There is news!!

dont agree; still think the team let vanGaal down in 2001, true, marcos results are better but the shown performeses are NOT!!
We had a great team in 2001 but i think they were to old at the time and to arrogant against ireland, i still remember the crying vanGaal at the end when we were out…

vanGaal is commentator on the dutch tv when Oranje plays and i always agree with his comments, i mean when vanGaal says we play like crap hes right! When he says that vanBasten selects very unlogical hes right!! When he says theres no real progress hes right!!

Id say : vanBasten is the worst Bondscoach we ever had!!

btw. am i the only one posting here now???

grtz

Posted from  Netherlands

Why did Van Gaal critize Marco.
He selected so many AZ players and gave them the chance : Mendes da Silva, Opdam, Schaars, Landzaat, Mathijsen, Meerdink, Jaliens, De Cler and very soon De Zeew and Donk.
I cannot accept that : it is unfair as Marco appreciates a lot AZ and the management of Van Gaal and there are so many young Dutch talents !
The bad relation between both men is a big prejudice for the Selectie.
Another one with the bad situation of Ajax
I must say a point : AZ lacks mental strength and lost every top match. Van Gaal is not a magician.

True Goose, you are right. In 2002 WC qualifiers, a star-studded Oraanje threw away a two goal advantage to Portugal. Before that thanks to a Mario Melchiot blunder, the Rotterdam leg had been surrendered.
Van Gaal is a very good thinker of the game, but the only problem is his too hands-on approach to the game.
We qualified for WC 06, but the best team we played against was Karol Bruckner’s ageing Czechs. Definitely not in the same league as pre-2002 Portugal

Posted from  United States

I just rushed into this blog occasionally.
In fact,I am agree that Marco is right on this point.He just did the right to traverse,the certain thing you can do if someone criticized you a couple of times…
It is the truth and also Van Gaal’s nightmare to unquanlified for 2002 WC.

Posted from  Hong Kong

You and me mate… Die hards… We’re the only two Oranje fans left!

Posted from  Australia

Keep strong my friend, ill never quit!!

btw, worse bondscoach has to be Thijs Libregts!! Rememeber that saga! Maybe the main reason why things were so f3cked up!

grtz

Posted from  Netherlands

You’re not alone.

Posted from  United States

not alone.. keep posting these comments… this blog is the only thing keeping me alive till The Euro Championships…

Posted from  Switzerland

moehahaha, hi Louis!! Can we post on your blog?? Looks like this one is dying… oh i forgot..only if you love ronaldo

grtz

Posted from  Netherlands

jan and goose
you were brave heart and die hard.
pl don’t die, let me bring you good water.
Marco proves himself a shrewed lip also.
he may be better back biter than Mourinho.

Posted from  Myanmar

@Goose
“Id say : vanBasten is the worst Bondscoach we ever had!!”

I don’t know. I thought Advocaat should take that honor. It is true that the team is not playing particularly dominant or good footbal right now but I think that the talent pool van Basten has to pick from should be considered. And yeah I can already hear “he should have been loyal to van Bommel and Van Nistelrooy” but seriously they didn’t exactly set the world on fire in Germany.
The talent pool right now is about as thin as I can remember when it comes to mature talent. Some great kids on the way but if enough will pan out to make a difference a few years from now is yet to be seen.

Personally I wouldn’t at all be surprised of Van Basten decides to call it quits if the team does not improve under his guidance. Here is a guy to whom failure is not a concept he has really had to deal with much and I think right now executing his “vision” is failing miserably. I wonder if he has learned anything from the past year.

BTW. Also on the van Basten learning from this past year’s mistakes; He recently said he was going to get in contact with van Nistelrooy and make an attempt at clearing the air acknowledging that he could have handled that situation better.
So who knows; he may just be learning after all…

@Robert; there was never a real split up between vanBasten and vannistelrooij like with vanBommel, i think hell play the second half off qualifications (also importent for Huntelaar to learn from a striker who has already proven himself)

i agree vanBasten isnt the worst ever altough i personally liked Advocaat (esp. in 94 WC) but think hes to insecure and always playing safe (Robben change in 04)

true vanBommel and vanNistelrooij didnt play great at the WC but as you say yourself; its slim picking, vanBommel is one of the best midfieldplayers we have at the moment (and maybe it tells more the story of the slim picking than on the qualities of vanBommel altough he plays every game at Bayern and doing ok)

well, we can discuss if its vanBastens fault that the team doenst play like he set out to let them play, is it cause of vanBasten or the lack of talent in the team?

ill be very surprised if vanBasten went before 08..hers my scenario: well qualify, well win a game or two at the euros and then lose the first game in the knock-out stages…

well see

gtz

Posted from  Netherlands

I’m not going to agree that Van N was at fault at the World Cup. How many passes did he get? How many crosses? Almost none. Van Baasten threw out Van P, Robben and Van N, made no provision for the fact that their styles weren’t meshing - and then blamed Van N for it.

