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Robben: “It wasn’t bad, was it?

June 12th, 2006 | By: Jan | 11 Comments »

Every player has his own method in spicing things up mentally before a game. When all Dutch players were ready to go onto the pitch yesterday, Arjen Robben stayed a minute alone in the dressing room. Pumping himself up… No jungle cries for Arjen though… “TODAY, I WILL BE THE BEST!!!”, was his mantra. And with that, he joined his team mates. And, to be honest, his first 17 minutes were not good. He fell over the ball twice, he got one or two free kicks without really deserving them, his passing was weak… Just like all the sessions in the last weeks. Against Australia, Mexico, on the training… Balls bounced away, defenders blocked his shots… Robben was looking for his form… TODAY I WILL BE THE BEST… And then, in the 18th minute, van Persie sent Robben deep. And his perfect finish was the breakthrough the man from Bedum waited for. The remaining 70 minutes of the game, Robben was unstoppable…

After the game, all team mates were happy to lay it on the man… with a little bit of criticism… Van Nistelrooy: “Robben was outright fantastic!”. Dirk Kuyt: “Superb… Just brilliant… what can I say?” Van Basten: “I’m thankful he was born in Holland and not in Serbia!”.
Van Persie had something more to add: “Of course he played great! I’ll take nothing away from it, but he will have to realise that we do this as a team. This is not an attack on him, I mean that sometimes he needs to make choices that are good for the team, and not just for him. His impact on the game can only get bigger if he pays more attention to what’s going on around him”. Van Persie went on saying: ” I have tremendous respect for Arjen, but we did discuss this many times already with the team during training sessions… It’s a long WC, hopefully 7 matches, and we need a team effort to go all the way…”

Tags: Arjen Robben, Netherlands, Robin van Persie

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Comments

By rogi32 | June 12th, 2006 at 9:10 am

Holland had huge luck yesterday. This game should have ended with a draw and the win was undeserved. Serbi let unexperienced and young Nenad SDjordjevic play against Robben and of course this was a huge misatek. But when Igor Duljaj took over the job of guarding him, he looked a lt less dangerous, except for 1 free-kick in the second half.

Honestly, I wish the Oranje good luck, but I doubt if you will go far in this tournament, if the only things you count on is Robben and your Luck!

Posted from Germany

By Martijn | June 12th, 2006 at 9:20 am

Stick to your own team please rogi32. Wait a minute, Robben and van persie and van nistelyrooy had other great chances on goal, but they missed. As did the serbian team. Theey had some great chances, but they missed them, to bad. Holland was the better team in this game, there possesion in the midfield was dazzeling, and they played great.. Dont make up excuses.

Posted from Oman

By Jan | June 12th, 2006 at 10:01 am

Hmm… I didn’t see any lucky situations. No balls on the post or bar, no referee mistakes… I did see a couple of good opportunities to score for Holland and I didn’t see one real chance for S&M for which Sar needed to stretch himself… But, it’s all in the eye of the beholder, isn’t it?

Posted from Australia

By rogi32 | June 12th, 2006 at 11:46 am

Well i just think that this win was undeserved. Ive seen three or four good attacks by the dutch, but usually our defence was on the spot. we made one mistake and that was 1:0. In the second half suddenly you even started to play on time, with several players starting to get cramps and stuff like that. I think you were lucky in getting this result, guys and the overall media opinion is hyping one man, although duljaj didnt let him make much for 0ver 60 minutes, when nenad djordjevic was substituted.

Anyway I wish you good luck…

Posted from Germany

By FIFAworldcup.com - The Un Official Site of Fifa World Cup 2006 | June 12th, 2006 at 2:34 pm

Video: Serbia & Montenegro vs Netherlands

Date Played: June 11, 2006 (Group Stage)

Below is a video of the FIFA World Cup 2006 game between Serbia & Montenegro vs Netherlands wherein Robben Arjen of Netherlands scored the first and last goal of the match on the 18th minute of the game.
…

Posted from United States

By Daniel | June 12th, 2006 at 4:20 pm

Nah, it wasn’t undeserved nor luck. Robben scored a nice goal and Serbia didn’t create anything. Kezman didn’t once look dangerous.

I’m not saying Holland played great, but they played better than Serbia & Montenegro.

Holland should have put in another goal and, yeah, vdSar’s little Yoga exercises did stretch the clock a bit..

Posted from United States

By alaa | June 12th, 2006 at 4:35 pm

@rogi32
come on man, serbia sucked yesterday it is not our mistake if your team did not know how to deal with robben!

Posted from United States

By van win | June 13th, 2006 at 4:12 am

Rogi you are a pathetic baby. Cmon you knew your team would have problems scoring goals and you knew it would be tough against Holland. You are mad cause it was closer then expected and for a few seconds you could SNIFF a draw but it was not meant to be. NOw if HOlland had won 3-0 then it would be undeserving but 1-0 was a fair result.

Posted from Canada

By mark | June 13th, 2006 at 6:11 am

The orange jersey’s will be in the quaterfinals!
Big Game against Argentina next week.

Posted from United States

By rogi32 | June 15th, 2006 at 1:10 pm

sure, but why then making your cramp theatre 30 minutes ahead of the final whistle ???

I think S&M could have made a draw against oranje, but we were unlucky and you had luck. the oranje players knew that and tried to slow down the game. with success. well its not a performance i would expect from a wc favourite…

anyway no big deal. thats football just keep in mind, that your win was undeserved

Posted from Germany

By Jan | June 15th, 2006 at 1:19 pm

Hi Rogi32, Ehhmm…Sar’s muscle cramp was not to slow down the match man! The guy has been training seperately from the team and vBasten mentioned his calf issues in every press conference. I mean, come on! They won’t put up a play like that, would they? I do think it’s strange that a goalie gets that, but with the heat and all, he may have a weak spot there. Who knows. Bommel didn’t train with the group either. Just face it:
1. it was a tough match for both due to the heat and the slow pitch
2. your coach did some things his players didn’t like tactically which made them lose the 1st half (he corrected it later)
3. we had several real goal scoring opps, you guys none. If I remember correctly.

Am I right, or am I right ?

Posted from Australia

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