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More riddles for Marco van Basten

March 27th, 2008 | By: Jan | 10 Comments »

Marco van Basten arrived at Schiphol with a suitcase filled with questionmarks.

Although his team won the friendly against Austria, the way Oranje played doesn’t offer a lot of hope for the EC campaign.

“In a way, it’s good thing the 3-0 happened due to personal mistakes. At least Austria didn’t outplay us. We gave them the goals. And in top football you almost know that something like that can happen once, but the odds won’t be against us that many more times. And Timmer? I’d play him again. I know him, he won’t let this happen ever again. (Feyenoord coach) Van Marwijk should thank me, he’ll get a very motivated goalie back.”

But still, even without the Timmer blunders, Oranje came across as vulnerable. Mathijsen wasn’t able to build up and on top of that, he defended poorly as well. The HSV defender: “Everyone talks about Timmer, but let’s be honest here, I’m to blame for the two header goals.” In the second half, Bouma replaced Mathijsen. Van Basten: “Bouma did very well. He brought rest and confidence. And that’s someting we’ll take with us into the next game.”

On May 24, Oranje will play the Ukraine. Four days later, the UEFA wants to receive the definitive group of 23 names. Only two weeks later, world champions Italy awaits. “We will have to improve. A lot! Otherwise, we’ll be travelling home very soon,” muttered Rafael van der Vaart.

Oranje looked vulnerable when possession was turned around. “That was partly because our four creative players were too deep on the pitch and couldn’t turn over. But also because De Zeeuw played a weak game. It just didn’t work with him in this game. I needed to change that and I put Sneijder on his position. That worked well.”

Van Basten does not have a lot of alternatives, however. Mark van Bommel would be ideal, but he doesn’t want to play under Van Basten anymore. And will Oranje do so much better with Nigel de Jong, Orlando Engelaar or Denny Landzaat? Still, question marks…

Van Basten also saw Huntelaar and pinchhitter Vennegoor play a good game. Huntelaar scored twice and arrived at Schiphol with a broad smile: “I know Ruud is the manager’s first choice. Fine. But I’m going to make it very very hard for Van Basten.” The Celtic striker Vennegoor also did very good, which makes an EC future for Dirk Kuyt and Danny Koevermans pretty bleak.

Tags: Group C, Huntelaar, Oranje, The Netherlands, Vaart, Van Basten

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Comments

By dirk v.d berg | March 28th, 2008 at 8:44 am

I say the one player we need to start picking up is Castelen. He’s fast, and can play on either wing. If we play

-back four-
gio-sneijder
castelen-vaart-persie
——huntelaar——

That would be my line up. Except then we have 3 hamburg players. De Zeeuw can sub for Gio, Babel can sub for Castelen, Robben for Persie, and Ruud for Huntelaar.

Posted from Canada

By Mario Rosado (Dutch admirer) | March 28th, 2008 at 10:38 am

How’s Nigel de Jong playing at Hamburg is he doing a good job?.

By simon | March 28th, 2008 at 2:33 pm

I watch pretty many Hamburg games… Castelen doesnt play much… De Jong usually starts and is always decent, good header.

By dirk v.d berg | March 28th, 2008 at 2:48 pm

van Gaal is stepping down as Alkmaar’s Coach.

Posted from Canada

By goose | March 28th, 2008 at 6:12 pm

well; kinda decent…(but he , im not a fan! haha), does a lot of hard work

@dirk; looks like it may be not…just read that;

Az owner Scheringa has had a crisis talk with the players, he wants the players to make the discission…yesterday Az and vGaal told the press that the situation was not workable anymore and that they would split parts after this season..vGaal had a contract till 2010

strange story…i will be surprised if vGaal would really go, he has done great for 2 seasons, almost doing the unthinkable (winning the dutch leguea as non- Ajax/Feyenoord/Psv..played great games in Europe and has shown the kinda football our Big Leader San’people manager of the decade’Marco wanted to copy at Oranje!!

im sure theres more to come on this one..

Posted from Netherlands

By Lights | March 29th, 2008 at 12:39 am

Hi Guys,

I m a newbie in this blog and i have been a Oranje’s fan for years.
Here is my personal point of view about the dutch team…..
I still truly believe that our young talented players will bring many pressure to all UEFA EURO 2008 contenders though we played a messy game against Austria.It is a benefit for Marco Van basten to see this problem rather than too late.No doubt that our defending is the weakest in the new system 4-2-3-1.I personally think that we need a taller guy in defend like Andre Ooijer to glue with player like Italian forward - Luca Toni(for example)during high ball from long crosses especially corner
kicks.About the 4 creative players and the upfront,we will be bombastic to destroy all opponents.
One important thing which is so positive to see is our young players played in the World cup 2006 from *Immature* to *Patience* now.(Don’t bruise easily by unfair referees or sneaky opponents).Because a *cool Head* brings creative and can rule over unbalance intuitive mind.~Cheers~

++Last but not least : Spain is a very ourstanding team in this season.Maybe Marco Van basten can study something from them.++

Hup Hup Holland,let’s show the mettle to win the European Championship 2008 ^0^

Posted from Netherlands

By Jan | March 29th, 2008 at 1:28 am

Hi there Lights, welcome to the blog! I am convinced you’re right about the heavy weights looking envious at our creative midfielders… Let’s hope they can make the difference…

Posted from Australia