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Chris Waddle: Jealous at Oranje

June 20th, 2007 | By: Jan | 10 Comments »

I am a fan of Marco van Basten. I may be the biggest fan he has. He is the most complete player ever on this planet.
I am a fan and Marco had everything football has to offer. The beauty of the game, he was an athlete and a ballet-dancer. He brought us pure football.

Chris Waddle, former England international and currently analyst for the BBC.

My first encounter with Marco was at the EC in 1988 when we were played stupid by Holland. I will never forget that match. And then we met again on the WC 90 but that was a boring 0-0.

I always had a soft spot for Dutch football. A typical football nation where full backs can actually play, where the goalie can kick the ball on the strikers’ tie with left or right. Try to teach English players that… Our A-team has been embarrassing us for a long time now. We don’t have the class, we are a quarter finals team and once we have to face a team with more skills or pizzazz we’re out.

It’s time we wake up. People say we have the best competition, but that’s because of the foreign players. Cantona, Bergkamp, Henry, Xavi Alonso, Arnold Muhren, Ardiles, Davids, van Persie, Kuyt… And the European coaches… We need to wake up.

Young defenders are terrified to make mistakes and rather kick the ball blind in the stands. This English football culture is very annoying. As if winning is everything. Our mentality and passion are real assets but the actual quality is below par.

Look at our current team. Who has something special. Wayne Rooney? He’s got the name, yeah, but it is all power and speed. Who has the quality to take a man on, like Robben can?

On this tournament I see the Dutch Under 21 team and I see players who have the guts to play football. If the Dutch would have our mentality, they’d never lose a match. Ever.

Our mistake is that we haven’t evolved in skills. Brazil, Holland and Argentina produce players with technique and skill. We produce athletes. Physically strong players. But other countries have progressed on those areas, which is relatively easy to do. We haven’t done that on the skills level.

In England, there’s only two clubs I’d pay money for to go and see: Man United and Arsenal. The rest? They don’t offer a lot to entertain the fans. Chelsea… Look at the material and the money they spend, but you don’t see it back on the pitch.

I played for Olympique Marseille. Man, I enjoyed every youth game I saw. And I talked to Tony Adams the other day, who worked at Feyenoord for a while and he was extremely enthusiastic about the way they worked there. He would really like to go back to Holland… I can understand why….

Tags: Arjen Robben, Chris Waddle, marco van basten, The Netherlands

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Comments

By lars | June 20th, 2007 at 8:50 am

that is very true, however these days holland are grinding out results and playing to win. i want to see some skills and pace bought back in, the only players willing to do that for us at the moment is robben and van persie. however robben is being tamed by mourinho and being made to play like a robot like the other chelsea men which just leaves van persie, he is a legend. We need vaart and babel to bring back a bit of the old magic in the team!!!!
a bit of bergkamp and overmars these days wouldnt go a miss haha

Posted from United Kingdom

By lars | June 20th, 2007 at 8:50 am

Posted from United Kingdom

By netherlandfanboy | June 20th, 2007 at 2:29 pm

He forget Waterman. He’s pretty cool in the semi final

Posted from Australia

By goose | June 20th, 2007 at 3:10 pm

HOLLAND in the final…crazy ending..13-12 after penaltys!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/internationals/6766603.stm

report later

grtz

Posted from Netherlands

By Bart | June 20th, 2007 at 3:14 pm

HUP HOLLAND HUP
Wij houden van Oranje om zijn daden en zijn doen! Yes We’re in the finals for 2 consecutive years! We needed a total of 32 penalties to be taken. That is crazy, Kruiswijk could have won it for us earlier so could someone else who’s name escapes me. We totally dominated that game though

HUP HOLLAND HUP

Posted from Canada

By Miguel Rosado | June 20th, 2007 at 5:03 pm

What a great game vs England.
I think we played good football today not the best I’ve seen from these boys but they showed a lot of guts.
Waterman is an excellent keeper, Donk played very well, Beerens is a player to watch for the future, Rigters didn’t do much during the game but that’s what real forwards do they have one and they score it, Drenthe good, Maduro, all the team has potential.

We have a great wave of young players coming up and we have to remember that this team is missing some great players such as Afellay, Schaars, Zeeuw and Emanuelson, Mendujanin injured also.

Foppe de Haan is a magnificent coach.

By Jan | June 21st, 2007 at 12:02 am

Well well well :-)… Who says we have a penalty problem?? It was a nailbiter… Just finished watching it here in Oz. Kruiswijk missed, De Ridder missed but the no. 2 did it! With Waterman. Excellent result, reasonable football, great overhead kick by Rigters… Congrats to all!

More later….

Posted from Australia

By Bruce | June 21st, 2007 at 12:27 am

Boy, what a great game. Very fun to watch. I really felt Oranje deserved to win. They dominated in possession (70-30%!), and shots, and there was no way England was going to score after 45. The only reason we couldn’t finish it off in regulation was because England had 6, sometimes 7 men in their box….

Posted from Republic Of Korea

By Bruce | June 21st, 2007 at 12:27 am

Posted from Republic Of Korea

By Jan | June 21st, 2007 at 12:33 am

Yeah, it’s no surprise Waddle has his criticism. It’s clear to see what he means. England has strong, fit players but as a unit they can’t create anything. Tough to play against, sure, but if you - us in this case - play your cards right you shouldn’t have to lose against them…

Posted from Australia

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