World

Europe

Netherlands

CL draw: AZ sees chances, Sar enjoys another trophee

August 27th, 2009 | By: Jan | 33 Comments »

And here’s the CL draw! With Edwin van der Sar – choses as best goalie of the past CL season – as one of the masters of ceremony, the eight groups for the new CL season are now known.

Van der Sar enjoyed the night: “Winning trophees is always special, but being the best in your job in Europe when you’re my age…that just out of this world.” Sar kept Petr Cech and Victor Valdez ( CL winner Barca’s goalie) behind him in the race. Lionel Messi and Xavi were chosen best attacker and midfielder (both Barca) while Chelsea’s John Terry was picked as the best defender. The coaches of the teams reaching the eighth’s finales (16 in total) got to vote, among them Dutchies Guus Hiddink and Henk ten Cate.

Sar received the trophee out of the hands of ex Portugal and ex-Barca goalie Vitor Baia.

The playing dates for the group stages are: 15/16 september, 29/30 september, 20/21 oktober, 3/4 november, 24/25 november and 8/9 december.

Groep A
1. Bayern München (Dui)
2. Juventus (Ita)
3. Bordeaux (Fra)
4. Maccabi Haifa FC (Isr)

Jan’s pick: Bayern and Juve

Groep B
1. Manchester United (Eng)
2. CSKA Moskou (Rus)
3. Besiktas (Tur)
4. VfL Wolfsburg (Dui)

Jan’s picks: Man United and Wolfsburg

Groep C
1. AC Milan (Ita)
2. Real Madrid (Spa)
3. Olympique de Marseille (Fra)
4. FC Zürich (Zwi)

Jan’s picks: AC Milan and Marseille

Groep D
1. Chelsea (Eng)
2. Porto (Por)
3. Atletico Madrid (Spa)
4. Apoel Nicosia (Cyp)

Jan’s picks: Chelsea and Atletico Madrid

Groep E
1. Liverpool (Eng)
2. Olympique Lyon (Fra)
3. Fiorentina (Ita)
4. Debrecen (Hon)

Jan’s picks: Liverpool and Lyon.

Groep F
1. Barcelona (Spa)
2. Inter Milaan (Ita)
3. Dynamo Kiev (Oek)
4. Rubin Kazan (Rus)

Jan’s picks: Barca and Inter.

Groep G
1. Sevilla (Spa)
2. Glasgow Rangers (Sch)
3. VfB Stuttgart (Dui)
4. Unirea (Roe)

Jan’s picks: Sevilla and Stuttgart

Groep H
1. Arsenal (Eng)
2. AZ Alkmaar (Ned)
3. Olympiakos Piraeus (Gri)
4. Standard Luik (BEL)

Jan’s picks: Arsenal and AZ Alkmaar.

AZ coach Ronald Koeman was realistic. “Arsenal is normally a bit too big for us, although you can never say never. A very good day for us and a bad day for them could end up in a surprising result, but normally they’re the better team. The other opponents are all strong, but we should be able to take them on. We’ll go for the second place in this group.”

Stijn Schaars: “Arsenal is a top club, but we’d always have a top club in our group anyways… I’m actually looking forward playing them. The other two… We should be confident, I think. Anything can happen in cup football, but I think we shouldn’t be unhappy with this draw.”

Tags: AC Milan, Arsenal, AZ, Group C, Inter, Koeman, Liverpool, Sar, Schaars

Netherlands World Cup RSS Feed

del.icio.us:CL draw: AZ sees chances, Sar enjoys another trophee

digg:CL draw: AZ sees chances, Sar enjoys another trophee

newsvine:CL draw: AZ sees chances, Sar enjoys another trophee

reddit:CL draw: AZ sees chances, Sar enjoys another trophee

fark:CL draw: AZ sees chances, Sar enjoys another trophee

Y!:CL draw: AZ sees chances, Sar enjoys another trophee

stumbleupon:CL draw: AZ sees chances, Sar enjoys another trophee

Comments

Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 33 comments.

Read the rest of the comments

By Agragami | August 28th, 2009 at 4:30 am

@ Jan: completely agree with your CL selection. Milan will cross RM so will Marseille.

@Jeroen: Ditto with your wish… smeijder, Robben, Huntelaar or VdV for Ballon… Doom to Real Madrid.

Posted from India

By Agragami | August 28th, 2009 at 4:31 am

Sorry for the typography error …. Sneijder

Posted from India

By ferenc | August 28th, 2009 at 4:35 am

@Jeroen: believe me i watched almost every single barca game last year and valdes made only 2 or 3 crucial mistakes. actually we lost one game (against espanol) because of his mistakes. that’s all. but this award wasn’t for the whole year,it was for the champions’league performance. valdes excelled in in the cl. van der sar was great as well but for ex. in the final he could have saved eto’o’s shot. (fortunately he didn’t.) this is the reason – the all cl performance – why i say that valdes would have deserved the award.

real madrid will suck. they won’t win any major trophy.

btw,any news about vdv? will sneijder play tomorrow against milan ac?

Posted from Hungary

By Jan | August 28th, 2009 at 4:56 am

I don’t think Sneijder will start. He might come on later.

No news on Vaart. Eerie silence.

Chelsea wants De Guzman too. But they want to loan him out (maybe back to Feyenoord) but De Guzman doesn’t want to move to London: “I don’t like Chelsea. They see football as a business and they have 15 players out on loan. I want to move to Spain, if possible.” His brother plays in Spain for La Coruna.

By Jan | August 28th, 2009 at 5:01 am

Here’s a suggestion from left field:

Vaart goes to Barca!

