AZ wins and stays in hot pursuit

Well my friends, looks like AZ Alkmaar will be the champions this year. Congratulations to them!

Hi guys, Jan here from The BLue Mountains…

AZ wins comfortably against Heerenveen. PSV was up 1-0 against Utrecht till 4 minutes before the end, when Schut headed the equalizer in. 1-1 and PSV is now number three after Ajax defeated Sparta 5-2.

AZ is numero uno, Ajax is second, PSV third, Twente fourth and Feyenoord is clinging to the 5th spot which at least enables them to blunder in Europe next year…

AZ plays Excelsior on the last day next weekend. Ajax plays Willem 2. If one of these teams wins, PSV will be facing the play-offs…

Posted from  Australia

hey jan, i just read the comparison you made between the 2000 vs. 2007 team, i think the 2000 team wins in every single position, that team was just the best we could ever have, or lets the 1998 team. i loved that era, overmars davids, numan and the other guys, those were really the best, perfect,eventhough they didn’t win any title but the team style was veryyyyyyy attractive, was very dutch, was very “total football”. the team we have now is weak, boring and has no great talents (exception:van persie and robben).
so i liked how you concluded when you said “maybe we expect a lot from van basten”
i agree with that , van basten can’t do miracles with a bunch of mediocre players, sometimes i get mad at him, and start comparing him to rijkaard 2000, but this is unfair rijkaard had the best dutch team in 2000, van basten came to to the team in a bad period.
i hope we get back to the best.
i miss my nice oranje team that always entertained even people who we’re not dutch fans.

Posted from  United States

He, is that the WC alaa?? Good to see you again on this blog, its been a while….

great, great, great, Az are number one with just one more game to play (against Excelsior in R’dam),
i really hope they pull it off, its been since 1981 that Az was champion (they won the double that year!) and they are the only team besides the big 3 to win this tittle….vanGaal is a great club manager!!!

AZ, AZ
Geen voetbal maar ballet

Posted from  Netherlands

na i want ajax to win!! they have all the young dutch talent unlike psv who jus have affeley they are rubbish for producing good young dutch players now!!

Posted from  United Kingdom

well Car. if you go for young dutch talent id say you have to support AZ; Waterman; Schaars, Donk; Jaliens (in the future haha); Jenner
Ajax just have Sneijder, Huntelaar, Babel and Heitinga..(i see its only one less than Az, haaha, im f#cking up my own point..)
well just dont support Ajax, theyre arrogant and have won enough..wouldnt it be great to see a team win outside the big 3??

GO AZ, GO!!!!

Posted from  Netherlands

@goose: ajax has emmanuelson and stekelenburg too:-) 8and one of my all time favourites: edgar)i’m for ajax – beside barca ajax is my other favourite team,but to be honest,az will deserve the title this year.

Posted from  Hungary

@ goose

hey man, yeah it is me alaa from world cup:)

i am not posting my opinion anymore, but i follow all the dutch news especially the blog here, dutch soccer runs in my blood man:)

what is happening in the dutch erdivisie is just crazy right now:), three teams with the same number of points,this is so exciting, i wish i was in holland to watch these games there with other fans:)
i would like to see ajax win the title, but you know what i am an oranj fan first of all, so what interests me the most is knowing that we have some talents growing up in these three teams, because they will be the base of our beloved ornaje.
goose which team do you want to win the erdivisie title:)???

Posted from  United States

Louis van Gaal deserves to be the champion, AZ is a team of guts.

@alaa; good to hear from you, hope you will drop your opinions in the future, always very welcome..

but ofcourse for Oranje its kind of a quiet period.. in a years time will have the EC AND TILL THEN WE HAVE TO BE PATIENCE

i would really love to see Az win this year:

1. its been since 81 that a team outside the traditional big 3 (Ajax, Psv and Feyenoord) won (that time it was Az too who actually won the double that year)

2. Really like vanGaal (as a club manager), think hes the greatest dutch manager since Rinus Michels,

3. Really like the way Az plays football…remember; vanBasten said that Az played the kind of football that He wanted(or wants) Oranje to play…attacking football, position play and possession

4. Like the fact that Az is still a very young team with still a lot of room for improvement (a lot of young dutch and belgian players)

5. I hate Ajax (esp. their arrogant attitude), i dont like tenCate and certainly dont like Koeman (has never really proven himself as a manager!), have to say that i feel a bit sorry for Psv but what can you do??

btw: all of you many congrets with Cruijffs 60 st birthday, saw some brilliant documenteries yesterday!!

greetz

Posted from  Netherlands

I think it would be really great to have AZ win this year. It’s good for the league. To have the same 3 teams win it over and over is quite a bore. That being said, I am an Ajax fan and really wouldn’t mind seeing them win either. Now there is nothing boring in seeing your favorite team win I would also like to see Ajax make PSV a whipping boy again in the playoffs and take the 2nd Champs League spot. AZ and Ajax in the CL next year. That would be fun, and give our young Oranje players good experience.

Posted from  United States

I agree with you goose about the big three always winning thre title , so it would be nice to see a new team winning the title!

