NED 1-1 AUS FT

Here’s is the whole article:

Van Bronckhorst and Sneijder will go to World Cup

5/6/2006 19:02 (holland time)

Of the four injury cases with the Dutch XI, Gio van Bronckhorst and Wesley Sneijder will definitely go to Germany.
They will be fit within a couple of days and should be able to play in the opening game against Serbia and Montenegro.

Van Bronckhorst had little worries right after the practice game with Australia (1-1) He expected then that his bruises would not cause problems.

The worries on Sneijder were bigger than the others. The 21 yr old midfielder from Ajax had to be supported by physios on his way off the field. After further inspection it was seen that the ankle injury isn’t serious. Within 4 or 5 days he will be able to resume training.

Coach Marco van Basten declared on Sunday that he would possible replace injured players if they did not recover quickly enough.

It is still not clear when Phillip Cocu, Kew Jaliens and Rafael van der Vaart will be able play a match.

Posted from  United States

@QStel

van der Vaart trained with the group today?! I didn’t see that. Do you have a link handy?

Posted from  United States

I don’t think he trained with the group, but his personal training program went OK.

Posted from  France

@QStel

Gotcha. I wonder how much more time he has to prove his fitness..

Sunday showed that we absolutely have to have two players for every position..

Posted from  United States

Well cant really find a better place to post my personal review of our team going into the world cup!

* denotes probable starter

*1 VAN DER SAR Edwin (GK) = our captain and heart and soul of this young team, in good form and ready to go to Germany!

2 JALIENS Kew = young kid who will not see much, if any playing time.

3 BOULAHROUZ Khalid = very physical, should play center back some and looks to be an alright sub for the defense.

*4 MATHIJSEN Joris = will most likely start, didn’t show much upside but hopeful wont make any serious mistakes.

*5 VAN BRONCKHORST Giovanni = obviously Gio has experience with Barcelona and the national team, he looks on form and I love his potential for coming forward and helping the attack.

6 LANDZAAT Denny = Van Basten likes him but I really dont see why? He didn’t show much potential for center midfield in the friendlies I watched, but was a big part of our qualifying. I see substantail
playing time if the midfield injuries become more serious.

7 KUYT Dirk = He is really quick and will make plays on the right side of the attack. Seems to be interchangable with anyone, might even be a
answer for our injury ridden midfield?(was a sub for Gio in the Australia game) Seems to me that Van Basten wants him on the pitch but is having a problem fitting him in up front with all our talent.

*8 COCU Phillip = Was injured in the Aussie friendly. Per today’s news it is not serious and he should be ready to go! I love his experience and has a strong shot in midfield. Works very well with our attackers
on getting them the ball in open areas. Hopefully can stay healthy and not show his age in this his last international competition.

*9 VAN NISTELROOIJ Ruud = Ruud has to be IT! He is our fearful striker, and will have to prove to the world he is one of the best if we have any shot of making noise in this world cup! Must be in form and score goals
in bunches…Golden boot?

10 VAN DER VAART Rafael = Has been injured and not practicing with the team. He had a good personal workout today but that is always reported. I am worried about his fitness if his ankle injury allows him to even play. Would be a major boost in midfield if he can make a contribution. If he cant play Van Basten should bring up Hofs from the U-21 champs!

*11 ROBBEN Arjen = My favorite player on the team but has not looked good recently. He is not in form in my opinion, he has been losing the ball and not making the runs he made in Euro 2004. I hope he gets it
together because can be an exciting attacking force on the left!

*12 KROMKAMP Jan = Tall, strong defender. I think he will have a good world cup and might suprise some people with his fitness.

*13 OOIJER Andre = very quite player but I think it is because he doesn’t make many mistakes. Clears the ball in defense when it is
needed. Should start in Germany.

14 HEITINGA John = was burned against Mexico by Borgetti, but has some experience on the national team. Has a fierce header for a defender so
is very dangerous coming to the front in set pieces. Needs to stay focused when defending. Will probably make some starts if other defenders faulter.

