Czech Republic, Romania, Finland and Macedonia in their qualifiers.

"I hope that in effect our performances in 1974 and 1988 are not merely coincidental," said van Basten, who took over the reins from Dick Advocaat following Euro 2004 when the Dutch went out in the semi-finals. "Instead I would like us to rubberstamp the idea that we feel good when we play in Germany."

"We should benefit from playing so close to home," van Basten said as 15,000 fans turned out to watch the first public Dutch training session in Freiburg on Thursday.

"We sense this enthusiasm. It is now for the players to take that onto the pitch," said the coach who raised some eyebrows before the tournament when he ditched several of the old guard such as midfielders Clarence Seedorf and Edgar Davids, who were often linked with dressing room dissent.