NED 1-0 CAM FT

This is a mediocre Dutch team team with a somewhat inexperienced coach, although his experience as a player offsets that to an extent.

Morale is always a problem in the Dutch camp and that combined with communication problems and the occasional Dutch nonchalance will mean this small nation will underachieve once again.

Posted from  United States

Sorry, I am a different Mike, so make me Dan instead. (I am referring to that last message).

Posted from  United States

I haven’t heard or read any comments from v Basten after the match. The way managers think and look at these matches, he’ll probably say:
1. happy with v Persie & Robben
2. great that Cameroon played tough, that’s a good prep
3. v Bommel did exactly what I wanted but nothing more, the sonofa$#@.
4. We have some work to do on defense
5. the shirts looked great!

I think players - unbenknown to themselves - always keep some reserve-energy under wraps when playing friendlies and when prepping for something big. You don’t want great performances now, you want them later. I’d rather have my team struggle a bit, then building up too much confidence. We’ll be fine…

Posted from  Australia

I’m glad to see everyone on an optimistic note :)..

I don’t know I guess. I may have exagerrated. But I feel that our midfield was not doing its job yesterday.. In the second half, they couldnt hold possession for long, they were not creating the buildup for an attack, and as i said earlier they were inviting cameroon to close down on us… hence i realized a lot of negative points out there last night.. god the dutch squad i know are kings in holding possession. we werent like that last night. There was some great individual work from VP VN and Robben.. but that was about it. And u feel cameroon realized that and knew how to mark them well (2nd half there were 2 defenders on each of those players)..
Well that was for our midfield. We all knew we had a shaky defence, even before the game started.. And since obviously they stopped fairing well in the 2nd half, why not bring on the subs?? Maybe we could have discovered that boulahrouz (for example) could have done better.. you see what i mean?? I see your points abt leaving VP for the whole match. I agree. VP was amazing all along so theres an excuse to leave him on the field the whole match but the same cannot be said for some others who at all did not do as good. i still dont find the argument to support why not substituting van bommel or mathijsen or kromkamp …

In all cases, this is just our first friendly. We can only get better But we should cover all of those weak points if we ought to have a chance at getting somewhere in germany.

Posted from  Russian Federation

I think van basten really took this game very seriously.. as if playing in the WC itself. He probably wanted to see where he stands today in order to be able to enhance the team in the upcoming two friendlies. That guy is pretty clever isnt he ? he made sure to play against a strong team that is not in the WC.. Indeed cameroon had absolutely nothing to lose. He would not have got the same rigid test had he played against mexico last night.

lol all this talk and writing made me confident again.. Let’s see what happens against mexico on thursday.

Posted from  Russian Federation

Yeah i definately agree Rami. If Holland win against Mexico, i will be quite confident of our chances. France beat the mexicans 1-0, so if we win, we will have an idea of how we can play and achieve in germany. About the holland match, after first half, holland started playing alot worse, which i just read, but also partly because of training that week. Van der Sar noticed this on the field just before the end of the first half. It is good that the players go through this now, so they actually know what they are up against in the world cup. We will see how it goes against Mexico, Then i can get a clear idea of what our chances will be like this summer in germany.

Posted from  Oman

Yea, the game against Mexico should be a real good test. They are a though side to beat.

Hey guys there are some good high lights of the Cameroon game here: http://www.knvb.nl/multimedia/video

Commentary is in dutch, but the quality is pretty good.

Can’t get over vPersie’s performance, I hope he can keep this level of form..

How about that save by vd Sar?!

Can’t wait for the cup!

Posted from  United States

[...] Netherlands 1 – 0 Cameroon Despite his controversial issue with Fergie and undecided future in Manchester United, Ruud van Nistelrooy scored in the 23rd minute to give the Dutch the victory. Cameroon is still bitter about not qualifying for the World Cup and it showed with them picking up six yellow cards and a red card. The game play that really menacing Marco Van Basten troop. Scary. Cote d’Ivoire 1 – 1 Switzerland The Elephants againts the improved Swiss. The two World Cup qualifiers played to a draw in Basle. Tranquillo Barnetta’s goal gave the Swiss the lead in the first half. Emerse Fae got the equalizer for the Elephants with a beautiful goal from 30 yards. These two teams continue to intrigue and unpredictable. Germany 7 – 0 Luxembourg Germany hammering their pressure on small team to make them feeling so good about it. The Luxembourg is ranked 152nd in the world and for once those FIFA rankings might be correct. I could list the German players who scored but it might be easier to list the ones that did not. One concern for the Germans is an ankle injury sustained by centre-back Robert Huth. He’ll be examined once the team returns to its training camp in Switzerland. Wales 2 - 1 Trinidad and Tobago Stern John gave the Soca Warriors the lead in the 32nd minute, but Robert Earnshaw scored twice to give Wales the win. It is worth noting that David Vaughan came on for Wales in the second making his international debut at 16 years of age, a record for Wales. He might play in a World Cup in my lifetime. Or not. [...]

