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Thanks for the memories….

June 22nd, 2008 | By: Jan | 52 Comments »

Gio and Sar celebrate the fact the Russians only scored three times!!

Despite the defeat against a strong and vibrant Russia, a warm thank you to Gio, Edwin, Marco, Nigel, Ruud, Robin and all the others for the wonderful memories this tournament. We were critical and skeptcial before the start. We became euphoric after two matches and for the quarter finals we were dreaming a bit about the title. We showed we can play great football when the circumstances are right. We enticed the world but also showed we’re only human after all.

We need to lick our wounds and take the lessons with us into the future. Without San Marco, without Edwin van der Sar, but with a lot of hope, confidence, loyalty and excitement.

And a warm welcome to you, my dear bloggers from all over the world! Goose from Holland, Bob and Finn in the US, Jan in Switzerland, Dirk from Canada, Lerkot from Sweden, Ferenc in Hungary, Bobotoh, Tiju, Tjeerd, Rob, Felix, Caleb, Sphinx, Alaa, Ayl, Jenina… I’m sorry, I can’t name you all, but you know who you are!

This blog comes alive thanks to you and your comments, support, help, criticism, insights have been extremely useful in making this the best blog ever. The Oranje team may not win the title, this blog deserves the world cup and that’s is thanks to all of us.

I have enjoyed every minute of it in the last two years and as far as I am concerned, I will add another two years! It’s great to see so many new names from all over the world and I hope you will stick around in the future.

Because, this EC may be over for Holland, but this blog will continue. We have an Olympic tournament coming, with Foppe de Haan’s team (Ryan Babel could be in that, actually), the Eredivisie will start soon (with San Marco as Ajax coach) and Bert van Marwijk will lead Oranje into the WC2010 qualifications.

A lot of stuff to look forward to and if you keep on visiting, I’ll tap on the keyboard till my fingers cramp up and the ref needs to stop the game to allow me some medical attention!

It’s been an honour to cheer with you guys and to cry with you.

Will you stick with me and follow our journey to the next tournament? History in the making, my friends. Be there or be square!

Tags: Basten, Gio, Group C, Hiddink, Marwijk, Nistelrooy, Sneijder, van der Sar

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Comments

Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 52 comments.

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By behnaz | June 23rd, 2008 at 4:57 am

i think they have the best technical pllayers and they r the only team wich sho an europen soccer but the couldn win the game and thu out!! it so depressing because i count on them as the champion

By ferenc | June 23rd, 2008 at 5:35 am

Jan. I don’t want to repeat Goose. i feel exactly the same. this is obvious that you’re THE MAN to keep together all oranje supporters all over the world. great job and congratulation. we have to build a great team - with a great defence and every player available - and go for winning the wc 2010.

Posted from Hungary

By Jan | June 23rd, 2008 at 6:17 am

Jackson: Setanta does air highlights of the Eredivisie and occasionaly a whole match. They claim to cover the qualifications for WC2010 as well, but I’ve never seen a Holland game on there. Unless they play Australia.

By stavrogin | June 23rd, 2008 at 6:33 am

ok heres my “before i die wishlist” (a bit too late asusual)

ajax winning champions league with 8 youth team players:)
-holland winning worldcup with 4-3-3 & scoring 0 goals from set-pieces
- barcelona trouncing madrid in madrid 5-0 with cryuff’s grandson scoring a hat-trick
& yeah thanks jan..this really is an amazing blog…being an indian & all, i dont have too much access to dutch soccer etc..so this is really important(& u write really well)

Posted from India

By JacksonVK | June 23rd, 2008 at 6:36 am

Thanks Jan. So its difficult to get any Dutch action bar that Eredivise highlights show… Shame. Perhaps as the 2010 qualification process intensifies we’ll get lucky.

Posted from Australia

By goose | June 23rd, 2008 at 7:01 am

im 31; before i die i would like to see;

1. Dutch world domination (political)
2. Belgium territory be returned to Holland
3. Peace in the MiddleEast
4. Beat Germany in a WC final 4-0
5. Beat Portugal in the semi of the WC 7-0
6. Christiano Ronaldo lose a leg during a hunting adventure
7. Jan becoming the new oranje - media person
8. My little boy playing in Oranje
9. War between Italy and Uganda resulting in the annexation of the former
10.Christiano Ronaldo losing his other leg in a freak car accident

Posted from Netherlands

By Jan | June 23rd, 2008 at 8:10 am

I’m sorry Jan,
I was away over the past two days and only managed to see the Russia-NL game on a tiny portable tv with a very bad video quality.

