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CL, matchday 4, part 2…

November 6th, 2008 | By: Jan | 24 Comments »

I was so looking forward to seeing Real – Juve only to find out that EPSN broadcasts it…well…now.

Which is the reason why you didn’t see me on the blog yesterday . The only real “Dutch team” in the CL, I just had to see that live.

There’s three certainties in life: death, taxes and Robben being injured. Minutes before the game, Schuster had to pick another player for the left wing and picked young and coming Royston Drenthe.

Sneijder, Van Gol, Drenthe were the Dutchies from the start and what a start! Or was it? I must say, Real looked threatening with their aggressive, high paced start but it was a lot of noise and not a lot of wool (this is a weird Dutch expression, I know ). And just like happened two weeks back, it was the counter-attacking Juve with the first real chance. And goal! Within 15 minutes – again, like the last game – Del Pierro got the ball after a Guti mistake and brushed the ball with his left passed Cassilas from outside the box. Another great Del Pierro goal: 0-1.

So, what do you do against 10 defending Italians + Del Pierro when you’re 1-0 down? You attack. But it needs to be pitch perfect: passing, movement, choosing between making the combination or taking on the opponent. And when you finally come through, the final pass needs to be on the mark.

Well, it didn’t happen for Madrid. Too hasty, turning into too predictable. The only two players getting a real chance were Serio Ramos and Diarra in the first half. The two least likely to score.

Real didn’t fair much better in the second half. More width, for sure, but no real threat coming from the playmakers Sneijder and Guti. The latter had some wonderful passes but also some very pedestrian depossessions. Sneijder didn’t look fit at all and wasn’t able to find a way through. The recently recovered Van Nistelrooy lurked, pushed and tried but nothing came his way, bar one shot opportunity that was blocked. Raul couldn’t do better.

And what does Juve do in those situations? They score again . And again Del Pierro. But, no matter how sweet he hit the free kick from 25 meters, the positioning of the wall was just abysmal. There is no other word for it, Mr Casillas! If the wall protects the left corner, you take the right corner! Goalkeeping 101!! Iker placed his wall to the left and hid behind it himself, it seemed. Del Pierro didn’t even need a lift to hit the ball in the open corner of the goal. Poor poor poor…

Raf, Saviolo and Higuain came on to put more pressure on, but even if Schuster could have used Zidane, Beckham, Figo and Hugo Sanchez too, it wouldn’t have mattered. Real never looked like they’d score. With the high light of the game being Sergio Ramos’ half volley. They’re still looking for the ball in the Madrid suburbs!

And Royston Drenthe, you might ask? Well…promising, I’d say. He worked hard. Not always smart. But he made his runs, he took on players when he could – successfully sometimes, he committed himself 100% in challenges (got a yellow of course) and tried to be everywhere. Did he play well then? Well, he most certainly wasn’t the weakest link (he played the full match) but his crosses need more precision. More composure. More smarts. But I am hopeful about this lad… I am!

Zenit St Petersburg won their game and are creeping up on Real Madrid.

I saw Man United too. They came to Celtic Park thinking it could be a breeze. It was a storm. A beautiful Scott McDonald goal put ManU on the backfoot early in the game and the rested Rooney and Berbatov had to come on to force something. C Ronaldo played a poor game, but he finally got a shot on target in the second half, blocked by the goalie. Ryan Giggs took the rebound and equalized: 1-1. Berbatov got two serious opps but forgot to score in both situations. Van der Sar was rested.

Arsenal tried everything at home to beat Fener, and Robin van Persie was in the thick of things. But whatever the former Feyenoord player tried, nothing worked: 0-0.

Tags: Berbatov, Drenthe, Group C, Holland, Oranje, Persie, Real Madrid, Sar, Sneijder, Vaart

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Comments

By goose | November 6th, 2008 at 3:58 pm

youre right Jan; Real is the only real dutch team..haha i saw the game and was very dissapointed
it took Drenthe almost 45 minutes to get in one decent cross but he did work hard and got better the second half

interesting story;
i have a frienf whos learning to be a proffessional football manager at the KNVB at Zeist
the other day they had a lecture from Foppe de Haan who had an interesting story; when the 20 players were selected for the Olympics the all had a physical test.. 8 of the players (Drenthe, Sno etc,) had very poor form the test showed..the others were fine… the first group of 8 was given a special programm for the next two weeks to work (at home) on their fitniss

after the 2 weeks all the players were tested; the 12 players were fine but the poor 8 were even worse..they had gained weight etc.

so Foppe had the choice; do i drop these 8 talented players and take 8 instead with a good physical form or do i take the talented ones and hope for the best??

it btw still amazes me how unproffesional some of these players are!

