Decent start Oranje: 1-2 win over Macedonia

i thnk that heitinga is a great right back.. hes fast and creative. my worry is matijsen and ooijer.. tooo often they let the attackers go through them. personally id like to see boularhouz play there with marcellis instead of matijsen. that way our defence would look pretty decent.midfeild wise van bommel is our king when it comes to regaining possesion and dictating and de jpong is decent although i still thnk we can find better… i would also liek to see van persie play as a striker up with huntelaar where he naturally plays.. that would leave pplace for affelay or some other great wingers, perhaps kuyt to occupy taht spot. Robben and vaart are perfect where they are as it is there natural spot. next game is against scotland and then norway no? should be interesting. I sincerely hope that we unleash our full potential on them to offer us 6 points and a big step towards wc 2010.

Posted from  Switzerland

here are my notes.. score are pretty low and maybe look a bit harsh if you only look at the 2nd half

Stekelenburg; 6+ : didnt make any big mistakes (maybe dropping the high ball in the 2nd half)

Heitinga; 6,5 : started very poor but got better later in the game, his charging runs have to get better

Boulahrouz; 6 : started a bit shaky, never really looked confident but no major mistakes

Mathijsen; 5 : started very poor, doenst confince me, long balls were somewhat better the 2nd half

vBronckhorst; 6,5 : like the rest of the team he started rather poor, but he kept the fighting spirit and played better the 2nd half

vPersie; 4 : one of his worse games for Oranje, no use for any team playing as a rightwinger.. would be surprised if vMarwijk tries that again

Kuyt; 6,5 : brought much more energy than vPersie, these kind of games are well suited to Kuyt

deJong; 6+ : didnt play really bad but didnt play really good either .. as a tackler he is great tough

vBommel; 6+ : started like the rest of the team, looked a bit lazy in some moments, he does bring something extra to the team.. good assist on the vdVaart goal

vdVaart; 5+ : if he wouldnt have scored the goal id give him a 4, terrible game, lots of bad passing, stupid moves .. but great goal and some good corners, looked lost

Robben; 4 : dont like Robben, didnt see him do a single thing, his passing was pathetic, very poor game by Robben

Huntelaar; 4 : couldnt do anything right .. not a player to use as a lone striker with long balls from defense and midfield, made the foul wich gave away the penalty, vNistelrooij is missed, hope Huntelaar can step up

All in all a game with 2 faces; the first half was terrible, the second half, with the help of the early goal was much better

but these kind of games are hard to play and im very glad we walked away with 3 points

as for the offside incident; saw it on tv, with the help of a computer animated line you could see that his TOE was offside, think we were rather lucky

Posted from  Netherlands

generally agree with goose on the individual performances, although like Caleb I walked away from the game with a positive feeling and didnt think that we played as poorly as some have suggested. I thought vBommel passed well, besides the assist he had a couple other incisive through balls into the danger area and he kept his bad boy behaviour in check. although i’m not a fan of mathijsen (i thought Heitinga should have played in his spot in the EC), i think that his contribution to the build has improved in recent games (see the excellent pass to babel that led to Huntelaar’s goal against the aussies) and yesterday again he had some useful passes to the wings to open up the play instead of always playing the easy short pass into congested spaces or back to the keeper. lastly, vd vaart in my opinion worked hard and moved well off the ball. he was constantly pressuring the opposition when we were not in possesion and that is nice to see from a player who is expected to make great plays with the ball and leave the dirty work to others. at least if he is having an off-day with his passing, he can still be useful to the team.

full highlights:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRZaHj94yxU

Posted from  Canada

Marc, are you suggesting that we get rid of one of the defensive mids (de Jong, i pressume from your comments) so that we can add another striker (van Persie) and make room for a winger on van persie’s regular spot (Kuijt, Affelay)? I really like the sound of that idea, especially against weaker opponents. but we’ll have to see if our shaky defense can cope with only one mid providing defensive cover.

Posted from  Canada

@goose – I can’t find the offside footage online anywhere, but when I was watching it I definitely didn’t feel it was that close (only a toe). It seemed a little close, but still obviously offside when you watched it in slow motion. Can anyone find the highlight of it?

Posted from  Canada

thanks for the sum’up guys
i can’t see the match from france, so just glad we won
and glad to see that kuyt almost convinced any of you

Posted from  France

HEY GOOOSEY

You must remember no one plays well in Macedonia. I dont like your negative feedbacks on a constant basis. You are depressing.

Posted from  Canada

@Hup; haha ..im just keeping it sharp mate!
but im not beeing negative just for the sake of it ..

@Caleb; ill see what i can find ..

Posted from  Netherlands

Looked offside to me. I love how van Bommel took one of the freekicks from a sharp angle, and decided to rifle it at the keeper instead of cross. Could’ve been 4-1, but just easily we could’ve lost it.

