Oranje discovers the country side…

Ruud van Nistelrooy in the AD today: I want to go to the World Cup!!

More later…

I’m glad Lang Jan found a club. Hull City is a good fit for him. I was hoping he might come back to PSV, but with Koevermans playing the way he is, there’d be no room for him!

Also, Honda says if he leaves VVV, PSV is his first choice! Good news!

van Nistelrooij and especially van der Sar both still have spots on the team as far as I’m concerned! As long as they’re fit, of course…

Actually the stadiums in Holland are great. There have been a lot of brand new or almost totally renovated stadiums in the last 5 years. Look at the Euroborg, Abe Leenstra, Gereldome, Utrecht, Twente and AZ stadiums. All those are perfect for football. Vertical seating and fabulous viewing. Of course we also have the Arena and Philips stadiums both top facilities. All of those are way better than some stadiums in other countries. They beat Stamford Bridge, White Hart Lane, Frankfurt, Parc des Princes, etc. Trust me I have been to all those places.
Great that Ruud wants to go to the WC.
Please can we all stop about the Wes-Raf issue? In my mind there is really no issue and regardless we will never agree as it is pure subjectivity.
@finnster, Liverpool was a great club before Benitez arrived. I agree with you that there are many forward players in their history but under Raf they have been absolutely horrible to watch.

Posted from  United States

Screw PSV, Bruce. I will kill them in the Arena.

@Jeff Nonsense!!!
Liverpool play very good and exciting football, that is motivated by a high work ethic and immeasurable passion. Just look at the 2 Champions League runs the team had (under Benitez, no less)! You really won’t see a more passionate and exciting team than Liverpool!

Does everyone on this blog hate Liverpool or something? (Aside from finnster of course)!

And speaking of Dutch stadiums, apparently there was a small fire in the Philips Stadion a few weeks ago.

@ jol

Bitter about your visit to the Stadion? :>

if ruud and sar are back in orange, the wc is ours to lose

Posted from  United States

im making a video for schaars, anybody have anything to say about him that i could qoute you on.

ex. future captain of holland
-sonneveld

@Bruce, winning the CL does not mean the team is playing attractive football. I don’t hate Liverpool but I do hate the fact they ruined Babel. On the other hand, it transformed Kuijt into a top player so it is a toss-up.
@jol, we are with you. Hopefully Ajax will return to its glory days and destroy PSV in the Arena.

Posted from  United States

@Jeff Did you watch Liverpool win it in 05????? People have called it the most captivating and exhilarating run to the Cup ever!

And YOU are with jol, not we Ajax Amsterdam does NOT = Netherlands!

This video Jan posted and Jeff’s comment about Ajax have reminded me of this hilarious news story about Kuijt’s daughter during the EC last summer in Holland. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArCpHM9-jJc

Very funny Bruce! Let’s compare the contribution of Ajax to the national team to that of other teams in Holland, should we? I think it is almost safe to say that Ajax is Holland.

Posted from  United States

*shakes head…

There is no way you could ever deny that Ajax, fan or not, has contributed the most players to the Netherlands national team, nor the fact that as club it has had the most influence on dutch football, most importantly 1971-1974 leading up to the glorious world cup…

Posted from  Netherlands

Indeed. Ajax is an important club, and does develop a lot of good players! They are very important to Dutch football!

BUT they also do buy a lot of their players from other Dutch clubs/academies, so to say Ajax is Holland is absurd, is it not? Yes. Yes it is absurd.

PSV, AZ and Feyenoord contribute a lot to the Dutch national team too, but I’d never claim PSV is Holland!

under san marco az was the top contributer with the likes of schaars, da silva, vlaar, mathijsen, jaliens, de cler, landzaat, koevermans, opdam, kromkamp, de zeeuw, timmer, and v.galen

Posted from  United States

Yeah guys, it’s all cycles isn’t it? Ajax has a great history and reputation in the field of scouting and youth development, but in reality the last seasons lots of Ajax talents left early to make a career elsewhere. Culina (PSV), Hersi (NEC, Twente), Lindgren (Groningen and no in the stands in Amsterdam)… Now Ajax has to pay big sums to Groningen and Heerenveen for players of which some impress (Suarez) and some don’t (Sulejmani, Silva, Lindgren).

Van Basten and Vanenburg were developed in Utrecht (Elinkwijk). Ronald Koeman came from Groningen (like Robben).

