Soccer-Euro-Sneijder matures into natural leader for Dutch

By Theo Ruizenaar

BASEL, June 20 (Reuters) - Wesley Sneijder picked a memorable moment to prove he could be the natural leader on the pitch for the Dutch at Euro 2008.

On June 9 at the Stade de Suisse the creative midfielder, celebrating his 24th birthday, put the icing on the cake after half-an-hour of their opening Group C match against Italy.

An Italian corner took a deflection before being cleared off the line by Giovanni van Bronckhorst, allowing Sneijder to start the best counter-attacking move seen at the tournament so far.

He found Rafael van der Vaart and the ball was then moved on for Van Bronckhorst to send a long cross-field pass to Dirk Kuyt who headed it back for Sneijder to volley home brilliantly.

Sneijder showed everyone that night in Berne something the confident Dutch player already knew, namely he was "no longer just the midfielder with the nice free kick".

His next task is to show compatriot Guus Hiddink and his improving Russia team that he can pull the strings again in their intriguing quarter-final in Basel on Saturday.

Sneijder left Ajax Amsterdam for Real Madrid at the start of last season and during his first year in the Spanish top flight became a more complete player capable of driving his team to victory instead of only thinking about his own game.