Cat with nine lifes has creative poverty

how many times Ruud safe orange?
First was against Germany in Euro 2004.
We could have been passed through Portugals if he is not benched

Posted from  Thailand

well; just cause i have to… heres my grades..

vdSar; little action but still too much against a team like Albania..one very good safe

Melchiot; played almost decent, great goal, dont think it was a foul

Ooijer; played decent, had a few good moments, no real big mistakes

Bouma; below average, really needs to work on his passing game

Matijssen; played terrible, one of the worst games ive seen him play..his defending was apolling, let his mane go everytime

Sneijder; not good, was irritated, had some nasty fouls, no good yesterday

deZeeuw; had some decent moments but also below standard, passing game was terrible

vBronckhorst; below standard but about the best he could do.. played better then against Bulgaria

vPersie; played very bad, not his fault, played on the right! what a waste

vNistelrooy; played extremely bad, nothing he did was right…until ONE pass was given to him inside the box and he makes a beautiful goal

Babal; played apollingly bad, dint get passed a defender a single time..very bad

vdVaart; played very bad, nothing he did was any good

Emmanuelson; played almost decent, good play with the goal but that was it

Kuyt; bad, couldnt make any differnce

vanBasten; worst manager ever in international football history…stupid things yesterday:

1. Play one of the best shadow strikers (a LEFT footed one) in the EPL on the right side

2. Change Sneijder for vdVaart who has been out with injury and bench one of the best midfieldplayers in Europe the whole game

3. Keep playing with 3 strikers when its obvious during the game that it doenst work

4. Bench the one player that could have made it easier to force a goal (Vennegoor)

5. Saying after the game: We played a good match (!!!) and we deserved to win (!!??)

im really kinda worried.. im fed up with this guy and there is nothing we can do about it.. i can even see the KNVB giving him another contract if we qualify for EC08…

its getting worse and worse wich each game they play…did you guys see England? they played great..Germany? easy and good win..

i wanna see good football, not this crap! it hurts my eyes and its embaressing..we look like idiots!

f#@&**&!(&!&^&^@&%

MARCO DI BASTA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted from  Netherlands

Thanks Goose… I’d like to make this our tradition, okay?

Posted from  Australia

Well well Goose u rocked,
wat a shame we need one davids in holding mid position
and back line
we need donk
luirink
ron varl such kind of players
and we need castelen and hantlaar

well, i am a teacher, i like to grade, so yeah, lets make it a blog-tradition .. but im happy my students grades are not as bad as those of our orange friends..its really awfull!
im getting worried Jan!

Posted from  Netherlands

Following up on this thread. Statistically it looked like Oranje totally dominated the second half. But don’t know whether the stats were wrong.

Wouldn’t despair totally. Albania hacked, ratted Holland. But they won anyway. Rather be lucky than good. You’d prefer to be a French fan today?

Second, you just can’t expect Oranje to throw together guys from all over into a cohesive team. In the end you’ll have to rely on your stars to do something.

BUT – have to say that it still doesn’t appear that Van Baasten realizes that. He just keeps going with a 4-3-3 that doesn’t seem to work.

He doesn’t play Seedorf in a tough match. I mean one of the physically strongest players you have – and you don’t play him against a hacking defense?

And Gio in midfield? You need another back – put him on the wing back there.

And Van P as a winger – why? You have two of the best central strikers around – and you don’t set up your offense to get them the ball? Bizarre.

Van de Saar – nice saves though. Wow – he’s good.

Biggest point though is still – almost no-one is looking good in these qualifiers. This shuttling sucks for the players and it makes for atrocious games. Jan’s idea of mini-tournaments to qualify is much better. Remember – Clockwork Orange almost all played together on Ajax and Oranje. These guys don’t. I’m just happy they’re willing to put up with the KNVB

Posted from  United States

i’m worried too because yesterday oranje sisn’t have any good attack except one: emmanuelson’s hard work on the left side (and ruud of course,btw i haven’t seen him playing so badly).

