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1-0 was the Best Result

June 15th, 2006 | By: Mike | 11 Comments »

I’m not kidding. I’m not talking about the actual performance of the players but in all honesty there could not have been a better final score. Don’t believe me? Allow me to elaborate…

For the Dutch team:
The Dutch team is young. The Dutch team is relatively inexperienced. For a lot of players this is the biggest stage and they’ve never even had a taste of it. So what kind of a result would be best? Why, a 1-0 one of course. Marco van Basten has been very careful to shield his younger players from unwanted hype and pressure. Over-confidence too is a vengeful enemy that needs to be avoided.

Do you think a young, inexperience, perhaps lacking in confidence team needs a 3-0 win against Serbia and Montenegro? Absolutely not! Europe’s tighest defense beaten three times by a team that included 4 players 22 years and younger in the starting eleven (let alone those others in the rest of the squad)? I say, it would be a tragedy for the team. Players lacking in experience are susceptible to over confidence and at this stage that can be deadly. So I say completely dominating them for the first half – the second half wilt was due to the heat – and a final of 1-0 will do the team a world of good. The right amount of confidence and experience will have been instilled while keeping them grounded.

Now is the time for a mini-goal feast. I ambitiously hope for a 3-0 final against the Ivory Coast in preparation for the Argentina match (one that I hope will not have too much bearing by that time).

For the Dutch chances:
What do you think a 3-0 win would have done to Europe’s stingiest defense? I will go out on a limb and say that they would have been devastated and totally de-moralized. Luckily that wasn’t the case and instead we are left with a wounded Serbian team wanting revenge. What better way to gain it than on a team similar to that of the Netherlands? Argentina will have to be extremely sharp come Friday and beware of a motivated Serbia and Montengrin team.

Have I convinced you? Remember I’m not talking about how the Dutch played or performed in the match. All I’m saying is that the result was absolutely perfect given the circumstances.

Tags: Netherlands, Serbia and Montenegro

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Comments

By mrfocus | June 15th, 2006 at 4:04 am

Wow, that is such a great point Mike. Very well tought out!!!

By --H | June 15th, 2006 at 5:31 am

Yeah, my hope is we get 3 pts. from the fake Orange team and S&M beats Argentina, this will make game 3 easier.

You brought up a really good point on “overconfidence” – had we won by 4-0 or something like that. Remember Spain in WC 1998? They beat Bulgaria 6-1 in game 1, uninspiringly drew vs. Paraguay in game 2 but lost 2-3 to Nigeria in game 3 thus failed to pass round 1.

GO ORANJE!

Posted from United States

By mikedeg | June 15th, 2006 at 5:50 am

Agreed. Some good points here. I like your thoughts about slipping past a non-demorilized SM(who are just dying to get at Argentina), while keeping the Orange hungry and their toes.

By Jan | June 15th, 2006 at 8:34 am

Mike, you’re spot on. I fully agree. The risk with this team is exactly that. In Euro2000, I watched the Oranje – Italy game in De Kuip. Remember that match??? We butchered Yugoslavia with 6-1 or something. We played Italy off the park, they got a send off after 20 minutes and we all thought we would butcher the Italians too. But with 10 men, they withstood us. Penalty Frank de Boer. Missed. Second half, chance after chance and again: penalty. Frank de Boer. And he missed again… We got ousted and Italy played the finales against France. OVER CONFIDENT.

Posted from Australia

By Ahmad | June 15th, 2006 at 8:47 am

I thought that from the begining. I think Serbia is a very good team and their defence will be dificult to beat. I am sure they will deduct points from both argentina and cote d’ivoire. I also think that the chance we had was the only way to score the goal as van persie s pass tricked the defence and if we didnt have that incredible chance we wouldnt have won.

Posted from Lebanon

By geego | June 15th, 2006 at 5:03 pm

–H, you are swapping the order of the matches in Spain’98. The opening was the defeat 2-3 vs. Nigeria, the second one the draw to Paraguay and in the third match Spain needed to win Bulgaria and wait for Paraguay not to win. So the 6-1 to Bulgaria was a useless effort.

Posted from Spain

By goose | June 15th, 2006 at 5:21 pm

@Mike, you’ve convinced me..

about Ivory, very importent how the midfield will hold up..hope Cocu en vanBommel wont get injured

being over confident is indeed a problem with our team, most perfect example was ofcourse that awfull game in 1974 against those german b*sterds, after 1-0 they tried to humiliate te germans wich was a very big mistake

@jan, wasnt it Kluivert who missed the first one (post)? Dont realy remember, must have blocked it out!!lol

greetz

WIJ HOUDEN VAN ORANJE

Posted from Netherlands

By --H | June 15th, 2006 at 9:47 pm

geego:

Thanks for the correction, memory failed.
I saw you posted from Spain, good luck this year, one of the better teams definitely after game 1.

)

Posted from United States

By Jan | June 16th, 2006 at 6:08 am

@goose
Kluivert missed in the series. Post allright. FdB missed during the match. The designated penalty specialist. HArd to get over that loss. Remember a crying Frank Rijkaard in the bus, post-game?

Posted from Australia

By goose | June 16th, 2006 at 10:40 am

@Jan, yes i remember Frank crying all be himself in the bus, must be honest, had a little tear in my eye aswell… one of the most painful losses i ever experienced with Holland..
very happy we beat Sweden in 2004 on penalties so hopefully its not a mental issue anymore..

so what about this evening!! Are we all hopefull??? All dressed in orange??
Meself, im working now (office) but wearing my 1998 WC Holland shirt!!!

greetz

WIJ HOUDEN VAN ORANJE

Posted from Netherlands

By goose | June 16th, 2006 at 9:47 pm

@jan, dont want to sound like a w*nker but was indeed 39 min F.de Boer, 62 min Kluivert(just 4 the record)

remember the crying Frank, all alone in the bus.. he always is so cool that it left a real impression..hes a great man!!

so whats your views on Oranje at the moment(after two games)?

greetz

Posted from Netherlands

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