Posted from  United States

Now in dreamland, what really would be cool is to have AZ and Ajax combine for Champs League play, have LvG be the coach and choose the best from each team. He would essentially be coaching the Oranje as MvB now selects. LvG would more than likely do very, very well with that combined team, and at the same time show Marco how that team can and should be coached. LvG wins the Champs League, Marco gets sacked, KNVB replaces Marco with LvG just in time for EC2008. LvG then coaches Oranje with basically the same team he won the Champs League with, and does very very well in EC2008. Is this a nice dream or what?

Posted from  United States

@stephen: hahaha, very funny indeed, its a bit like Guus and Korea had in 02, he could coach the nation team for months like a clubteam and together with some luck and the help of the referee they did great with the latent they had (wich was not very much), good one mate

@ferenc: think Barca will win the title??

btw Did you see vanNistelrooys volley the other day, very nice strike..
hope barca will do it, also cause of the dutch connection there always is

remember: if Ajax and Az win, psv will have to play in the playoffs and they can still miss out on everything!! its a hard knock life, hahaha

grtz

Posted from  Netherlands

@goose: i hope barca will the title,but this year we are really bad – and the others (real,valencia,sevilla too) – actually i’m a barca-fan because 2 reasons: 1st the dutch connection, 2nd i love catalunya. but to be honest this year our midfield is bad: deco is catastrophic (i heard several times that he would be replaced by sneijder) and we don’t have any good defensive midfielder (i didn’t understood why we had left van bommel…) messi and eto were too longtime injured,and except puyol (and valdes) our defense is very vulnerable. i also read somewhere that emmanuelson could play for barca next year. have you heard about these news in the dutch media?

ruud’s volley was very nice – it would be great to see him in oranje again… yesterday clarence was good again but unfortunately united won in the last minute (sorry guys,i don’t like at all british football – and milan has a dutch tradition too)

Posted from  Hungary

@ferenc: no, havent heared anything about emanuelson but in the dutch media now there is only room for talk about who will be the next champions…im sure that in a few weeks time well hear about possible transfers..i did hear some ruhumrs(?) about Sneijder taking spanish lessons and he told the press he was looking at a club either in England or in Spain, if it were to be Span im pretty sure it will be Barcelona, thats just a natural thing to do when your dutch..
btw i share your feelings about english football (to a degree), always had a special feeling for the Gunners but mainly cause of Bergkamp (and Overmars a bit), really never liked either Chelsea or Man united…was very dissapointed yesterday that Milan couldnt hang on to the draw, but i think they have a great change in the return game, Man un. cant defend only cause their strenght is in attack only..my guess is that Milan will win
watching the Liv-Che game now..1-0 to Chelsea…hope Liverpool will win and that Kuyt makes a goal (or two..), Chelsea is so very boring, they play without any guts (btw: Zenden is playing!!hahaha, remember him?? what a wanker he is!

gtrz yall

Posted from  Netherlands

@goose: this is a hard critic for liverpool – technically bolo zenden is still their best player… the others (including kuijt) play by their brute force… anyway both pool and chelsea are boring. in england of course the gunners play the nicest football (bergkamp and overmars in the past and now they have van persie)

Posted from  Hungary

Goose, I do not think Zenden is a bad player. Actually he is a very good player. He has scored goals for Holland at World Cup and Euro´s Ha has an excellent left foot and is not as speedy as in his first years as professional but has a lot of talent.
Perhaps he is not as spectacular as Overmars and certainly does not reach that level but if he plays for Liverpool and played for Barcelona in the past is because he has the talent and I see a great potential from him.

Hahahhaa , good to see the blog can be left alone for a while. Good point all! I will soon get back to posting stuff. On Sneijder and Barca, on AZ, on Cruyff and on Van Basten of course….

CU u soon…

Posted from  Australia

@ferenc: youre joking right?? I mean, i agree that Liverpool is a ‘working hard’team but they play very skilled aswell..maybe Alonso?? What about Gerard? Even Kuyts technic is superior to that of Zenden..dont agree that Liverpool is boring, seen them play live and they played great and attacking football, i mean they had like 5 attacking players against Chelsea (Kuyt, Bellamy, Zenden, etc.) and they played away from home

@Mario: well we can discuss what a great player is but i really dont think hes a great player..maybe hes a bit better than i think but remember he played for great team (Chelsea, Liverpool, Barca etc.) but never did he get into the strating 11 (maybe one year at Middlesborough), think hes a mediocre player who will never win you games, and also hes 28/29 so not much time left for improvement
just remember his stupid way of celebrating(?) a goal..remember watching the Hol-Cro match in 98 live at the Stade de France and Zenden scored the first, tried some overhead jump and almost broke his neck (not kidding)
played shitty yesterday too btw!

grtz

Posted from  Netherlands

Sneijder to Valencia?
http://home.skysports.com/list.aspx?hlid=463431&CPID=23&clid=191&lid=25&title=Sneijder+admits+Che+desire&channel=&

Posted from  United States

yeh, heared the same thing here.. would be surprising.. interesting

Posted from  Netherlands

hope man u get knocked out by a kaka special! i hate man u rooney and ronaldo get on my bloody nerves! hope kuyt does something more than he did last week! he was rubbish

Posted from  United Kingdom