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John Heitinga: Oranje has grown and wants more!

June 9th, 2009 | By: Jan | 31 Comments »

A few days after the victory over Iceland Oranje will play Norway at home. John Heitinga is clear about his ambitions: “After this wonderful series we want more!”.

There are no big interests anymore. Six victories on the trot and Oranje has secured it’s place for the big tournament in South Africa. “We’ve grown,” says the former Ajax defender. ” And we want to show the fans this in Rotterdam. We’ll get ourselves pumped up for one more big game and then we’ll take a break.”

Norway will need a win to stay in the race for a second spot. We’ll go out on attack, the Norwegians say, because Oranje is vulnerable at the back. Is that so? Heitinga: “They always say this, but in six games we only conceded twice. One penalty and one corner kick. That says enough.”

In other words, Oranje is more than attack. “We do have a solid defense. All players are of international level. We proved that on our way to the EC and at the EC and we have proven it yet again. And so we will in the future.”

It appears that Holland operates as a team. Heitinga: “I think we’ve grown to a team in Switzerland during the last EC. That process has been nurtured along. We started this series with the idea to close it down as soon as possible, which has lots of benefits and we succeeded.”

In the same timeframe, Heitinga got his big foreign adventure. After 17 years (!) at Ajax he left for Atletico Madrid, a club with a reputation. “I needed that step up. I felt that. I made the move at the right time for me. Not too early.”

He left after seven seasons in Ajax 1, a WC and two EC’s. Nowadays, talents make their move sooner. “Everyone has to make that decision for themselves. I wasn’t ready for it. Last summer, I felt I had to do it. Atletico is a great club and I’ve developed myself more there. But I’m still not at my peak. I’m only 25 years old. As a defender, I have heaps of growth potential.”

Soon he’ll return to Amsterdam, with Atletico, to play the Amsterdam Tournament. He’s still pretty involved at Ajax, where he started as an 7 year old. He was also there when Ajax won their last title in 2004. “Of course I follow the club. I really hope they’ll win a title soon. It’s that time. I hope next season it will happen.”

Tags: Ajax, Atletico, Group C, Heitinga, Jol, Sneijder, Van Marwijk

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Comments

Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 31 comments.

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By Carlos | June 9th, 2009 at 8:04 pm

@ Sol – If someone can dig out of youtube the goal Bommel scored against England in England – 30m – left everyone in awe of his shooting prowess. But then that was in 2001 I believe. He does have a very powerful boot !

Posted from Singapore

By dirk v.d.Berg | June 9th, 2009 at 8:35 pm

Braadheid confirmed at Bayern, not sure if that was already stated.
Tottenham uped there bid for van Nistelrooij to 2.0m
Bayern are also interested in signing Sneijder, and Chelsea are still looking at van der Vaart.

Posted from Canada

By Felipe | June 9th, 2009 at 9:02 pm

And it seems like Bert will start with Mendes da Silva replacing De Jong on the lineup. OK for me, though I’d rather a lineup with Schaars.

BTW: Jan, Sebastian Pardo retired himself with just 27 years old. Do you remember him at Feyenoord, on the start of this decade?

By Peter vdL | June 9th, 2009 at 9:22 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxZhRnTOnHc

van bommel’s goal against england.

By Jan | June 9th, 2009 at 10:09 pm

Felipe I do remember him at Feyenoord. I liked him a lot. Very skilled little player .

I read he retired to take of his seriously ill daughter. Horrible eh?

By Jan | June 9th, 2009 at 10:11 pm

Mendes da Silva was a huge talent at Sparta when he was compared to Rijkaard. He got his transfer to Ajax but was too starstruck and injured to ever make it. He went back to NAC and refound his mojo and made the move to AZ. He is potentially a tremendous player but like Rijkaard in his younger days, he comes across as being slow, lazy and taciturn. Don’t think he is, though. And neither was Rijkaard….

