Some comments…..

Who the hell is Mario?

and who are you???

Posted from  Netherlands

I am guy from México and I follow the Dutch National team and Dutch soocer in general. I also play soccer as an amateur here in Mérida, Yucatán, close to Cancún that as you know is one of the most visited beaches in the world.
Well, I follow the Oranje since I was a boy when I watched them win the Euro 88, then watched the great Milan with the 3 Dutch supremos and the Ajax that dominated Europe in the mid´s 90´s and many more players as today´s time. Of course I have all my respects for the generation of Cruijf when Holland stablished a new whole concept of soccer style around the world.
All I can say is that I want to join these conversations in a very positive and respectful way talking about the team that I love the most with you guys and sharing my view of the game, I love to follow world soccer but my passion is Holland.
Fortunately here in México some big sports companies broadcast most of the Oranje games, even friendly ones and has the rights of the Eredivisie for long time ago now arosand of course the CL and some other TV channels broadcast La Liga of Spain, the Premiership, Bundesliga and Portuguese league and the Scottish PL so I can watch my favorite Dutch players and follow the ones I think can be good ones in the future. I watch the Eredivisie since Bergkamp started to make his mark over there and I have followed the progress and retirement of many Dutch players, some have been sucessful and some have not been so great but Holland has a lot of talent and will continue that way because there is new whole generation with hunger that in the coming years will deliver the goods we all wish with a lot of passion.
My younger brother and are probably the biggest fans in México of the Dutch National team and it is fun to see my friends teasing us when Holland or the Netherlands is not doing so great. I feel very identified with Dutch soccer because there is a proposal of an attacking style, technique, fast passing, talent, fast players and visionary players with great finishing and that is very rare to find in nowadays soccer. I know the national team is not respecting all these characteristics nowadays and that has to do a lot with our team manager. It is true, the Euro 2000 team is not to be compared with today´s one simply because the players of 2000 where experienced and most of them had won it all at club level. Today´s team for me has what it takes to even become better to that one but not today, for that these guys need to go abroad with important European teams and then you will see that the balance between today´s players vs. Euro 2000 team players is not that big, for example; I see Robin van Persie as a huge talent that will explode in years to come. He has everything to be the best player in the world in 3 or 5 years. Just he gained a regular spot at Arsenal and look now, he is very important to Arsenal…Heitinga, Sneijder, Babel, Huntelaar, De Zeeuw, Emmanuelson, Vlaar, Drenthe, Afellay and many more will be huge players, and some of them will be playing with the biggest guns of Europe in a very short time. Then we will see perhaps a better team than that of 2000.
Holland just needs a new direction as a manager and I am posiive that van Basten today is suffering a lot of pressure from press, and the “retired” players like van Bommel and Ruud that claim that under Marco they will not play again for Holland. Holland will qualify for Euro 08 but the people from Holland will ask for his head because the team will continue playing bad soccer and then a new coach will be appointed.
Holland has a great future guys and we have players like Seedorf, Makaay,van Nistelrooy and van Bommel that have 3 o 4 more years at the top level so they have a central role in helping the younger guys do a great job in the future.

Ah, I forgot, van der Sar is not a playing guy, but this man has everything to share his soccer knowledge to the younger guys.