Albania – Oranje: what to expect

@Peter V: The goal is beautiful, Emanuelson past the defender on the wing, cross to centre and Rudd volley. Very nice. With Sneijder, Ruud, Seedorf, VP we can expect them score like that every match but then there is no role of coach here.

Posted from  United States

Ruud does it. Nice.

Seedorf sits the entire match????

Close in quick, strong guy to beat off attacks – and he sits? Don’t get it.

Bummer on the yellow cards. Van P and company will be missed against Romania.

Amazing the stats in the second half though. Appears that Oranje just took it to them. Is that right?

Posted from  United States

quality goal by Ruud

worst game ive ever seen them play, even worse then the Luxemburg game

my patience with vanBasten is over..even beyond that

on dutch tv it was called; comical.. amateur level…Derksen is having a good go right now

cant believe he put in vdVaart who was injured and lets Seedorf sit all game long!!

will miss 2 players due to yellow cards; Sneijder, vPersie

@Samuel; what do you mean with ‘took it to them?’

fucking discrace

Posted from  Netherlands

Seedorf sits the entire match to watch Gio play his role. Lol.
Sneijder also miss the match against Romania.
Anyway, i don’t think that anyone can keep calm against those Albania and the referee. I also think that the Albania play more diry than us but the number of yellow cards seem equal because after they kick our players’ legs, they fall to ground and cried like they’re kicked.
The game ended 2 minutes early(6 minutes added time lol) because the fans throw fire-cracker to Melchiot’s head.

Posted from  United States

wow…lucky win, thanks to some magic from ruud van gol…his finish had hints of the goal he scored against germany in EC04. so marco needs to explain this to me: why did we have the best leftback in the team (gio) playing in the spot of europe’s best midfielder (seedorf)…maybe to accomodate emanuelson playing on the left wing??????

the only good thing to come out of this game is that with all of the yellow cards and hence suspended players for next game (sneijder, van persie and melchiot), marco will have to try something different, like start seedorf (i assume vd vaart will play right wing instead of v persie).
other positives:
de zeuuw: played a great game, was all over the place recovering possesion, tackling hard and closing down gaps in midfield…he’s my candidate to play as libero in front of a 3-man defence.
van der vaart: the only player whose long balls and crosses were on target and useful.
ruud: one scoring chance, one goal, that’s all that needs to be said.
i thought sneijder played decent but he’s still trying to do too much.

Posted from  Canada

@Igor: I think Emanuelson play well though. The question is that why Marco bench Emanuelson to have place for Bouma.

Posted from  United States

i don’t want to comment the game. at least with sneider’s second yellow card clarence will start in bucharest. and of course ruud is ruud. i enjoyed emmenuelson’s gest before the goal. it was a dirty game.

Posted from  Hungary

@netherlandfanboy: i was totally reminded of the game vs portugal, the ref blew some calls in the first half, tempers flared as a result and he lost control of the game. it didn’t help that he couldnt see that the albania players were diving all over the place. in the end he was just handing out yellow cards for everything (there’s no way vpersie’s foul was worth a yellow he was just shielding the ball and it’s not like he hit him with his elbow, only his hand)

Posted from  Canada

about emanuelson…he did have a nice first touch to set up the goal, and he should be considered before bouma when playing opponents who only defend and occasionally counter attack (i’d still play gio at LB though). but he also made a mistake earlier in the game when he took the shot and missed by a mile instead of passing to ruud who was open and screaming at him to pass the ball.

Posted from  Canada

yes it was dirty,, and yes we all knew it was gonna be a difficult game BUT… there is no excuse for the shit they showed us tonight (again!), just cause of one optimistic goal (great, great finish )… not one decent attack

most sad thing is that i just hear VBasten say on tv; “we played a good match, the Albanians played very defensive (WHAT??) and we diserved a victory (WHAT!!).. in the studio Willem vanHangegem said; im wondering if he sat the wrong way round on the bench!)

