Oranje warms up against Sweden and Tunisia

Strange choice (Tunisia). A squad of no-name players, none of which play in the English Prem or Scottish Prem. Not sure if I would say that would be a good matchup to prepare for Scotland and Macedonia. They’d be better off playing a much improved Wales or Northern Ireland to prep for Scotland.

Speaking of 1978 and useless trivia, Tunisia was the first African country to win a world cup match when they beat Mexico 3-1. Remember that fact, it may get you laid one day

Good one Finn…

And yes, it is a strange choice. Don’t know how that works. Wouldn’t be surprised if Oranje is paid to go to Tunis and the powers that be could be looking at it from a business perspective… Wales pays 100K, Tunisia 120K, so we pick Tunisia…

Jan – great comment that this time Tunisia will field different players !! I am sure you mean from the 1978 team right ? hehehe……

Posted from  Singapore

Robbie Rensenbrink has been unfairly excluded from the Oranje squad since the late 70’s over that particular moment in Buenos Aires – will Bert forgive and forget?

Posted from  United Kingdom

This is probably also to try and boost Huntelaar’s form, give him a weak opponent and with the help of Sneijder, V.Persie etc. he’ll probably score one or two. Maybe getting him back into his flow.

Posted from  Netherlands

@Alex – Although it might turn out like that, I don’t think that could be the reason because they scheduled the friendlies a long time ago I believe. Besides, there’s a good chance Huntelaar will be back in form by then, it’s still 3 months away.

Posted from  Canada

I’m not saying it’s because of Huntelaar alone, but it’s probably to try and build the confidence of the entire group. Because they need it.

Posted from  Netherlands

why u guys think that tunisia is weaker then wales or n ireland:S
we can handle those 2 countries no match for us!!
and these days big names aren’t that importent as is used to be
our squad is very young and talented so i guess holland awaits a big suprise in tunis!!
but we will see on the 11th of february 2009

2 big names for the future: yassine chikhaoui(21 yrs fc zurich) and amine chermiti(20 yrs hertha bsc)

Posted from  Netherlands

Its good for the team spirit to go somewhere warm in February. Also, the pitches are probably a bit better than most in Europe at that time of the year.

@ tounsi, could be , those 2 players might be promising but they aren’t there yet. Besides I’m not saying Tunesia is worse then N-Ireland, but they don’t have that much good players, so I doubt they would easily win from a team like Holland or Portugal

Posted from  Netherlands

@tounsi – also, Wales/Northern Ireland will probably play a style much more similar to Scotland’s, making them a better warm up team for our campaign. I think that’s what Finnster was getting at.

Posted from  Canada

its never eazy to defeat a team like holland thats true

maybe u guys dont know our players but i know there is a lot of potency in our team. technical very strong and tactical certainly not bad(maybe not as good as holland but ok)

like a said..we will see and after the match we will continue this:p
greetingzz tounsi

Posted from  Netherlands

Our squad (Tunisia) has loads of potential, anyone who watched us push Cameroon to the limit in the quarters of the African would recognize that. Match of the tournament according to the majority of pundits and fans form across the continent. Chikhaoui and Chermiti are injured which is why you haven’t been hearing much about them. They’re both due back within a couple of months though so the buzz should pick up. There’s plenty of players in our domestic league that can pick up the slack too. Plus if you don’t know Tijani Belaid then you’re not paying attention to his ridiculous performances in the Czech league. He used to be signed to Inter and he’s an Ajax target btw. I could go on but you guys don’t care as much as I do and I don’t blame you hehe. Looking forward to the match though

Posted from  United States

@tounsi; Caleb is right. No disrespect to Tunisia as I don’t think Wales or NI are any better, but their style of play is much more similar to what Scotland does.

I think Lerkot has a point regarding the weather although as a youth I once played in a tournament in Monastir at the same time of the year and the “grass” was the hardest grass I have ever played on. May as well just painted concrete green.

I certainly know Belaid, thought he was loaned by PSV at some time, but didn’t really make it. Good talent, but I haven’t followed him since then. Czech league isn’t exactly on tv here every weekend.
BTW Donk caused a penatly at WBA against Newcastle, I certainly hope he’ll learn from his time in PL or else he’ll never make it to the top.

Posted from  Netherlands

I think it will be a very good math, holland vs tunisia.
For you guys saying Tunisia is not a worthy challenge, a few months ago, the tunisian olymipic team beat holland 3-1

orange is going to destroy tunisia
5-1

Posted from  United States

To all those who think that the bloggers here do not respect Tunisia PLEASE read carefully. The argument goes that for our World Cup qualifying games it would be better to play opponents like Wales or Ireland ONLY for the sake of getting used to SCOTLAND. There is no disrespect intended and I dont think anyone here feels that way. Once we qualify and say Egypt is in our pool, then I think the FIRST team we would want a friendly with would be Tunisia. It’s also great to see Tunisian patriotism here and nearer to the game we would love to read about the danger men and tactics of Tunisia in the same way Finn fills us in about Norway. Keep up the banter guys

Posted from  Singapore

Well said Carlos! I fully agree. I don’t know anything about Tunisian football. Not a thing! But if they’re comparable to say Morocco, I’d love to learn more.

In terms of technique we’re comparable to Morocco. However, tactically we’re ahead of them and we do better in African cups. Morocco performs well in high profile friendlies and then crumbles when things matter most. I like watching them play though…

Carlos, thanks for the clarification. You’re the last European team we’ll be playing for a while because we’ll be preparing for CAF qualifiers against African opposition so I understand your argument. If you wanna know more about Tunisia just read up on the WCB page for it when it gets closer to the friendly in Tunis. I’ll be providing a preview when its appropriate.

Posted from  United States

@Rami – Thats SUPER !! We are all hungry for football news provided personally by fans like you and we are so looking forward to your previews and tactical analysis of Tunisia. Meantime for the Tunisian games at CAF, please drop in and keep us informed as most of us know NOTHING about the Tunisian team and if you beat us or even a draw then your team would have thoroughly deserved it !

Posted from  Singapore

de guzman,donk,zuiverloon,vlaar,luirink,calvin jong,schaars should get call for sweden and tunisia castelen too.

Posted from  India

Tunisia is good team.i think its a good idea coz we african teams will be tough to beat in africa.
and they will teach us how to run 120 minutes with full stamina.
i think before the worldcup we should arrange some matches with
camaroon
Nigeria
Ivory coast
Arjentina
and finally brazil then we can predict easily (who will win the cup?)

Posted from  India

@Tiju. I don’t dislike your idea, but although things are looking good we have not qualified for WC2010 quite yet. We are 2 years away. Still needs to get 2 results from Scotland and win the group and put any uncertainty to bed, so I am focused on matching opposition that plays a similar style to Scotland and take it one game at a time.

Unfortunately friendlies don’t have extra time, so 120 minutes won’t happen anyway, Tunisia is a long way away from South Africa and the climate is very different in the first place. February is not that warm in Tunisia at all (average about 15 degrees Celsius or so), plus there is very little humidity.

@finni Agree with your point.But i hope we will win against scots and Massi.so hopefully we will qualify for WC10.
so thought it on long term not in short term.I know in friendly we wont get 120 minutes.But we should be very carefull on stamina thats why i prefer players like schaars,de jong ,de guzman,de saaw(even though this guy is not up to the mark)

Posted from  India