Dutchies in action

Del Pierro does his Pete Sampras impersonation…

Well, it was a short night and an early morning… My first course was Van der Sar vs Loovens.

Or ManU against Celtic. The Scots suffered quite some injuries, Dutch striker Vennegoor and former Heerenveen striker Samaras weren’t fit to play, but even if they did… Who can outsmart Manchester United? Not Loovens, that’s for sure. With Nani, Rooney, Berbatov and C Ronaldo in the team (and that man Sar on goal), the Red Devils are the team to be beaten, it seems.

But it did take some luck for Manchester to get on the scoresheet. A clear offside goal by Berbatov meant 1-0, after Celtic had the best chances to put Sar to work. In the second half, another Berbatov off side goal (I kid you not) resulted in the 2-0. A clear onside goal by Rooney was disallowed (Belgium ref paying Celtic back??), but the man in form scored a scorching goal not much later.

Who will stop this team?

Maybe Real Madrid? Bernd Schuster deserves credit for his line up against Juventus. Playing the Old Lady away from home and then using Higuain, Ruud, Raul, Raf, Wesley and offensive full backs Heintze and Sergio Ramos… Excited.

But, you know if you play an Italian side that if they score early, they’ll play the game they’re good at: defending, making space rare and edgy counter-attacks. Well, it took 5 minutes for Juve to break through the Madrid defense and Del Piero scored a beaut from 20 meters. Real had to take the game to Juve now and the Italians loved it. Real was never dominate the game or play above average but the Meringues worked hard for it and showed character. So, it was one of those games we see with Oranje too, sometimes. Lots of passing, lots of possession, but no space to actually create anything. Ruud van Nistelrooy was nowhere to be seen, Rafael van der Vaart had his chances to shoot on target but was taken in the sandwich too often, Higuain kept the pitch wide and did his best and Sneijder, well Sneijder played playmaker from the holding midfielder position. Not penetrating too much, guarding the balance next to Gago and passing the ball around, sometimes resulting in wonderful deep passes into the box.

But, no results. And only 5 minutes in the second half, again Juve struck! A huge mistake at the back (Pepe) and Mauaro headed the ball behind Casillas via Heintze. The original header would have been stoppable, the deflection meant 2-0.

Raf and Wes started to change position a bit, the pace went up and Robben would come on for the hardworking Higuain. Robben added some spice to the game and Sneijder tested the goalie and the woodwork from distance, but it would be an old-fashioned cross from Heintze that resulted in a goal from – who else? – the invisible Ruud van Gol. And what a goal it was! But it was too little too late.

Juve won 2-1.

Other than these two matches, I am currently watching Arsenal play Fener in Turkey and they’re 1-3 up. They will win this 2-5, without Robin van Persie. Villareal scored six goals against Aalborg ( 6-3) in an exciting match. More later