Pekerman: “Holland was a tough opponent”

We are “fierce opponents”.

When I look at holland play, I feel that it’s a matter of life and death situation. There is so much pride at stake that they’d do anything to save their side from conceding a goal.

We are by far the most passionate team in this world cup. Even if we’re not the most skillful attacking bunch this year, we definitely come out and give a 150% every time. I absolutely love them for that.

Posted from  Russian Federation

hear hear… You may not be the best players in the world, but you can be the best team, right?
And you need some luck! And Marco is nicknamed The Golden Dick in Holland. Not for nothing…

Posted from  Australia

Agree with Rami on the passionate thingy. Funniest thing is that we have always been one of the most talented sides after ‘88 but always lack of “passion” and “harmony”.

This year’s squad is the reverse, so here I am hoping the result this year will be the reverse (meaning, we’ll finally win it all)

GO ORANJE!

Posted from  United States

What do argentine fans think of coloccini performance when he came on for Burdiso. I was very worried but in fact he gave a solid display. Who disagrees?

Kai

Posted from  United Kingdom

“We are by far the most passionate team in this world cup”

That’s really funny, i’d have to say your the least passionate.

Just a looking at the fans in the stadium says it all.
The small amount of Argentines lead the cheering throughout the match over the lifeless Dutch fans.
Even rubben was astonished.

Posted from  United Kingdom

I think this bunch are a bit more passionate and energetic. The best thing that Van Basten could have done was to remove old weeds like Seedorf and Davids. The strikers in front do appear content to try a shot at the goal themselves rather than pass the ball to the striker in the best position. None of them have the attitude to help the team cause.

Posted from  United Kingdom

Ah Jorge go back to the ditch you came from…

Nobody is discussing the Argentine fans’ atmosphere vis a vis the dutch.. Their team were more dangerous and in control throughout the match therefore they were more comfortable and chanting crappy songs out loud. Big Deal… thats only normal.

W

Posted from  Russian Federation

Ah Jorge go back to the ditch you came from…

Nobody is discussing the Argentine fans’ atmosphere vis a vis the dutch.. Their team were more dangerous and in control throughout the match therefore they were more comfortable and chanting crappy songs out loud. Big Deal… thats only normal.

What Im talking about Jorge is the players’ attitude on the field. They compensate for what lack of skill and experience they have with an extreme dosage of passion and always give more than 100%. Two weeks ago, looking back at our team, we thought we had on paper one of the weakest defenses in the wc, now after looking at them play three matches, I believe we have the toughest and fiercest line of defence there is… And thats mainly because we’re the MOST passionate.

Night.

Posted from  Russian Federation

The Dutch “passion” is not going to be enough, in itself, to overcome the portuguese passion. I personely cannot abide another loss to Portugal! This v. Basten side has shown passion in in small doses, spuratically throughout the tournament; but they have not shown a convincing dominant performance like argentina had against SM, 6-0. Nor are they showing much improvment from one game to the next. I am worried, we need to take out the pent up dutch frustration of under-achievment on portugal this sunday. Hup Holland

i agree with ya rami, we are very passionate this year. i hope we can play our best from now on because we need to be at the maximum now.

Posted from  United States

At first we were worried about the defense, but I think now the Dutch need to show more in attack. I agree with Veekay: I have not seen much good ball control/passing/service in attacking end–which this argentina team is very good at– to make me completely comfortable–it’s get the ball to the wingers and hope for the best. More is needed from the midfield and RVN. But this is a good team–how good, we’ll know soon.

Posted from  United States

Micha as i tried to explain over and over again, apparently in vain, when i say passionate .. it absolutely has nothing to do with how good we play.

Arg trashed s&m 6-0 only because the serbs were completely out of it and disheartened after the 2nd goal.

And u talk about portuguese passion ??? i see anything but that. they are just good players with a very good coach.. In the group they were in they could have done much more.. Much More. They were contempt with sitting back against mexico when if they truly wanted to exploit their potential against, i note, a 10 man side, they could have beaten them 3-0 easily.

As far as Oranje is concerned, I definitely admit to you up front that we dont have the skills portugal has.. And Im sure deep inside everybody in here knows that… But we have so much heart and will to not allow them score and outplay us that really is nothing short of amazing. Against argentina in the beginning, i was praying and hoping we dont concede more than 2 goals.. The biggest team i believe in this wc so far, and we managed to keep them out of our net. And again i dont believe they were such a b-side team when they had most of their original midfielders playing from the start (riquelme; cambiasso; etc etc.).. We only managed to keep them out by giving everything a human being can possibly do in this situation. We jumped, we scrambled, we double tagged; we never had the eye away from the ball, always followed their attackers everywhere they went……. And we did this for every minute of the f***ing game.
THAT to me says a whole lot.

Posted from  Russian Federation

hear,hear Rami

any ops on the presumed starting 11???

greetz

Posted from  Netherlands