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Emotions in football

October 25th, 2008 | By: Jan | 46 Comments »

Finally, a good column by Hugo Borst again. He may not know a lot about the game, but he can write. And sometimes, he puts his finger on the right spot.

Ok, football is emotion. We know that. But why would Danny Koevermans explode when someone on the stands told him he is not a good striker? Some players have a reputation. Players with big ego’s and small brains. They score (at last) and start spitting at fans. We’ve seen it all.
But Koevermans is an intelligent, well-balanced chap who doesn’t need to prove that he can head a ball in.

Still, Koev said that he actually didn’t feel like playing after that mystery person had insulted him. Huh? Wow, do you actually give someone so much power over you? Maybe we over-estimate football players. Maybe they’re very insecure.

Some regional press guy interview PSV coach Huub Stevens. Some fans had put up a billboard in the stadium the other day, saying “We will go to battle (translation by Jan)”, a line from the PSV clubsong. The reporter asked Stevens if he had put the sign up to motivate his players. Humor.
Stevens got angry: “Do you have questions about the game, otherwise I’m off!?”. The press guy kept on asking his questions about the billboard and Stevens refused to answer any of his questions. Monty Python for you…

Winner Huub Stevens couldn’t handle the loss against NAC and was very critical on his players afterwards. Livid, even. But when a reporter asks him about it later, he gets angry for it. What’s wrong with that type of journalism? You reap what you sow…

Marco van Basten is another example. Ajax was beaten by Heerenveen and the sometimes cynical and nasty Van Basten was pissed off. “When it starts to rain, they lose the plot” and “we apparently don’t develop talent with character and the right mentality.”

Van Basten later did not regret his words. Although he did ponder whether he should have used different words to express his frustration. His reaction was too primary. That wasn’t constructive, he though later. And he remembered how Aad de Mos at Ajax once slugged him – the young talent – and how he was upset. He felt he shouldn’t have done it and after the Aston Villa defeat, Van Basten was much more mild towards the press about his players. Even after four years of Oranje team management, a club coach can still learn.

There’s a shift happening. We know Heerenveen is a structurally strong club. But now NAC and FC Groningen show they’re stayers. Or what about NEC? The rural provinces rule over the urban clubs. Den Haag, Utrecht, Rotterdam, Amsterdam…outplayed by Heerenveen, Nijmegen, Breda and Groningen. The excitement gets bigger in the Eredivisie, the unpredictability is a gift. Every week, there’s surprises. And the stress factor at the big clubs is increasingly present. Not that the coaches (Van Gaal, Stevens, Van Basten…big names) crumble under the pressure, but they do lose themselves every now and then…

One man stays cool. One man weathers the storm. His club is not doing well. 14 points lost after six games. No one knows how to turn the situation around. A list of injuries. A loss in the first UEFA cup game against the weakest opponent. But, Gertjan Verbeek is not panicking. He doesn’t act it, it’s natural.

Sending Verbeek away won’t help the club. Not financially, not structurally. Because the problem at Feyenoord is not the coach. The way out of this mess will be found. But not by panicking or doing rash things. The only thing that will work is “keeping a cool head”.

In Rotterdam, Verbeek won’t say stupid, impulsive things to the press. Verbeek will not show his emotions.

Tags: Ajax, Basten, Been, Borst, Feyenoord, Group C, Holland, NEC, PSV, Stevens, Verbeek

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By Jan | October 28th, 2008 at 3:03 am

Oy, Margaret River eh? Nice one… Yallingup is great too. Check the local brewery there, they make chilli beer. Marketing wonder. Once you drink one chilli beer, you can’t stop .

By finnster01 | October 28th, 2008 at 4:21 am

Chilli beer in Margaret River or Yallingup?

I am missing out on the very finest things in life…

I’m eating at Outback Steakhouse tonite here in NY just to honour you guys. Best thing I can do. Sad, but true. There are no good Aussie restaurants here (if there is even such a thing as fine Aussie cooking in the first place. Not being sarcastic, only stating the facts). Never came across a good Aussie place here which is a bit strange. They seem to have everything else though. I know of a decent New Zealand eatery but that’s about it. Of course, I am not even going to compare apples and oranges and open up the floodgates on that front, so you can save the Aussie vs kiwi jokes.
However there seems to be an awful lot of New Zealand bartenders here from some strange reason. What happened to all the Aussies? Did they get grounded because of their great grandfathers after 9/11 and the Patriot Act?

