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Ruud, Ruud, Ruud!! 1-0…

September 12th, 2007 | By: Jan | 20 Comments »

Guys, your comments tell me all I need to know about the match…. I’m truly sorry, I really hoped they would win us back, but it seems we “hate” them even more, now… Anyway, here’s the official AD-review:

Even Marco van Basten, normally very coldblooded, couldn’t resist dancing like a child along the lines. It was late, in injury-time, when Ruud van Nistelrooy scored a half volly goal, stumblin’, when no one counted on the three points anymore.

The striker saved his team sensationally in the second match after his mouch discussed come-back. With the victory over Albania the EC has come very close to Oranje. Mid October the decisive step can be made against Rumania.

The Albanian fans exploded in all their anger. Oranje was celebrating along the lines and Mario Melchiot was almost hit by exploding fireworks when he wanted to throw in. After the match, the players didn’t want to linger for a shower in the stadium but instead the sped to the airport where the Oranje charter (and some private-jets for the super-stars) were waiting.

Oranje escaped in a typical Balkan atmosphere. Hotheaded fans, bad lightint, a tight and crappy pitch. KNVB director Henk Kesler wasn’t allowed into the stadium till seconds before the match.

The atmosphere was terrible on pitch as well. Albania was actively looking for the boundaries and fanatically attacked our players. Particularly Robin van Persie was sought after, taunted and challenged. The tackles became sharper and the fans roared the butchers fanatically on.

The fans exploded in joy when Melchiot headed a ball behind Van der Sar. Ref Riley stopped play and gave Holland a free-kick but he saw things that weren’t there.

Remarkably, Van Basten chose the same line-up as Saturday, with only Ooijer replacing Heitinga, although he did state that he would change the team where possible. This message gave hope to the subs, particularly to Seedorf, but that hope was false.

Oranje struggled from minute 1 in Tirana and couldn’t get to decent football let alone good football. Albania started with a passionate offensive but decided fairly quickly to build a huge wall in front of their goal. Oranje needed to find openings in the little space that was left, but didn’t have the finesse to create anything.

All we got were some distance shots by Van Persie and Sneijder. But, Albania got as many opportunities, After 5 minutes De Zeeuw had to support his defense when Kapllani had a free scorings chance and Duro had a free shooting opportunity 15 minutes later.

Van Persie, unjust yellow-carded, was replaced by Van der Vaart in the second half, but again the first chance was for the home-team. Kapllani wanted to lob over Van der Sar but the shot wasn’t high enough. The Albanian goalie was tested in the 65th minute by Sneijder.

Desperately Oranje looked for openings but there always was a Albanian leg blocking any attempt. A red card for Cana led to the defeat of the home team. There was that little space for Van Nistelrooy on a Emanuelson - replacing Bouma - pass. Van Basten cheered as if he had scored himself!

Relief was the most apparent emotion afterwards, when Van Basten said: “At least we stayed calm. We didnt go crazy and we won. We should compliment the boys.”

Van Persie, Melchiot - had a good match - and Wesley Sneijder will be suspended for the Rumania game on October 13.

And this is the first reaction of a football expert in Holland:

We scored after the first cross from the wings. Emanuelson played well. Why do we start with Bouma anyway? We should be ashamed that we can’t take down such a defensive side. We are constantly too late in the duels, we try to play the passing game but our skills and pace let us down. It doesn’t work. Van Persie excels every week as the shadow striker at Arsenal, but Van Basten uses his terrific left foot on the right wing! Why? Our best midfielder stays on the bench and the slightly fit Van der Vaart is allowed on the field. Why? Again, our goalie and Melchiot were the best men, with De Zeeuw. That tells you something is horribly wrong. But…maybe I need to doubt my own judgements and maybe Van Basten sees it all better….I give up…

Tags: marco van basten, Robin van Persie, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, The Netherlands

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Comments

By Shqiperi | September 12th, 2007 at 9:52 pm

Wow we got robbed again, Albania deserved at least 1 pt, and probably all 3. WTF was the ref watching when he disallowed that own goal. Also Ruud used more force to grab and throw Cana then Cana did but he only got a yellow.