He’s been saying he wants to leave Spain and that he wants to move transfer free.

If Madrid agrees, this weekend, Barca (= Cruyff) will snap him up!

Xavi Toure Iniesta/Vaart
Messi/Vaart Zlatan Henry/Vaart

By ferenc | August 28th, 2009 at 5:12 am

hehe,Jan i was thinking about it,too. it would be nice. he’s polyvalent and due to his poléyvalence he could become a very useful sub (especially knowing that iniesta and henry are injury prone,messi could get injured as well). the problem is that he stupidly said that any spanish club (including barca,atletico and valencia) would be a step backwards for him. he shouldn’t have said that. but after all he would be a nice signing. on the other hand ,i wouldn’t like to read all the time comments like this: “he should be in the starting eleven”, “he’s better than iniesta,” “henry is too old,” “messi is out of form” etc. this is one of the main reason why i didn’t want too much our dutch players at barca. actually 1 week ago laporta said about robben that he obviously would sign him,but if he called perez,perez would ask him 200million instead of 25. but if vdv is a free agent,the situation is different. and at barca he could meet his old buddy,zlatan ibrahimovic

Posted from Hungary

By Peter vdL | August 28th, 2009 at 5:21 am

Just read that Wolfsburg and Everton are making potential bids for Heitinga… (Everton with the loss of lescott and wolfsburg with the loss of Cristian Zaccardo see heitinga as a replacement.)

By bobotoh | August 28th, 2009 at 5:46 am

To Wolsfburg please, because they will play in the CL.

Posted from Indonesia

By Peter vdL | August 28th, 2009 at 6:00 am

robben just got handed the number 10 jersey in munich.

By Peter vdL | August 28th, 2009 at 6:04 am

btw, heitinga can’t play champions league for any other team this year than Atlético Madrid cos he started for them last night in their champions league qualifier against Panathinaikos.

By Peter vdL | August 28th, 2009 at 6:11 am

for those interested you can go to uefa.com and watch the europa cup group stage draw thats on live now.

By Tiju | August 28th, 2009 at 6:19 am

@ferenec barca doesn’t have a good dead ball specialist.Vaart is too smart in that.So vaart to barca must be good deal for orange and him.
B/W.is there any probelms occured between ibra and vaart during their Ajax days.?

Posted from India

By Tiju | August 28th, 2009 at 6:22 am

I think SAF and MANU made a small mistake for CR7 Deal.That time they should have asked perez for Roban+Vaart+80Million for CR7.Obiviously he would have agreed that.No luck for Roban and vaart to work with a champion ka champion coach.

Posted from India

By Michel-Olivier | August 28th, 2009 at 7:18 am

Goalie: Maarten Stekelenburg (Ajax), Piet Velthuizen (Vitesse), Michel Vorm (FC Utrecht)

Defence: Edson Braafheid (Bayern Munich), Giovanni van Bronckhorst (Feyenoord), John Heitinga (Atlético Madrid), Glenn Loovens (Celtic), Joris Mathijsen (Hamburger SV), André Ooijer (PSV), Gregory van der Wiel (Ajax)

Midfield: Ibrahim Afellay (PSV), Nigel de Jong (Manchester City), David Mendes da Silva (AZ), Stijn Schaars (AZ), Wesley Sneijder (Internazionale), Rafael van der Vaart (Real Madrid), Demy de Zeeuw (Ajax)

Attack: Eljero Elia (Hamburger SV), Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (AC Milan), Dirk Kuijt (Liverpool), Robin van Persie (Arsenal) en Arjen Robben (Bayern Munich)

Posted from United States

By Michel-Olivier | August 28th, 2009 at 7:19 am

babel is drop, vdv should of been drop.

Posted from United States

By bobotoh | August 28th, 2009 at 7:27 am

two down, one to go. I am still waiting the news about Van der Vaart….

Posted from Indonesia

By Big Mark | August 28th, 2009 at 7:29 am

Where’s van Bommel? Still on the injured list?

By bobotoh | August 28th, 2009 at 7:30 am

@Tiju, I think these are the Barca dead ball specialists: Xavi, Marquez, Messi, and Henry….

Posted from Indonesia

By stephen | August 28th, 2009 at 7:51 am

VdV latest:
http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Sport/Story/STIStory_422514.html

Posted from United States

By ferenc | August 28th, 2009 at 8:26 am

@Tju&bobotoh: even ibra is a dead ball specialist, too… and don’t forget dany alves

there is no reason for heitinga to leave atma. atma is a nice club,with excellent players (aguero,forlan,maxi rodriguez etc.),he’s in the starting eleven. a far better club than everton or wolfsburg.

Posted from Hungary

By Mohamed | August 28th, 2009 at 8:31 am

@stephen , i prefer to die than to see vdv in action for a club like besiktas ! Vdv must go to a big league , i am pretty sure that the EPl will suit him .

By stephen | August 28th, 2009 at 8:42 am

@Mohamed – agreed. Hope VdV makes the EPL switch….there has to be a team out there lurking.

Posted from United States

By Jeff | August 28th, 2009 at 8:47 am

I think clubs in the EPL will wait until the very last moment to strike a deal so they can get him on the cheap. They all know Real is desperate.
Good draw for the Dutch clubs in the Europa League.

Posted from United States

By finnster01 | August 28th, 2009 at 10:22 am

@Peter vdL: Everton just bought Distin. They don’t need Heitinga now.

By Tiju | August 28th, 2009 at 11:09 pm

in team Castelen for afaleey
and De guzman for de saaw

Posted from India

Comments are closed