Comments on: Barca is the best! http://netherlands.worldcupblog.org/1/barca-is-the-best.html World Cup 2010 - South Africa, Oranje, Nederlands Elftal, Eredivisie, Marco van Basten, Dutch football, The Netherlands Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:30:06 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: ken http://netherlands.worldcupblog.org/1/barca-is-the-best.html/comment-page-1#comment-165734 ken Sun, 31 May 2009 01:09:20 +0000 http://netherlands.worldcupblog.org/1/barca-is-the-best.html#comment-165734 Wow! I only came across this site by accident. I think the Netherlands has a lot to do with Barca's success. I am so so happy that Barca decided to stick with Cruff's approach to football and it finally paid off. In 1978, as a very young person's I was very impressed when Holland displayed "total football" at wc even though they lost. Since then I thought that this philosophy would die. Spain adapted it and it got results in Euro 2008 and now Barca seems to have perfected because they applied it successfully even in the face of injuries/suspensions such as Abidal,Alves, etc. What is even more exciting is that Barca beat Man Utd. The next question is that can they rule the world for the next few years. I think they will. I bet Spain will win WC2010 Wow!

I only came across this site by accident. I think the Netherlands has a lot to do with Barca’s success. I am so so happy that Barca decided to stick with
Cruff’s approach to football and it finally paid off. In 1978, as a very young person’s I was very impressed when Holland displayed “total football” at wc even though they lost. Since then I thought that this philosophy would die. Spain adapted it and it got results in Euro 2008 and now Barca seems to have perfected because they applied it successfully even in the face of injuries/suspensions such as Abidal,Alves, etc.
What is even more exciting is that Barca beat Man Utd. The next question is that can they rule the world for the next few years. I think they will. I bet Spain will win WC2010

]]> By: Andrew http://netherlands.worldcupblog.org/1/barca-is-the-best.html/comment-page-1#comment-165714 Andrew Fri, 29 May 2009 16:40:17 +0000 http://netherlands.worldcupblog.org/1/barca-is-the-best.html#comment-165714 @MO, many thanks for posting the Toulon tournament roster. I've enjoyed that event for a number of years now, and having the roster is a plus. Query to the rest: Given Barca's performance (Wed. and over the year) and the movement and play of their three forwards, would RVP be a better fit in the middle than KJH? If they were to revert to 4-3-3, I could see a front three of Kuyt, Robben and RVP, and midfield of Sneijder, MVB and Schaars (though I hate to drop De Jong). Is it even likely that Van Mar would consider going back to 4-3-3? Curious as to thoughts. Andrew @MO, many thanks for posting the Toulon tournament roster. I’ve enjoyed that event for a number of years now, and having the roster is a plus.

Query to the rest: Given Barca’s performance (Wed. and over the year) and the movement and play of their three forwards, would RVP be a better fit in the middle than KJH? If they were to revert to 4-3-3, I could see a front three of Kuyt, Robben and RVP, and midfield of Sneijder, MVB and Schaars (though I hate to drop De Jong). Is it even likely that Van Mar would consider going back to 4-3-3? Curious as to thoughts.

Andrew

]]> By: Jan http://netherlands.worldcupblog.org/1/barca-is-the-best.html/comment-page-1#comment-165712 Jan Fri, 29 May 2009 14:45:27 +0000 http://netherlands.worldcupblog.org/1/barca-is-the-best.html#comment-165712 Alex, if you're responding to my comments: I didn't mean to criticize the Dutch players in Madrid, but more the way the Madrid coach uses them. Alex, if you’re responding to my comments: I didn’t mean to criticize the Dutch players in Madrid, but more the way the Madrid coach uses them.