15 DE CLER Tim = I felt he played well against Mexico but probably will not see much playing time.

16 MADURO Hedwiges = Heard he has alot of potential and that Van Basten likes him. I didn’t see any of this in the friendlies.

*17 VAN PERSIE Robin = As of right now he is the best player on the team. He is in amazing form and reminds me of what Robben was like in Euro 2004. On the right side of the attack, he can break down multiple defenders. Will be taking the kicks during certain set pieces and has an unreal leg! I am very excited to see what he will do in this world cup!

*18 VAN BOMMEL Mark = Looks to be fit and ready, but not playing very well. Against Australia he played the full 90 min but didn’t show much
aggresion. Seems to be more of a defensive midfielder with this team than with Barcelona.
Will most likely start in midfield.

19 VENNEGOOR OF HESSELINK Jan = Looked terrible against Mexico in missing many wide open chances. Will probably not play much and wish he was replaced by Huntelaar. If he does see playing time he could remind some of Van Hooijdonk because of his size upfront.

*20 SNEIJDER Wesley = Amazing in set pieces. He has a fierce leg and is on target on every shot. Unfortunatley was injured in the Australia match. It looked, and I read was very serious. However, word today is that it was not as bad as first thought. I hope he is ready for the Serbs because he is in good form!

21 BABEL Ryan = Really like his agressiveness. He is a hard worker and good finisher (with the exception of the open net miss against Mexico) MVB has a tough assignment to find him playing time but when he does get in, look for fireworks! Kind of reminds me of Kluivert but not as tall.

22 TIMMER Henk (GK) - Wont play hopefully

23 STEKELENBURG Maarten (GK) - If he plays we are in trouble because VDSar and Timmer are hurt

Well there ya go! Looks like the anguish of yesterdays injury scares might not be as bad as first reported!
HUP HOLLAND!!

Posted from  United States

Oke, if some one is going to get replaced, we know by who. Van Basten called up Schaars and De jong to join the national team with in training today. This is done incase anyone the three midfielders, cocu, van der vaart or sneijder are not fit in time for the world cup. Jaliens and Van Bronckhorst are sure to be fit before the finals. For anyone that can read dutch, here is the link. http://www.vi.nl/vi/show/id=239659/contentid=80280/msnhome=true/sc=94d713

Posted from  Oman

First of all, congratulations to all of you, with the U21 victory!

Goose, so after all, I guess I found your team. To find it difficult to acept the frequency with which Holland has been defeated by Portugal, must be hard. Portugal struglles a lot with that too… Undigested defeats.

BUT… You have said (in a different page) that Portugal are nothing more than wankers and cheaters. Now, pelase show the world where did Portugal cheat in the victories of 2004 and 2001 (these results kicked you out if WC2002 and there was certainly no cheating there - you guys call it cheating everytime you loose against a team less visible and less overrated than yours). Or in the friendlies from 2003 and 2000.

Much more than wanking, is what I saw your Ruud (the guy who never learned elementary manners) doing in matches like, for example, the one against Andorra.

Apart from all this, all the best.

Posted from  Netherlands

what is your back 4 going to be? is kromkamp going to play? who will the centre backs be? and are holland good defensivley?

btw, davids is still brilliant, come on you spurs!!

Posted from  United Kingdom

De Jong is a right back. He’ll be replacing Jaliens if anything.

Posted from  United States

czech will win this time around

Posted from  India

what about Mathijsen? will he start? he is a good player isnt he?