Posted from  United States

rami u were defo not watchin the same match as me!! van bommel and cocu are there to tighten up the defensive areas leaving the others 2 push forward! and the defence were fine yesterday i think cameroon had two clear cut chances, thats it! also van persie has not played many 90 minute games this season( due mainly to being a sub for most of the season) so if he is to start at the world cup he has to get more fitness!

Posted from  United Kingdom

Here are some quotes from “San Marco” regarding yesterday’s game. (I translated these from http://www.vi.nl)

Van Basten: “We made another step.”

The Dutch team lost some of it’s quality against Cameroon (1-0) after the first 45 minute because of the killing tempo of the first half and a heavy week of training accoording explained Marco van Basten.

“This game cost us a lot of energy in the first half hour. But during that time we were able to impose our will completely on our opposition and that was positive.” analyzed the head coach after the game. “After that it was less. The good positioning was lost and in the second half we were untidy and gave a way a lot of the ball.”

“That the game was physical I didn’t mind. I don’t have any problems with that, as that caused it to become a real match. Also, the players are used to a bit of that. Cameroon was an opponent of caliber and the fact that we won pleases us.”

“We have to become stronger step for step. Fortunately we made another step this week.” concluded the head coach.

I have to say I was a little bit disapointed of the dutch performance in the second half. Robben played well but last year he used to give more, he used to be that player who can do anything, he is not that player anymore. I hope Van der Vaart can make a difference like the one he made in Hamburg.
Van Persie was impressive, in the future he is going to be at the caliber of Dennis Bergkamp and finally I would like to say that the player I really enjoyed watching was Andre Oijer. He played a great game , physically strong and he is always smiling. Van Bommel very disapointing. Van Nistelroy better than expected but still he must regain his charm.
Good Luck Holland I am very excited but worried at the same time. The group C is unpredictable and I wouldnt want to see my team lose to from the first round holland are meant to advance and I pray for our players to improve and for Van der Vart to have that extra thing…

Posted from  Lebanon

Re: Van der Vaart’s absence. The Dutch press are reporting that VdV’s wife gave birth to a baby early today, so I think that explains his absence, not only from the starting line-up, but also from the bench.

Posted from  United Kingdom

ok guys, you kow what worries me, the ball possession, i think ahmad and rami mentioned that always our strength was the ball possession and thats why we all like this team.
i remember in the 1998 semifinal against brazil we were dominating the midfield against brazil,against argentina in the quarter final also, so actually we were always the best team in ball possession, i will be sad if we can’t maintain this quality during th world cup.

Posted from  United States

Dont forget alaa, this is a whole new team. We cannot suddenly expect the most from them. Van Basten knows there is only a slight chance of Holland winning the world cup this year. But there is not enough time to change the team into the “the” team that is in his mind. I would call this team project “south africa” 2010. Everyone that placed a note in this blog, you worry to much. Yes, it is fun to discuss, but not in the way that will make Holland look bad, and make you feel bad. Have Confidence in the team, in the players, in Marco. That is the only thing you can do right now, and ofcourse cheer when the world cup is on. I know i will. And when everyone here watches the friendly against Mexico on thursday, dont look at the qualities that should be improved, that is Marco’s job, Look at what the team is achieving, look at the good points of football. That will make discussing alot more fun, and everyone here needs to get there moral up before the world cup, because who knows, we might be cheering alot lately Cheers guys.

Posted from  Oman

@Martijn
i hope so man, i hope we can make it this time:)

Posted from  United States

will kromkamp defintely play in the world cup?

