Oranje not ripe yet

April 12th, 2006 | By: Mike | 4 Comments »

Marco Van Basten figures that the squad’s lack of experience might be a disadvantage .

I remember being genuinely worried about the team after Stam, de Boer, Reiziger and Overmars retired from the international scene after Euro 2004. I think that Van Basten is playing down his side’s chances. He’s completely accurate about the lack of experience, however with players like Van der Sar, Cocu, Van Bommel, Davids and Van Nistelrooy I figure he is on his way to a good balance. The qualifiers weren’t a fluke. There were times that the inexperience showed, and the article mentions that, but in the end their finishing record was 10-2-0. The fact that most of these players are a part of big clubs that play big games will prove invaluable when June rolls around. This is a good way of easing the pressure off of some of the younger players.

Props to our benevolent leader Bob for the heads up.

Tags: Bob, Experience, marco van basten, Netherlands

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Comments

By sphinx | April 13th, 2006 at 6:24 pm

We can say defence part is inexperienced. With Cocu, Bommel, Vaart, Ruud, Robben and Kuyt midfield and attack is well organised.
Apart from Bronkorst the other defenders don’t have Big match experience that much. But how could we playdown the experience of Bulareuz and Ooijer while Krompkampt playing in colours.
Conceeding only 3 goals in qualifying is no fluke. But anchorman Lanzaart contributes alot. With him,(dropping one great talent at midfield) our attack will be less attractive
than ever.
It could be the big tradeoff Mr. Basten has to made.

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By Mike | April 13th, 2006 at 6:28 pm

I agree. The experience that the defense lacks is on the large international stage. This tends to be something that a player adjusts to quickly or has a lot of trouble with for a while.

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By HedonistiX | April 14th, 2006 at 12:08 pm

Hi Mike:

How about starting a new thread listing our early picks for the WC. We’ll see how they fare this summer.

CHEERS,
–H

Posted from United States

By Van Basten taking things slow - FIFA World Cup 2006 - Netherlands World Cup Team Blog | April 14th, 2006 at 2:34 pm

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