Oranje travels half the world

October 7th, 2009 | by: Jan |

After 22 hours of flight and 2,5 hours of stop-over, Bert van Marwijk resembles an American president after his eight years reign in the White House. His little grey beard shows, his hair is ruffled and his clothes wrinkled. The only difference? The Dutch coach has sparkles in his eyes.

But then again, the players and staff of the Dutch team just traveled in the most luxurious business class seats of Cathay Pacific. Every member, from striker to physio, had his own cabin, with the option to sleep horizontally or what a series of movies. Some took up the old Dutch habit of klaverjassen ( traditional Dutch card game).

“I only flew this luxurious once before, with KLM,” Van Marwijk says in Sydney. “But my condition for this trip was clear: I want the lads to be able to sleep horizontally. And the stubble, well…if I don’t shave or a day, it does show.”

The players are all recognizable by their black leggings. A new fashion fad? It appears this legging alllows the muscles and skin to recover from the trip. Dirk Kuyt, still sore from the Chelsea game: “Every ligament or muscle which had a knock will swell up in the dense air.”

Kuyt is one of the ritualistic klaverjas players, with Frank de Boer, Phillip Cocu and assistant coach Cooky Voorn. “Did Bert win anything? Nah, he didn’t compete…” says Voorn about the team manager who once won the world championship Klaverjassen in the 1970s.

Nineteen players traveled to Sydney with Oranje. Three keepers and new internationals Elia and Braafheid. The Bayern defender bought a new digital camera at Schiphol to take pictures on this unique trip.

The player who ought to have been the number 20 of the group, Nigel de Jong, had to cancel his trip. De Jong got injured in the Aston Villa game, last Monday and called the team manager to tell him he won’t be traveling Down Under.

Van Marwijk: “Nigel isn’t happy. He tore a ligament in his ankle. He needs to be checked up but it seems he’s out for weeks.”

De Jong is regular number 6, after Van der Wiel, Ooijer, Van Bommel, Van Persie and Robben who isn’t present in this team building week. The media already advised Van Marwijk to add Cocu or De Boer to the players list to come to a total of 17 field players. The historical international away in Sydney as the highest form of honor.

The Australian football fans are happy to be able to see the Dutch title contenders in their beautiful city. There was quite some interest at the airport, when Oranje made their way to the Sheraton hotel in the center of the city. But first there was time for the Australian drugs dogs to sniff the players’ bags. And one dog barks when he stops at Stekelenburg’s bag, resulting in laughter from the other players. But it appeared to be a false alarm.

Tags: Cocu, Group C, Kuyt, Oranje, Robben, Stekelenburg, Sydney, Van Marwijk, van Persie

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Comments

By Jan | October 7th, 2009 at 6:21 am

Apparently, Kuyt is injured. Ankle. Slightly. But still.

By Tiju | October 7th, 2009 at 6:29 am

@Jan kuyt will never get injury….he will play…
B/W one of my college mate is in Melborne.i informed him to watch the match..but he will not,poor guy is totally spoiled by fart game cricket(but he is good man).what to do.i wish i was there.but onething is sure if god allows i will be in UK this jan2010 for studies..i hope i could travel to my favorite country and i will try to meet Sol,Goose,Alex etc.

Posted from India

By Jan | October 7th, 2009 at 7:25 am

Off topic: De Guzman’s knee injury could be bad. He will be operated this week but could be months out again. His transfer value will diminish although there’s a fair chance Valencia won’t touch him now and he might either walk away for zilch in the next summer or he stays another season at Feyenoord, allowing him to play himself on the radar of better/bigger clubs. And in the process, allowing Feyenoord to recoup some moolah.

By Jeroen | October 7th, 2009 at 9:39 am

Predicted line-up for the game against AUS:

———–Steks———–
Heitinga—-Loovens—–Mathijsen—–v.Bronckhorst
———Schaars—–De Zeeuw———-
Kuyt———Sneijder———van Persie—
———–Huntelaar———-

Maybe he will put Kuyt striker, vP right, and give Elia a starting spot on the left, since Elia is playing at his club and huntelaar isn’t really.

I am posting this a second time, but I am guessing since it was in an old thread it wasn’t very apparent, but here is the lineup I would like to see at our next match when we have all players again (i’ve changed it slightly as well):

—————————-Steks——————————
v.d. Wiel—–Loovens/Heitinga——Mathijsen——-Braafheid/Emanuelson
——————Sneijder———-Kuyt—————-
Robben—————van der Vaart—————Elia————
———————-van Persie——————————–

Can also drop van Persie back into Robben’s spot, Robben goes left, and Huntelaar goes striker (when he;s back in shape).

I would say Elia deserves a starting spot on saturday given all the injuries we have, but I don’t think he’s proven enough to get a starting spot yet in the squad (above only counts in case where Huntelaar is still not playing well.)

I figure we have so much attacking talent, let’s use it. Kuyt and Sneijder can handle d-mid I think.

Posted from Netherlands

By Miguel Rosado | October 7th, 2009 at 10:10 am

With De Jong, Van der Wiel, Ooijer, Van Bommel, Van Persie and Robben missing.

—————–Stekelenburg————-

—–Heitinga–Loovens–Mathijsen–Braafheid–

——–Kuyt–Afellay–Schaars–Elia—–

——————–Vaart——————

——————Huntelaar—————

By Miguel Rosado | October 7th, 2009 at 10:28 am

This game will be crucial for some players to demonstrate they deserve to be in the final list.

By sonneveld | October 7th, 2009 at 10:52 am

good news for drenthe

marcelos started and played poorly defensively and the goal was his fault

drenthe may start next game cause of that

By sonneveld | October 7th, 2009 at 10:55 am

braafheid has started the last two games for bayern and both were clean sheets

im feeling

stek

heitinga loovens mathijsen braafheid
—–de zeeuw-de jong
–kuyt-sneijder-elia
——-huntelaar

By sonneveld | October 7th, 2009 at 10:57 am

srry schaars in for de jong

but this is schaars last chance.

I am sure he is good (Jan must see something in him)

if he is playing average though i want to see afellay try holding mid

By Jeroen | October 7th, 2009 at 12:05 pm

whoops that;s right, van persie won’t be there either will he. so we have the same lineup sonneveld .

Posted from Netherlands

By bobotoh | October 8th, 2009 at 5:50 am

Play with only one holding midfielder, so that Sneijder and VdV can play together.

Posted from Indonesia

By Jan | October 8th, 2009 at 6:07 am

Hear hear!

By Mihran | October 10th, 2009 at 12:34 am

For playing with van der Vaart and Sneijder together van Marwijk will have to change tactics of two hoding midfielders which he was using during all matches. And I don’t think it will be wise now, because Oranje doesn’t have too many matches before WC to get used to a new tactics. And by the way, the position of CF bothers me most of all, it seems that Huntelaar will lack practic game experience, unless Leonardo is fired

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