World

Europe

Netherlands

Oranje nicely balanced…

February 10th, 2009 | By: Jan | 51 Comments »

Probable line up for Oranje…

Oranje only misses one steady selection player when it takes on Tunisia. Ibrahim Afellay got injured last Sunday and decided to stay in Holland.

There’s no other thank you’s and Oranje will move to North Africa with all the big guns from the Premier League and the Primera Division…
This wasn’t always the case with friendlies in the past. Last year February, Marco van Basten only had 16 men altogether in Croatia due to the flu and injuries.

It soes tell us something about the state of Oranje today. In March, Holland needs to be Scotland and in April Macedonia need to be defeated and Holland can book tickets for South Africa.

Another aspect: most internationals play regularly. Of course, Huntelaar and Van der Vaart are the big exceptions, but other than that, almost 16 players are starters at their clubs. Only Ryan Babel hasn’t been able to secure his spot at Liverpool.

But Oranje won’t suffer from that. Huntelaar doesn’t play a lot, on the other hand Van Persie and Kuyt play almost everything. “I spoke to Robin about it recently,” Van Marwijk said, “and he feels fitter than ever….”.

Kuyt and Van Persie could take Hunter’s role in Oranje, without a problem. Van der Vaart and Sneijder can play in midfield, while Arjen Robben seems sure to start as well.

The Oranje balance is definitely positive when Stijn Schaar’s presence is taken into account. For the vulnerable position of right back, Gregory van der Wiel presented himself.

Van Marwijk could test Van Bommel with De Jong, Schaars and De Zeeuw as holding midfielders. Some time ago Van Basten experimented with Evander Sno and George Boateng…

Also, the leader in the Dutch Eredivisie doesn’t supply any fixed starter in the team. AZ’s internationals are more the contenders of the big names. Quite a luxury for Van Marwijk. He could even bench Van Bommel. Last year, Van Basten had to use an out of form De Zeeuw because he didn’t have any better players…

Aren’t there any worries? Maybe the goalie. Maarten Stekelenburg is fit, but definitely not in good form while Henk Timmer sees the balls fly past him into the net a bit too often. Let’s hope their experience and quality will keep us out of trouble against Mel Gibson’s and Alexander the Great’s descendants.

Braafheid has reasons to smile…

Another issue could be the mental situation of the players. Sneijder, Van der Vaart and Huntelaar aren’t really happy. The Feyenoord gang has the worst season ever. The PSV players lost their dream coach while former team manager Van Basten is heavily criticized by the Ajax fans. Heitinga had a tough start in Spain and as mentioned Babel seems to lose his clout in Liverpool. It’s clear that Kuyt, Van Persie and Robben are doing pretty well, as are the AZ players and our debutant from Twente, Edson Braafheid.

Van Marwijk hopes that because of the issues at some clubs, the players will enjoy their outing with Oranje even more and play their worries away…

Tags: Babel, Group C, Kuyt, Persie, Robben, Van Basten, Van Marwijk

Netherlands World Cup RSS Feed

Comments

Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 51 comments.

Read the rest of the comments

By Felipe | February 11th, 2009 at 4:11 pm

Oranje defense was terrible on Tunisian goal. The gap people left to Saihi run and shot was too much wide. And Stekel could be a little more on the little box, couldn’t he?

By Caleb | February 11th, 2009 at 4:11 pm

The second half is much more open. Looks like starting to dominate again though. Another nice turn and almost a goal by Huntelaar.

By Caleb | February 11th, 2009 at 4:12 pm

Sorry, that was VdV who just almost scored.
I think Steks really should have saved the goal…

By Caleb | February 11th, 2009 at 4:15 pm

Huntelaar just got fouled in the box but the ref only gave a free kick on the edge of the area.

By Van Basten | February 11th, 2009 at 4:23 pm

Funny…#17 attempting to score a Maradonna like goal only to be booked!
Our Oranje is playing lousy without any cohesion although we have had many missed opportunities.

Posted from United States

By sonneveld | February 11th, 2009 at 4:26 pm

I have only seen the second half what was the lineup in the first half

By Felipe | February 11th, 2009 at 4:34 pm

Sonneveld, on the 1st half, Oranje line-up was:

Stekelenburg
Heitinga-Mathijsen-Ooijer-Braafheid
Van Persie-Van Bommel-Sneijder-De Jong-Robben
Kuyt

By Van Basten | February 11th, 2009 at 4:41 pm

Is the game over?

Posted from United States

By Caleb | February 11th, 2009 at 4:43 pm

Well, my feed died for the last couple minutes, but I don’t think anything changed. Kind of embarrassing to tie that game. They had a whole two shots in total, both long range efforts, and both should have been saved. Did Stekelenburg fall asleep? Other than that… not a great game but not terrible. The passing in the first half looked quite good. Still didn’t create enough chances though. We should have created tons of chances in a game like this, and should have scored more.

