First reactions on Marco…

van Basten’s qualification record has been outstanding…rivaled by very few. Qualifications are never easy(too much inconsistency) and dominant football can’t be expected. I fear if this blog had been around for the qualifications for WC’74 we would all be demanding Rinus Michels be sacked. The real test now is if we can improve from our WC’06 showing. Getting out of the group stage will be tough, but if that is done, a semi-final / final run is in the cards. With the boys playing more than 10 days at a time together, hopefully good things will happen.

Posted from  United States

VDS: “That tournament needs to be the icing on a mediocre cake, making it a delicious treat.”

Haha, couldn’t have put it better myself.

Posted from  Australia

[...] First reactions on Marco…By JanIt seems however, that Van Basten doesn’t want to leave The Netherlands. Leaving only Ajax as a option. Van Basten: “We haven’t got a clue what we’ll do or where we’ll work next. We haven’t given that any thought. We’ll see. …Netherlands World Cup Team Blog – http://netherlands.worldcupblog.org [...]

Posted from  Germany

Marco will do something at Euro 08 that will be very important:

He will respect his players achievements. Not like in the World Cup when he benched van Nistelrooy in a stupid way. He will have learned from those errors and now he will field his strongest eleven every game.

Hup Holland!

I find the announcement of this decision regarding van Basten and ‘t Schip strange as to timing. Why announce it now? They become, to use a US expression, “lame ducks”, with the players now knowing that they do not represent the future for the national team. Do they now lose respect from the players, unable to teach, coach or motivate?

Or, was the thought that this announcement would lead to a modelling of the Notre Dame American football legend, wherein the team was motivated to “win one for the Gipper”. Gipper being George Gipp, a great player that had died at the end of his college career and supposedly told coach Knute Rockne to ask the team to win one for him. Will the Dutch players be extraordinarily motivated to now win one(s) for Marco and Johnny? I certainly hope so, as it is now truly up to the players to see how far they can go in this tournament.

I distinguish van Basten from Michels as follows: Michels was able to coach and teach in such a way as to make the individual athletes,and the team as a whole, better than they would have been without him. In contrast, van Basten has inhibited individual achievement and team performance through poor player selection, team tactics, substitutions and a significant inconsistency in his own philosophy of playing style. The quality of the players must drive all of these decisions. van Basten seemed to force players and team strategies to fit his ideas, regardless of whether he had the talent to achieve it. Then, when these ideas did not work, he would try something else, seemingly searching for a workable solution to an undefined problem.

Marco van Basten was an incredible player, one of the best ever, and will have that legacy for the rest of his life. I affirm him for all those wonderful matches he “gave” to the fans, and the gifts of victory he gave to Holland. Professional sports are entertainment, and as a player, Marco was a phenomenal entertainer. I leave his legacy there, for that is enough.

Posted from  United States

I agree with Bob that I find the timing of the announcement a bit strange and cause for concern. First of all, the honourable thing for Marco to have done is to have announced that he would quit Holland BEFORE the entire qualification started.

Now what he in essence has done is taken all the pressure off himself and put it squarely on the players (”what are you going to do, fire me?”). And this is in the toughest group of the lot.

I find this very selfish. There will most definitely be some additional uncertainty amongst the players. Marco Van Basten was a truly phenomenal player, but he sure is no Jose Mourinho as a coach….

Posted from  United States

Guys:

I think that Bob´s arguments are very clever. But I think that what van Basten is trying to do with this decision is to say to the Netherlands fans that he will do everything in his hands to perform and get good results at Euro 2008 and then he will call it a time because he is a little bit tired of the media. Doing that all the press in Holland will not be butchering during the tournament of what´s gonna happen in his future because van Basten knows that after the first two games vs. Italy and France his head could be in danger and he preferred to tell the press and public that he will try to win every game but if he fails or succeeds he will go away anyway and the players will know that if they win they will make their coach proud but if the players are gonna have that feeling van Basten has to be very good motivating them if not they would not care about one for him but for themselves as players. I think is good to know that van Basten will be gone after Euro 2008 because things need a new air and need to refresh but hopefully before that San Marco can makes us proud by repeating his glories as a player now as a coach.

Ah, motivation.. that seems to be a big problem of our team and Van Basten as well. To me Van Basten just doesn’t seem like a very good motivator. Standing on the sidelines cold as ice with no passion.. I don’t know, maybe his pre-game/half-time talks are really good, but I can’t see it.

Posted from  Japan

Telegraaf newspaper; 4 candidates:

Frank Rijkaard – Barcelona

Fred Rutten – FC Twente

Bert van Marwijk – Feyenoord

Co Adriaanse – Al-Sadd

still think Foppe is the best man for the job (after Guus ofcourse!)

Posted from  Netherlands

Foppe or Adriaanse, or I’ll be sad.
Its gonna be interesting to see if Marco van Basten is a better club coach than national team coach. Not at all impossible.

@LERKOT; i even wonder if he will be a manager at all after the EC… maybe he should just stick to playing golf!

