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Champions Leage, matchday 2

September 30th, 2009 | By: Jan | 26 Comments »

The focus on Matchday 2, for me at least, was on AZ Alkmaar.

Last season, I seriously thought AZ and Van Gaal could surprise Europe. With his typical bravado and smarts, I thought he would be able to have the lads rise to the occasion with good, bold football.

But Mr “I’m the Best of the World” went to the land of sauerkraut, lederhosen and weissbeer to make place for Mr Apology…

I’m not saying Koeman isn’t up for it (what do I know) but without Louis, AZ lost it’s magic.

The home game against Standard resulted in a disappointing 1-1 (with another late goal conceded) after a series of disappointing games in the Eredivisie.

Somewhere else in Europe, Liverpool lost prolificly, Van Persie scored another nice goal and Barca played gallery football but only scored twice against Kiev…

Tomorrow, Bayern Juve is the big fixture, with Van Gaal hoping to take revenge on the old lady for the lost finals in 1996… Ah, come on Louis, no one really remembers that game….

Tags: AZ, Barcelona, Group C, Koeman, Oranje, van Gaal, van Persie

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Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 26 comments.

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By goose | September 30th, 2009 at 9:45 am

im not sure if i ever said it before on this blog but: Koeman is a crap manager

Posted from Netherlands

By ferenc | September 30th, 2009 at 10:58 am

@goose: DDDD

Posted from Hungary

By Mohamed | September 30th, 2009 at 12:13 pm

You’re right goose , he proved that with valencia and ajax before .
Btw , lazio wants vdv in the winter , better than madrid anyway !!

By OranjeRules | September 30th, 2009 at 12:27 pm

Koeman did something right at Benfica for a year but he has been crap since! I hope he can turn it around because he was a horse for Oranje back in the day. I’d put him right up there with Stam as the best Centre Back Oranje has had in my time following them. He was quite the libero!

By Peter vdL | September 30th, 2009 at 3:45 pm

robben’s injured.
braafheid played ok.
huntelaar didn’t play neither did vdv or drenthe.

not the best matchday for the dutchies.

By ferenc | September 30th, 2009 at 3:47 pm

and clarence was subbed

Posted from Hungary

By Carlos | September 30th, 2009 at 4:55 pm

Wonder who will go first Koeman or Leonardo of Milan ???

Posted from Singapore

By sonneveld | September 30th, 2009 at 5:08 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ2hEn5U-qE

wesley sneijders first game for madrid made by me

By ferenc | September 30th, 2009 at 5:14 pm

leonardo – marco should replace him,he’s the man for the kind of job milan needs. at least huntelaar didn’t play,so he didn’t take part in this disaster

Posted from Hungary

By Marc | September 30th, 2009 at 5:21 pm

Robben’s injury is apparently a bad one

Posted from United States

By Michel-Olivier | September 30th, 2009 at 6:05 pm

i think the flying dutchman is slowly sinking
-vdv is not playing
-hunter is having a bad season
-we have no pure cf other than hunter
-robben is still getting injured
-ooijer is still a regular in the dutch st 11
-orange b was a waste of time because players like v.wolfswinkel, fer, pieters, and brama are not ready for orange a
-bert doesn’t want to call seedorf, koevermans, and emanuelson

Posted from United States

By Jeroen | September 30th, 2009 at 8:03 pm

You can judge the status by what’s happened in the last month…and then realize there’s another 8 months to go. a lot can happen between now and then.

Posted from Netherlands

By susanne | September 30th, 2009 at 8:23 pm

@Jeroen: indeed. It’s still months to go.

Posted from Netherlands

By sonneveld | September 30th, 2009 at 8:44 pm

@MO we have van persie robben and sneijder all starters for top top clubs in important roles

plus vp and robben are less injured than before

By sonneveld | September 30th, 2009 at 8:47 pm

http://www.goal.com/en/news/15/germany/2009/09/30/1533399/arjen-robbens-injury-is-severe-fears-bayern-munich-coach

even though this is tough luck

By Michel-Olivier | September 30th, 2009 at 10:02 pm

@ sonneveld
right now are we good enough to win a world cup?

