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Brazil, the Oranje of South America :-)

November 12th, 2008 | By: Jan | 6 Comments »

Yep! It’s official… Take out the champagne. Make faces to Germans, Portuguese and Italians.

The Netherlands (i.e. Holland, i.e. Oranje) has leapfrogged Brazil in the FIFA standings of “Best Football Nations in the World” (or something like that…).

Spain is still number one, Germany and Italy are 2 and 3 (so stop making faces to them then…) and Oranje is number 4. Brazil now takes the 5th spot.

England recently re-entered the top 10, what with Capello’s impressive results.

Some other news now:

Ruud’s second opinion from American specialist Steadman will result in an operation. It’s not clear what the procedure will be. The specialists can only tell after the operation how long Ruud will be out.

Ruud out. Hunter out. Van Marwijk has some work cut out for him…

PSV is trying to lure Andre Ooijer and Mark van Bommel back to Eindhoven, now the latter has been told he’s free to go. Some sources say, however, that Mark won’t be allowed to leave Bayern. The fans adore him and really, who calls the shots in Munich? Is it Beckenbauer? Rummenigge? Hoeness? Surely not Klinsi? More to come…

Breaking news from Madrid now. After the upset in the Copa del Rey, sources claim Frank Rijkaard is being courted to take over from Bernd Schuster. Why not, they must have thought. We have 5 Dutch players, let’s add two Dutch coaches to the mix (Rijkaard and Neeskens). More later…

Tags: Bommel, Group C, Holland, Huntelaar, Neeskens, Oranje, Raul, Ruud

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Comments

By Bart | November 12th, 2008 at 10:06 pm

Won’t the barca fans make a real meal out of this

Posted from Canada

By Michel-Olivier | November 12th, 2008 at 10:14 pm

belgium-netherlands 2018 World Cup bid????

Posted from United States

By Carlos | November 13th, 2008 at 1:44 am

As I said previously…No self respecting Oranje fan would claim Holland is a better footballing side than Brazil …Fifa ratings are a joke if Australia plays 12 matches in a row against their Pacific neighbours over the next 2 weeks and win 8-0, on average, they will also climb to the No1 spot.
By the way I am tired of complimenting Jan on his stories, Just Jealous of the incredible information he always seems to have on his fingertips !!!
Uitsteekend !

Posted from Singapore

By Jan | November 13th, 2008 at 3:54 am

Thanks Carlos . I never get bored of compliments…

By Alex | November 13th, 2008 at 6:46 am

Brazil doesn’t always exactly play very good football, I believe there isn’t that much difference. Although Brasil do have a lot more choice, look at their options for right back alone:Maicon, Dani Alves, Cicinho and i think Belletti is also Brasilian, we only have Kromkamp, Melchiot, Zuiverloon, Tiendalli as real right backs. Despite this list being not very accurate, Oranje is in fact one of the best teamss in the world, it just hasn’t yet really showed in their play.

Posted from Netherlands

By Caleb | November 13th, 2008 at 11:04 am

@Carlos – while I agree that over history I wouldn’t say Holland is a better footballing country than Brazil (is anyone??), and I also agree that the Fifa rankings are somewhat of a joke, they are really only taking into account recent years with the emphasis on most recent results, and Brazil hasn’t been that impressive recently, so that’s the reason for the slide… I guess.

Posted from Canada

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