Ned - CdI 2-1 FT

I must have said it a hundred times already - I am pretty disgusted with van Bommel and think he should not start beginning match #3.

Sorry if I sounded emotional, but that was some dumb moves he did at the last second of the match.

GO ORANJE!

Posted from  United States

He was not alone… But our midfield should have performed better. All of them, I think. I feel a bit sad for the Elephants…

Posted from  Australia

very tense match but holland qualified and survived this very difficult group. now the real test is against argentina..

what would mvb do? play best team or reseve team to be able to rest some players? and who’s better to play mexico or portugal??

Ivory Coast is a good team–one of the better ones in the tourney, for sure, so there were unlucky to be in this group. Holland was solid on defense, coupla nice goals–but yes, they fell into helter-skelter play that favored the athletic Ivorians and were too much on the defensive in the second half. This Holland team has potential, but they don’t pass the ball quite as well as argentina. The Dutch should be happy to get through–this was never going to be an easy match. Go Oranje.

Posted from  United States

That was my question, who is better to play Mexico or Portugal?????

Football can be a cruel mistress, but today she smiled on your side. To be fair, a win is more than you deserve given the run of play, but sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. Argentina will be a stern test, but fortunately for your side it is a meaningless match as far as qualifying goes. It comes down to how badly Netherlands wants to go through as champiion versus runner-up. Good luck, I picked your side to win it all.

All I can add is that if NL continues to play at this standard, we’ll never reach the quarters.

Posted from  Netherlands

wowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww! i am still shaking. well, now guys after watching two games for the oeange, i can say the following:
everybody was saying our defence is the weekest line, you know what, no it is not our defence, it is the midfield. i think we have a good defence and excellent offense, but the midfield is baddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd!
do you agree with me?
and to make it worse we are playing only with three midfielders!

Posted from  United States

I hope that the beer the Dutch midfield went to get after the first half was worth it.

Seriously, do we have a midfield?

Posted from  Aruba

A win is a win is a win.

The Argintina game should be interesting. The Dutch should try to test some things tactically, ie player match-ups.
I would rather play Mexico then Portegal, but it is not that much differrence.

Posted from  Canada

Congrats for the win, even though I think a draw would be more just. However, Your side will be in trouble facing our Argentinian squad.
Good Luck

Posted from  United States

We’ve qualified! Let’s not make the same mistake as in Euro2000. Field the B team!

Posted from  United Kingdom

Worst game of Holland i have ever seen……I have been a great fan of Holland since 1988, But i haven’t seen them playing that poorly. So many wrong passes, poor controlling of ball,too much defensive attitude and ofcourse great acting.
They are losing their orginality, the attacking flair for which they are famous for.They won for sure, but if,they continue play like this they will loose a lot of fans from all over the world.Good luck for the match against Argentina.They have showed the real TOTAL football.

Posted from  Bangladesh

I agree with everyone, the midfield was pretty weak and the marking was not tight enough in the middle of the park, but the good news i think is that a big part of their poor play was refusing to make the simple passes and use each other, and this can be fixed. i don’t know if i saw two midfielders exchanging passes, everyone of their passes seemed to be a hopeful long ball towards the forwards. I agree that we should rest some of our players (cocu, van bommel, robben) next game and maybe use it to get vdv and sneijder sharper. what do you guys think of starting rvp, rvn and kuijt next match for our front line? i also feel that our full strength mid trio should be vdv, cocu, sneijder, as van bommel is inconsistent although mvb was right to leave him on today because he gave the midfield some size. Hats off to to the elephants as well…wish they were going through instead of argentina. HUP Holland!

Posted from  Canada

oefffffffffffff guys, one of the worst games I ever saw them play..

1. defence: Heitinga played a good game, thought Boula came in strong, Mathijsen en vanBronckhorst played awful..

2. Cocu played ok, Sneijder and vanBommel were bad, vdVaart a litle to eager but ofcourse difficult for him after a long absence, Landzaat was ok..

3. vanPersie was obviously the strong man today, very glad vanNistelrooy scored, think its very importent for his confidence, thought he played alright but still nothing special
Robben was ok but also nothing special..

Can anybody tell me why we were playing like England did the other day, long ball from the bacj all the time? Why??? Why didnt vanBasten correct it during half time, he must have spotted it.. what we need is combination football, find spaces trough combinations thats our strenght!!

Well, to be honest, think IC deserved a draw at least, but thats life…we qualified in the most difficult group so thats a decent result
hope will get our confidence back soon!!

Oh, thought the referee was a total w*nker (dont mean that as an excuus)

greetz yall

WIJ HOUDEN VAN ORANJE

Posted from  Netherlands

to keep the spirits up, heres a nice clip from the playing times of our Bondscoach Marco van Basten, it sure made me feel good..

http://www.flabber.nl/archief/016609.php

greetz

Posted from  Netherlands

@Jan, sorry dont think last post with the link will work, got a bit overexited

greetz

Posted from  Netherlands

Thanks, Goose: That MVB video is excellent–the first I’ve seen of him! He was great.