Posted from Netherlands

By Jan | November 6th, 2008 at 4:16 pm

Unbelievable! I was thinking while watching Juve play how Pavel Nedved’s dad once said how Pavel trained and trained and trained. Every day. When he had a day off, he’d go and train. During holidays: he trained. Physically, on his crosses, his shots, his technique, everything. And look at his career. Probably never been the most gifted player (compare him to Kluivert!) but he made it big.

That’s a mentality thing. Most of our boys lack that or lacked (Van der Vaart) that mentality.

Cool, to be getting lessons from the likes of Foppe!

By finnster01 | November 6th, 2008 at 4:32 pm

I think the exception to that rule has to be Kuyt. There is no way he can run like the way he does unless he keeps training, before, after, on the day off etc.

He also does not make any stink on the pitch, in the dressing room, or in the bus trying to buy fake Rolex’es in China etc.

In fact, as much as we all hate Divaldo, I know for a fact that he is ALWAYS one of the last guys to leave practice at Man U. He spends 30 minutes after everyone has left the training, practising freekicks. OK, not running, not diving, but doing something above and beyond of what he has to do.

I have no time for the Sno’s and Drenthe’s of this world. They come from the Van Persie school of attitude and not the Johan Neeskens/Jaap Stam/Dirk Kuyt school of hard work and hard knocks.

In fact, this is a big part of the reason why we lost against Russia. Where is the Eye of the Tiger? Where is Terry Butcher with a bloody bandage around his head to step up whne the country ask you most? Where is JC limping around on one foot? Oranje needs to find players with heart, not flash. Because flash is plentiful in Holland, heart is less so.

It shouldn’t be that way.

By goose | November 6th, 2008 at 5:11 pm

amen to that finnster! and also true about Ronnie..

Posted from Netherlands

By Carlos | November 6th, 2008 at 5:24 pm

A little about injuries and fitness. I played football but also rugby at a very high club level in Australia aganst and with Australian test players. Rule number one in the contact game is simple. The fitter you are the less injuries you will get,everyone knows that. Who is the fittest Dutch player we all know? Kuyt ? How often is he injured ?
Foppe made one mistake (after so much experience) he sent the clowns home to work on fitness instead of doing it at the training ground under his eyes.

Posted from Singapore

By finnster01 | November 6th, 2008 at 5:32 pm

Excellent point Carlos

By Michel-Olivier | November 6th, 2008 at 5:33 pm

@ finnster01
“Oranje needs to find players with heart, not flash.”
they do have hunter, kuyt, seedorf, and bommel.

Posted from United States

By Michel-Olivier | November 6th, 2008 at 5:34 pm

heerenveen was awful.

Posted from United States

By finnster01 | November 6th, 2008 at 5:48 pm

@MO; Agree. But where are we going to find the next 7?

By Jan | November 6th, 2008 at 8:10 pm

Well said Finn!

What Carlos said is true. The fitter you are, the more knocks the body can handle. Another fact: if you enter a challenge half heartedly (scared or a bit lacklustre) there’s also more chance of getting injured in the process.

By Caleb | November 6th, 2008 at 9:05 pm

Jan – good article, I agree with your summary of the Real game. They started ok, but just didn’t produce the wool
Really they are just continuing their bad run of form lately… seems they can’t put away chances anymore, and it’s getting worse so that they can’t pass well anymore either. They did have a couple of good opportunities, and they probably should have had 2 penalties: two were clear penalties (push from behind on Raul and the hand ball blocking Ruud’s shot), one was not really a penalty but I’ve seen ones like that given before (body check on Ruud). Juve had about the same amount of chances (3), but managed to score two of them (Del Piero is on fire!!), so that’s the difference isn’t it.
Oh well, I think they’ll still make it through, and hopefully they pull their act together by then (and get a little luck).
Oh yeah, I also thought Drenthe showed potential. He gave 100% all game, showed some good skill at times, made some good plays (also some poor decisions). If he matures he could be a great player in the future.

