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Press conference: Van Basten looks back

June 29th, 2006 | By: Jan | 13 Comments »

Three days after Oranje was ousted of the WC, Marco van Basten looks back… He saw his team trying their best, but fighting too much resistance. “Alas, we couldn’t dominate. We did wanted to, but at a WC, you just meet a lot of very strong opponents, who didn’t let us dominate. They just pushed us back. We wanted to dominate, but sometimes you just have to face reality.”

“Obviously, I was disappointed as well. I had to wipe the tears from my eyes, I can tell you. But I really can’t blame myself. I think I deserve a 7 for my work.”

At the first press-conference post-WC, Van Basten said: “We did play well at times, and I am satisfied with certain elements. It does strengthen me in my vision. We want to keep on going in that direction. That’s how we made our name and it worked well for us in the past.”

Oranje was not strong enough against Portugal in a tumultuous match. “I think the Portuguese just got the better of us. They played with us a bit, shrewd actors as they are. We forgot to play our game, at moments when it counted….”

“I now feel that the fans in Holland are looking for something or someone to take apart, coz we got ousted sooner than they wanted. And I have been reading some really strange remarks by the punters lately. I do feel we should all try to act normal and decent. Look at where we started. A new team, a relatively un-experienced coach… We set our goals for the EC2008, but when the WC qualification went smoothly, obviously we wanted to do really well at this WC. Also, the criticism that the trainers staff is too experienced is nonsense to me. I mean, among the four of us (Van Basten, Van ‘t Schip, Menzo and Rob Witsgsche) we did have some experience in football.”

When someone asked why a pitbull like Davids wasn’t selected, van Basten quipped: “Jan Wouters was quite a pitbull…. But he was of the past. We decided not to select him either” He said this about his selection: “Klaas Jan Huntelaar is a great striker. And a young one too. He will get there, no doubt. We may even see a lot of him in the run up to the ED2008. For now, I was content with my strikers. And you can’t oversee it all when you make your selection. Kromkamp didn’t deliver and Jaliens had a setback with his injury.”

On the criticism on boulahrouz’s replacement, or lack of: ” That’s always easy to do, saying that he should’ve been replaced because of his booking… So when do you do that then? Right after he was booked? Or at half time? Or after 60 minutes? Who knows… It’s easy to say these things in hindsight…”

“We will hold on to our original vision. Play attractive and dominant football. That will not change. The next two years will mean another step in our progression and I’m looking forward to it…”

Tags: Edgar Davids, marco van basten, Netherlands

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Comments

By Marcus | June 29th, 2006 at 4:02 pm

Holland was not strong compare to Portugal. Clearly Holland is less superior to Portugal because they failed to win against a team who was twice down by a man and without both deco and C. Ronaldo.

The Holland team was an insult to soccer (and Portugal to blame also) …but it was clear that Holland started playing rought and not honoring fair play by returning the ball to Portugal after the Injury.

I have a Dutch jersey, but I will never wear it again, because clearly Holland did not play fair…with that said derseved to lose.

Van Bastern, needs to accept that they clearly are not better than Portugal.

Posted from Bermuda

By micha | June 29th, 2006 at 5:34 pm

Ok the tournament is over and we are out of the world cup in a particularely disturbing fashion. No one would be looking to blame anyone if we had lost in the semi-s to Brazil; that would have been perfectly understandable for such a young team.
So now KNVB extended Van Bastens contract to 2010, but surely this is contingent on some kind of expectations for 2008 euro’s performance. I mean if Holland fail to make an appearance at the finals of 2008 or win it outright, on their 20th anniversary of their last European success. Then Van Bastens tenure as coach for the next world cup will once again be up for debate. Lets hope there is finally going to be hope on the horizon, Netherlands must get back to the dominant form that has made them the team nobody wants to play, I wish Van Basten luck on his mission, but will be watching him carefully in the qualifiers for Euro. Hup Holland.

By Juiced Orange | June 29th, 2006 at 7:42 pm

Holland’s 2008 Group:

Holland
Romania
Bulgaria
Slovenia
Albania
Belarus
Luxembourg

If you can’t qualify out of this group then your team is truely the most over-hyped piece of S@%t in the entire tournament. VB shouldn’t be allowed to coach 5 year olds if his team don’t qualify.

Posted from United States

By Luis | June 29th, 2006 at 9:40 pm

If Van Basten had said:

“They ‘out’played us a bit, shrewd ‘footballers’ as they are.”

It might have some validity. I caution you against building a comeback built on a lie. That could lead you to another moment of great frustration. I hope I’m wrong. I want to see great Dutch football. Cheers guys.

Posted from United States

By marnix | June 29th, 2006 at 9:47 pm

Marco: Need some tissues ? Stop crying and losen up. It looks like some of the players are pretty scared of you and that’s no good.