Today, Feyenoord seems to have the most effective youth system but – and this is cynical – only because the club is poor! When clubs seem to have money, they buy. Lazy and ineffective.

Look at the Oranje team:

Kuyt: totally missed by scouts. Played for Katwijk, then Utrecht, then Feyenoord and finally via Liverpool the big Oranje…

Van Persie: developed at Feyenoord, but kicked out.

Van der Vaart: developed at Ajax, but kicked out.

Robben: developed in a normal fashion: Groningen, PSV, the big time.

Van Bommel: developed at Fortuna, moved to PSV.

De Jong: developed at Ajax, kicked out.

Schaars/De Zeeuw: scouted by AZ at lesser teams.

Braafheid: developed at Utrecht, then Twente, now Bayern.

Elia: failed at Ajax, failed at ADO, re-progammed at Twente. (now HSV)

Huntelaar: developed at PSV: kicked out. Took the long journey (like Van Nistelrooy).

Loovens: developed at Feyenoord, allowed to leave (on loan) and Feyenoord simply forgot about him. Now Celtic.

Ooijer: developed at Ajax. Kicked out. Via Roda come-back to PSV.

Bouma: developed at PSV. Kicked out to Fortuna. Made his way back.

Heitinga: developed at Ajax.

Sneijder: developed at Ajax (also an Utrecht lad, by the way).

Afellay: developed at PSV (Utrecht lad!!)

De Guzman: scouted and developed by Feyenoord.

Mathijsen: long way to develop, via Willem II and AZ

Boulah: developed at Ajax, kicked out. Played at RKC and developed under Jol.

Ajax’ domination has decreased…

They had an upsurge under Michels, Cruyff and Van Gaal. Three top coaches.

I think the coach (see Jol) is more relevant in this than the actual club (although the club does select the coach of course )

Away from the club scenario – Now we dont have anymore wishes as both Sar and Ruud have made it clear they will help out in 2010 if called upon. So guys start making new lineups – Like
Sar
Kuyt-Vlaar-Loovens-Braafheid
Elia – Bommel-Sneider -Robben
Persie -Nistel

Posted from  Singapore

vp huntelaar (nistel)

robben sneijder van bommel kuyt

braafheid mathijsen vlaar heitinga
vds

i just love how midfield and striker are all on top top teams.

i want a friendly vs brasil and one vs ivory coast or ghana. we need to be ready for the africans.

The unfortunate reason why Ajax doesn’t seem to produce as much talent anymore, is because they can’t hold on to them. Dutch clubs can’t compete with foreign clubs when they can lay down 100 million euros for a player. If Ajax had been able to keep their players, they would have a worldclass team now, but what use would it be? You could easily win the eredivisie and stand a chance in the champions league. But the problem is that winning the eredivisie nets you next to no money while winning la liga or epl does.

Of course Ajax isn’t the only team with troubles like this. Feyenoord and PSV have been very important for Dutch football as well (there is a reason we have a Big Three ;p). I think right now Feyenoord has the best young talents in Holland. Unfortunately, at Feyenoord I see 5-6 good young talents, and a whole lot of not so great players to assist them. At least the coach is good. but seriously, they’re not even playing european football this year ;\. I also do not think they will be able to hold on to Fer, Wijnaldum, and de Guzman for very long.

Anyways, my point was more that the Dutch style of football is the same in Ajax as it is in the national team. Total football was a development that took place synchronously at the two teams, and the whole dutch 4-3-3 infatuation is also to be found there. Playerwise though, i believe the game against england 7 of the starting 11 were ajax or ex-ajax or something like that.

It just sucks that Dutch clubs have been demoted to feeding the other leagues their best players. The quality in the eredivisie has gone down, and more importantly we have become a joke in European football. Ajax won it in 95, PSV got to the semi’s a couple of years back and what? Those are our accomplishments. I think AZ will get through the first round of CL, but I think they will lose in the first knockout round.

Posted from  Netherlands

Yeah, I share that sentiment. Too bad Van Gaal left AZ…

@sonneveld – if you are still looking for quotes for your video, I’d love to be in your video!
How about something like “He is the heart of AZ”?

Posted from  Japan

ok, so “He is the heart of AZ” is the qoute? and do you want to be qouted as Caleb or something else

ok, so “He is the heart of AZ” is the qoute? and do you want to be qouted as Caleb or something else