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Oranje can’t beat Tunisia

February 11th, 2009 | By: Jan | 16 Comments »

Hunter scores…

Friendlies, what are they good for?

Sometimes you do wonder… But in this case, Bert learned that 1) no matter how long Hunter is benched, he can still score a goal, 2) Maarten Stekelenburg is no Edwin van der Star (yet) and 3) the Tunisian dictionary doesn’t know the word “friendly”.

It’s a worry for Van Marwijk that goalie Stekel isn’t close to his pre-injury form, considering his howler. And maybe the team manager is sorry that he didn’t pick Wales as a prep partner for the Scotland game in March.

And during the game, Van Marwijk must have regretted it even more, looking at the irritating way Tunisia played. In the first minute, Golden Wonder boy Robben had to jump for dear life already…

Van Marwijk was the first coach to start without a static center striker. Kuyt, Van Persie, Sneijder and Robben were the four creative forwards. Hunter and Vaart got the message: if you don’t get to play at Madrid, you’re spot is in jeopardy. So, work harder…

Kuyt must have been disappointed that his team mates didn’t allow him to demonstrate his form. There was not enough support for the Liverpool player.

VAn Marwijk had said before the match that he wanted to play as many players as possible. Babel, Hunter and Vaart came onto the pitch for Kuyt, Van Persie and Sneijder, while Van Bommel and De Jong made way for Schaars/Mendes Da Silva.

The AZ skipper had a quick contribution. His first touch was a pass on Mathijsen who headed the ball back to Hunter, who showed that he hasn’t forgotten what scoring is: 0-1. His 11th goal in 19 games in the orange jersey.

Stekelenburg was to blame that Tunisia scored after four minutes. Stekel fueled the discussion about who would be the best goalie for Oranje.

Edson Braafheid could look back at a good debut. Gregory van der Wiel received his hare as well, in the closing minutes of the game.

I’m not sure Van Marwijk will be satisfied with this test, although it will help Oranje build up resistance. Tackles with two stretched legs were pretty common and the Tunisian fans loved it!
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Oranje wanted to concentrate on playing good football, but it was hard for the team against a negatively playing opponent.

Bert van Marwijk was visibly unhappy with the violence towards his players.

“We don’t see these types of slidings that often anymore,” the coach said. “They need to adept in those circumstances and deal with it. It was good in a way. I do feel that we lacked the spice up front to punish them back with goals.”

Right before half time, Van Marwijk walked up to the pitch to control Heitinga, in a little scrimmage with his opponent.

Oranje was obviously focused on staying healthy. Mark van Bommel, playing strong, and Nigel de Jong played as playmakers, directing the game from left to right.

In between the 20st and 40st minute, Oranje played their best football, with chances for Van Persie (shot missed target), Sneijder (sitter on a Kuyt cross…Sneijder scored by Van Persie was ruled off side).

The second half became less and less friendly. The subs tried to convince Van Marwijk that they deserve a starting spot and Schaars in particular tried to differentiate himself with depth in his passing and smart little runs into space.

Braafheid played a decent defensive game and his speed is definitely an asset. In build up, the young Twente man was a bit less confident.

Van Marwijk said he saw some positives… “It’s good to see Klaas Jan still knows how to score. We played better in the second half overall. But that was also because Tunisia allowed more. I thought they were an annoying opponent, with lots of fouls and irritating habits.”

“Van der Vaart and Schaars gave the game more pace. Braafheid did everything right and I’m happy Van der Wiel could make his debut.”

Van Marwijk didn’t want to go into the Tunisian goal. “I need to see that back on tv before I respond to that. It’s easy to blame the goalie when the opponent scores, you know…”

Skipper Andre Ooijer even said the opponents went too far. “I’m used to physical play in the EPL and if the ref is paying attention I don’t mind too much. But this guy didn’t. It was dangerous at times.”

Ooijer again: “In the first half, they played compressed and it was hard for us to find space. In the second half the game opened up a bit…”

Nederland: Stekelenburg, Heitinga (84. Van der Wiel), Ooijer, Mathijsen en Braafheid; De Jong (59. Mendes da Silva) en Van Bommel (59. Schaars); Van Persie (46. Babel), Sneijder (46. Van der Vaart) en Robben; Kuijt (46. Huntelaar).