Posted from  United Kingdom

i really don’t understand van basten. why schaars and not nicky hofs or davids? is schaars at leastleft-footed? because cocu,sneijder,vdv are all left-footed,and i’m agree with Rami, because de yong could replace jaliens (or landzaat,etc),but not vdv and the 2 other midfielders. anyway,i hope vdv,cocu and sneijder will be fit. sneijder and cocu will be certainly there,but vdv…

Posted from  Hungary

@Pedro P, my dear friend, i totally agree with you that your victories on us were not achived by cheating at all, 2001 it was dutch arrogance( partically the last 20 minutes of the game in Portugal), in 2004 you were just the better side..

now to the ceating/wanking part, first of all its the way your players always are so sneaky, falling down, asking for yellow cards,stepping on feed, looking for penaltys all the time ,elbowing people. i think of Figo whose more lying down than doing any running. Dont know if you watch any dutch tv but i think this is an opinion wich many people have on the Porugees.
Its true that the wanking part is partly based on my idears about a few portugees players.. Ronoldo, Figo, just dont like them, Think Ronaldo is a little girl..

seriously, my opinion on Portugal has really nothing to do about you beating us, twice you were just the better team, guess i just dont like the soutern temprament and the falling down (no problems with the rough defending ass long as its not elbowing our breaking bones)

Pedro, dont be mad, just dont like your team and hope they will be home soon (lol), greetz

Posted from  Netherlands

i don’t like your team too pedro..
Anyone else doesnt like his team ?

Posted from  Russian Federation

actually,I’m not against Portugal,but don’t like neither this southern mentality: looking for penalty,etc. But it depends on the coach too: for ex. in 2004 Deco wanted always penalties,expulsions,yellow cards,etc,but in barcelona he’s different. Probably because of the fantastic FRANK RIJKAARD who is the best coach of the world. His oranje played the most beautiful dutch football in the last 10 years. the same with barca.

Posted from  Hungary

@ferenc, vdVaart trained for the first time with the group yesterday, so its looking pretty good for him, Sneyder will problably train within 3 days so its kind of short day with the game on sunday.. think vdVaart has the best change of making it on time but ofcourse he hasnt played a game in ages.
schaars is left footed, Hofs not, pretty surprising he’s taking de Jong as well, i would rather see Boateng as a deffensif midfielder or Davids altough its true that de Jong can play rightback (just dont like Nigel im sorry)
but my fellow Holland fans lets trust Marco!!

Posted from  Netherlands

I dont trust anyone else, im not worried at all about this. schaars has the disaplin that MArco is looking for. He was captain of the under 21 team, and i think he played very strongly. He is a player that wil fit into the squad, especially for his age. Im not looking for disapointment from both the jong and schaars, and im sure they wont give it to us, if chosen to replace any of the current injured dutch player.

Posted from  Oman

I’d like to have seen Hoffs too, but I think MArco also decided for the player who fits best in his tactical plans. Hoffs grew up in a 4-4-2 system, Nigel grew up at Ajax in 4-3-3 and will fit in faster and easier. Also, Nigel is multi-positional (defensive midfield, central or right defender, right midfield, and shaddow striker). He played all these positions before. Why Schaars and not Davids is already covered. Schaars is fighting fit, Davids probably is not. And Schaars will settle for a spot on the bench, with Davids, you just don’t know…

Posted from  Australia

he guys, latest news on our hurt players:
today vdVaart started the group training, vBronckhorts and Kew Jaliens are also training with the group, Sneyder and Cocu train apart..
looking pretty good.. they arived in Germany yesterday, just a few more days
@Martijn, i am also very impressed by Schaars, by the whole of the u21 i was impressed, a nice thing for the future

WIJ JOUDEN VAN ORANJE

Posted from  Netherlands

Hallo Goose and Co. I had the feeling Portugal was not very appreciated in these parts, after 2004 and the 2002 qualifications… BTW, the only matches in the p[ast years between the two teams in which Portugal was not better, were the friendlies in 2002 and 2003 - equal strength.

Diving + southern mentality:

Portuguese don’t dive more than spaniards or french and are much more honest than italians or greeks or turks in this respect. This to wrap up the south thing - this atitude that south europe produces sneaky guys and north produces “innocent angels” must stop. Because it’s not truth. There are diferences, at several levels. They go back to the romans and visigoths time…

There is also another huge diference. Portuguese are not so presumptuous as, say, the dutch/english/germans as far as their football team is concerned. HOL is currently quite strong, like Portugal, but we both know we don’t have the best team. Cze is stronger, Brazil is stronger. England is not stronger (although the english love to talk as if it is), etc…

Deco is kinda a son of a bi#ch but he’s ours ;-), he doesn’t dive/etc less in Barcelona - quite the oposite - and the Champs League games show it clearly. Anyway, he is the #10 and the playmaker of the team. You just like Barca and there’s a dutch coach there. Portuguese don’t really dive or elbow more than their enemies. In the last matches, it’s us the ones taking the battering, but OK, I diverge… Open your eyes a bit more.