Sneijder also said they played a good match.. only Ruud said; “it was a terrible game’ ..whats wrong with these players

this is the worst Oranje team since the early 80s and the worst Bondscoach since the creation of the universe

f^%^%

Posted from  Netherlands

Good match? This is the last thing that I expected. I thought that he would say bad ref as an excuse but I’m totally wrong lol. Yes, this is a good match, this is the first game of Oranje that I want to turn off the TV since I know how to watch football.

Posted from  United States

Well, I am pretty mad. I´d like to hear Holland winning and playing total football or at least some nice soccer. But with San Marco everything is getting worse and worse…when is gonna go?. I want him out, totally full of his shits. Another coach even anyone from us would do a better job than him.

Well … I did seriously consider to get out of bed at 4 am, but I’m happy that didn’t…

Your comments say it all. Very good and lively descriptions my friends… I wanted to post a “decent” match review on the site, but I don’t know.

My thoughts are with Tjeerd who – for the first time I think – sees Oranje play in a qualification match. He might switch to become a Germany fan .

My God…

Posted from  Australia

@Mario: It’s true that one of us would do better than him. We won against Albania and Bulgaria thank to individual efforts of Sneijder and RVN. If i were the coach, i don’t need to do anything, just let Seedorf, Sneijder, Van Bommel, RVN, VP playing together instead of bench them, i would have better result than San Marco.
It seem that San Marco is so lucky, the match against Albania we only have 3 shoots, and the match against Bulgaria, we have 3,4 shoots but we won both matches. Van Gaal and Hiddink are just too unlucky, their team creates many chances against Brazil, Portugal, Ireland but still lost. I wonder why????

Posted from  United States

today, i officially hate van basten, i used to love him as a player but now, i just get disgusted when i hear his name, whats wrong with this guy????????????????????

keeps doing big mistakes, after two years of ignoring seedorf he gets him back ( so this tells us that he is an idiot and that he was mistaken), and now he doesn’t play him at all, keeps him on the bench, to make v.bronckhorst play in the midfield????????? since when bronckhorst was a midfielder??????? come on guys, explain that to me, i am soooooooooooooooooooooo f…… mad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted from  United States

Marco van Basten got guts. He should bench whoever he wants to. I have no problem with that, my problem is that he clearly sucks as a coach and is a bit of a hypocrit in some aspects.

true what Lerkot says, too bad the players he chooses to bench are the best at their respective positions. Seedorf is voted best mid in last years champs league and he sits bench. WOW! One thing for sure and absolutely obvious: the team should be built around three players, RvN, RvP and Seedorf. The system, formation, all built around them. Seedorf is one of the best mids in the world right now and he is the 4th,5th,6th choice on Oranje??? What outright disrespect! That in and of itself makes him the worst coach “since the creation of the universe”(goose)

Posted from  United States

what are the odds for him to be ousted before the EC really..? seriously speaking. i mean clearly no one is happy. im sure most of the players are ready to burst and explode of frustration.. the fans all agree and blame the coach and his staff.. the critics in the media are there loud and clear, and very harsh and direct..

all the ingredients are there to pull the plug on a national team manager, and probably anywhere in the world this would have already happened. why cant we just do the same thing..?

the KNVB cannot possibly see any good in Van Basten’s results. i mean there doesnt seem to be a debate even . everybody agrees: we’re performing much below paar. its undisputable.

what are the mechanisms to show van basten the door? what are ppl saying? im sure no one is happy or content to see him sink us in austria next summer.

what if there would be one big protest asking for his resignation?

theres nothing worse than having that feeling of already knowing were just gonna go lose next summer. it feels imminent and irreversible.

Posted from  Canada

Fellow fans of the Netherlands–what a poor, amateurish performance, one that bodes ill for any future successes by Holland if they succeed in qualifying for the EC.

