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Oranje’s leader plays for Bayern Munich

March 8th, 2007 | By: Jan | 12 Comments »

Of course he irritates! The ball on Beckham’s head when he was lying on the pitch. The just too firm hits on Gutti’s and Beckham’s head, so-called friendly… The obscene gestures to the Madrid fans. If Mark van Bommel is your opponent he’ll taunt you to the max. People in Holland don’t like it. All commentators and pundits were asked to give their opinion about the midfielder. It’s part of our sports culture, I guess. Willem van Hanegem and Johan Neeskens against Belgium in 1972, Jan Wouters vs Paul Gascoigne in 1993… They all copped criticism for their behaviour. But, if a Dutch team loses another finals everybody claims that we lack the winners’ mentality.

In Germany, they were proud of our van Bommel. Stefan Effenberg: “I love players like Mark. In important matches you’ve gotta go to the edge. It’s important for the team, you have to give them a rude awakening. Mark does that.” According to the King of Provocation.
Effenberg witnessed a serious sportsman, looking for the boundaries of what he could do to win games and to get his team back in the game. And van Bommel succeeded too. In the first half, Real Madrid crushed Bayern with great football, but in the second half it was van Bommel who singlehandedly changed the match. Not only did he outplay his opponents Beckham and Gutti in their own stadium, he also walked away from them and was rewarded in the last minutes of the game, when his volly put the 3-2 on the score-board and with this, created a pretty decent base for the elimination of the Dreamteam from Madrid.
It was only some weeks ago, that Oranje team manager Marco van Basten stated that he misses players with leaders-skills. Players who know what it takes to win matches at the highest level. Well, Bayern Munich has a player like that. The boss in midfield. In the Beranbeu stadium, it was van Bommel who corrected German international Podolski who didn’t perform his tasks. Some moments later, coach Hitzfeld replaced Podolski. Hitzfeld will undoubtedly tell van Bommel to keep his hands to himself, but the message to the Bayern group is clear: van Bommel is the chief on the pitch and you will have to listen! That is what we call giving responsibility to your players. And that’s the essence why van Bommel never played well under van Basten. He was always the one who had to prove himself. Three times in a row. And that is not giving responsibility. That’s taking away confidence. A very important factor in top sport. Van Basten needs to be prepared to give that responsibility to his players. Only then will players like van Bommel and van Nistelrooy consider to come back…

VI column by Taco van der Velde

Tags: marco van basten, Mark van Bommel, The Netherlands

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Comments

By goose | March 9th, 2007 at 9:36 am

Yes! Were back in business, hope there are some peolple left but i’ll just keep posting like always…

have been a vanBommel fan ever since he played for PSV, i’ve been saying on this blog for a long time now that vanBommel is the kind of player we lack in het nederlands elftal, as i said in an earlier comment; really loved the way he played in the first game at Madrid..the way he bashes d Podolski was brilliant…hes the one dutch player with fire in his eyes…
so very sad that vanBasten drove him out of our team..i still think he never got an honest change (from the beginning), true he didnt play a brilliant WC but who did???

well, Jan, its good to be back just hope everybody still visits this blog, to make it interesting..
so micha, sk8ter, Igor etc.etc. lets hear from you guys again

just a few more weeks and the big drought is over and thing will be inetersting again

greetz

WIJ HOUDEN VAN ORANJE

Posted from Netherlands

By goose | March 9th, 2007 at 9:48 am

btw:
have to talk about Robben cause he’s really starting to piss me off with his diving..its a disgrace!! The one from the ChampionsLeaugue match was so pathetic!! How can we ,as fans of the Dutch Team, critice people like ronaldo when we have a player ourselfs who is as bad as him (or maybe even worse), the funny thing is that when Robben was asked about it on dutch TV Robben said: I know it was wrong, when asked why he did it he replyed ‘ dont want to talk about it’!! Hiddink, who was in the studio as analiser(?) told the reporter that when he was managing PSV he had many discussions with Robben about his diving (which he also did in training and pissed all his tammates off) but that he just didnt learn
why does he do it, hes a great attacker, a great dribler with the ball..he doenst need it!! If this goes on we may have to look at his place in the national team cause hes making us look like idiots!!

grtz

Posted from Netherlands

By Misha | March 9th, 2007 at 6:26 pm

On top of the diving, Robben just does not play like he used to? He needs good coaching, but he won’t get it from u no who.