De Boer (former colleague of Figo’s) said: the guy works very hard, almost never injured, very good technique, excellent professional, ver fair. Still, a lot of people here in Holland (who actually never saw the guy playing) say he’s a diver… Joao Vieira Pinto I could understand. Deco, I could understand. Not Figo…

Italy makes a life style out of fouling and diving and whinning and play sissy football and the world just loves them.

However, I saw HOL vs (the always difficult) Andorra, and the amount of bad intention kicking the dutch gave, just out of frustration, was clerarly worse than looking for a foul or for a free kick - which everybody in the world does.

Just to finish, I must say that contrary to you about POR, I do like the dutch team. You play with wingers - like Portugal, you (try to) play pretty and attacking football - like Portugal. I wish you good luck. And case POR and HOL meet, you will need it, cos HOL isn’t anywhere near the strength of 1998…

Posted from  Netherlands

@Pedro, stop Pedro! if you go on like this with all your logical well argumented case for Portugal.. please stop before i start to like your Portugal (lol),

but i think an intresting point is that you Portugees think the same (in general) about Italie (Turkey and Greece)as we do about Portugal, i know that in Holland the feeling about southern teams is always that they are divers and cheaters, funny that you portugees have the same with a southern neigbour, would the usa have the same opinion about their southern neigbour Mexico??

Dont agree with you on Holland beeing presumptuous, at least not this time around, havent heared any dutchman saying Holland is going to lift the cup, dont know about the other teams.

About Holland-Andorra, you problably saw the game, if you did you must have seen about 20 hard tackels on VanNistelrooy in the first half, Andorra kicked everthing that moved, ofcourse we were frustrated and ofcourse when you get kicked, you kick back.

Well my friend time to go.. hope to read more..

Greetz

WIJ HOUDEN VAN ORANJE

Posted from  Netherlands

Hi Goose. Good you’re starting to like POR…

I didn’t say we have the same vision about GRE and TUR. I said POR is usually more honest in tackling and etc… We DO have it (that vision), generically, about Italy. But there’s a lot of people in the world who shares my ideas about Italy’s style of play. I’m sure that if Italy was just an underdog, they’d be cruxified just as well.

What I do feel is a huge prejudice from the north towards the south. When there’s nothing else to say, people just say this and that guy dives…

Veel succes voor jullie allemaal!

Posted from  Netherlands

Australians. Instead of heaping praise on your team, you should be saying the same thing as any other major footballing nation. What a bunch of idiots. The match against the Dutch was a warm up and belive me, serious teams wouldnt have come to it with your attitude. I suppose you should be forgiven for naievity since this is your first cup

Posted from  Denmark

@Johnuknow. Get your fact right before you post mate. This is our second World Cup. Our first was in 1974 in Germany.

Mate, if you don’t heap praise on your team than what kind of supporter are you. Even if they lose mate, you will obviously feel upset but at the end of the day you must praise them also.

Why I say this? Cause I know us in Australia always put 100% effort into our sports and that’s why we are so good at it. Even in freindlies we are there to win, otherwise, why play at all. Maybe the so called serious teams need to shift their attitude a little then. If you are not going to give a game full effort and learn from it (that’s what friendlies are for aren’t they) then you might as well have a training session. I’m sure some training sessions can get as physical as the Dutch-Australia game.

If our team didn’t play with that attitude I would be pissed. And you would too if your nation couldn’t give a rats arse!

You just have to understand, that’s just how we play!!!!!

I think Van Basten should take Davids to Germany.

Posted from  China