Posted from United States

By Jan | September 12th, 2007 at 10:27 pm

Interesting comment. You see, I haven’t watched the match myself (couldn’t get it in Oz) so I have to rely on what I read.

Van Basten claims the win was deserved, while most analysts say Albania had equal number of chances… Did you see the game?

Posted from Australia

By Mario | September 12th, 2007 at 11:11 pm

Yes I saw it, I am very mad…Babel, Sneijder, Ruud, van Persie, Seedorf, van der Sar and many more dutch players are starring for their clubs and at Oranje they seem to be other players…Is that the players fault or San Marco?.
Pretty obvious, isn´t it?

By goodie | September 13th, 2007 at 1:52 am

can the moderator cut out some of the irrelevant comments such as advertisement and foul language

a total waste of time for a busy person like me to read such irrelevant materials

Posted from Hong Kong

By Albanian | September 13th, 2007 at 2:11 am

It is really a shame that everybody speaks about fair play and non discrimination, but what we saw yesterday in the match was total discrimination. To refuse a clear goal, own goal more precisely, is unacceptable.
And then red card only for Cana, when Nistelrooy made the same gesture and got away with a yellow only. Finally the referres decided for 5 MINUTES injury time, because, of course, the result was still 0-0. I am pretty sure that everybody who watched the game feels the same regardless of nationality. So, yeah, let’s play fair play.

Posted from Switzerland

By goose | September 13th, 2007 at 4:10 am

oi, Albanian.. its true your team deserved at least a draw but please dont start about fair play as an Albanian..thats a laugh

your discrimination comment is pathetic… nobody cares that much about your team/ counrty…

and if you have more then 8 yellow card and a red card you automaticly play more then 4 minutes of extra time

can imagine your a bit dissapointed but stop writing this bs!!

wanker

Posted from Netherlands

By Jan | September 13th, 2007 at 4:19 am

I’d like to ask everyone to keep the four-letter words and all where they belong: in Tarantino films!

I had to manually delete some poetry from some posters and I think everyone has a right to be disappointed and have a certain slant on what happened, but let’s stay civil, ok?

Posted from Australia

By goose | September 13th, 2007 at 4:31 am

whos posts were that Jan?? not mine i hope… think a few f’s are allowed after such a game… dont want this to turn into the port. blog!!

Posted from Netherlands

By Jan | September 13th, 2007 at 5:29 am

No, we got some pretty awful comments from Albania fans, I guess using words like “fuck” “you” “bitches” in a certain order :-).

See Goodie’s request. You just missed them. But you knew those words already, so you didn’t miss anything…

Posted from Australia

By Bolo | September 13th, 2007 at 9:26 am

It was a dirty match, though mostly on Albanian side with constant schwalbes and commiting late tackles after the ball was already somewhere else. You’d almost think Rat King Scolari is their national coach. Anyway, Van Nistelrooy scored a rather magnificent goal at a crucial time. We had chances to open the scoring but were denied by some really anxious defending actions from Albanian side. As Van Basten already told the press, it was a tough game both physically and mentally. In the end we managed to pull through, though it could have been decided earlier already. It has to be said that Melchiot’s own goal looked pretty legitimate and we did seem to escape there. It should also be said the assault on Melchiot which caused the premature end of the game could’ve seriously impaired his hearing at least. The biggest problem we face are the kind of people like the person who commented how bad Van Basten was. This is not a football expert; he’s a pundit with very, very limited experience or know-how of anything actually soccer-related, and let’s not start on his manager-related know-how/experience. The last three words are the story of his life: “I give up.”
Other than that I’d just like to compliment Van Basten for being to able to get our squad an important victory against a very stubborn and sneaky opponent on their own grounds.

Posted from Netherlands

By ferenc | September 13th, 2007 at 9:47 am

who’s this football expert? (i think he just said the truth…) it seems that not him (and the kind of people) but van basten is the biggest problem.