None of the players really stood out for me either. I was disappointed in Robben – not that he was that bad, but given his recent form I was expecting more. Also, as much as I’ve been down on Babel recently, he actually did quite well when he came on in the second half (except when he tried to dribble past the entire Tunisian team – he should have passed it off sooner – it was nice dribbling though:-) ).

All in all I don’t know why we played a friendly against them… they were dirty and rough and could have injured our players. We should have found a better team to play a friendly against.

By Andrew | February 11th, 2009 at 4:56 pm

@Caleb (and Sooneveld and Van Basten), thanks for the commentary. Sounds like everyone should write a postcard to VDS and ask if he really wants to sit out 2010. Who were the defenders on Tunisian goal?

Posted from United States

By sonneveld | February 11th, 2009 at 5:05 pm

kuyt pays right winger for liverpool and van persie plays striker for arsenal why do we switch them

By sonneveld | February 11th, 2009 at 5:06 pm

Andrew I think it was heitinga who got turned still it looked like anybody could have saved that shot. You could tell stekelenbur was pissed after.

By sonneveld | February 11th, 2009 at 5:20 pm

the future doesn’t look good for us in penalties hahahah (vorm)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLlGTNk5nR8

By Carlos | February 11th, 2009 at 6:05 pm

Did not see the game…. Goose how did Schaars perform ?

Posted from Singapore

By Bart | February 11th, 2009 at 6:40 pm

Where’s finnster, He’s Norwayish right? He’s probably going to be partying it up all night :p

Posted from Canada

By Caleb | February 11th, 2009 at 7:19 pm

If anyone missed the game and wants to watch it:

First half – http://www.sendspace.com/file/xpif6r

Second half – http://www.sendspace.com/file/c01zsi

By Bart | February 11th, 2009 at 8:51 pm

Wow thanks man

Posted from Canada

By Carlos | February 11th, 2009 at 9:14 pm

Huntelaars goal on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQ8tTgUd-VM

Posted from Singapore

By Carlos | February 11th, 2009 at 9:18 pm

This is a better one…also shows Steks “howler”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGRM94EQPnM

Posted from Singapore

By 3ric | February 11th, 2009 at 9:19 pm

Terrible goal to concede. Stek’s reaction was beyond me- on the same token, where the hell was the defense?!? The Tunisian player had too much time and space before launching the shot. Either Heitinga and Robben should have tracked him down, and Mathijsen was backpedaling all the way. One of the closest DM’s (Mendes?) should have closed him down, too.

By Jan | February 11th, 2009 at 10:06 pm

Thanks all! Couldn’t see the game, watched Australia – Japan instead

By Miguel Rosado | February 12th, 2009 at 1:30 am

1) Why put Van Persie as right wing when he always plays in the center with Arsenal and why play Kuyt as our center forward when he always plays as right back with L’pool.
2) I couldn’t see the game but I could watch the goals and I’m very worried about Stekelenburg!!!.
3) I agree that we shouldn’t be playing with 2 holding midfielders.
4) Our right and left backs need to attack at all times because the best defense is the attack. Our defense is too steady and we need more creativity from the back and not only in midfield.
5) We need to play our game. We need to have the ball. The way Barcelona plays now is the style of game we have always played with everyone attacking.

—————-(goal)—————–

–Nigel—Heitinga—Marcellis—DeCler–

——–Afellay———-Bommel——–

—–Sneijder—–Persie———–Robben—-

—————Huntelaar/Kut—————-

By finnster01 | February 12th, 2009 at 7:13 am

@Bart and others: Oh dear, today my head hurts very badly which explains the long radio silence (for me anyway). A very diluted and no-name Norway team beat Germany in Germany for the first time since 1936. And the Germans had pretty much their best team. Ballack, Klose, Schweinsteiger, Gomez etc.

It was actually a very cracking game that gave a lesson in how to beat Germany. 10 men behind the ball, low pressure, but with tremendous speed and numbers on the counter attack. Germany looked very exposed to this. It was back to the old Norway style of the nineties, but with less of the long ball straight to the middle. they played a 4-1-4-1 formation, which seemed to work very well. Grindheim from Herenveen scored the winner. Norway could have scored more and should have had at least one penalty.

Needless to say I helped myself a little too much to the refreshments at the Pub and convinced my buddies (Irish and US) that if Norway won, we would walk over to the German Mission to the UN and steal their bicycles. Since Ireland won also in another cracking game, they were all up for it. Only problem was that when we got there, we couldn’t find any bicycles outside so we had to abandon the mission and retreat to the pub again to catch the US-Mexico game. But at least we tried. It was a long day with a lot of soccer.

I haven’t caught up with the Holland game yet, but thanks for the links.

By Caleb | February 12th, 2009 at 1:52 pm

@Finnster – Best team with Gomez in it? Are you sure about that?? I remember his sabotaging performances in the Euros, haha

Posted from Canada

By Jan | February 13th, 2009 at 2:17 am

Hahahaha , Finn…stealing bikes

Comments are closed