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First defeat for Oranje

October 13th, 2007 | By: Jan | 37 Comments »

It wasn’t to be… Without Sneijder and Van Persie, Seedorf was to be the new leader of Oranje. And if Holland would win, qualification would be very close. And if Van Nistelrooy would score again, blablablabla… At the end of the day, Rumania is leader, Bulgaria is only two points away and the upcoming match against Slovenia next Wednesday has become very important indeed.

And where did it go wrong? Oranje played a pretty good first half. Even professional criticasters Johan Derksen and Willem van Hanegem thought during the half time break that the second half would be a walk-over for Oranje. But, the Rumanian coach must have watched that bit and added some spice to his team. The circumstances weren’t that flash, a very windy stadium, a wet imperfect pitch… And Oranje, in theory, had the best papers in the second half, with wind from the back. But it wasn’t to happen. In the first half, ball circulation was good, the pace was high and Oranje got some opportunities. Bouma hit the crossbar with a header and Van Gol and Seedorf had good opportunities only stopped by ex-Ajax goalie Lobont.
It was clear that Sneijder and Van Persie weren’t really gravely missed.

In the second half, the physical game Rumania played got the better of Oranje. Rumania pressed Oranje back and the weak spot of the Dutch team became apparent, the defense. There was hardly any decent build up anymore and the Dutch strikers couldn’t be reached. In the 66th minute, Stekelenburg saved with the finger tips on a Mutu strike. A couple of minutes later, Goian coming from an off-side position scored the 1-0. But the ref allowed it, as he allowed more stuff for which other refs would whistle. And at the same time he handed out some yellow cards that were questionable. In the last phase of the match, again Wilfred Bouma hit the post, but Oranje wouldn’t get closer to a better result.

Van Nistelrooy, van Bronckhorst and Mathijsen copped a yellow card and will be out for the Slovenia match.

Ryan Babel was relegated to the bench by Van Basten, because he overslept twice in trainings camp. The first time he got off with telling a joke, the second time - match day - he missed the sports lunch and was benched. Robben played instead.

Marco van Basten was disappointed by the result and the quality of play. “We didn’t do too bad in the first half but lost the plot in the second. It as a mediocre performance by us, but that the same time, no man overboard… The luckiest team won, we hit the post twice, they score in off side position… We now need to focus on Slovenia. Tomorrow, Schip and I will think about potential replacements for the boys we’ll miss, but we do have Sneijder, Melchiot and Van Persie back, so… you win some, you lose some…. We have three matches to go and need seven points from these. Two wins and a draw will get us in Switzerland and Austria.”

Source: partly me partly www.ad.nl

Tags: Group C, marco van basten, Robben, Ryan Babel, The Netherlands, WIlfred Bouma

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Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 37 comments.

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By tiju thomas | October 14th, 2007 at 10:13 am

hai guys dont waste ur time by criticising this
game
think abt big games
do u think
with gio,de cler,jaleins,mathijenson,melchiot can we catch
ronaldino,robino,toni,ibrhimovic,ribery,christiano ronado (our main rebel)
haaaaa haaaaa result one more time we r going to cry.
if we want to win against strong team we have to forget some players for ever.
think abt rock solid diffenders
with strong holding mids
my holding mids
edgar davids first choice(sad dont think marco will consider him)
hedwings maduro
znejder
evader zno
then go for rock solid diffenders
according to y all nobody is there.
bye think differently and get the result

By ferenc | October 14th, 2007 at 11:23 am

dear tju: i loved edgar davids, he one of the all time best dutch player but he’s 34 with his leg broken and not as good as some years ago. he doesn’t play in a top league, in 2004 (after choosing the big money of inter instead staying at barca) his career was broken. so, he’s football history but definitely not oranje’s saviour. he should have been selected for the wc 06 but now this not the case. please don’t say that we need jaap stam too because we do not need him neither edgar but need guys with the same characters,solidity,etc.
of course it would be nice to forget some players and have rock solid defenders but the sad reality is that we don’t have these rock solid defenders and unfortunately it seems that mathijenson is our most solid defender but he’s far away of being rock solid. and unfortunately sergio ramos,gabi milito,john terry,ricardo carvailho and others weren’t born dutch…

Posted from Hungary

By Lerkot | October 14th, 2007 at 11:45 am

I think Edgar Davids still has a lot to offer, since we dont really have too many defensive midfielders. I hope he plays well in Ajax this spring and maybe makes it to the national team.