By Carlos | June 9th, 2009 at 11:04 pm

Thank YOU Peter – Sorry not 30 m more like 35/40m goal. Sol ? you still think vBommel cant shoot from distance ? He seriously became a legend in England with that goal.
Great I can watch the Norway game “live”.
Jan – looks like Sydney is seriously “on” because it’s a WC weekend but Holland just playing the ONE game so they can rest more on the way back.
Well If Muhammed doesnt go the mountain – The mountain goes to Muhamme. Well done Jan. Your wishes come true !!

Posted from Singapore

By Tiju | June 9th, 2009 at 11:05 pm

Everybody just read SOL’s comment on EC2008 Vs Russia.it is too good.i mean it shows the facts.”Here we com”article
@SOL hope BVM will read that comment and will learn from that

Posted from India

By Tiju | June 9th, 2009 at 11:06 pm

“south africa here we come” article

Posted from India

By Tiju | June 10th, 2009 at 12:06 am

Mendes da silva may be slow but is tough player with good tackling skills with an above average trickeries.i think de saaw has better lungs than him.

Posted from India

By Carlos | June 10th, 2009 at 1:05 am

Sol’s comments on the Russia game are spot on !

Posted from Singapore

By finnster01 | June 10th, 2009 at 1:28 am

Russia who?

By Carlos | June 10th, 2009 at 2:28 am

Finn Also Spot ON !!

Posted from Singapore

By bobotoh | June 10th, 2009 at 2:41 am

What is Mendez da Silva natural position at the club?

Posted from Indonesia

By Jan | June 10th, 2009 at 2:43 am

Haha…

Bert v Marwijk had things to say about it as well. I think I posted that some while back. How our wingers and striker were supposed to push up to the defense only to allow them to pass the ball into space leaving our midfield exposed to that left back coming forward.

Under BvM they changed that and only put pressure on the midfielders, thus keeping that bloke at the back and staying in control. Result: a comfy win.

By Tiju | June 10th, 2009 at 2:58 am

Out of topic
one dutchie in each session with a superb goal ratio.
Players with more international GOALS than CAPS
Sandor Kocsis, Hungary – 75 goals in 68 games (1.10 ratio)
Gerd Muller, West Germany – 68 in 62 (1.10)
Poul Nielsen, Denmark – 52 in 38 (1.37)
Sven Rydell, Sweden – 49 in 43 (1.14)
Gunnar Nordahl, Sweden – 43 in 33 (1.30)
Ernest Wilimowski, Poland & West Germany – 34 in 30 (1.13)
Just Fontaine, France – 30 in 21 (1.43)
Ferenc Deak, Hungary – 29 in 20 (1.45)
Vivian Woodward, England – 29 in 23 (1.26)
Bep Bakhuys, Netherlands – 28 in 23 (1.22)
Steve Bloomer, England – 28 in 24 (1.17)
Istvan Avar, Romania & Hungary – 27 in 23 (1.17)
Hughie Gallagher, Scotland – 23 in 20 (1.15)
Leonidas da Silva, Brazil – 21 in 19 (1.11)
Herminio Masantonio, Argentina – 21 in 19 (1.11)

Players who narrowly missed out
Ferenc Puskas, Hungary & Spain – 84 goals in 89 games (0.94 ratio)
Kunishige Kamamoto, Japan – 55 in 61 (0.90)
Pauli Jorgensen, Denmark – 44 in 47 (0.94)
Faas Wilkes, Netherlands – 35 in 38 (0.92)
Nat Lofthouse, England – 30 in 33 (0.91)
Juan Ulloa, Costa Rica – 27 in 27 (1.00)
Edmund Conen, West Germany – 27 in 28 (0.96)
Anton Schall, Austria – 27 in 28 (0.96)
Luis Artime, Argentina – 24 in 25 (0.96)
Richard Hoffman, West Germany – 24 in 25 (0.96)
Stan Mortensen, England – 23 in 25 (0.92)
Tommy Lawton, England – 22 in 23 (0.96)
Zarra, Spain – 20 in 20 (1.00)

WE ARE NOT BAD IN THIS STATI ALSO

Posted from India

By Jan | June 10th, 2009 at 3:47 am

That Leonidas chap from Brazil was later successful with chocolates and bonbons if I’m not mistaken…