]]> By: Alex http://netherlands.worldcupblog.org/1/barca-is-the-best.html/comment-page-1#comment-165711 Alex Fri, 29 May 2009 11:39:33 +0000 http://netherlands.worldcupblog.org/1/barca-is-the-best.html#comment-165711 Not really a fair comparison with the 6 at Real, Van Nistelrooij wasn't even able to play. V.d.Vaart, Sneijder, Huntelaar, Drenthe and Robben never even played all at the same time, besides none of them are the type of player Touré is. Huntelaar is a pure striker but is in no way the same type of player as Eto'ó, who is incredibly fast and gets most of his advantage from that, the Hunter is almost Inzaghi with better skills. Robben, Drenthe are wingers, and only Messi is a real winger for Barca, you can argue about Robben and Messi in comparison, Drenthe never played that often. Henry is more of a leftstriker. Sneijder, V.d.Vaart are creative midfielders, you can compare them to Iniesta and Xavi and say they did much worse than they should have. But V.d.Vaart was benched for a long time after an impressive start. So only Sneijder can really be criticised openly for his real bad performances in the middle of the season. He really fell short. This isn't to make up excuses for Real Madrid, but were being too harsh on the Dutch there. Even Xavi and Iniesta wouldn't do that good in Real Madrid with it's lack of vision in their playing style. Cristiano Ronaldo, seems to always fail in really big matches. Messi is the best of the world right now, Ronaldo might have something of an advantage in ball skills and tricks, but Messi is the better natural dribbler, and in a way has a dissadvantage with his posture. Not really a fair comparison with the 6 at Real, Van Nistelrooij wasn’t even able to play. V.d.Vaart, Sneijder, Huntelaar, Drenthe and Robben never even played all at the same time, besides none of them are the type of player Touré is.
Huntelaar is a pure striker but is in no way the same type of player as Eto’ó, who is incredibly fast and gets most of his advantage from that, the Hunter is almost Inzaghi with better skills.
Robben, Drenthe are wingers, and only Messi is a real winger for Barca, you can argue about Robben and Messi in comparison, Drenthe never played that often. Henry is more of a leftstriker.
Sneijder, V.d.Vaart are creative midfielders, you can compare them to Iniesta and Xavi and say they did much worse than they should have. But V.d.Vaart was benched for a long time after an impressive start.
So only Sneijder can really be criticised openly for his real bad performances in the middle of the season. He really fell short.
This isn’t to make up excuses for Real Madrid, but were being too harsh on the Dutch there. Even Xavi and Iniesta wouldn’t do that good in Real Madrid with it’s lack of vision in their playing style.

Cristiano Ronaldo, seems to always fail in really big matches. Messi is the best of the world right now, Ronaldo might have something of an advantage in ball skills and tricks, but Messi is the better natural dribbler, and in a way has a dissadvantage with his posture.

]]> By: JVB21 http://netherlands.worldcupblog.org/1/barca-is-the-best.html/comment-page-1#comment-165709 JVB21 Fri, 29 May 2009 03:41:59 +0000 http://netherlands.worldcupblog.org/1/barca-is-the-best.html#comment-165709 A great game to watch, certainly not an end to end thriller but a master class by Barca on skill, patience, composure and control. Personally the mini drama between Puyol and C Ronaldo was one of the most interesting elements for me. CR's ball skills are obvious but his temperment, theatrics and attitude annoy me to no end. It was wonderful to watch Puyol out work, out hustle and out play him in so many ways. Beauty and the beast and the beast won. As for the rolling around, the one late in the game seemed over done until you notice in the replay CR rolls onto Puyols left ankle rolling it over. CR got an education, but judging from some of his post game comments he learned little. A big over the head to Barca! A great game to watch, certainly not an end to end thriller but a master class by Barca on skill, patience, composure and control.

Personally the mini drama between Puyol and C Ronaldo was one of the most interesting elements for me. CR’s ball skills are obvious but his temperment, theatrics and attitude annoy me to no end. It was wonderful to watch Puyol out work, out hustle and out play him in so many ways. Beauty and the beast and the beast won. As for the rolling around, the one late in the game seemed over done until you notice in the replay CR rolls onto Puyols left ankle rolling it over. CR got an education, but judging from some of his post game comments he learned little.

A big over the head to Barca!