By ferenc | October 14th, 2007 at 1:16 pm

i’v just read that the council of almere had named a square of their town “clarence seedorf square”

Posted from Hungary

By Mario | October 14th, 2007 at 4:26 pm

Guys, I think Romania is a competitive team but is not a top team in Europe and 2 years ago we beat them with van Basten as a coach. Two years after that we go to play at Romania once again and got beaten now that we are supposed to have a more oiled team with better understanding between the players but no, there is no progress at all. The wind and those circunstances were the same for both teams and Romania won. What is wrong?

By Miguel Rosado | October 14th, 2007 at 4:53 pm

Gio has nothing to do as a midfielder, we have plenty of great players who can take his place. I think he should be benched or play as left back.

Come on guys, give Robben a break. He has just returned from an injury and you want him to be 100% fit!!!. I think he is one of the best players of the world when he is fit.

I haven’t seen van der Vaart show what he’s made for with the national team. He went to Euro 2004 and WC 2006 and he did nothing in those 2 tournaments!!!. Is he a national team player or a club player???. I know many of you won’t agree with me but I know he is a great player, what I am saying is that he hasn’t delivered with the national team.

By robben | October 14th, 2007 at 4:55 pm

When I look at the video it looks like Goian is offside. He is in front of Mathijsen, when he hits the ball in.

Posted from Canada

By ferenc | October 14th, 2007 at 6:12 pm

Miguel: tell me what did eobben do in the last 2 seasons? he was good in 2004 and in his first season at chelsea. since he hasn’t progress at all. if he’s a world class player i would say that matthijsen is a world class defender too. one of the best players of the worlds? there are not too many - maybe 20-30. clarence,rvn and van persie might be amongst them but definitely not robben. let’s say - he left chelsea because he knew that malouda was 2-3 times better than him. and babel is also better.

Posted from Hungary

By You Snooze,You Lose Your Place in the Team, and Other Non-Footballing Reasons For Being Dropped - Romania - The Offside - Soccer News and Opinion from leagues around the world | October 14th, 2007 at 7:44 pm

[...] for both men, Holland lost 1-0 to Romania and fell to second place in their Euro 2008 qualifying. With all the rotation at Liverpool [...]

Posted from United States

By Miguel Rosado | October 14th, 2007 at 8:49 pm

ferenc: I completely disagree with you and I think Ramon Calderon, Marco, Mourinho and Schuster also would disagree with you.
Robben has already proven his worth but yes you are right, the last 2 years he hasn’t played well and that’s because he’s been injuerd and if he keeps getting injured he’ll not be a top player any more but I believe he is a great player when he’s fit.

By tjeerd | October 14th, 2007 at 9:27 pm

I only saw the hi-lights on the uefa web site. (they are giving them for free). Weather seemed a bit rough, a cold fall rainy windy day. Some good chances for the orange. It was not to be. I hope they put it together against Slovania in a couple of days.