By Alex | June 10th, 2009 at 7:08 am

It looks as if Perez will actually get his absurd plans accomplished, Kaka already in the bag, Villa said to have reached an agreement with Real, and they are negotiating about C.Ronaldo, if that plan doesn’t come through , it’s all arrows on Ribery. I’d run the hell away from there if I were a dutch player, i wouldn’t want to play for such a disgusting money throwing club, and such a crazy pres.
V.Nistelrooij to Tottenham, it sure looks like it.
V.d.Vaart would be an excellent fit for Bayern if Ribery were to move to Real, I think it’s horrible how Real Madrid absolutely destroys hundreds of careers, so many players that they bought for jumbo prices and just discarded within months. I’d say Robben, Sneijder, V.d.Vaart should think very carefully about their futures.
I V.Nistelrooij goes, and Villa comes, I’d say Huntelaar could form one hell of a partnership with Villa, since Raul is coming near the end of his career, and i’m betting Huntelaar could surpass Higuain.

BTW Mendes da Silva is somewhat of a mixture of a creative and holding midfielder. But if feel V.Bommel in his current role is far better, i heard someone say that by playing a bit further upfront than De Jong, he regained the leading and role on midfield in which he excelled at PSV. That might just be the case.

you could say we actually played more like this the first half agaisnt Iceland, De Jong in a Senna type role

———-Kuyt
Robben———V.Persie
V.d.Vaart-V.Bommel
De Jong

Posted from Netherlands

By finnster01 | June 10th, 2009 at 8:01 am

@Tiju: That is a fairly useless stat as most of the players listed only played about 20 odd games for their country.

There are only a couple of quality players in each group in my opinion: First group: Just Fontaine and Gerd Muller.

Second group: Puskas of course, and Stan “The Man” Mortensen from back in the day.

By Sol | June 10th, 2009 at 8:20 am

Nice goal by MvB you linked to, but it kind of shows what I already was thinking of in regards to MvB style of long-distance shots. Don’t get me wrong, I think MvB long-distance shots are one of his specialties and he’s pretty good at it, but – and I don’t know the right words for this – they have a tendency to drift a bit. That shot by daSilva I linked to is a more straight shot and I think slightly more powerful than the shot by MvB you linked to. It drifts less (allthough it is closer to the goal, so it might be optical illusion). But if I think back to other shots by vBommel like that, many of them tend to drift higher and higher, or away from the goal, just like Seedorf’s shots, where on the other, Davids had a more straight shot (like vPersie). Maybe the comparisons are a bit off, but I couldn’t think of another example.

That’s not to say vBommel’s doesn’t do straight shots, but I can’t seem to remember a Koeman-like high straight shot (similar to the Ballack goal in the EC2008), that link of MvB’s goal against England is a slightly different type of shot, I can’t seem to put it in words.

Posted from Netherlands

By Sol | June 10th, 2009 at 8:22 am

And I would like to add that I have more confidence in MvB’s scoring ability from distance than in Mendes Da Silva’s, regardless of what type of shot he’s using. But that wasn’t what my earlier post was about.

Posted from Netherlands

By Jan | June 10th, 2009 at 8:38 am

I know what you mean man…

By Jeroen | June 10th, 2009 at 11:01 am

Ive seen Schaars score goals just like Da Silva in the link. I’m sorry, but Mendes looked like shit against Iceland. Please play Schaars.

I think we will see Elia tonight. I hope we will see Elia tonight. and v.d.Wiel.

Posted from Netherlands

By Jan | June 10th, 2009 at 11:30 pm

Why do you think Mendes looked like shit against Iceland?

By Sol | June 11th, 2009 at 3:32 pm

He did actually, lost a couple of balls needlessly because he was too slow or too clumsy. Broke up a counter I think somewhere because he turned back where he should have passed on (can’t remember exactly).

He looked a little shaky, but he didn’t have much time to settle in, I don’t think you can really judge people if they play less than 45 minutes. He came in at 79. minute, when Holland was struggling.

Posted from Netherlands

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