Posted from  United Kingdom

yeah, he most likely will. Maybe not as starting 11, but he will come on. Pretty sure of that

Posted from  Oman

Geez your being tough on a team playing a friendly against CAMEROON a team the dutch hardly play against . They are playing at %70 . Not picking up injuries is the key and getting more different combinations playing together as much as possible. Its good result, the dutch backed off as the cameroons came flying in with hard unforgiving tackles. We will be fine. If you criticize the dutch on that game , what about Englands effort??????

Posted from  Australia

EXACTLY. Thank you Remstra. Cameroon are a strong team, and they had nothing to lose, so they played as they wanted. Van Basten used this game to see the style in which cote d’ivoire play. Cheer for your team guys, you worry to much!

Posted from  Oman

yea .. now we do have something to worry about with that latest injury. *Sigh*..

Damn it. was just starting to get conviced we might be ok. Hope the dude gets well soon !!

Posted from  Russian Federation

You hit the nail on the head Martijn. We mustn’t think of only the here and now (2006 WC). If the Dutch want to continue to build upon their soccer prowess then we must begin to blood young players in order to secure our future. We shouldn’t be looking for bandaid solutions for the present but solutions for the long term. It is however quite unfortunte that so many high quality players ie. Bergkamp, Stam etc have retired within such close proximity and we seem to be left with a limited supply of experienced stand-out players. However if we begin to blood new players and stop clinging to what was i’m sure we’ll find that in 2010 we will have a new Bergkamp (possibly in the form of Van Persie, as Ahmad indicates) or a new Stam, and the Oranje’s talent pool will once again have the depth that it once had. I personally believe that this may have been a slight problem area in dutch soccer, ie. clinging to the more experienced players and almost ignoring any new faces {evidenced in the fact that our defence, barring Van Bronckhorst, has a dismal total of 60 international caps spread over 7 players, averaging about 8 caps per player(and worse, it is a very undistributed mean), while our fowards, barring Van Nist, have a tiny total of 51 international caps (also with an undistributed mean). This, i believe is a huge problem in Australian soccer aswell.

When Hiddink included Mark Milligan (21 yrs) in his world cup squad many publicly critisised his decision as risky. I do not see it this way, look at Argentina with Messi or Spain with Fabregas or England with Walcott and Lennon, all still in their teens and all on debut. The Oranje have Babel(19) Van Persie (22) Robben (22) Hedwiges (21) and Sneijder (22) (im not 100% sure about these ages but all are within 1 yr) and these payers along with the likes of Kuyt are the future for the Oranje. It must be ensured that the mistakes made in previous years do not contiue.

Because of those mistakes the Dutch team of 2006, though reasonably strong, could have been so much stronger had development plans ben laid in years prior. The Dutch must now work on creatng the team that they have now into a solid support base and build upon that continually through the inclusion of new players, even though this may come at the cost of a few lost friendlies or at worst an earlier than wanted departure from the Euro.

What is a shame is that Ductch clubs such as Ajax have such a reputation for their youth development while the dutch national team does not. But with Van Basten comes a wind of change and i can see big things for Dutch soccer in the years to come. With their improved social cohesion and a fresh balance b/w the experienced and the young (albeit a bit one-sided) i think that the Dutch will make it out of the group stages and hopefully, as the inexperienced players gain some valuable experience their campaign and the team in general will continue to gain momentum throughout the WC 2006 and beyond.

Posted from  Australia

Hey, those are minor injury’s. he’ll be just fine.

Posted from  Oman

Here is a question I thought we could debate: do you think an improving player is more or less dangerous than a player whose prime is already established ??

I guess at first sight this really sounds confusing lol.
Let me clarify. Take our beloved Oranje as example. On one hand,we have players like Seedorf, Davids, Stam maybe even Van Nistelrooy who are already well established and epxerienced players. They play world class football in world class teams. Theyre known and their playing is also known. Their performances do not vary much, neither improve nor fluctuate. On the other, we have perhaps younger and less famous players like van persie, sneijder, maduro, mathijsen and maybe even van der vaart who are all constantly in a process of change and improvement. You feel at any time that their performance in a next match can be better than their last, and that they still have something to give to the world of football.

Which group of players do you think is more dangerous ?

I have been avoiding studies for over two hours now, thinking about football :). Finally I decided to lay some ideas I thought I would share with you guys..

Posted from  Russian Federation

I think that having relatively unknown quantities like Van Persie is a great thing and i hope that they perform an don’t crack under the pressure.

Posted from  Australia

mexico is the best

Posted from  United Kingdom