Posted from United States

By Michel-Olivier | September 30th, 2009 at 10:03 pm

@Jeroen
time goes fast

Posted from United States

By Tiju | September 30th, 2009 at 11:00 pm

@orange rules i just showed my frustration.(in a way just kidding)if you feel its cruel,i am sorry.i know otherwise they will be selected in WC2010.B/W i cannt even think about Ganesh.I dont misunderstand all the indians are having blind belives and dont consider them as idol worshipers..Got it..

Posted from India

By Tiju | September 30th, 2009 at 11:05 pm

instead of I…it is PLZ

Posted from India

By Tiju | September 30th, 2009 at 11:06 pm

@ferenc i think we need to forget about clarence,kovermance etc…
Roban will come back at the time of WC.

Posted from India

By Sol | October 1st, 2009 at 4:57 am

Tim Melbourne
10:07 AM Oct 1, 2009

“Robben injured??? Who could have predicted that one?”

——–

I liked this comment in that article, it’s such an obvious one, but still funny, in a “boer met kiespijn” kind of way (”laughing like a farmer with a toothache” is a Dutch expression to signify an ironic laugh, or laughing when you’re actually not that happy).

Personally, I think this isn’t such a bad thing for Oranje, Robben might get some nice rest before the WC and come in like vBasten did in ‘88, fresh and full of energy and the desire to prove himself/achieve something. It’s just sad that I can’t watch him now anymore cause at the moment I enjoy watching him and vPersie the most (Kuyt is unbearable to watch, sorry Kuyt, he might be useful in several ways, but his skill and speed is soo boring/lacking, show something nice please… ).

Posted from Netherlands

By Tiju | October 1st, 2009 at 5:41 am

@Sol….i dont know whether you knew it or not….i was a no 1 criticasters of kuyt always.and still.going on…….whatever you said it on kuyt is absolutly true.but if you see the liverpool goal statitics….you have to admit that he is good assiter not a finisher.he has vision and good brain and a good workhorse,thats why benitz using him.(he used to get opportunistic goals and i take those goals as bonus).
Roban is one of my favorite player.but if you use Micah richards kind of diffenders he will get sandwitched..but i agree never use kuyt as central striker..and he cannt create goals like vanperise created against fulham.but if he plays with vaart/znijder,RVP,Elia,and nestel..we will have a harvest of goals.
i think its BVM’s fault giving him more chances as a central striker…
how about
————Vanpersie—————

Elia———Vaart——–Kuyt

—-Znijder——Dejong———-

Bauma—Mathijenson–Loovens–Van der weil

———Stekelenburg————————-
Subs
Nestelrooy for vaart after 70 minutes.Drop RVP one line back
if we need more creativity we can sub kuyt with babel/Roban
then its as usall and according to circumstances..
i didnt mean znijder as a holding mid,diffence is a collective effort..Elia,Kuyt,Znijder together will do that..thay all are hard running players.

Posted from India

By Jan | October 1st, 2009 at 5:59 am

Guys, I’m not even gonna post an article on the second day of CL football…

Bayern couldn’t win against Juve, Louis van Gaal angry at ref, blablabla.

Robben injured, blablabla…

AC Milan loses again, blablabla…

Real Madrid wins, blablbabla…

By Jeroen | October 1st, 2009 at 7:20 am

to be honest i can understand why van gaal was mad at the ref; he blew the whistle when olic was practically past the defense. wouldve been a one on one with the keeper. technically a ref can blow the whistle any time the ball is in play, but you’re strongly not advised to do it when one of the teams is in a scoring position (read: it shouldnt be done).

Posted from Netherlands

By Sol | October 1st, 2009 at 11:14 am

Like Olic would have done anything useful with it……NOT.

As if he was so particularly useful during that match. *heavy sarcasm*

Posted from Netherlands

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