I was shocked, the pain was great, because I really believed we could win. This had to be won for van der Sar (we’ll miss him so much, perhaps we don’t see it now, but we’ll understand it when the qualifiers start, what a world-class keeper we had!), Boulahrouz and the entire team.

I hope I live to see Holland gather what it deserves.
Thanks for the great blog, I’ll probably still be around to cheer Switzerland and help getting them to WC2010.
How about a Switzerland-Holland final?

Posted from Italy

By finnster01 | June 23rd, 2008 at 8:38 am

My wish list:
1) Ajax winning the CL and being in the stands watching the final
2) Oranje actually winning something made out of silver instead of breaking peoples heart
3) Guus Hiddink becomes coach of Oranje again
4) Dick Advocaat becomes coach of Iraq
5) Jan becomes secretary general of the UN
6) Goose becomes prime minister of Holland
7) Italy not qualifying for WC2010,2014,2018,2022,2026….
Feyenoord starts playing cricket instead
9) Van Basten actually gets a friend and manage to keep him
10) Ronaldo having to retire after being run over by the Oranje Angel on her bicycle

Posted from United States

By Michel-Olivier | June 23rd, 2008 at 9:09 am

@ finnster01
ajax will win the league next season. i’m a nederland fan but WC 2010 is not going to be europe year because no european country as ever won the WC outside of europe, so all dutch fan should focus on euro 2012. usa is getting to expensive so i rather move across the pond(canada).:)

Posted from United States

By goose | June 23rd, 2008 at 9:29 am

@finnster; hahahaha .. point nr10!! very good!!

Posted from Netherlands

By ferenc | June 23rd, 2008 at 9:36 am

my wishlist:
1. oranje becomes world champion in my lifetime (i’m 46),but i’d prefer in 2010
2. frank rijkaard becomes coach of oranje
3. ajax wins the cl (in a final against fc barcelona)
4. the following year barcelona wins the cl (against ajax)
5. after all: every year the same final in the cl with different results (ajax-barcelona)
6. psv and feyenoord win respectively the uefa cup
7. marco van basten becomes a great coach
8. goose and jan write a 1000-page-long book (in english) about the history of dutch football and won the nobel prize (litterature) for it
9. having a rock-solid oranje defence
10.i don’t know

Posted from Hungary

By --HedonistiX | June 23rd, 2008 at 9:45 am

@Michel-Olivier:

It will be even better if the Oranje can win WC 2010 in South Africa, being the first European squad to win in another continent.

My Top 10 wishlist:
1. Oranje wins WC 2010
2. Oranje wins EC 2012

Repeat that 5x.

–H

P.S.: I’ve been hurt so many times, I can dream, can I not?

Posted from United States

By Caleb | June 23rd, 2008 at 10:37 am

Thanks for all the great articles during the EC Jan! I didn’t have time to read all of the comments - would have taken hours - but it was great having a lot of discussion here on the blog (except for a few idiot trolls).
I’ll be seeing all you other regulars and the newcomers who stick around during the WC qualification. EC ended in heartbreak, so instead of feeling depressed let’s set our hopes on the WC (and repeat that cycle after every tournament failure :P)

Posted from Canada

By Finnster01 | June 23rd, 2008 at 10:58 am

@Michel,
you are right about US getting too expensive. Quebec is very nice, especially if you can speak French (I can’t). Beautiful cities though, Montreal & Quebec. Nice ladies also:-) Has a very European feeling to it.
Economically Montreal is a little depressed these days, but with that always comes opportunities. Quebec City is a little too sanitary for me and unless you work in government, you may have limited opportunities.

If you work in finance (like I do), the place to be in Canada is Toronto. lovely city, very multi-cultural, and in many repects a cleaner version of New York (sorry, New Amsterdam). You’ll like canada. A very nice country.