Posted from France

By Rami | June 29th, 2006 at 11:18 pm

Well.. At least, hes giving himself a 7.
I realized that in all his replies, he outclevers the person asking the question.. Publicly hes definitely not gonna plead guilty and mistaken. But I have a feeling that deep inside he knows exactly where he made mistakes. Sometimes i guess for an unexperienced coach like him, it is difficult not to do mistakes in a tense-full 90 mins, but looking back at those 90 mins, Im sure the smart, clever, and witty person that he is knows exactly where he went wrong/right.

As Micha mentions, i will also be looking at his developements throughout the EC qualification matchups very closely. But I surely wish all the best.
Hope someday, not too long from now, we will hold a trophy and declare ourselves Champions !!

Posted from Russian Federation

By Graça | June 30th, 2006 at 1:00 am

hello! i´m brazilian and i always support holland as my second team. like your orange colour. i can tell you most people here in brazil like your team. i´ve been reading the blog, it´s very interesting and funny the feeling you have about football. it´s so similar to ours, we just love football and the wc. if brazil loses the game against france we will miss so much and spend a lot of days talking about the chances and the goals we missed.. anyway, i´m glad to talk to you. you don´t have to worry, your team is as good as the others, you always have good players and it´s just a matter of time. you´ll get your cups soon. best wishes

Posted from Brazil

By lourenço | June 30th, 2006 at 1:35 am

Shame on you, Mr. Van Basten, Shame on you. I was a big fan of your football and your fantastic gols. In the game against Portugal, in your mind was just “eliminate Ronaldo, Figo and Deco”. Well, you did it concerning Ronaldo. When a Portuguese player was injured, in 22 time you didn’t return the ball.
This in not the van Basten that i knew. This in not the fantastic team that i knew when i was a child, with Croift, and then with the fabulouse Gulit, Rijkard, Koeman and ….. Van basten. I’ve learned football with you. Now i can just learn violent football, bad mood and lack of fair play.
Shame on you, Mr. Van Basten

By micha | June 30th, 2006 at 7:10 am

I seriously think the Portuguese fans only saw that game in Porto-vision. I just watched the replay of the game and I feel much better after having done so; if you get a chance please watch it again; nothing these idiots say holds any water, we outplayed Portugal completely and they out cheated us, completely, end of story. The whole world watched and its on record, no team deserves to lose more than Shity Portugal. I hope England sends your club where they belong, into the WC hall of shame. Your victory is the new hand of god (maradona), except he is good and you are not. I will rejoice at your loss. Hup Holland.

By Luis | June 30th, 2006 at 7:32 am

Micha - I’ve seen it many times and every play. I’m just saying that you were badly served by van Basten.

Posted from United States

By sphinx | June 30th, 2006 at 8:56 am

After replay!!
Two of Basten’s explanations are nor correct.
1. We can’t domainate the game.
2. Portugals play better than us.n
Nentherlands was beaten not because of being out played or lack of domainancy.
cause of
1. Conceed early goal. Once you conceed first almost no chance turn around in that type of game.
2. Basten fell into Scholari’s counter attack trap while he talking about staying back n’ times. Dutch too addict to pressing game.
3. Basten looked to have no contigency plan once they conceeded first.
4. No Ruud, no Huntelaar, no Makaay and no real goal scorer in the team.
5. Finally Basten is too in experience to read and react the game, running out of tactics.
Most harmful thought of Basten to the game is over relience on Domainancy.
The question is do you have players good enough to domainate against best teams?
And taking advantage of domainancy to score goals always need technicians, all round players were not enough.
Please get it to the more practical ground.

Posted from Germany

By laprimavera | July 1st, 2006 at 3:30 am

Just get rid of him. The type of football that Dutch played in this World Cup, to the dismay of long-time Dutch fans all over the world, doesn’t suit the Dutch. Playing dirty and bullying is not “Dominancy”. For him to say about Portugese “They played with us a bit, shrewd actors as they are” is so preposterous. Who was acting? More Dutch than Portugal if I recall.

Posted from United States

By Jan | July 1st, 2006 at 12:34 pm

@Graca
Thanks for your kind words!

@Marcus
Mate, we’ve discussed all this at length in earlier posts… That fair play give the ball back thing is bollocks! I’ll recap it one more time :-). The Portugal keeper gets hurt. The Portuguese have the ball and they DO NOT stop the game. They went on to attack. The ref stopped the game. And after that, the ref gives a referee-ball. Those are the rules. Holland won the ball back and kept possession. Those fair play “rules” you talk about only apply if the Portuguese themselves would have stopped the game and kicked the ball out. That was NOT the case.

Posted from Australia