Posted from  Netherlands

Yeah that probably would be for the best for everyone… but I dont think he agrees.

in the past ex pro players started a sports shop or something like that.. looks like now they have two options.. be a manager or be on the telly as a commentator!!

think actually Milan could be an option..

Posted from  Netherlands

[...] Looking back at van Basten (Netherlands Blog) [...]

Posted from  United States

Bob alluded to “winning one for the gipper”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQ5YiQqrZCk&feature=related
Norwegian immigrant turned American football genius Knute Rockne gave great pre game talks emphasising “team play, unselfish sacrifice”
Marco Van Bastian would serve well to watch these great Notre Dame video clips of coaches giving pep talks:
Dan Devine as portrayed in movie “Rudy”
“no one, and I mean NO ONE, comes into our building and pushes us around”
http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=9w8BfH1Q_zM
Wise words!, England could have used before the Croatia game at Wembley.
Marco playing carrer garnered respect, Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz jammed that issue with this pre-game talk Marco must see.
http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=TNB2CqYrd-o&feature=related
Non Americans watching these videos can get the taste of the positive impact American football has on American culture. Being able to play with heart can have enormous benefits. Winning is 90% attitude 10%talent.

When one think about the passion of Oranje fans, they are second to non, in my opinion. That passion has to be in the locker room, as this Georgia Tech team leader exibits with his heat felt pre game talk before a huge game against Clemson. No selfishness allowed in the locker room. Holland can win the Euro with this sense of team.
http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=-Nnstylh2g8

In all fairness Jan, it is alot easier to motivate Amateur American College Football players like at Notre Dame, then the Pro’s. Money has a way of messing the minds and attitudes of sports stars on both sides of the pond.

I was actually going to stick this bit in an earlier post, but it certainly fits here. Sorry it’s so darn long.

Coach Tony D’Amato, played by Al Pacino: from the movie “Any Given Sunday” (layout is intentional, we’re talking motivational poetry here.)

I don’t know what to say really.
Three minutes
to the biggest battle of our professional lives
all comes down to today.
Either
we heal
as a team
or we are going to crumble.
Inch by inch
play by play
till we’re finished.
We are in hell right now, gentlemen
believe me
and
we can stay here
and get the shit kicked out of us
or
we can fight our way
back into the light.
We can climb out of hell.
One inch, at a time.

Now I can’t do it for you.
I’m too old.
I look around and I see these young faces
and I think
I mean
I made every wrong choice a middle age man could make.
I uh….
I pissed away all my money
believe it or not.
I chased off
anyone who has ever loved me.
And lately,
I can’t even stand the face I see in the mirror.

You know when you get old in life
things get taken from you.
That’s, that’s part of life.
But,
you only learn that when you start losing stuff.
You find out that life is just a game of inches.
So is football.
Because in either game
life or football
the margin for error is so small.
I mean
one half step too late or to early
you don’t quite make it.
One half second too slow or too fast
and you don’t quite catch it.
The inches we need are everywhere around us.
They are in ever break of the game
every minute, every second.

On this team, we fight for that inch
On this team, we tear ourselves, and everyone around us
to pieces for that inch.
We CLAW with our finger nails for that inch.
Cause we know
when we add up all those inches
that’s going to make the fucking difference
between WINNING and LOSING
between LIVING and DYING.

I’ll tell you this
in any fight
it is the guy who is willing to die
who is going to win that inch.
And I know
if I am going to have any life anymore
it is because, I am still willing to fight, and die for that inch
because that is what LIVING is.
The six inches in front of your face.

Now I can’t make you do it.
You gotta look at the guy next to you.
Look into his eyes.
Now I think you are going to see a guy who will go that inch with you.
You are going to see a guy
who will sacrifice himself for this team
because he knows when it comes down to it,
you are gonna do the same thing for him.

That’s a team, gentlemen
and either we heal now, as a team,
or we will die as individuals.
That’s football guys.
That’s all it is.
Now, whattaya gonna do?

Moved, maybe? Hear it, see it. http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=WO4tIrjBDkk

Remove the pads, make the ball round, and the message is the same.

Personally I find this speech strangely applicable to Oranje football; the idea of space, healing as a team, and a coach that connects on a personal level to bring the meaning of winning into a larger picture. (Marco, are you listening?)

Beautiful football isn’t a 12 second highlight, or a new shoe contract, and it’s far more then just knowing the road. It’s 11 guys walking the road together.

That’s football guys.
That’s all it is.

Posted from  Canada

Wheres my helmet!!

Seriously, both soccer and football are games of inches. That extra effort can make the difference between winning and losing, and motivation is behind that extra effort. That is why the coach, and team leaders makes all the difference.

True… At the end of the day, if you win most duels/challenges on the pitch, you win the ball and if you have the ball, they at least won’t be able to score. A bit of JC logic here. But it’s true, it’s time and space all the time. And you need to be 100% switched on with your eyes, your position, your body posture, on your toes, etc etc…

Posted from  Australia

Switched on and tuned in, those are the mental aspects that make the difference, that turn those inches into feet, and when a team can collectively switch on those feet become yards of space on a field of green.

Posted from  Canada