Posted from  Canada

Yeah, that was a good free kick…

When Sneijder gets back, Bert has some big decisions ahead of him:

Stekel
Kuyt Marcellis Heitinga Gio
Sneijder Van Bommel
Afellay Vaart Robben
Van Persie

Ok, sue me!

Hey Goose & Caleb & the rest…great summation,just keep it coming especally for those who ddn’t see the game. Gosh I too am waiting to see how Marcellis wll fare with the big boys.

Posted from  Singapore

@ Jan
no no no no…..
4-4-2 is the way to go
Stekel
d.Jong-Marcellis-Heitinga-Emanuelson
Vaart-Sneijder-v.Bommel-Robben
Va.Persie-Hunter

Posted from  United States

Bottom line, Holland is on top of the group beating a team away that held England to a draw last year and beat Scotland last Saturday.

Lets not be so negative, that is a great start. Just ask Steve McLaren.

Thanks for the Goose-o-meter ratings again .

MO, 4-4-2 is fine with me. I’m not to hung up on systems. But still, I’d like to see Sneijder move back a position – against “lesser” teams – and see Afellay in the squad.

People, my name is Felipe. I’m a 22-year-old guy from Brazil. I intend to start taking part in this wonderful blog, because I felt in love with it just as I knew it on internet. I read all the comments – from Jan to Goose – and the quality of them is awesome. Mainly because people here like to follow Dutch football every day, and not only remembering ‘74 or ‘88 or ‘98. Of course those were unforgettable teams, but Netherlands were not made only by them (as that team from 2002 WC Qualifiers proved – darn Van Gaal!). And the domestic football is not only Ajax or PSV: there are FC Zwolle, Fortuna Sittard, RBC Roosendaal, let alone the amateur teams!

Well, I can say that my passion for Dutch football had a, let’s say, cupid. His name? Edwin van der Sar. He’s my favorite player by far. Since I heard and read about him for the 1st time (reading a Brazilian guide on USA ‘94, I saw his photo and I thought “hey, this guy seems to be a good guy”), I followed him throughout these years. I even remember I became very sad with the Amsterdam tragedy on EC 2000, just as sad as I became very happy when he saved Mellberg’s PK on EC 2004. And, following his career, I discovered the Dutch football and Dutch players. Since then, even being born on what’s called “jogo bonito’s land” (it’s not that true…), I support Holland. I became more frustrated with the defeat on Nurnberg than with Brazilian fiasco on Frankfurt, at 2006 WC.

And, then, I discovered this site. And I hope you accept me, because I promise to maintain the high level on my comments. Thanks by now.

Hey Felipe

Welcome from Singapore – Yes this site has some fantastic comments by our “Dutch” experts – some are Dutch, MANY are not, like yourself, but all have one thing in common – We love Dutch Football !! But don’t think we are all YES people and think anything the Dutch do is good. Exactly the opposite as I am sure you can read. WE are highly critical but this provides good fun and argument. Personally I loved the 1982 Brazilian team and the 74 Holland Team. To me they still are 2 most outstanding teams NOT to win the world cup. Looking forward to your comments

Posted from  Singapore

—————-Stekelenburg————–
—–Marcellis—-Heitinga—–van Bronkhorst
—————van Bommel—————-
Kuyt—-Sneijder—–van der Vaart—–Robben
———-van Persie——Huntelaar

Now thats the type of lineup we should be using against weak teams.

Posted from  Canada

Dirk can you please apply for the coaching job when it is vacant ? Maybe assistant coach for now

Love it !!! After initiation however would put Marcellis in the middle, he reads attacks so well.

Posted from  Singapore

welcome felipe,
tiju from india ,a die hard dutchfan
@carlos ha ha nice blade joke

Posted from  India

Felipe,
welcome to the Oranje family.

Finn from New York and Norway

Welcome Felipe! We love hearing comments from people all over the globe, so I’m sure you’ll fit right in.

Posted from  Canada

It’s always nice to hear from other fans of Dutch football, so welcome Felipe.
@Jan, don’t think Affelay is ready to be in the starting line-up, plus i like his impact as a sub.
@MO: first, even as an Ajax fan, i have to say that i don’t think emanuelson is Oranje material and secondly i think that playing both robben and emanuelson together on the left is the equivalent of defensive suicide
@Dirk: i like the line-up, my only suggestion is that if you go with three in the back maybe we need another centre back in gio’s spot, although given the lack of strong CB’s maybe gio is the best option there.

Posted from  Canada

So close ! Yes it was a deserved win for holland, but i believe with a little touch of luck things would have been very different. A good game for Macedonia despite the loss.
Napred Makedonija !
See you in Amsterdam dutch people.(i believe that will be a surprise win for Macedonia mark my words