And I’m off… :-)

Not a bad game; just a shame that there were no goals

here are my notes:

Stekelenburg: 6 ; had a few good ’saves’ but i think hes short passing game is pretty poor,a few times he got defenders into trouble cause of that; he should work and that

Boulahrouz: 7 ; played a very good game, looked solid and made no mistakes, i reckon hes on his way to be the the starting 11 at SA10

Heitinga: 7 ; looked solid like Boula, no mistakes and pretty good passing to midfield

Mathijsen: 6,5 ; no mistakes but im still not confinced

vBronckhorst: 7 ; good game from Gio, i still wonder if hes not too old to play in South Africa but if he plays like this its ok

Kuijt: 7 ; played on the position i like him to play, right winger; had a few good runs and his crosses were pretty decent, he also seems to get better in holding the ball up front

deZeeuw ; 7 ; is showing good form; in de Eredivisie as well as in Oranje at the moment, he brings lots of football and can dictate tempo

Sneijder ; 6 ; should do better, i still think hes the best we have, but Sneijder should watch it with his whining and complaining to the referee, he should just play football and shouldnt behave like a primadonna

Schaars ; 6 ; actually didnt see him the first 15 minutes of the game, im not sure if thats a good thing or a bad thing…he seems to be on the way back, at AZ as well as in Oranje

Elia ; 6 ; not his game tonight, looked like he had lots of problems with the wet field, slipped a lot, its also clear that defenders watch him better now and defend him in pairs

Huntelaar: 5 ; Huntelaar has lost it, he clearly has very little confidence…should have at least been on target twice; huntelaars situation is starting to really worry me

subs:

Braafheid (77); 6; looked confident, i think hell be a regular in the future

Babel (46); 6; still dont know why his in Oranje, not a striker, not a winger, not a nr10…

Engelaar (70); 6; pfffffffffff why Bert? why?

vdVaart (64); 7; brought some energy… its clear he doenst play many games but i was pretty impressed with him… i like vdVaart more and more and i think his problems at Madrid and in his private life has let him grow as a man

again; not a bad game…lets just all hope Jan and Carlos didnt catch a cold with all this rain!!

Posted from  Netherlands

castaignos would have scored today!lol i have always said that huntelaar is rubbish and milan want to show him the door in the winter (goal.com)

@ goose, I think Babel isn’t a winger nor is he a deep striker, he’s actually a second, roaming striker, that’s the role he had in the U-21, when he actually impressed.
Briefly about Huntelaar
Huntelaar has scored everywhere, and opposed to what some say, scoring 8 in 20 matches in La Liga (and in many of them he was brought in late in the match) can’t be written off as a failure if you’re a striker who isn’t known for his playmaking skills. Yet, Italian football isn’t exactly very welcoming for strikers, I’m not that amazed that he isn’t confident right now, Huntelaar needs a good supply to do what he does best:score goals. Lots of reasons why he doesn’t do his job, 1-Milan play like sh*t, 2- In Italy he’s always guarded by 2 or more players in a league that is already very hard for strikers, 3- Pato, Ronaldinho and co. aren’t exactly delivering a lot of crosses or assists, 4-fail to score 2 games in Milan and living statue Inzaghi is brought back, there’s no competing there, 5-the expactations were way too high, they almost expected him to score 4 goals per match, while breezing through the opposite side. Realistically, he’s a good striker that can score lots of goals, he’s no playmaker and if the team doesn’t do well, he won’t do it for them, now he doesn’t score so he doesn’t play. Basically Milan look as if they didn’t know what kind of player he really is, and with Huntelaar, when he doesn’t score people start to complain cause that is his biggest quality, for the rest doesn’t contribute very much except sometimes holding the ball so others can link up.
Anyway, that aside. De Zeeuw did well, Schaars still, hesitant, but has more potential than Engelaar or Mendes da Silva.
I don’t see that much into this match as far as attackers, still a bit jetlagged, no importance to this match, too little creativity with Kuyt-Huntelaar together, play was too slow, missing 4 important players, V.Bommel, De Jong, V.Persie, Robben, and still Australia were lucky not to conceede.
I did think our defence looked sturdy, Boulah and Heitinga didn’t slip up, and quite to my surprise actually Boulah had some decent runs forward.