By Mario | October 15th, 2007 at 12:31 am

Ferenc:

Robben is a talented ang amazing player. Real Madrid and Chelsea that are huge clubs didn´t pay that amount of money for him just because of nothing. He has been champion in Holland, in England ans has player great games at Oranje like in Euro 04 and at the World Cup he did nice things. He has been pretty unlucky because he has gotten injured a lot and hopefully that will change because at his best he is not a Mathijsen, it´s crazy to say that in my opinion. Mathijsen has not won anything at his clubs and nobody will pay millions of Euros for him but Robben is a superb talent and everybody knows that. If he can let his injuries dissaperar he will be the same excellent player who can win games on his own like he has done at PSV, Chelsea and Holland.
But you are right, he gets injured so often that if that continues happening he will never be remembered as a great legend like his predecesor Marc Overmars for sure will always be remembered.

By Jan | October 15th, 2007 at 1:19 am

@Robben: being between Mathijsen and Stekelenburg is not the same as being offside. You’re offside when you only have 1 player in front of you (mostly the goalie) while the ball is played at you. Not when you receive the ball. The way I see it, the ball was shot at goal, not at Goian. Stekelenburg saves and the ball falls in front of Goian. Hence, he is not off side. Stekelenburg “delivered” the ball to him and Stekel is Dutch. So, that rules off side out.

As for Robben (the player). I agree with Mario. Robben is a rare breed. Not a lot of dribblers like him. The speed with the ball, the subtle movements. He is from another planet. Only drawbacks: he doesn’t “see” the game when he is in possession, which makes him not the best team player and he is very vulnerable. Also, Robben functions best if the team is somewhat built around him, i.e with a midfielder doing the dirty work for him behind him and with a left back who goes deep along the touchline to draw away an opponent and create space for Robben. In Oranje, Robben has van der Vaart or Sneijder behind him and Bouma as left back who is pretty poor in steaming up and down touch. At Madrid with Marcello, that should work much better. Now, Robben is always faced with at least two opponents. Which leaves space for other players to take advantage of, but they do that rather poorly. Marco plays almost all the good players of Holland, but as a team unit, they don’t gel. If you play Robben, you need someone like Drenthe or Emanuelson or Davids behind him to do the work. If you play Van der Vaart or Sneijder on the left, a different left winger (Babel) is more effective.

Robben does very well in a 4-4-2 system. As do Ruud, Robin, Clarence, Bommel…but that doesn’t seem to be important

Posted from Australia

By ferenc | October 15th, 2007 at 5:13 am

cruijff on oeanje: http://www.telesport.nl/voetbal/2296512/Cruijff__Oeverloze_discussie_over_buitenspelers.html

in dutch…:-(

Posted from Hungary

By Jan | October 15th, 2007 at 5:35 am

I’ll translate…

Posted from Australia

By goose | October 15th, 2007 at 5:41 am

Robben has lost it…. havent seen him play decent in years!

Posted from Netherlands

By ferenc | October 15th, 2007 at 6:30 am

…and definitely not the new overmars. i was excited when saw him first time against usa in 2005 and against the czechs at euro 04 and thought he would become a fantastic winger like marc overmars or rob rensenbrink. but alas he doesn’t have the mentality of his predecessors and unfortunately he’s almost always injured. for me he’s a kind of “eternal talent”. his first chelsea season was pretty good but it was more than 2 years ago. at the wc 06 he had a great game against serbia,but he didn’t show zoo much in the other games. against solid defenders he is not capable to proove his talent because his movements are very predictable and makes too much useless dribble. remember when chelsea played barca in spring 06 at stamford bridge and once messi was his direct opponent he even didn’t know where he was. (ok, messi is messi.) the same game oleguer who is not the most brilliant defender of the world completely neutralized him. marco should let him for a while and we will see if he’ll improve or not. but for oranje right now babel is more useful.
Miguel: calderon,marco,mourinho,schuster - if you had written laporta,hiddink,wenger,frankie instead of them i would have said i might have wrong,but except mourinho these coaches and the real president are no references - they hasn’t proven anything yet (as coaches and as president). all of the coaches and the president i mentioned have already proven a lot.

Posted from Hungary

By ferenc | October 15th, 2007 at 6:32 am

agsinst usa was not in 2005 but in 2004. a friendly 3-4 months before the ec.