@Carlos: I am still dreaming about those salt & pepper crabs..yummm

By Jan | October 28th, 2008 at 6:23 am

An Aussie 7-course dinner: a six pack and a sausage…

That chilli beer is awesome. You are thirsty, you down one… After a couple of seconds, the chilli kicks in… You immediately order another one (etc etc)

By Caleb | October 28th, 2008 at 8:54 am

Haha, that sounds like a good 7-course dinner My favourite thing about restaurants in Australia is the ones that let you bring in your own alcohol… do they still do that?

Posted from Canada

By Caleb | October 28th, 2008 at 9:00 am

@Andrew – interesting observation about the Real game.. I’d agree that they probably weren’t the best defenders, but they do seem to be putting a lot of effort into marking and tracking back, so that’s certainly a good sign.

I suppose with the style they are using with only one (true) defensive midfielder it leaves them vulnerable sometimes, but then again, it also allows them to create lots of chances at the other end (which they certainly did). As long as they score more than they allow, they’ll win, right? Best defence is a good offence, and all that. Certainly makes for interesting games to watch though

Speaking about the last game specifically where Bilbao came back from 2 down to tie it in the first half… they had some help from the ref/linesman too – in reality it should have been 3-1 at the half, which is an entirely different story.

Posted from Canada

By Michel-Olivier | October 28th, 2008 at 9:30 am

how long will the dutch era last in madrid?

Posted from United States

By Carlos | October 28th, 2008 at 10:42 am

Jan/Finn
We represent a couple of wineries and just had to go there to taste the new ones coming out…food there is great too. If anyone can get hold of a Watershed Shiraz wherever you are…try it . Caleb yep it’s the BYO (bring your own) Restaurants. Got caught out on Friday as I took a group of people to a restaurant and it was BYO, they had NO wines nor Beers But someone ran down to the bottleshop to stock up for our dinner.
By the way Finn we supply all the wines to the Outback Restaurants here too.
Sorry this whole comment was off subject however I did NOT catch Hull’s last game…can anyone comment on our 2 defenders at WBA – lately they have been lettng in lotsa goals ???

Posted from Singapore

By Alex | October 28th, 2008 at 11:32 am

Zuiverloon is already pretty much the best defender WBA have right now, the WBA fans love him, and they already expect to make a big profit selling him to a topclub in the future, they fear he might already leave after on season… talk about an impact, Donk does reasonably well, but needs more time to adjust to the pace of PL. Btw, after seeing WBA’s matches I feel these amounts of conceeded goals are mostly because of the pretty mediate left-back Robinson, but also because of the still fairly inexperienced centre Olsson-Donk, they need more games to really withstand topstrikers for 90 minutes or more, but against Man united, the WBA defence was a imprenetrable fortress the first hour or so, with Zuiverloon impressing friend and foe in his one-on-one confrontations with Ronaldo. When the first goal was scored, they didn’t have a lot of experience to fall back on, so the wall started to crack under the pressure from Rooney, Ronaldo etc. Also I don’t think the goalie Carson isn’t doing so good as he’d like to think.

Now does that answer your question.

Posted from Netherlands

By Miguel Rosado | October 28th, 2008 at 4:07 pm

I watched WBA today and Zuiverloon played horrible!!!, he still needs a lot to learn from and Donk played OK.

By Michel-Olivier | October 28th, 2008 at 4:14 pm

Newcastle 2 – 1 WBA 20+ more minutes

Posted from United States

By Michel-Olivier | October 28th, 2008 at 4:19 pm

Roda 0 – 2 AZ(Hamdaoui 2)

ADO 0 – 2 PSV(Addo and Bakkal)

Posted from United States

By Jan | October 28th, 2008 at 4:29 pm

Cool Carlos! Always good to learn more about you guys. One Financial Wizard, a culinary wino , a history teacher, wondering what else we have here… Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand comes to mind .