]]> By: Jan http://netherlands.worldcupblog.org/1/barca-is-the-best.html/comment-page-1#comment-165708 Jan Fri, 29 May 2009 01:38:29 +0000 http://netherlands.worldcupblog.org/1/barca-is-the-best.html#comment-165708 Ferenc (and others): spot on! Barca is the most Dutch team in the world, whereas even six Dutch players at Madrid can't make that happen. Why is that? The coach! The club culture. The philosophy. Pep can do this with Spaniards, Africans, Argentines, Estonians...doesn't matter. Having Bojan, Pedro, Hleb and others on the bench doesn't hurt either. Xavi and Iniesta are artists. Renaissance men. And Toure is the silent force, the engine. The muscle man. Highly highly impressed. Holland should play like this always. But what does it take? Tremendous discipline. The three forwards were the first to defend and Toure is the first to build up. A team performance all the way through. No egos (that's why Messi is the King and C Ronaldo the court jester) and hard work. Ferenc (and others): spot on!

Barca is the most Dutch team in the world, whereas even six Dutch players at Madrid can’t make that happen. Why is that?

The coach! The club culture. The philosophy. Pep can do this with Spaniards, Africans, Argentines, Estonians…doesn’t matter.

Having Bojan, Pedro, Hleb and others on the bench doesn’t hurt either.

Xavi and Iniesta are artists. Renaissance men.

And Toure is the silent force, the engine. The muscle man. Highly highly impressed.

Holland should play like this always.

But what does it take? Tremendous discipline. The three forwards were the first to defend and Toure is the first to build up. A team performance all the way through. No egos (that’s why Messi is the King and C Ronaldo the court jester) and hard work.

]]> By: ferenc http://netherlands.worldcupblog.org/1/barca-is-the-best.html/comment-page-1#comment-165707 ferenc Thu, 28 May 2009 23:27:18 +0000 http://netherlands.worldcupblog.org/1/barca-is-the-best.html#comment-165707 Carlos,my friend - i promise,we'll have a glass of wine for you tomorrow:-) i'm very happy with the result,the best team of the world won. these days is very good to be a barca fan. barca's midfield is colossal,messi,iniesta and xavi are amongst the 5 best players of the world. i'm agree with Jan: it was a demonstration of total football. manu was tactically 0. they wanted to outplay barca,no men on xavi and iniesta,empty spaces etc. good for samuel that he scored the first - ha missed so many opportunities recently but in big games he's always there. pep is a genious. i think oranje should have 2 holding midfielders. why? because with xavi and iniesta you can afford only one who is in normal situation yaya toure. at the beginning i thought that busquets would make mistakes. but xavi and iniesta are the best 2 midfielders of the world at the moment. they can keep possession the whole night long. no other attacking midfielder couple can do the same. this is why oranje need 2 holding midfielders. Carlos,my friend – i promise,we’ll have a glass of wine for you tomorrow:-)

i’m very happy with the result,the best team of the world won. these days is very good to be a barca fan. barca’s midfield is colossal,messi,iniesta and xavi are amongst the 5 best players of the world. i’m agree with Jan: it was a demonstration of total football. manu was tactically 0. they wanted to outplay barca,no men on xavi and iniesta,empty spaces etc. good for samuel that he scored the first – ha missed so many opportunities recently but in big games he’s always there. pep is a genious.

i think oranje should have 2 holding midfielders. why? because with xavi and iniesta you can afford only one who is in normal situation yaya toure. at the beginning i thought that busquets would make mistakes. but xavi and iniesta are the best 2 midfielders of the world at the moment. they can keep possession the whole night long. no other attacking midfielder couple can do the same. this is why oranje need 2 holding midfielders.