Posted from United States

By ferenc | June 23rd, 2008 at 11:25 am

nice to reead this about quebec because i’m going to go there for my fall holiday (2 weeks in september,and i’ll fly the 11th) and will visit exactly these 2 cities (montreal, quebec ville and maybe ottawa):-) thx Finnister

sorry for the off-topic

Posted from Hungary

By Devi | June 23rd, 2008 at 12:29 pm

I just discovered this blog before the Holland-Italy game, and what a great find! I’ve been in love with dutch football since ‘98 wc, and have been cheering them on with all my heart ever since. even though i’m not dutch, like alaa and other oranje supporters, my heart soars when the oranje win, and i can be quite depressed when they lose! i could barely sleep after the russia game, and i didn’t know what to do with myself. thanks for a great blog, and i will be checking in to read your wonderful insights, and the wonderful comments.

and for ferenc, montreal is beautiful during the fall. i’m originally from toronto, and the two cities have quite a rivalry, but i’d prefer montreal to toronto for vacation anyday =)

Posted from United States

By goose | June 23rd, 2008 at 1:05 pm

@Ferenc; my guess is that the number 9 on your list is the one least likely to happen! haha

Posted from Netherlands

By Bob | June 23rd, 2008 at 5:43 pm

Jan, and all, the great poet Kahlil Gibran once wrote that “work is love made visible.” I believe, friend, that the work you have performed to make this blog so terrific is a measure of the love you have for the Netherlands, for Dutch football and for the joy you have brought to all of us who have joined you in this adventure. You provide a space in our lives to share with each other our thoughts, concerns, aggravations and joys for and about Netherlands football. Thank you, so very much, and may we continue to share with you this road you give to us and for as long as you want to provide it.

Posted from United States

By manmeet | June 23rd, 2008 at 9:16 pm

Netherlands went out and 90% of the charm for the EC went out.
I still can’t believe the way mighty Netherland played against Russia.

Anyway Jan you did the very good work and will be here till I exist, I love oranje very much and I know I will get all the stuff over here to satisfy my appetite.

By Jan | June 24th, 2008 at 6:52 am

Ah :-)…

Those were all great wishlists… Some of them really cracked me up!

Well done! I just read C Ronaldo wants to get the Dutch citizenship because we all love him so much.

By huips | June 24th, 2008 at 8:19 am

Hey, Jan!

No idea who you are, but one thing´s for sure. You´re one hellova blogger. And what´s more important.. you really know what you´re talkin’ ’bout. Huge thanks to you! You made me follow Holland with high intense and loved every bit of it. Your love of footy is just pure pleasure to notice.

Keep it goin’

Posted from Finland

By taha | June 24th, 2008 at 11:52 am

I’m the unique fan of Holland team and Ajax Club in my village, sorry in my country ‘Algeria’, but I know that is not a good choice, beacause of results of both teams. my friends sent me an sms to make fun of me because of holland team,for example this sms: “shame on Van…”.

By Van Basten | June 24th, 2008 at 5:51 pm

YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAH……..ORANJE ARE LOVED EVERYWHERE!From all corners on Earth…From Finland to Algeria, From Vladivostok to Amsterdam, from Australia to USA…It’s all about NETHERLANDS!

Posted from United States

By Finnster01 | June 24th, 2008 at 6:23 pm

Oranje Angel Update!!!!

Just checked the Norwegian newspapers and one of them is running a piece about who has the prettiest supporters in EC08…. Well, the Dutch candidate is no other than our beloved Oranje Angel!!!! Yeah baby!!!

http://www.dagbladet.no/sport/2008/06/24/539069.html?1214316066#1214316066

If you scroll down the article, you’ll see photos of all the candidates. Looks like right now it is not just Oranje who came up short, but also our Oranje Angel. She is only lying third (behind Portugal & Italy). there are actually some real dog’s brekfasts in there too (like Spain, they surely can do better than that I would have thought…)

We should at least overtake Italy. Click on “Nederland” & “stem” (means vote) and lets see if we can’t catch up!!!

Posted from United States

By zhb | June 26th, 2008 at 2:19 pm

i’m an oranje fan from india(!!!), we’re 153rd in the fifa ranking and unlikely to appear in any WC finals for another 153 years, so my football loyalty’s been with the oranje since the 94 WC - anyone remembers that valiant match against germany?
anyway That day when the russians scored the first goal i switched off the tv because i was too nervous to sit through the match. i refused to hear the result until 40 hours later. Sighh
at least a certain c.ronaldo was also booted out

Posted from India

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