De Haan wants to surprise Israel

do we have any new huntelaar to join up Babel at the front?

Posted from  Thailand

Ruud van Nistelrooy scored two goals for Madrid vs Zaragoza and now Madrid is in pole position to win La liga. Ruud has had a tremendous year, for me he has been the best player of La Liga without any doubts and if he is the best player of that league where Ronaldinho, Messi, Eto´o, Messi, Cannavaro, Villa and many more play, then Ruud can be considered as one of the best 10 players in the world today.
He is the man that appears in the big moments and against the strongest and even weaker teams.
I am very glad and happy to see him back at Oranje and he deserves to be the number one striker ahead of any competition because he simply is the best. Shamely last year van Basten made a stupid mistake, a huge and incredible one vs Portugal that I will never forget, but luckily san Marco made a correction for that in time because van Nistelrooy is a golden player that has to be at Euro 2008.
If Madrid wins la Liga he will be the main responsible for that and besides he will be the Pichichi for sure. There is one more game left and I will be cheering for Madrid and for Ruud of course.

I wrote Messi twice hehe, sorry guys. But I am excited after watching the amazing final of La liga!

HI Mario, nice these off the cuff passionate posts mate. I am sorry I couldn’t watch the games… SO, was Barca any good? Did Madrid play well? What’s with Helguera? And Beckham? IS there a lot of humbug goin on in Spain about Messi hand ball?

Posted from  Australia

Sphinx, I am not sure… Aissati, Vincken, Jenner… Good offensive players who all can socre a goal, but another Striker of that quality..? We’ll need to wait and see mate

Posted from  Australia

Messi scored clearly with the goal. I don´t like that about Argentinians. First Maradona, then Aguero, now Messi. That´s unsporting behaviour, very bad example for kids who like soccer because that should not have been a goal.
Anyway, I just watched Madrid game and I can tell you that although they did not play a great tactical game they played with a lot of heart and at the very last minute Ruud scored the equalizer and very fortunate for Madrid at the same time Espanyol tied the game at Barcelona.
I think this league will go for Madrid, I am very happy for Ruud, he deserves it.
It is true that last year he was not playing his best but Ferguson and van Basten were very unjust because he was not playing that bad either. If we remember he was the best scorer for Manchester last year and during the preparation games of Holland just before the World Cup he scored vs Cameroon and Australia the only goals of Holland of those games because he didn´t play vs. México. And during the World Cup he scored vs. Ivory Coast a great goal but that did not count for San Marco.
Ruud van Nistelrooy is not the most spectacular player like Henry, Kaká, Ronaldinho and Cristiano Ronaldo but he is very very effective. He might be spectacular too at times but his best quality is that he scores when his team needs desperately a goal. That is why is so worthed and Capello knows that very well and keeps Ruud the whole game on the pitch because knowing that Ruud can score at any second he knows that even if Ruud is playing awful if he has a half chance he will convert it in a goal.
That is the difference between Capello and the great coaches and van Basten. van Basten sees Ruud playing bad 10 minutes and benches him, while a great coach has the confidence and has the knowledge and wisdom to make the most of his players and we have seen Ruud scoring many goals at the last minutes of many games in Spain and Capello has kept him in the big games the whole game.
I wonder what would have happened if Ruud would have been on the pitch the whole 90 minutes vs Portugal???
That is a question that many Dutch fans should be asking now watching Ruud´s spectacular season at Madrid after his omissions from van Basten but we have to bury that in the past and hope that with his comeback to Oranje new things can happen in the near future.

Van the Man….hes pretty incredible

Posted from  Netherlands

Btw: heres the first one
of the 2 goals by Ruud, great header..second was a rebound..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vis5Zo6n7Sc

gtrz

Posted from  Netherlands

Mario, I totally agree with you. Ruud is a winner, a fighter. In a team with huge talents but mentally weaker players (Robben, Vaart, Sneijder) you need a player like Ruud. I do wonder a lot about that Portugal game. And I also think MvB made a mistake by first saying that “Ruud was his man” and then benching him while at the WC most players played below their level (except for Robben and Robin).

Posted from  Australia

any of you know recent Ruud’s goal tally?
25 or 26?
i am sure he is top scorer in liga now.
interesting whether he has a parity to Totti’s 26 for golden boot europe

Posted from  Thailand

@sphinx: its 25…one goal less than Totti if im not mistaken

@Jan; its all a metter of giving confidence..its the same with Kluivert..these are players who need to feel they are an integrate part of the team…vanBasten has made the mistake in to thinking that all top-strikers would be alike (like he was), but theyre different personalities so they need differnt handling..its the old ‘people-manager thing’…

Posted from  Netherlands

he guys; here a nice tube on vanNistelrooy at Madrid…
if you watch the vid youll see what Ruud needs….crosses….its really obvious after i watched this video…enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35IVSa0W3D8

grtz

Posted from  Netherlands

Thanks goose!
you are very right Jan, all we need for Orange is physical and mentally fitted pitch leaders,
New Gulit, New David….
Robben, Persie, Vaart, Sneijder generation is so doubtful to get into that.
So oldies like Ruud, Seedorf has to be around.

Posted from  Thailand

Hey!
Maduro scored 4Orange 11mins

Posted from  Thailand

Messi scares me. First he copies Maradona’s run and scores and now he copies hand of God ans scores. Next thing, Messi takes cocaine and headbutts players…

Why not penalty him after the match with video and tv images. And take 1 point from Barca.

Posted from  Australia

Goose, you are right. RvN has always thrived on crosses floated by wingers/midfielders. In ManU Beckham used to do that so well. In fact the essence of 4-3-3 (back to the old grind :-)) is the ability of wingers to generates crosses and/or high-balls for the centre hitman. As pointed by some in this forum Ruud is not one of those artistic & dazzling strikers who dribble all the way from the centre line and create their goals (To be fair he has never pretended to be so either). I guess the last such person in Oraanje was none but the iceman, under whose shadow, Kluivert flourished. Ruud is an out and out goal ‘poacher’ who is frighteningly effective in the goal mouth. All he needs is power from midfield and wingers who do not compete with him to score goals.

Posted from  United States

Goose, you are correct. RvN has always thrived on crosses floated by wingers/midfielders. In ManU Beckham used to do that so well. In fact the essence of 4-3-3 (back to the old grind :-)) is the ability of wingers to generates crosses and/or high-balls for the centre hitman. As pointed by some in this forum Ruud is not one of those artistic & dazzling strikers who dribble all the way from the centre line and create their goals (To be fair he has never pretended to be so either). I guess the last such person in Oraanje was none but the iceman, under whose shadow, Kluivert flourished. Ruud is an out and out goal ‘poacher’ who is frighteningly effective in the goal mouth. All he needs is power from midfield and wingers who do not compete with him to score goals.

Posted from  United States