Posted from  Netherlands

@Alex: ny problem is with huntelaar that he’s not oranje matter. i’mean we used to see strikers in oranje like ruud van nistelrooijmpatrick kluivert,pierre van hoijdonk etc. he’s far,far away. i agree with you that after 3-4 games in italy (in a bad ac milan) it’s too early to say that he failed. scoring 8 in 20 games (without the coach’s confidence in a crap team) is not bad neither. but apart holland and the eeredivisie he hasn’t shown his talent. and he’s already 26. i mean i striker who supposed to be rvn’s,kluivert’s etc. heir should have done much more. i wouldn’t say that he’s bad,he has a natural born goal scorer instinct but not at all world-class level. for me an oranje striker should be world class.

Posted from  Hungary

i watched the match and iam really upset that u could not score on rigby playing aussies..i mean what is it with the dutch??cant get a goal against technically poor aussies for 3 games in a row??only Kuyt was impressive, hunteleer should have scored on 3 occassions..any way u missed persie..Holland is one of the teams i love to watch but honestly, u guys dont have a chance of winning the world cup..

Posted from  Spain

We need to hope we get Italy in the semi final, at least then we are guranteed a place in the final

@italian stallion,

it was a friendly away game after 21 hours of flight with six of our starting 11 out injured. yes we should have scored, but the performance today says very little about how we will perform at the world cup.

I thought Boulahrouz played excellent today. I was really surprised because I thought he was out of form, so I’m dying to see what he’s like in form!

Heitinga looks so much better central than on the right. Still, he makes too many fouls near the goal for my taste.

@Mohamed, I was the first to post that line-up .

Schaars looked much better, but a lesser opponent. De Zeeuw has really grown at Ajax so far. I just wish he would stop trying to shoot so often, it’s really not his best quality.

Elia poor game, had trouble with the field, but being a supersub and a starter are two different things as well.

When VDV came in, the game lit up quite a bit. Sneijder is still not as impressive as we know he can be, but he also had the flu so maybe that played a role.

Huntelaar should’ve scored one today. He’s out of form. I doubt goal.com’s news when they say they will get rid of Huntelaar. Seems bogus. I think Leonardo will go way before he does. and if Van Basten indeed takes over the reins at Milan, I don’t see Hunter leaving.

Kuyt played excellent despite his injury. Best player on the field first half.

Posted from  Netherlands

Agreed Ferenc, I expected Huntelaar to make a step up from Ajax, he needed or needs to, in order to succeed. But he didn’t really, that he hasn’t had a regular spot, playing every week the last season, might have a part in it. For a player of his type he might just be playing too little on high level to really make steps. Whatever it is, at the moment, V.Persie, Kuyt and even V.Nistelrooij would deserve a regular central striking spot before Huntelaar. If he is to deliver on his promise, he should improve significantly this season or at least the next, not only on actually scoring, but also on playing a bigger part in the team.

@ Jeroen, yeah, I was really surprised as well by Boulah and Heitinga’s composure and performances. Heitinga had made some recent slip ups for Everton, as he used to have for Atletico, and Boulah just played one full match for Stuttgart. I say, test this defence further againt better opposition. And if the opponent doesn’t have a direct opponent for our RB, we can also play V.d.Wiel for more attacking power.
As for the italian stallion, forming a objective opinion about our chances in the WC from this match alone isn’t very realistic.

Posted from  Netherlands

I think Huntelaar made to big of a jump from Ajax to Real. He should have done what Elia did. BY going to a good mid-level team where you are guaranteed to play every game. Then if you succeed you can move on to a top notch club.

Posted from  United States

dont bet on it finnster, flukes happen once in a while, Ruud was gifted that goal, he was himself not sure how the referee gave that one..also, VDS had a great game that day, saved ur assses, also, remember who is back to coach us, also ur full backs r a big joke..

Posted from  Spain

well, i would love to have holland vs Italia final at 2010 world cup, ofcourse Holland to get rid of brazil and spain on the way to the final..haha..
just remember we have a master strategist and he is yet to call the most naturally talented footballer on earth, Cassano..

Posted from  Spain

Yes well we have unearthed Rinus Michels’ secret playbook last week that no one has ever seen before (except the General himself of course…and Cooky Voorn). Bert will use it at the world cup and all will be baffled at our stunning “Completely Total Football”.