Posted from Hungary

By alban | September 13th, 2007 at 10:22 am

hey everyone who does not respect albania—> http://www.espew.com etnoengjujt-you dont wanna fuck with albanians(listen that ang get fucked)

By journalist | September 13th, 2007 at 1:47 pm

Hi Jan! I think you are out of the reality. The referee was an idiot. In April, he sent of the mascot because he was making gestures. Dutch national team had many fans in Albania and all were glad to see them, but dhe Sneijder is a really bad player, who provoked Lorik Cana, THE CAPTAIN OF OLIMPIQUE DE MARSEILLE. I was behind Rud Hesp in the stadium and he aproved that the owngol of Melchiot was regular. The same thing was for all dutch journalists who were in the stadium. My friend, i’ts a shame for the referee, we all love dutch players, who really are very good

Posted from Albania

By Jan | September 13th, 2007 at 7:03 pm

Wow… :-)… Bob, the expert is actually Willem van Hanegem… Almost a Saint in Holland…

Alban, I definitely do not want to fuck anything remotely close to Albanian.

Journalist, thanks for your comments. I don’t know why I am out of reality??? I wrote in this article that the “ref saw things that weren’t there”. I never claimed it was a foul or the ref was great. Because I haven’t seen the game I need to rely on articles from media. I always mention that. I did quote van der Sar saying that he thought Melchiot was fouled, but don’t start on me for that…

Posted from Australia

By underwater | September 13th, 2007 at 10:03 pm

hey good people, this was an interesting game. im albanian and before the game i was thinking “ok, 3-0 for the dutch”, but it turned out to be very different. albania did deserve a draw this game. i don’t agree that the alb players were sneaky, i believe the dutch were as sneaky and a bit more arrogant. and as for the refery…i think we all agree that he was seeing things that were not there. i think he had the complexity of supporting stars vs. the “wild albanians”. ruud is a great player nonetheless, great finish.

an interesting fact reported by alb. media: van basten refused photos, autographs at the airport in Tirana and did not attend a press conference (only interviews for the dutch media). many alb. fans awaited him at the airport but he refused to even stop. is he really that arrogant, or do the dutch think they’ll get kidnapped if they stop in albania?

my friend alban, you are crazy posting things like that here. get some help.

By Jan | September 14th, 2007 at 2:45 am

It’s weird ain’it? I think underwater has a point, if what you write is true. It’s rude and inconsiderate to treat the Albanians that way, although I also read there was some cold warfare before the match, not allowing the KNVB officials in the stadium and all.

Let’s quickly forget this.

I think the Dutch do suffer from too much arrogance. They see the match against Albania as a unwanted stopover. Scared of their limbs and probably, subconsciously thinking “we will win this anyway” or something…

See my new plan for the UEFA

Posted from Australia

By Caleb | September 14th, 2007 at 7:28 am

Hahaha, wow! I can’t believe all the comments from some of you upset Albanians!　Do you really think there is an EU conspiracy to keep poor Albania down?? The ref is British so of course he is going to support the Dutch.. yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

And talking about the Dutch players provoking the Albanians.. yeah, and the Albanians are perfectly innocent.. like they guy rolling on the ground to get Van Persie a yellow. I agree that the Dutch weren’t spotless, and they probably were a little arrogant, but the Albanians are very far from innocent!

The Albanians shut down the Oranje offense well so a draw would have probably been a fair result, except for the fact that the Oranje has players of such quality that they can convert half chances into goals. That’s why Oranje won, plain and simple.

The loss stings, but try looking at your own team for the reason you lost instead of blaming everyone and everything else (EU conspiracies included). But look on the bright side, you weren’t going to qualify anyways, so what does it matter if you get 1 point or 0??

Posted from Japan

By Bledi | September 15th, 2007 at 2:53 pm

Hmm, how would the Dutch feel if they were got robbed by corrupt/blind referee? I bet you wouldn’t be happy about it. As for conspiracies - i did not read any such word. I just find the following a bit unjust from the referee: A goal and a red card - enough to turn around a game don’t you think?

Posted from Albania

By goose | September 15th, 2007 at 3:22 pm

get over it Bledi

Posted from Netherlands

By ferenc | September 15th, 2007 at 5:26 pm

it was just a game we won it (with bad football) and that’s it. no conspiracy,nothing,the game is over,we have 3 points,we should concentrate on the bucharest trip (and produce there something better).

Posted from Hungary

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