van der sar,melchiot,de zeuw,ooijer ,emmanuelson and rvn (at least he scored) were passable,but the others…

we need changes

1. we should forget matthijsen, and recall van bommel for marrhijsen’s posirion as a central defender
2. melchiot is ok but kromkamp is a better player,so kromkamp to the right,emmanuelson to the left (defence: kromkamp,heitinga,van bommel,emmanuelson)
3. build the midfield around europe’s best midfielder,and of course changing the system from 433 to 422 (seedorf,de zeeuw,sneijder,van der vaart). in some cases we can play with 2 holding midfielders and only with 2 attack-minded midfielders
4.trying drenthe,he – and gio – should be subs,and drenthe can go in the 65-70. minutes and make some difference
5. van persie is a shadow striker,so he should play in his natural role
6.babel and robben should be subs – they are better if they only play 25-30 mns
7. against this kind of team we should play physically – so why is vennegoor in the team if he never plays?
8. but most importantly – someone should convince marco that his concept doesn’t work at all and he has to accept that we need changes. if he doesn’t accept it the knvb should replace him with someone else. anyway,it would be better without him. maybe i should write to the knvb and offer my services as a bandcoach;-)) haha

Posted from  Hungary

Nice Ferenc, nice comments but about Ruud I have to say that he does not need to play good football, because when he has one half chance and it´s a goal and he did it last game, that is why that Ruud should play 90 minutes when the game is very tight, he should only be replaced in tight games because of injuries. When a game is defined then you can replace Ruud, other than that is a huge mistake and bench him in important games such as the Portugal game is the biggest stupidity or all!!!van Basten, get oooooooooooooooooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut, leeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Oranje!!!!

@goose–excellent analysis of the match and the players!

It seems that all bloggers continue to emphasize the same themes regarding this current Netherlands team–very weak defense, but with a solid and sometimes superior goalkeeper; potentially strong midfield if personnel and formation choices are correct; potentially strong forward line, if personnel and formation choices are correct; and, repeatedly, a very mediocre to poor coach. Given all of these weaknesses, however, the Dutch have won their last two matches and now have a tie with Romania for first in Group G. Luck? Skill in spite of coach? Poor competition? All of these possibilities?

I commend Jan for precisely and accurately describing in advance what this match would be. The unknown, pre-match, was how poor the officials would be. I am beginning to wonder if the linesmen stay awake during these matches, as they seemed to offer no assistance to Riley and often contributed to his incompetence. Are these officials fearful of fan retribution? Albania played rugby, and tried to be punks in order to intimidate the Dutch. This was not, as van Basten stated, a deserved win based on football skill and prowess, but was absolutely deserved based on the Albanian attitude and tactics. Some day, if the officials do not get control of these kinds of matches, some player is going to get severely injured either through rough play or violence instigated by teams such as Albania. Finally, Albania should be punished by the loss of a home match, or something, based on the ending violence which, if the individual “grenade” tosser could be identified, clearly was a crime by any civilized standards. Prosecute and incarcerate the criminal, but also punish Albania as a motive to fans NOT to do this again.

Posted from  United States

It wasn’t a rugby game, but simply a physical match. Sneijder’s tackles were very nasty but that’s how football is.

Lucky Holland b/c I still don’t know what was wrong with Melchiot’s own goal. Only the referee knows. And then you say “Balkan atmosphere with hotheaded supporters”. Well, the Dutch played handball in Amsterdam but the referee didn’t give us that penalty in the 83rd minute. Like the Albanian newspapers wrote today, “stolen victory”. I say, 6 stolen points.

Anyway, a 1-0 victory against Albania with a goal scored in injury time is a poor result for a team that wants to win the Euro. Holland has a lot of work to do.

Posted from  United States

Alban, I hear what you’re saying mate. It’s true. There a LOT OF WORK to do and most of us are pretty pessimmistic about it. That hand ball I remember well…

And again, Melchiot’s own goal…even Bassie said Oranje was lucky there, although Sar was adamant about the push in his back. I don’t know.

I do know that the UEFA will need start thinking about some other set up because this doesn’t make anyone happy!!

Posted from  Australia

dint get to watch football but wat i conclude frm the frens was holland played very bad
the oranje team r just a group of talented individuals managed by a irritating person
we r the holland fans the fans who wud love to see oranje lifting many trophies but i m sure this isnt goin to happen till van basten is there
now we r just the fans of dutch players not the dutch teams
so much disappointed i don kno wats going to happen wen we face the likes of germany italy n england

Posted from  Nepal