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Premonitions…

July 1st, 2006 | By: Mike | 9 Comments »

The Netherlands are out of the World Cup. When I slipped my brand new #11 Robben shirt out of the bag and put it on a wave of calm and confidence over took me. I’m not too worried about the future of the Dutch. Marco van Basten should remain coach. How many poor decisions has he made thus far? Only one glaring one in my mind - Kuyt vs. van Nistelrooy - and even so I can understand the logic in picking the hard-working Kuyt over the out of form van Nistelrooy can’t you? So with that I pledge my support for van Basten. He will remain manager.

We’ve also seen the last of a generation of players exit down the tunnel. Edwin van der Sar and Phillip Cocu have joined the ranks of Frank de Boer, Jaap Stam and Marc Overmars in retiring from international football. I can’t blame them. They’ve had long reasonably successful careers although oh how 1998 must still stick in their minds.

I predict that they will not be the only ones making their last appearance in the Oranje. I foresee van Bronckhorst, van Bommel and van Nistelrooy all at or near the end of their internatinal careers. Hang in there with me while I explain. Remember that the Dutch won the U-21 championship shortly before the World Cup began. I see large roles for Maduro, Schaars and Hofs in the midfield. de Cler should be given the starting left back spot after his performance against Argentina and with Emanuelson (named to the team of the tournament in Portugal) we have an up and coming successor. And lastly Huntelaar…I can’t wait to see him line up for the Dutch. I see him moving van Nistelrooy out of by the time 2008 rolls around. I haven’t totally convinced myself that van Nistelrooy won’t ever play again yet but I think Huntelaar will be an important piece in the squad for the tournament.

Ooijer will probably add another cap or two but don’t be surprised to see a young centre-back introduced into the squad fairly early on in qualifying.

I’m not ashamed to be a Dutch supporter. Far from it. I’m not embarassed by the team either. In the end it was their inexperience, not their lack of quality, that did them in. I can absolutely live with that.

Tags: marco van basten, Netherlands

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Comments

By ferenc | July 1st, 2006 at 1:57 am

sorry mike,but i think you’re the only one who thinks marco made no major mistakes… he did too much… i’m proud to be an oranje fan,but he should keep his experienced players and find the balance between them and the youngsters. and he should apologize to ruud. at the wc only 3 players did well: van der saar,robben and van persie…

Posted from Hungary

By Still Confused | July 1st, 2006 at 6:00 am

Still, I feel like I have had my stomach ripped out and dont know why I am so upset. I dont know if I’m upset at the Portuguese or the Holland team. But Marco stuck with his plan and it was not quite enough. Why are we always the brides mates. Robben and Van Persie were amazing but we were lacking the final piece. I will hold Marco to his 2008 promise.

Posted from Canada

By Rami | July 1st, 2006 at 10:21 am

Your the agressive type ferenc, arent u ? hehe..

well maybe ur right about the mistakes, however u exaggerate a little. At the end of the day, I think he did a good job. We speculate about davids and seedorf in there and them making the difference. But what makes u so sure they would have performed well?? davids is aging and had a mediocre season at tottenham.. Seedorf well hes doing good in ac milan but doesnt appear to fit in a 4-3-3 formation..

All in all i dont think VB made the best selections but it was good nevertheless, considering we’re at a stage where theres almsot a dusk of one generation and the dawn of a new one.. We were still hanging in between in this WC; so looking at the work he did with the team he selected, i think it was fairly good.. Not outstanding, we’re not elated with the guy’s work just yet but i feel theres also a general conviction that we can do much better next time.

After this WC, there is the start of a new era in dutch football.. The last one did its best, they nailed 4th place in 98, which was ok. The one before it won euro88. And the one before that one, namely cruijff’s generation, got to the WC finals twice but failed on both occasions. Obviously, all this is just not enough for us Dutch die-hard fans..

Now, This new generation will stay till 2012 if not 2014. So as mike and many ppl here believe, we have a very good chance of getting somewhere in the tourneys to come. Robben, VPersie, VDV, sneijder, de jong, maduro, Huntelaar and many others have still at least 2 euros and 2 WCs ahead of them. If we keep on progressing and growing as a team, we will definitely make headlines again, maybe this time even bigger ones.

The slumps of post 2000 (2000-2004) are far behind us now. So relax ferenc.. We can only get better, both as coach and players.. I dont vote for change now. At all. I say we take the risk with Van Basten and opt for continuity. Last generation didnt have that, remember. We used to change coaches just like we change shoes. One bad long-term strategy I hope we get rid of from now on.

Cant wait for 2/9/2006 to come my friends. Thats when holland will face luxemburg in their first qualification matchups. I’m anxious and excited already

Posted from Russian Federation

By Rami | July 1st, 2006 at 10:27 am

BTW Micha if u get this: you were right. I cant believe Argentina lost yesterday. They really deserved to win against germany.. I just hope our lucky neighbours dont go all the way, although its starting to seem as if they really would.
Damn. Suddenly, im hoping brazil wins again hehe..

Posted from Russian Federation

By sk8erboi | July 1st, 2006 at 12:47 pm

I have faith and belive in the years to come for Oranje, but I just have one place that needs to be filled in the team; the goalkeeper! Do we have someone good enough to fill in Van der Sar’s shoes??! This is my only concern to the future?

No, am not undermining any of the dutch goal keepers, I just never seen them play before! Even in the pre world cup match, when both of the subs played, it wasn’t enough for me to judge!

By Jan | July 1st, 2006 at 1:26 pm

my 2cents on this subject will appear in a seperate post.

Posted from Australia

By Mario F | July 1st, 2006 at 2:47 pm

And you will catch Portugal again…once more..

Posted from Sweden

By Rami | July 2nd, 2006 at 1:37 am

well mario congrats for portugal today.. you guys have SOME luck firing out of ur asses, its incredible.
Surprisingly u were less nasty and dirty against them, than against us; minus c.ronaldo’s disappointing sportsmanship of course, which resulted in rooney’s red card. Not sure what rooney will make of that when the two meet again at man utd a month from now. hehe

wish u all the luck against france. u will need it, again !!

Posted from Russian Federation

By Sander | July 3rd, 2006 at 10:11 am

s@k8erboi. Did you see Kenneth Vermeer in the U-21 team? I’m really excited about him. And untill he is ready, I think we can rely on the 4-years older Maarten Stekelenburg for a few years.

Posted from Netherlands