Coach Bergkamp on his way!

My fav. dutch player (without any competition): DENNIS!!!!!!

my fav. dutch player at the moment: KUIJT!!

Posted from  Netherlands

My fav. player: Pierre, ofc.

Nice with some hot motha Bergkamp in the house. Gonna be interesting to see what he can do.

I didn’t get to see that much of Cruyff, Van Basten or Gullit. I started watching football at the WC 1994 and Bergkamp is my favorite player by far. He could do things that not even Zidena could do, if Holland had won the WC ‘98 people would have said he was better than Zidane. We have had so many great player Davids, Bergkamp, Frank, Kluivert, Overmars, etc… Let’s hope this new generation gives us as much satisfactions as the last one, I think they can.

definitely Bergkamp! no one has the same kind of vision, i feel that he could picture where team mates, opponents and the ball where going to be in the next few seconds allowing him to make those smooth through passes. it’s almost as if the match was unfolding in his head three seconds faster than real time, which is why his first touch on top of being excellent, always took him in the right direction.

Posted from  Canada

can’t see hm fly to away matches, i.e. in european cup. this time, as a coach, he can’t stay at home…
but seriously, it’ll be an interesting career to watch

Posted from  Poland

My favourite player is Marc Overmars, because he was as quick as anything.

Posted from  Canada

I know I’m going to get punished for this statement, mostly because of his 2000 Euro performance, but I have to say my favourite Dutch player is Jaap Stam. Maybe it’s just his tall lanky, rugged performance that I enjoy, and the fact that when he rushed with the ball no one would go after him cause there were confused (and no marker was assigned) at why a tall central defender was galloping with the ball down the field.

Though Bergkemp will always have a special place in all the hearts of Dutch soccer fans, you just have to watch the youtube video of his goal against Argentina to understand that.

Posted from  Canada

Not from my generation but from what I did see of him, it’d be Frank Rijkaard. Spitting on Rudi Voller is the icing on the cake.

From players I’ve watched play a lot, I think Davids is still my fave. Dennis was classy as hell, and I love the grace and class he brought to the football pitch. Plus he always stamped on or slyly elbowed the nobheads I didn’t like (Bowyer for example). For all that, though, Davids’ energy was just terrific, he was very skillful too. I can still remember the Edgar of old running at superspeed back for last ditch tackles to save his defence - brilliant. Overmars was also super exciting to watch - horribly underrated these days for how good he was.

Posted from  Japan

Also - if there’s one person who deserves to manage Oranje to a trophy it’s Dennis Bergkamp. I genuinely think he could do it.

Posted from  Japan

Jan you should make a poll for who was our favourite Dutch player, it would be interesting to see the results.

Posted from  Canada

Good one, I will…

I can’t do the dynamic paging thing, where you vote and all and then the page tells you the % of the votes… But I’ll keep track manually. I will also come back with a EC pool soon. Nothing fancy. But please let me know if you have some ideas how to do this (in terms of points or something…

Got a lot of work before me…

By the way, my fave players (and I spill the beans on my age) are: Willem van Hanegem, Johan Cruyff, Marco van Basten, Dennis Bergkamp, Johan Neeskens, Frank Rijkaard, Ronald de Boer, Ruud Gullit, Ruud Krol, Edgar Davids…something like that…

Fave players today: Robin van Persie, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Arjen Robben, Afellay, Rafael van der Vaart, Mark van Bommel.

Posted from  Australia

BTW, interesting how Rob Jansen is still Dennis’ manager…

Posted from  Australia

Oooh, are we going to make this active vs. non active? Good idea, and if so:

Non-active: Bergkamp (as mentioned before)
Active: van der Vaart

Regarding the EC pool, there are two ways to do it. We can either predict the results (and see who does best) or pick a team of players and see who gets the most points. Or we can do both!

There are hundreds of free pools online that will let you create groups or personal leagues so we can compete against each other, but they won’t be running until a few weeks before the EC starts…

Posted from  Republic Of Korea

All time: JC and MVB, with Ruud Krol and Johan Neeskins in a close battle for third.

I just loved those guys. Especially Neeskins playing behind JC. That was poetry in motion in my book.

Today: EVDS and Van Nistelroy

Posted from  United States

@Rob; hahaha.. you are right…Rijkaard deserves a special place in our hearts for spitting on Rudi!! i can still see that curly mullet shing with spit!! still great to see….

btw; anybody see Barca yesterday?? what is wrong with Barca?? after about 10 minutes i fell asleep

Posted from  Netherlands

I had set the alarm clock to 04.30 am. When I got out of bed I noticed there was a black out. It does happen in rural Australia. So, no lights, no espresso machine and no tv. So, I went back to bed, slept like a baby till 7.30 and then read on the internet that I hadn’t missed a thing hahaha…

So, no post on these two matches ok? Man U won thanks to a Tevez header 1-0 (De Rossi missed a penalty in the 1st half. In Rugby he would have scored three points!!) and Barca won 1-0 as well I think.

Tomorrow Getafe vs Getafe and PSV - Fiorentina

Posted from  Australia

Rob Jansen is everyones agent forever, it seems.

Latest on Bergkamp; he will learn his trade with Ajax and vBasten; Marco told dutch press that he asked Dennis about 3 weeks ago and the latter has reacted positive…. so Bergkamp and vBasten at Ajax (btw; Dennis wont be his assistant)

Posted from  Netherlands

Dennis the menace, the legend continues!

Posted from  Hong Kong

For the ec 2008 pool, there’s a great one on uefa.com, that ive been using for a couple of years now with my friends. You get 12 players, and one of them is a sub. Players cost different amounts depending on their quality, so you can’t just pick a star team.

Active: Robben
Non-Active: Overmars

Both left wings, which is what I play.

Posted from  Canada

Dennis Bergkamp may have been the classiest of all Dutch footballers, and certainly one of the most gifted athletically. He certainly would be on my list of favorite Netherlanders, due to his unique combination of traits. Having said that, I do not see Dennis as a coach. We have blogged this subject previously, and suggested (I have, anyway)that great athletes generally do not make top quality coaches. van Basten is a classic example. He may have been the greatest of all Dutch players, but is proving not to be, in my opinion, a top level coach or manager. Coaching is primarily a teaching skill, which also requires controlled emotion, the ability to inspire and a genuine interest in the technical and tactical aspects of the game. Because great athletes are born incredibly gifted, it is difficult for them to understand the rest of us who are not so blessed. Very bright people have a hard time teaching those who do not possess first rate minds.

If Dennis wants to coach, I hope he succeeds. I believe he will be more amenable to constructive criticism than van Basten has been, and I also believe he has a better over football brain than Marco. I wish him well, and would love to see him back in Dutch football as a coach. The sport needs more like Dennis.

Posted from  United States

After a few tough days of work it’s good to come back to the board and read a dream thread. A big over-the-head to Dennis, all hail the king.

Fav. retired: Dennis!!
Fav. work ethic: Kuijt
Fav. nearly retired: Davids
Fav. on the rise: Van Persie

I was wondering about something related to Dennis and Arsenal, perhaps someone might be able to answer this for me. Under Wenger, other then Dennis, has there ever been an official retirement and subsequent farewell game? I don’t believe so, which I think speaks volumes…

Posted from  Canada

@JVB
Under Wenger the only other Arsenal testimonial (game given after 10 years of service to the club)besides Bergkamp that I can think of is Tony Adams which happened in 2002.

Wenger became Arsenal manager in 1996 so there may have been something before Adams but I seriously doubt it.

Posted from  United States