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Stijn Schaars doesn’t dream of the title. Yet…

February 3rd, 2009 | By: Jan | 12 Comments »

AZ had a great weekend. Ajax lost and the leaders won their own match at Sparta. And AZ came through the transfer window unscathed. Skipper and international Stijn Schaars gives his opinion.

“There’s still a long way to go. Three games ahead is good, but once you hit a losing streak, it can be gone before you know it. We won’t factor it in, but it’s football. Anything can happen. But, we’re in a comfortable position,” the AZ man said.

“We need to play to our own strength. You can’t influence others, you need to it yourself. That’s also how we got to where we are. But when the competition drops points, yeah…that’s good…”

And with all that, Schaars also made his way back into Bert van Marwijk’s preliminary selection for the game against Tunisia.

“It’s too early to dream of the title. We need to hold on to this lead till the end. It will become more and more tangible, but there’s still a way to go.”

Not having lost players to the big money clubs is also a victory. Important players like Demy de Zeeuw and Mounir El Hamdaoui appeared on many a shortlist. Still, Schaars doesn’t want to use the word “relieved”. “Nah, it doesn’t feel like being relieved. We didn’t even mention it amongst ourselves. There may have been some latent interest, but that’s always the case when you lead and players can present themselves in the national team and all that. But, nothing materialized and that’s cool.”

“Demy de Zeeuw said it good. He said, you need to stay now, because if AZ wins the title you’ll never forgive yourself. This team is really close. We want to show the world something. We all share the same vision and we want to reach that goal.”

In a week and a half, the AZ internationals will fly off to several friendly internationals. Schaars is back in the Oranje squad. Is such a break actually a good thing, now AZ is in the flow. “If you don’t want to be selected for the Dutch team, you should start playing football. I am delighted with my invite. It’s the preliminary, I know, but I have good hopes to make it. Competition is huge, though. But it would be tremendous to be back.”

Tags: Ajax, AZ, Bert van Marwijk, De Zeeuw, Group C, Oranje, Schaars, van Gaal

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Comments

By Carlos | February 4th, 2009 at 12:16 am

Am a BIG fan – the sooner he is back in Oranje the better !

Posted from Singapore

By Alex | February 4th, 2009 at 7:01 am

If I had to make a list of best performing defenders in 2009 so far i’d have to create some players on one position. I’m trying to be as objective as possible.

1-Mathijsen, Marcellis — both consistent and steady matches
2-El-Akchaoui
3-Braafheid,

under top three(/four)
-Wielaert(did well, but with ajax his defaults are more noticable so my rating dropped since last time)
-Zuiverloon (recovering from loss of form, more and more comfortable again)
-Heitinga (although shaky sometimes, still regular in Atletico defence and has recovered a bit)
-V.d.Wiel
-Donk (rough start but making a more confident return in WBA line-up, still needs to learn)

(Bouma-injured)

I anyone disagrees, that’s fine.

further Update
Heitinga played the full match for Atletico, they lost 2-1 from Valladolid but didn’t see the match and couldn’t get info from someone who did so whether Heitinga playeed terrible or well isn’t known to me. I’ll try to find out.
Donk and Zuiverloon lost 3-1 in FA cup to Burnley. But apparently they did well, and were only troubled by free-kicks, corners and such, but amazingly Burnley was really effective and scored in the few chances they had, although with luck. Zuiverloon scored the 1-1. Burnley is currently in Championship, so don’t know how much value I should put to good performances against them.
Someone wanted to hear about V.d.Wiel.
Well he’s playing pretty consistent, but is being dragged down with Ajax’ bad form. Still not that bad.

BTW someone said Bouma, Heitinga, Mathijsen were dime a dozen. I think it was Jan. That’s only partially true, believe me. Emanuelson a defender to be enthusiastic about, that’s a good joke, hardly a oranje worthy defender. Braafheid and Marcellis deserve a spot in oranje but still no better then Bouma, Heitinga, although both equal to Mathijsen i’ll give you that. Zuiverloon isn’t ready for oranje yet , he’s struggling with his speed, pace and fitness, he needs to find a steady form and score a consistent 7 or preferably 8 in PL before i’d put him as our regular right-back, otherwise we could just as easily bring back the old hag Melchiot.

what you do with this message is you’re responsibility

Posted from Netherlands

By finnster01 | February 4th, 2009 at 7:34 am

@Alex: Thanks again for the update. Keep them coming!! Good stuff.

By sonneveld | February 4th, 2009 at 7:47 am

maduro apparently had a impressive display as defense for valencia

By Caleb | February 4th, 2009 at 11:15 am

I saw the Zuiverloon goal this morning before I went to work – nicely done. Hopefully he can continue his progress and become consistent so that we can have a nice attacking full back in Oranje.

Posted from Canada

By Andrew | February 4th, 2009 at 1:14 pm

@Alex, that was me who asked about VD Wiel, thanks for the info, and good all around report. It is appreciated. Braafheid’s name keeps pooing up everywhere. I suppose the knockout rounds of the UEFA cup will give an additional reading on him. By the way, who is Oranje’s right back these days?

Posted from United States

By ClockworkOrange | February 4th, 2009 at 2:27 pm

I don’t know anything about Braafheid, but judging by his name alone he should be a good defender!

Posted from United States

By Jan | February 4th, 2009 at 4:26 pm

Thanks Alex .

By ian | February 4th, 2009 at 4:54 pm

can anyone find a link for the zuiverloon goal

By Carlos | February 4th, 2009 at 6:05 pm

Just watched Everton beat Pool in extra time – Andy vd Meyde came on last 15 min -didnt touch the ball first 10 min – scuffled with Babel – last 2 min he crossed the ball from the right to set up the goal. he looks fat – bald – out of condition – but still has a mean cross !

Posted from Singapore

By ian | February 4th, 2009 at 10:18 pm

yeah i watched it too, babel looked much better. i was thinking if it went to penalties babel kuyt and maybe van der meyde might all shoot

By Alex | February 5th, 2009 at 4:39 am

Maduro played in Valencia’s defence before, but not really noticable, if it’s true he has taken a step casue last time i saw him there he was hardly involved with the game. I didn’t really notice him until I saw the line-up afterwards. But maybe that’s a good thing?

BTW Who is our right back?? I have no idea, Heitinga will probably be sacrified to play on the right, I think Bertje is going to keep Ooijer in centre, but he might as well put Boulahrouz there then cause they get more or less the same playing time and Boulah makes a better impression on me.
Boulahrouz could also be put there by Bert, although it’s not his preferable place. But if V.Marwijk is going to play Robben on the right were he is impressing now, i’d say you need a more attacking right-back like Sergio Ramos is at Real. so maybe Mendes da Silva will play right-back. Didn’s see the Liverpool game