Holland - Albania 2-1

Holland got ready for a big party in the Amsterdam Arena! Albania would visit us and after our glorious eh….draw against Bulgaria, expectations were high. You can leave that to Dutch fans.

But, as Frank de Boer – former Oranje captain – declared on tv a day before the match: Albania at home is more difficult then Bulgaria away. Albania will not give away any space, they won’t even try to attack, they are physically strong and brutal and all that travelling and having played a tough game against Bulgaria will surely leave some mark on the young Dutch squad.

Before the match, MvB made clear that the eleven players who did so well against Bulgaria would start. I.e. Robin as center striker, Babel in a starting position and De Jong defensive midfielder.

Oranje started well against Albania. The game plan was clear. Pressure them, play the passing game, find the free man, dominate and win! But it was also clear in the first ten minutes, that Albania was not the same Albania we knew from way back when. Albania is not like Luxembourg, or Ireland even. With players in the Italian league, in the German Bundesliga and with Baric, the Austrian success coach, as their shrewd team manager, Albania was not going to give up without a fight! Compared to Bulgaria, they played very disciplined football and were not planning to bend over without a fight.

In the 14th minute, the fight seemed over. Smart headplay by Babel and Mathijsen brought van Persie in the box and it was 1-0 before you could say “Oranje found it’s new leader”.

Oranje saw a lot of chances in the first half. Robben could have broken the bad spell he’s under several times, playmaker van Persie found Landzaat in the first quarter but the Wigan Athletic midfielder missed, as he would do twice more later in the game. Still, the 2-0 came as expected, again with a major part for van Persie. The man was involved in all seven Oranje goals this qualification (scoring four, two assists and the build up to Albania’s own goal) and his cross to van Bronckhorst was blocked by an Albania defender but the ball ricochet’d straight in his own goal. 2-0.

Oranje played a decent match for 70 minutes! Not as good and swinging as we saw them play against Bulgaria, but good enough for all to expect a 3-0 and even a 4-0. But it was not to happen. A very good counter-attack in the second half (where was Gio van Bronckhorst??) left the right wing open for Albania to finish a good counter with a very good goal. 2-1!!

And where the Dutch fans shouted for a penalty for a handball after a Robben dribble in the second half, Oranje escaped two penalties when both De Jong and Boulharouz used their hands to block the ball in the Dutch box.

And so, this match ended with a justified whistle-concert from the stands, when the last 20 minutes of the game were the worst Oranje played for a long time (eh…since Luxembourg, last month). The self assured youngsters turned into fumbling geeks at a school prom nite and Albania felt it was short handed… Which, if you analyse the game thoroughly, is a bit OTT but still…one good game does not make one hot summer, that’s for sure.

Van Basten and captain van der Sar were not amused, post-match, and assessed that this team is not capable – yet – of playing two tough matches in four days. But, we added four points to our tally, we saw van Persie again emerge as the Man with the Plan, we saw a van der Sar in great form, and nobody discussed the Mark-Ruud situation any more…

Progress…

And, to wrap it up quoting Jan Mulder: “We may have seen a dreadul 20 minutes of football, but let’s be happy we’re not French, Italian or English…”