Arsenal is really in a slump lately too… hopefully they pull their act together again soon as well. It’s going to be hard though, with Adebayour and Walcott injured, and Robin banned for 3 games… my two teams are depressing me lately!

By Bart | November 6th, 2008 at 9:59 pm

I’m hearing you Caleb, the Arsenal players need to pick up the slack and just start goddamn killing the game off. I get so annoyed when I see articles about how “Adebayor is calling for focus” or whatever. They all say it but they won’t do it. Real Madrid damn they’re making the Dutch look bad :p. They got half the Dutch team there and they are doing worse than last year.

Posted from Canada

By dirk v.d. Berg | November 6th, 2008 at 10:16 pm

Nedved’s my favourite non-dutch player, its just here in Canada, I couldn’t find anywhere to get his name on my Juvé shirt. Juvé doesn’t play like your average Italian team, although they have more Italians than most. They’re more attack oriented than you’d expect, and are a team made of relative nobodies that are really rising to the occasion. Obviously Del Piero, Nedved, Camorenesi are known players, and maybe Sissoko, but when you look to their back line, and the likes of Legrotallia, and Marchionni, and Chiellini (whose really good mind you), it just shows what a lot of hard work can do.

Posted from Canada

By Carlos | November 7th, 2008 at 1:59 am

dirk I am with you, am a very big Nedved fan, he gives soooooo much and always a thorn in Holland’s side when we play the Czechs.
I always said ( a few years back) he is the first name on my list for midfielders (Davids was the other).

Posted from Singapore

By Carlos | November 7th, 2008 at 2:21 am

If you’re a Kuyt fan – see what King of the Kop (Dalglish) says about the current King of the Kop !
http://www.goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=952514

Posted from Singapore

By finnster01 | November 7th, 2008 at 6:15 am

@Carlos: Very nice!! Thanks for the link.

Off topic: My Norwegian nephew who is in Afghanistan with the NATO forces(ISAF) pointed me to this link. I know a lot of you are far more skilled than I at finding live game links on the net. However, I have been pleasantly surprised the last 10 days or so and watched some live games we couldn’t easily get any other way here in the US.

They don’t have a lot, but what they have is mostly in English, quality varies but they usually carry several streams, and most importantly, it’s live!!!

http://www.iraqgoals.com/en/

By Jan | November 7th, 2008 at 6:58 am

It seems big clubs have picked up on Wijnaldum’s performance for Feyenoord: Chelsea, Everton, Liverpool and Real Madrid have scouts in Holland to follow the 17 year old. He made his debut for Feyenoord at 16 years old under Erwin Koeman.

By finnster01 | November 7th, 2008 at 8:06 am

@Carlos, I know you are Aussie and this maybe a bit like swearing in church, but I just finished reading “Phil Shirley “Blood & Thunder The unofficial biography of Jonah Lomu” Harper Collins Publishers London ISBN 0-00-274028-1″

It is of course rugby, of which I am no expert, but what a tremendous read!! This guy was utterly awesome. Had a few issues in his personal life, but don’t we all?

In any event, every member in the Oranje squad should be required to read this book.

By Caleb | November 7th, 2008 at 10:33 am

Unrelated, but check out Ryan Babel rapping:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgxSlpAHNrU&feature=related

He sounds alright but the lyrics are just stupid…

Posted from Canada

By Caleb | November 7th, 2008 at 10:37 am

Here’s another one with Drenthe and Babel rapping:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRdgPdONm8g&NR=1

Drenthe has a deeper/different voice than I would have thought!

Posted from Canada

By Michel-Olivier | November 7th, 2008 at 11:03 am

bad music.

i don’t like players who try to be musician/acter while playing football. they should to that hen they retired, like cantona.

Posted from United States

By Carlos | November 7th, 2008 at 5:28 pm

@Finn
Lomu was and is a legend ! He could run like a 100m champion and bulldoze like a sumo wrestler. I am a sports lover first and acknowledge good play and players. NZ are ALWAYS the best Rugby side just like we always say Brazil is King of Football.When Holland plays Brazil we know we can beat them – but no sane Dutch supporter would ever say we are better than Brazil on a World Scale. The same goes for Australia and NZ in Rugby

Posted from Singapore

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By Caleb | November 21st, 2008 at 10:57 am

Wrong blog Lisa… talk about Oranje or get out of here!

Posted from Canada

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