My observations, which are very much in agreement with the rest of the bloggers that watched the match:

1. As in the Portugal match, WC ‘06, I hold the referee responsible for letting the contest get out of hand. Albania played rugby,not football. As they could not compete with Holland on a skill basis, Albania decided to beat them up physically.

2. The Dutch defense, once again, looked atrocious. They lacked form, coordination, field positioning and the skill to stop the Albanian breakaways. Also, as Cruyff wrote following the Bulgaria match, they could not get the ball upfield so that Holland’s stronger players could try and make something happen.

3. van Persie is a bit of a punk, but has spirit and refuses to be bullied by opponents. His biggest problem as an athlete is that he is totally left footed, which allows defenders to overplay him and neutralize his other skills.

4. Babel looked awful. His strongest asset is his speed, which he failed to use. Also, like van Persie, he is totally one footed, his being right rather than left. It was easy for the Albanian defenders to take him out of the match, which they did.

5. The front line as a unit looked terrible. In my opinion, based on today’s match, it appears that Holland has no true wingers and should change to 2 forwards–van Nistelrooy and Kuyt? Put Babel or somebody as a wing midfielder, used to stop the opponent on transition moments and come forward for help to the strikers.

6. The Sneijder/Kuyt/Emanuelson/van Nistelrooy goal play was splendid–showing spirit, perserverence and extraordinary skill. It is moments like that which makes us love the Dutch team so much!

In summary, the match was C-, but with an A+ ending as to the match results. The final incident involving Melchior was inexcusable, but once again, caused by a referee that let the match totally get away from him. I have watched him referee English Premiere League matches, and he is not any better there.

Hup Holland!

Posted from  United States

Why do people think that great players will be good coaches? They almost NEVER are. Coaching and playing are totally different things–which is why van Basten is a TERRIBLE coach.

I don’t know what to say.

van Basten is one of the stupidest decision makers I’ve ever heard of, but he was clearly the worst member of th team last night.

Our team didn’t play that bad considering how hard it is to play against destructive footballers in their own stadium filled with violent fans.

Yes, van Basten chose the wrong players. Again. But the team did what they could. We have a good team! They came in ready for a rough go, and made the best out of what they could do. If we had scored the goal in the first half, I think you would have all been singing a different song.

It’s these games were you come in, play ugly, and hope for a few garbage goals (in this case it was a very nice goal), and take the three points, and leave with your knee caps in place.

Mission accomplished, but I still hate van Basten.

WHY WAS GIO ON FOR 90 MINUTES!?

Posted from  Republic Of Korea

yea keeping gio for 90minutes is making me hate the poor guy.. he is becoming the new landzaat sort of..

Posted from  Canada

I see many Holland fans here are angry at the referee. Albania played dirty even though the Dutch players were angels. C’mon, what should we say? We scored (actually, you scored) a clean goal and the ref did not count it for whatever reason. And take a look at some of these results…

Luxembourg 0 – 1 Netherlands
Netherlands 2 – 1 Albania
Slovenia 0 – 1 Netherlands
Albania 0 – 1 Netherlands

Can the result of the last game be a coincidence? Was the referee to blame for the previous three weird games? I bet if you add up the market value of all 60 players that Albania, Slovenia, and Luxembourg have, the final value will be lower than the best Dutch lineups. Then what’s the real problem? Why these suffered victories? 0-1 against Luxembourg??? Clearly there’s smth wrong with the team, or maybe 2-3 individual players, or maybe the coach. I really don’t know, but it’s definitely not the ref. Find out what the real problem is before Euro2008 starts, if not, you’re screwed.

Posted from  United States

Is no coincidence…the team is not well guided and it shows it on the pitch!

richard: cruyff was a good coach,happel was a good coach,beckenbauer was a good coach,plazini wasn’t bad,rijkaard is a good coach,ancelotti is a good coach,schuster seems to be a good coach,koeman is a ok coach,etc

Posted from  Hungary