Posted from Hungary

By Caleb | October 15th, 2007 at 7:26 am

About Robben - He was a great player a few years ago, and I think he is on his way to regaining that status. He had bad luck with injuries and a really boring Chelsea team to play in, but in his last game with Real he was starting to show glimpses of his old form.
@Ferenc - just admit it, you don’t like Robben because he plays for Real

@Jan - it was definitely offside. The definition of offside is gaining and advantage from being in an offside position (being in front of the last defender when the ball is played), and when the ball was headed onto net Goian was in an offside position, and he gained an advantage by being there because the ball bounced to him and he scored. It doesn’t matter that the goalie knocked it into Goian, because he was already in an offside position before Stekelenburg saved it.

Posted from Japan

By ferenc | October 15th, 2007 at 9:39 am

@Caleb: no, i have never liked him. if someone is playing for oranje i don’t mind about his club. i see him as an oranje player. let’s see for ex. i admire rvn,like sneijder and they are also real madrid players. drenthe is a nice guy too.
i think it wasn’t offside but saw only twice saturday evening… anyway against albania an albanian goal was disallowed so there’s a balance.

Posted from Hungary

By Miguel Rosado | October 15th, 2007 at 9:52 am

Robben has the talent and there’s no question about that, we’ve to remember that he’s only 23 years old so he has a huge future ahead of him. Playing for Real Madrid will help him mature much more.
It was the same with van Nistelrooy when he was dropped out of the team by Ferguson and by San Marco, everybody said he was over and now how many mouths he has shut!!!.

By Caleb | October 15th, 2007 at 10:21 am

When I first watched the game I didn’t even think about it being offside, but when someone asked if it was I looked again and sure enough it was offside. I just checked again to make sure, and yes, Goian is in an offside position when the Romanian forward heads the ball on net, thereby gaining unfair advantage and hence he is offside.

Posted from Japan

By goose | October 15th, 2007 at 10:47 am

it WAS offside..not much but it was…

agree that Robben has talent Miquel but talent is of no use if it isnt used! i remember him playing for Fc Groningen when he was only 16..he came to the traing on bike and was still in highschool.. i remember i watched Studio Sport (dutch eredivisie programm) and i could see right away that here was someone special, even at Psv he was pretty amazing..but the last few years ive lost faith in Arjan

looks like his body is not very suited for pro football, hes been injured far too many times

Marco should leave him out for a while, dont select him until he has proven himself again

btw; how about vanBasten leaving out Babel in the starting 11 cause he overslept (twice)! thats why Robben played and not Babel

grzt

Posted from Netherlands

By JVB21 | October 15th, 2007 at 9:36 pm

I’d like to run up the orange flag and say that Robben is one of the best simply because he’s Dutch, but he’s not - the best that is. As Jan explained his talents only show within the right system. While I’d like to be wrong, IMO he’ll probably never achieve the expectation level that everyone had for him initially and that’s the result of his fragile nature both physically and mentally. Beyond that I don’t really care for the way he plays; he predictable as he always tries to take on the defender or two marking him, he can’t cross with crap, he’s as myopic as a mouse when he has the ball, and when he looses possession he becomes a spectator. Other then that I guess he’s good. But hopefully he proves my wrong. He’ll certainly do better at Real, better system for his talents and the Spanish game suits him better.

Benching Babel, the second smart thing Marco has done.

Posted from Canada

By goose | October 16th, 2007 at 1:44 pm

@JVB; agree…. he could still be useful to us when hes in form; at least when he stops diving. thats the thing a really hate about Robben…everytime hes only touched he makes a face like he has been shot from the stands..its pathetic

i said it before; we need a Marc Overmars clone!!! imagine if we would have 2 decent wingers (left and right) who could feed the goalscoring machine Ruud… we would be so much stronger that our crap defensive and inballanced midfield would matter at all

Posted from Netherlands

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