Posted from  United States

@richard, yw, here some nice stats:

The Dutch have won their first two matches for the first time ever at a World Cup and have qualified for the second round for the sixth time out of six attempts. Only seven countries have always progressed through the group phase. Germany have done it 14 times out of 14 and are the only country ahead of the Dutch in this respect.

Greetz

WIJ HOUDEN VAN ORANJE

Posted from  Netherlands

well guys .. for all those who’ve spotted a weak midfield out there tonight.. i have to tell you that ive already told you so. All who have been following this blog site since netherlands preparation fixture matches should know that this midfield has been performing poorly since they played against cameroon, their first friendly match before the wc.

Van bommel .. i just think the dude is pretty lucky he didn’t get a red card today. sneijder was absent completely the first half. Cocu committed endless mistakes along with all the rest. And i honestly don’t see much of his influence on the team during a game. Landzaat’s entry did not change anything at all, i even barely saw him give a good pass.

Holland’s match against Argentina is on wednesday. Van Basten needs to produce a different combination in midfield, and not just vdv for sneijder. Our defensive midfielders are the main problem, so that means cocu and van bommel (to a certain extent). Maybe maduro should be givne a serious opportunity alongside cocu against arg?? Even cocu can be left out. Well honestly i dont know. We should wait and see i guess.

What happened today should never be repeated again in this wc. From now on, we only have horribly strong teams ahead of us. From argentina to portugal, england or germany. I really don’t want to be humiliated against argentina. We’ve got so much pride to lose… Sigh.

Posted from  Russian Federation

Wow I did not even know this. Pretty impressive stats. Couldn’t you have told me this earlier? preferable before this night’s match. I have gotten 2 years older in 94 minutes.

Thanks for the video goose. Really great to watch.

Posted from  Netherlands

Wow, I heard MvB was good, but that is simply fantastic. I have a feeling if ever he would’ve have been injured, he would be ex aquo with JC as the greatest Dutch players of all time.

@Rami, its true, i know a lot of people were concerend about our midfield, i was converned aswel but had great hopes of vanBommel, he plays so dissapointingyl…
but keep up the spirit my friend, im sure they wont be humiliated by any team, they’ll improve..

about wednesday: think hell leave Robben out for Kuyt with vanPersie changing to the left..

dont like Maduro at all, hes such a very slow player, theres no zest(?) to him (a bit like Landzaat) but we have few options… im so glad theres no real pressure for the arg. game, very interesting to see wat vanBasten will do…..

@Focus; vanBasten sees himself as on the same level as Cruijff he told journalist Hugo Borst in an interview a few years ago, he said about himslf he tought he was top european class(like Beckenbauer,Keagan etc)and just below worldclass like Diego and Pele, hes for sure the best striker Holland ever had..

people, at least we now know we have a real team, who will fight for a result and eachother, and a new potential leader has arrived:
Robin van Persie..

greetz

WIJ HOUDEN VAN ORANJE

Posted from  Netherlands

DISAPPOINTING!!!! I haven’t been so let down by the oranje in quite a while… maybe since the Euro in 2004 against Sweden, (though they still won on penalties). They were completely split by the Ivorians at times and seemed stretched at the back almost the whole match. They have begun (to my reckoning) to become so focused on results that they forget about playing football… though i think that this may be due to the amount of inexperience in the squad and the fact that they were drawn in such a tough group in which to make the 16.
Still, the defence was sub-par, and the midfield was lack-lustre. They have begun to play a very predictable style of game in the past matches… play the ball wide to Robben or Van Persie and hope that they can produce some individual brilliance and net one… though it does work at times. Throughout the entire game i don’t recall many build ups from the centre of the park… though our wings are one of our greatest strengths we cannot play this preditable style of football in the latter matches or teams will shut down our wingers and our play through the centre will certainly be rusty. I hope that we return to form in our short passing game as well, not always resulting to the long balls from the back where we often lose posesion.

One thing that i am certain of after that match is that, for the Dutch, our offence is our best defence, we are not a defence-minded team and are extremely poor at tracking runners. Our defence is not too bad really but it tends to be a scramble at the back rather than an organised or centralised push. When we played from the midfield and contiued to play attacking football against the Ivorians they seemed to have no answers, only hoping that they could score on the counter, by which time it was usually 1 Ivorian on 3 Dutch. I hope that MvB can rectify al of these problems and the team begins to play the football that the Duch are so famous for, otherwise they will lose a lot of fans around the world.

….. Maybe i’m a bit pessimistic but i want the Dutch to go well SOOOOOOOO badly!!! It’s been a long time since any real recognition.

Posted from  Australia