]]> By: Caleb http://netherlands.worldcupblog.org/1/barca-is-the-best.html/comment-page-1#comment-165706 Caleb Thu, 28 May 2009 15:35:13 +0000 http://netherlands.worldcupblog.org/1/barca-is-the-best.html#comment-165706 Well, that was kind of a boring CL final... not terrible, but not really great either. I was going for Barca and so I was glad to see them win, but Man U just looked terrible... did they even show up to the game? They gave Barca <i>way</i> too much space, and just let them pass it around as much as they wanted... is SAF stupid to let his team let Barca do that?? Having said that, Barca actually didn't look continually threatening, but they certainly dominated the possession. They also created a few (not tons, but much more than Man U to be sure) great chances with some fantastic passing. Certainly the better team won. Messi's header for the second goal was picturesque... very nice! I was actually surprised Ronaldo didn't act as bad as his normal self. He was still babyish and whiny, but not as bad as usually is. I was disappointed with Puyol a few times though... rolling on the ground even more than Ronaldo. Very disappointing from the captain of the Champion's League and Euro Cup winning teams. Well, that was kind of a boring CL final… not terrible, but not really great either. I was going for Barca and so I was glad to see them win, but Man U just looked terrible… did they even show up to the game? They gave Barca way too much space, and just let them pass it around as much as they wanted… is SAF stupid to let his team let Barca do that?? Having said that, Barca actually didn’t look continually threatening, but they certainly dominated the possession. They also created a few (not tons, but much more than Man U to be sure) great chances with some fantastic passing. Certainly the better team won. Messi’s header for the second goal was picturesque… very nice!

I was actually surprised Ronaldo didn’t act as bad as his normal self. He was still babyish and whiny, but not as bad as usually is. I was disappointed with Puyol a few times though… rolling on the ground even more than Ronaldo. Very disappointing from the captain of the Champion’s League and Euro Cup winning teams.

]]> By: Michel-Olivier http://netherlands.worldcupblog.org/1/barca-is-the-best.html/comment-page-1#comment-165705 Michel-Olivier Thu, 28 May 2009 15:09:36 +0000 http://netherlands.worldcupblog.org/1/barca-is-the-best.html#comment-165705 barca played total football (4-3-3) ———---------–stekelenburg———------------ v.d.wiel-bommel-mathijsen-v.bronckhorst ---------------de jong-------------- -----schaars------------sneijder----- v.persie-------huntelaar-------robben barca played total football (4-3-3)

——————–stekelenburg———————
v.d.wiel-bommel-mathijsen-v.bronckhorst
—————de jong————–
—–schaars————sneijder—–
v.persie——-huntelaar——-robben

]]> By: Michel-Olivier http://netherlands.worldcupblog.org/1/barca-is-the-best.html/comment-page-1#comment-165704 Michel-Olivier Thu, 28 May 2009 15:02:09 +0000 http://netherlands.worldcupblog.org/1/barca-is-the-best.html#comment-165704 Orange Toulon Tournament squad Kai van Hese (ADO Den Haag), Siem de Jong en Jeffrey Sarpong (beiden Ajax), Erwin Mulder (Excelsior), Diego Biseswar (Feyenoord, foto), Mustafa Amezrine en Oussama Assaidi (beiden De Graafschap), Tom Hiariej (FC Groningen), Geert-Arend Roorda en Daryl Janmaat (beiden sc Heerenveen), Bas Dost (Heracles Almelo), Donny Gorter (NAC Breda), John Goossens (N.E.C.), Erik Pieters (PSV), Erik Falkenburg (Sparta Rotterdam), Vito Wormgoor (FC Utrecht), Alexander Buttner, Nicky Kuiper en Ricky van Wolfswinkel (allen Vitesse) en Rens van Eijden (Willem II) Orange Toulon Tournament squad

Kai van Hese (ADO Den Haag), Siem de Jong en Jeffrey Sarpong (beiden Ajax), Erwin Mulder (Excelsior), Diego Biseswar (Feyenoord, foto), Mustafa Amezrine en Oussama Assaidi (beiden De Graafschap), Tom Hiariej (FC Groningen), Geert-Arend Roorda en Daryl Janmaat (beiden sc Heerenveen), Bas Dost (Heracles Almelo), Donny Gorter (NAC Breda), John Goossens (N.E.C.), Erik Pieters (PSV), Erik Falkenburg (Sparta Rotterdam), Vito Wormgoor (FC Utrecht), Alexander Buttner, Nicky Kuiper en Ricky van Wolfswinkel (allen Vitesse) en Rens van Eijden (Willem II)

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