Tags: Babel, Group C, Holland, Hunter, Oranje, Schaars, Sneijder, Stekelenburg, Van Marwijk, van Persie

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Comments

By Michel-Olivier | February 11th, 2009 at 9:59 pm

bert should call frank demouge or van wolfswinkel for more firepower, kuijt as a central striker is not doing it for me.

Posted from United States

By Jan | February 11th, 2009 at 10:09 pm

Good deep pass by Schaars!

Horrible defending by Oranje. Just horrible. All of them. Heitinga, the holding mids, center backs and Stekel. It was a weird shot, but COME ON MAN!!!!

By Van Basten | February 11th, 2009 at 11:45 pm

Van der Sar would not have conceded that goal!!!No Way, No How, No Goal of that kind ever (if Van der Sar was the goalkeeper).

Posted from United States

By Carlos | February 12th, 2009 at 1:39 am

If you get a front on view of the goal, Steks was totally deceived by the pace – He was all arms waving and before he knew it it went past him,straight thru his arms. He needs to go to Spain or England where he will get 4-5 of those whizzers every game so he knows what Int’l Players can do.
Hunters Goal was a beauty tho and Schaars delivered the long ball.

Posted from Singapore

By Jan | February 12th, 2009 at 3:18 am

Yep, great ball by Schaars… He will always try to find the deep solution. Well done, laddie…

By bobotoh | February 12th, 2009 at 6:29 am

I think we’re wrong about Huntelaar. He is still deadly. Given more time, he will explode at Real. Scoring or not scoring, give him 90 mintues. He is a threat for every opponent. When he is in the box, the defenders will be scared.

Posted from Indonesia

By Rob(ben :D) | February 12th, 2009 at 8:03 am

I thought Babel played really well. He showed he can dribble and run. I’d love to see us play with him and Robben on opposite sides. Their pace would be hard for any defence to deal with

By goose | February 12th, 2009 at 9:23 am

here are my notes

Stekelenburg ; 4 ; one of the worst mistakes i ever saw a goalie make in Oranje..didnt have to do anything else; just that one shot and he did terrible

Heitinga ; 7 ; thought he played pretty ok, sill little use when it comes to the build up, too slow but on defense he was good and solid

Ooijer ; 6,5 ; same story as with Heitinga, looked solid in defense

Mathijsen ; 6,5; gets a bit boring, solid in defense not great on the build up, takes him too long to find the opening and has no long pass… btw; Mathijsen always looks like he just got out of bed!

Braafheid ; 6 ; not bad for a debutant, took it a bit too easy in the second half, a few mistakes but overall he did ok

vPersie ; 6 ; he did the best he could but couldnt make his mark on the game…the tunesians were all over him giving very little space…started on the right up switched with Kuijt after 15/20 minutes and played as a striker

vBommel ; 6 ; not his best game in Oranje..i reckon we should move him to the back since we have a great midfield for the future (holding) in deJong and Schaars…on defense he did ok but couldnt find the attackers enough

Sneijder ; 5 ; one of his worst games in Oranje..is out of form and it showed, had a real bad day at the office…prob. part is to blame on his problems in his personal life…needs to be better cause we cant do without him

deJong ; 7,5 ; i have made a 180 on deJong (altough it always was more of a personal thing rather than a football issue), i think deJong is great! he has played very strong in Oranje since the EC qualies..i have total confidence in deJong..he and Schaars are the future

Robben ; 5 ; not his game..had the same problem as the other strikers in the 1st half..no decent ball, too slow build up from the back..no room for dribbling etc.,

Kuijt ; 5 ; started as central striker wich just doenst work, switched position with vPersie but didnt play good at all

Babel (46) ; 7 ; looked pretty sharp and good, few goog rushes and some good assists, though im not a Babel fan and im still not sure how best to use him he did look very dangerous yesterday…great speed

Schaars (59) ; 7,5 ; Oranje’s future captain, savour of our midfield, best dutch midfield player in years…this guy will be a massive player, mark my words

vdVaart (46) ; 6 ; really tried, worked hard but was a bit unlucky..couldnt really make the difference

Mendes (59) : 6,5 ; played a good game, didnt see him do anything special but he also didnt make any big mistakes..i reckon thats good enough

Huntelaar (46) ; 7,5 ; 1 change 1 goal..thats pretty decent, it just shows that scoring goals (like Muller or vNistelrooij) is in his blood, whether he plays on a weekly base or not

first 20 minutes were terrible, no speed in the passing so little room for the attackers. the team does look very solid in defense and only Stekelenburgs error made the goal (altough the defenders didnt look great either)
after the Kuijt – vPersie position change things improved a bit, the game got some what interesting once the tunesians started kicking…
second half was somewhat better but still not good enough if you see what team we have

btw ; congrets to finn for what must be a pretty historic win away in Germany!! well done (Netzer was not amused!)