Zuiverloon indeed looks the business, as if he never played anywhere else. Aggressive in the challenges, quick, gutsy. Donk sill has his “snoozing off” moments and seems to react slow (although that could look like that due to his length, I guess).

By ghost of steve finnan | October 28th, 2008 at 5:35 pm

Jan is John Galt?

Posted from United States

By Carlos | October 28th, 2008 at 6:08 pm

Just read that Maradona has been named Argentnian Coach (by himself !) What a disaster ! The man is not even completely sane. It will all end up as a big fiasco. Not a big Maradona fan either because he cheats (eventho brilliant). But you have to seriously question the authorties for allowing this 12 year old to lead one of the best football teams in the world ?

Posted from Singapore

By Michel-Olivier | October 28th, 2008 at 6:58 pm

give maradona a break, give him a chance.

Posted from United States

By Michel-Olivier | October 28th, 2008 at 6:59 pm

it’s not official yet

Posted from United States

By sims | October 28th, 2008 at 7:44 pm

@MO, How many chances does this guy get before you admit he’s a pysch patient?

Posted from United States

By Michel-Olivier | October 28th, 2008 at 8:50 pm

@ sims
come on, maradona is no gascoigne. if marco can do it why not diego

Posted from United States

By sims | October 28th, 2008 at 11:10 pm

MVB not a psycho drug addled looney bird.

Posted from United States

By Carlos | October 28th, 2008 at 11:12 pm

I personally think Maradona is a worse case than Gascoigne. Apart from his cocaine habit, what about shooting reporters with an air rifle and a host of things you expect from a spoilt 12 y old ?
Am a big fan of Messi and Riquelme and Argentina can play some great football. But when you hire someone for an imprtant post surely you do a little personality and background check. Don’t think Marco can even be mentioned with Gascoigne and Maradona – character and civilised wise !

Posted from Singapore

By finnster01 | October 29th, 2008 at 2:15 am

Maradona coaching Argentina makes about as much sense as brushing the dust of Greenspan for the Fed… The lad has completely lost his marbles and you would think a country like Argentina could do a bit better than that? That is making a mockery out of the fine art of coaching.

Besides, don’t they have to be qualified coaches these days? What kind of FIFA coaching credentials does Maradona have? I doubt he could pass his driver license exam.

By chatchat | October 29th, 2008 at 9:53 am

I am all for Maradona coaching Argentina! Then Oranje will have a better chance in 2010!!

Posted from United States

By Bob | October 29th, 2008 at 11:22 am

In thinking about situations when truly excellent players have become truly excellent coaches, two come quickly to mind–Cruijff and Beckenbauer. As players, both were gifted physically, instinctively and mentally in all facets of the game of football. The mental understanding of the sport then transferred nicely into highly effective (and occasionally brilliant!) coaching. I believe that Bergkamp has the same potential, that is, to become an excellent coach. He shared the same qualities as Cruijff and Beck, as a player, so the mental intelligence should translate to coaching, if Dennis works at it.

Maradona is a different person altogether. Physically and instinctively–certainly one of the best ever. Mentally–very limited. It showed most when his physical skills started to leave him (at a relatively early age). He did not have the intelligent understanding of the sport that would have allowed him to play well even though his physical gifts were diminished. As to training, tactics and strategies–I agree with the bloggers who see no reasonable expectation of Maradona to have those mental skills. In addition, he apparently has problems with addictive behaviors, which often are exacerbated under stress. So, a long term, happy choice for Argentina? I think not.

Posted from United States

By Jan | October 29th, 2008 at 9:10 pm

Pfff, I hope the Argentinian football association lurks here… Well said Bob. I also believe that to be a successful coach these days, you need to be a good people manager (this is not something top class players like Maradona or Van Basten ever had to learn before this job) and you need to understand the “technicalities” of coaching: nutrition, physical condition, biorhythm, team work, etc etc…

I am not against Maradona and I loved watching him (bar the disgraceful hand ball against England!!) but this is not good. I think…

And no , Ghost, I’m not John Galt as far as I know… But I’d like to be!
He gets the girl in the end, doesn’t he?

By Miguel Rosado | October 31st, 2008 at 3:40 pm

Bilardo will be behind him, he knows so much about football and will play a major role in that coaching staff.

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