By goose | March 9th, 2007 at 7:27 pm

maybe its also cause hes not the surprise he was anymore like he was when he first came to England and hes injured a lot these days..heard roumers (?) that he and Morinho have not been on speaking term for weeks!! Robben is one of our great players in potential but the diving just has to stop!! its a disgrace!!

Posted from Netherlands

By Jan | March 11th, 2007 at 6:02 am

Hi guys, great to have you back :-). Robben’s main problem on the pitch - with the diving - is the fact that he does not really oversee the pitch whem he has the ball. He never had to when a junior player, but unlike Persie and Vaart, he misses that oversight. That’s a biggie, in my view. He is still an awesome player, but will he ever learn 1) to stop diving and 2) to pay attention to teammates? Rumor has it Mourinho wants to sell Robben to Bayern…. Barcelona also expressed interest in The Groninger…

Posted from Australia

By Oranje.cn | March 12th, 2007 at 1:26 am

I am very glad to see Jan and Mike again! goose, and you too!
Thank you for your English version!!

Posted from Hong Kong

By goose | March 12th, 2007 at 4:56 am

@Jan, interesting tought about Robben…maybe you’re right, maybe he lacks a total view on the pitch but what has that to do with him diving?? Saw yesterday’s FA cup match between Chelsea and Spurs and he dived again!!!! i mean, maybe hes not fully aware of what is going on around him but evrytime anyone gets near mr. Robben fals down with a face like he’s been shot form the stands!! disgrace, disgrace…somebody needs to take some serious actions

Posted from Netherlands

By Samuel Knight (Oudegeest) | March 12th, 2007 at 12:18 pm

Robben dives too much agreed. Worked for Ronaldo this season though.

Robben also doesn’t have the field vision that Van Persie has. Too many missed passes.

But, Chelsea always looks better when he goes on in the second half. They won the Carling Cup off of a Robben set up to Drogba.

And that makes sense - he’s just too fragile to play 90 minutes every week. But his speed and fresh legs are awfully tough on defenders who’ve running for 45 minutes. Oranje probably should do the same thing. Robben’s the sub.

Posted from United States

By Jan | March 12th, 2007 at 3:41 pm

Hi Goose, I didn’t want to imply that his lack of oversight and his diving is linked. It was just another remark on Robben I’d try to make…

Posted from Australia

By Igor | March 13th, 2007 at 4:53 pm

agreed, the diving is ridiculous, hate to see anyone dive least of all one of our guys (although sometimes i find that van bommel dives as well and combined with his poor sportsmanship at times prevents me from being a full on vb fan). i also agree that robben lacks the vision to see his team-mates and often holds on to the ball when a pass would have been smarter. the intersting thing though is that i’ve seen robben put on masterful displays of smart, quick passing (euro 04 for example), but it hasnt happened much lately. i wonder if he is so confident in his abilities that he thinks he’ll beat his marker everytime, and therefore doesnt need to pass to get the ball forward?

Posted from Canada

By goose | March 13th, 2007 at 6:31 pm

@Igor; valid point on vanBommel, though with him i feel that its an integral part of his quality and that is beeing a basterd, but true, there should be no diving at all in football

on the passing; interesting comment,not sure, it ofcourse not only depends on Robben but also on the players with him on the team around him and maybe morinho has given him a certain assignment ( ive seen him given ok crosses btw)

grt

Posted from Netherlands

By Angela | April 6th, 2008 at 7:18 pm

I would love to see van Bommel back on the National side. Of course, van Basten would have to be a different man. I am unsure whether he can play under van Basten, but I am sure he won’t have to wait much longer. Not being on the National side has really hurt him, but he plays his heart out for Bayern and I love him for that.

Posted from United States

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