grtz

Posted from Netherlands

By Caleb | February 12th, 2009 at 2:04 pm

Huntelaar’s goal really was one of a natural born goal-scorer, quite nice. He really should be in the Real starting line up. He’s much better than Raul – Raul’s just past his prime, no way around it – and they really need to find a way to play Raul less without sacrificing the pride of Mr. Real Madrid.

Posted from Canada

By Felipe | February 12th, 2009 at 2:14 pm

Cool to see that Hunter maintain his scorer instinct inside the box, in spite of the bench in Real. And I agree with Goose: Schaars will be wonderful in two years. Or less. I’d not be surprised if we was not in Alkmaar on next season. A guy for the European big ones. Mark my words.

I also agree with Goose about Stekelenburg. Bad mistake on Saihi’s goal. Since he returned he’s not playing good. I hope it’s just a phase. I do like him. As Goose says (this is a “Goose-is-my-guru” comment…) , he looks like a more charismatic guy than VDS. And his physical is stronger (197 cms, 94 kgs… wow, I definitely wouldn’t want to be in front of this guy if I were a striker!).

But he DO needs to improve if he wants to be the undisputable no.1 at Oranje from now on. He’s not a younger anymore, he’s 26. And I’m with my friend Carlos: it’d be good if he left Eredivisie to a bigger league. It’s necessary, nowadays, if you want to improve. I heard AC Fiorentina wanted him. And Tottenham even scouted him before signing with Gomes…

BTW, greetings to Finnster!

And my Brazilian buds didn’t make that bad against Italy, did they? 2-0 against World Champions on-title…

By Carlos | February 12th, 2009 at 5:39 pm

Goose – Thanks Mate ! When I can’t see a game need your objective analysis. Glad Schaars played well.
Felipe – Brazil played a little like the 82 team and Italy like their 1970 team.

Posted from Singapore

By Felipe | February 12th, 2009 at 7:00 pm

@Carlos: oh, that ‘82 team… I’ve been watching their videos on YouTube since some days ago. Many, many videos. Our matches against Scotland and Argentina were the greatest. Also that one against Italy. We lost, but that doesn’t matter to me. I wish I was born at that moment. (I came to this world in July 15th, 1986)

By Carlos | February 12th, 2009 at 9:00 pm

Felipe haha… born just after Maradona got his WC medal … But the best memory was Eder’s block buster which Zico put in …wow nothing ever like it ! I agree the Italy game was good too…could have put so many goals in…looked by far the better and more entertaining side..ball just didnt bounce right for Brazil then.

Posted from Singapore

By Miguel Rosado | February 12th, 2009 at 10:50 pm

I haven’t watched Schaars play but he seems like the real deal!!!.

By Andrew | February 13th, 2009 at 12:42 am

@Carlos, Felipe, Re ‘82 Brazil, I saw the Brazil-Scotland game; the Scots got the earl goal (a Scottish friend of mine remarked that after the goal, there was literally not a dry spot in the pub he was at; everyone hurled there beers in the air), then Eder hit that bomb from outside the penalty area, and the Brzilians played them off their feet the rest of the game. What a midfield Brazil had: Zico as the “10″ supported by Socrates, Falcao and Toninho Cereza (a French sportswriter wrote described Cereza as being “As long as a day without coffee), then they’s bring that little winger Paulo Isidoro off the bench…but, in the end, no defense, and no notion of how to kill off a game after they had the lead; all they knew was attack…what a team…and Zoff was magnificent for Italy in that match.

Posted from United States

By Mario | February 13th, 2009 at 12:47 am

Hi guys:

I think it was important for v Marwijk to see players like Schaars, Braafheid, Mendes da Silva, van der Wiel, etc. It was important too that we had almost the whole team fit and although Oranje did not win hopefully this set of players can develop into a team with knowledge of each other strenghts and weaknesses because under van Basten what we never had was a team because he tried so many players. I believe it is positive that van Marwijk is working with a fixed group so in the WC they can perform as a real team…Schaars, yes, he will be very important not for the future but from now on he will play a very important role for the team…he reminds me of Davids attitude.

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