Brazil should take Australia as an example – Cruyff

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Posted from  United States

Johan said this just because van Basten is one of his friends.

I am sure that his comment would be different if it was still Advocaat who had managed this result.

In my opinion this world cup was just a start for a new generation Dutch players. They were unlucky with the draw and were eliminated only because Portugal played with more experience. There is nothing to worry for the Dutch, They have to be top in South Africa 2010. If they do not come home with results from there, then it is fair to criticize them

Posted from  Netherlands

Very well said from our man JC.

Well, the way I see it, it’s not so much that Dutch fans are disappointed in the teams performance, as they are with the result; the circumstances of our loss in this world cup are the problem. The fact is, we played much better than Portugal and beat them in every way except the score! England, France? This is a path paved in gold to a world cup final re-match with Germany. My criticism is that our team should have found a way to win that game. Cruyff and v. Basten should be angry about this. It would make me feel better if they were. Lets not say the team did good. If, they want to postone all our expectations on the Euro’s in 08. Then lets just state plainly that we expect to win the 08 Euro, and more importantly for me at this point we expect to beat cheating Portugal in 08! To me Cruyff is talking to soft; I want to hear more conviction from the two-headed Dutch organization. If Cruyff is playing a major role in the teams future, i don’t think it should be a half-hearted one where he hides behind Marco Van Basten; and comes out in the media for backup, to display his support, after a loss that should have been a win!
If Van Basten losses the 08 Euro in anything except a deserving fashion, will Cruyyf takeover, to right his wrongs? Personely, I don’t understand how he can live with having played for the world cup twice and having lost. In my mind he would want to correct that mistake with a dutch team where he is manager because he can nolonger be player. At this point the game owes us a world cup! But like in life there is no justice in football, the dirty Portuguese continue to play the brand of football that has made them the most despised contender of this competition and we must wait for 08, and rely on v Basten/Cruyff, to do what they should have done at the 06 world cup. Hup Holland.

Just because you make the finals a few times and win one big tournament (ec 1988) doesn’t mean the world should expect such quality teams everytime. Yes the Dutch are often good. But you cannot always be good. Not even the brazilians can do that. These were really young lads, and only with a stroke of unbelievable luck could they have actually gone on to win it. I think van Basten did the right thing though. For the next 8 years this team can be fairly consistent with some changes here and there. People like davids would not have played in the next world cup anyway (Seedorf being the exception). This way the players can learn to play together over a long period of time. They have quite a bit of talent which is promising for the future.

Also, think of some of the other teams like Brazil, Portugal, or France. How many of these players will we see back four years from now? They might have to go through similar processes as the dutch team has undergone in the past two years.

Posted from  United Kingdom

Hi micha:

I have to disagree with you and the mighty #14 since I am disappointed with the Oranje’s performance this year. I bleed Oranje since 1978 but I don’t for a second think we played better than 75% of the team this year – yes, if we’re including teams like Angola/T&T, etc. (no offense) – but we should be measuring ourselves against the Germanys, the Argentinas, the Brazils of the world and this year I think we fell short.

Even at the 2 matches that we won against S&M and IC, we did not dominate, if anything, to be honest, we got scared couple times against these teams (which should not have any business being close to our class). The only teams that disappointed but played good football this year are Spain and Argentina. I’d be very happy if I’m a Spanish fan now since they displayed a very fluid attacking football (of course, being Spaniards, they ended up with bad result).

I also don’t understand why #14 would criticize Argentina and Brazil when there are a lot of aspects from our own side to be criticized, it’s ridiculous to read that from one of my all-time idols he sounded like a sour loser. And folks should stop saying “this is not our target year, we know our team is not ready ….” which is such hogwash. Every (true) Oranje fan knows and expects the Oranje to win every tournament they get in. Even WC 1998, Euro 2000 and Euro 2004 was not good enough results for our mighty Oranje.

I don’t know the answer to our team’s current situation but I do know that we have a promising defense and offense but very uninspiring midfield. I just couldn’t recognize our midfield this year.

Posted from  United States

Ya H, I feel the same way, nothing short of the prize is good enough, and I don’t know about u but i would feel alot better if the managment talked like this instead of making excuses and talking about a “good future”.

We have to stop finding excuses and face reality.

In the first half Portugal was playing better. In the second half, with 11 against 10, we were playing much better than Portugal and we could have won the game.

However, we should have never started using dirty tactics against such experts in dirty play. We also lost time, helping them!!! I guess that Van Basten is to blame for this, he seems to have instigated the players to use dirty tricks to win… When I saw the dirty game I was already expecting to loose against Portugal (even with 11 against 10).

My opinion was backed by the referee Valentin Ivanov: http://football.guardian.co.uk/worldcup2006/story/0,,1807675,00.html

Posted from  Netherlands

Well jan, do you really think the opinion of the referee who presided in the wc match that holds the all time record for cards ever handed out, means anything? What did you expect him to say? I totally lost control of that game, I blew so many calls that I was giving out cards like I was dealing in a casino; I didn’t want to influence the game by giving away penalty kicks and sending off half the Portuguese team, even if it meant ignoring the rules FIFA has appointed me to inforce? What point are you making you agree with Ivanov and the job he did?