Posted from  Netherlands

And Holland dominated Italy fair and square. Don’t even try and talk your way out of that ghastly performance.

Posted from  Netherlands

Ruud’s goal was legitimate, cause Italy’s 80-year-old RB was still in play altough he was lying outside the field. For the rest, there was hardly any real luck, 2 other goals were just fine, if anything Toni should have pulled one back, but after the 1-0 and certainly the 2-0, Italy dind’t look like they would get anything more out of the match than a loss. Cassano? he hasn’t been a consistent factor for years, he’s finally calmed down a bit but that’s all, he wasted every real chance of succes he had in his career. Still i’d take fullbacks V.d.Wiel, Boulahrouz, Bouma and Braafheid over Grosso, Bochetti and an over the hill Zambrotta anyday. Santon is debatable. But I wouldn’t be mouthing of when the Dutch qualified as one of the first plus with better statistics than Italy.

Posted from  Netherlands

@ Italian Stallion

Dude give it up, Italy’s prime has passed. You cannot be defensive about Italy when they got raped 3-0. That’s too much for any excuses. Especially from the “world champs” hehe.

Demark beat Sweden 1-0 and has qualified. Portugal are leading Hungary 1-0 at 54mins, which means they are likely to finish 2nd.

That sucks.

very bad news 2-0 for portugal…

Well Jan and I enjoyed the game very much….but no goals and total domination by Holland. Hunter should have scored 2 – de Zeeuw probably the best player – Aussies didnt look like they wanted to play ?? (puzzling). I think the best part of the evening was the Peking Duck and wine we had after the game.
Babel actually looked good when he came in and Gio was outstanding in defence – Boulah also looked good both in defence and coming forward, he had acres of space to roam in.
If Portugal goes through hope they face Russia and Guus does his trick for all of us here. Goose it was freezing with the early rain. Then we found out we were sitting in the wrong place !!! We moved and were under shelter!! – Not sure if Jan knows all the words to Wilhelmus !!! hahaha

Posted from  Australia

Seems like a good time, kind of reminds me of when I saw Holland-Romania and it was 0-0. The most fun was just experiencing the atmosphere and the food

Posted from  United States

quote: “It’s too bad …, but Australia is a very hard team to break down – after all, remember how the reigning world champs had to blatantly dive to win their game against Australia.”

——

It was a friendly and the Australians were saving their strength and didn’t go forward very much, on top of that they just lost to S.Korea 3-1 in a friendly recently, you were saying?

Let’s just quickly forget about this game and look forward to Paraguay.

Posted from  Netherlands

You know I think Australia will surprise a lot of people in South Africa.

They are extremely solid defensively and they have 1 or two people that can do the business on the break.

In fact, I rate Schwarzer as one of the best goalies in the Prem which isn’t shabby at all. They were robbed last time around by the ref and the Italians.

A draw half the world away against a good and underrated team with a B’ish team isn’t bad at all.

I’m quite pleased with the result to be honest.

the dutch team looks good against weak team like japan and the aussies, however i want to see orange play against big team like brazil, spain, germany and mexico in friendly matches.

Posted from  United States

@MO I wouldn’t exactly consider Japan and Australia weak teams. They are world cup material and the best from Asia. I agree that I would like to see us play against the big teams, but I think that we proved against England that we are certainly, without question, a side to be reckoned with along with Spain and Brazil. All we need is to find a team of 14 that works. I think that because of our strength up front we are the only team that can have 3 different front lines that all can be utilized at the WC:
– Robben Sneijder Kuyt Van Persie
– Elia Van der Vaart Affelay Huntelaar
– Babel De Guzman ???(Can’t think of another Winger) Ruud maybe, hopefully

Posted from  United States

Sky Sports reports that the friendly against Italy is scheduled on the 14th of November,before the Paraguay game(supposed 2 b held on the 18th).

This means we play the defending champions next…..:D

about australia being a ‘weaker team’
would hate to play against them in a knock out game in the WC. They’re the kinda of team i can see knocking oranje outta the WC. So strong mentally and fight well above their weights in big games.
Would much prefer to play italy in a world cup quarter final than Australia.
hup holland.