That was complete BS. Van N had nothing to work with. And Kuijt found himself in the same position against Portugal.

Van Baasten failed at the World Cup because he just wanted to ignore the tough choices - and he didn’t have the subs lined up.

Similar with Van Bommel. He didn’t play great, but didn’t appear that Van Baasten left him with much to work with either.

BUT - it does appear that the rookie is learning. Seedorf, talking to Van N. All good.

Merry Christmas! And may your New Year be Oranje!

Posted from  United States

I think Van Basten is as biased to his players as Luis is to Ronaldo.

Posted from  Canada

The problem, in my opinion of course, seems to be the fact that Van Basten talks a nice talk, but currently offers little more. He knows the rhetoric by heart but is unable to put it into action and this is simply an extension of his inexperience as a coach. He pulled, what 2 dozen new players up for a run initially, a shrewd tactical move for popularity, and admittedly I was excited with the prospect of fresh hearts and minds. But he failed to find a balance, and to compound this his ego sabotaged his relationship with the more sensitive “stars”.

The Dutch talent pool is no worse then any other top national team, perhaps we don’t have the depth of Brazil, but even their talent has failed them. The failing obviously is the ability to play as a team. The WC was painful, I half expected it, what with the youth of the team, but the selfish awkward play made my eyes hurt, and screamed of poor coaching. RVN I’m sure has his personality quirks, but the way he was treated by VB overstates my point. VB needs to go back and reconsider Rinus’ idea of each players “kingdom” and then learn to walk the walk as a coach.

I’m with goose and his prediction. The talent will get us out of the group stage, but the lack of leadership and team play will prevent much more. I really don’t want to be negative about all this but beyond individual “wow” moments from certain players there is little else to be optimistic about at this point.

Posted from  Canada

2 more goals for Van Persie, Robben nets the winner for Chelsea in extra time. Good day for the dutchmen.

Posted from  Canada

its about time Robben showed some decent performences; its been a while…

btw; there are some serious discussions in the dutch media about vanBasten and vanGaal… you know vanGaal is commentotar on the dutch tv when oranje plays and ofcourse he has a lot of criticisme; and hes right ofcourse!! Now vanBasten starts to cry like a little baby saying vanGaal should mind his own bussiness and saying vangaal was the worst bondscoach ever… he then phoned all his 1988 friends (Rijkaard, Koeman, Kieft) who start to pick on vanGaal aswell (Rijkaard was almost crying; haha), pathetic this vanBasten.. first he trys to be mister Cool who doenst really care .. but then some critisme arrives and he behaves like a little baby calling his friends to help him

there was a survey yesterday in de biggest dutch newspaper De Telegraaf which showed that 80 percent agree with vanGaal, and 65 percent rading vanGaals opinion on football higher than vanBastens!!!

vanBasten is strating to really annoy me!!!

btw; read some brilliant statistic. Every time a new guy plays James Bond, a dutch team wins a european cup!!!! This is really true!!!! hahahha, maybe AZ

grtz and happy holidays

Posted from  United States

Hey are comments back in business? Does anyone have details of friendly with Russia? Are we playing better?

glad to see this site is up and running once more. i was starting to go through withdrawals, especially since knvb.nl is no longer providing video feed of the games. did anyone catch the friendly against russia?

Posted from  Canada

Hi Jan, happy New Year! Why is there no option to leave comments on the new posts? What happened anyway? was the site attacked by hooligans? Should we start our own “firm”? I have been blaming the problem on the Portuguese football fans otherwise known as delusional sporters of womens apparel. I think I may be alone on this one, but I really prefer Vennegor to Kuyt. Kuyt is good but lacks the finesse play of a bergkamp or the finishing eye of kliuvert (when he was good). For the type of game Kuyt plays (bread and butter, with more effort and determination than finesse and skill) I really think Vennegor plays the same role with more polish. What is the Hiddink suit all about, sounds to me like tax issues, that is the thing they are most likely to throw you in jail for in Netherlands. Maybe there is some way to persuade an audit on Van Basten? Sounds like the team is not playing any better despite the lopsided score against Russia? I agree with your assesment of sneijder being more important to the mid-field than Seedorf. In my opinion Clarence plays better in Milan because of the chemistry that he has with that team. To Ac Milan Seedorf is essential and the team does not work right without him, but for Oranje I’m afraid he will play as he always has, MEDIOCRE at best. I certainly don’t want to make him the central architect of play for Oranje but this is his role in Milan, so unless all play runs through him what real use is he to us? Robben will monopolize the ball on the left wing and Seedorf will just get frustrated and accomplish nothing. Why not just bring back Davids instead, he is a better two way mid-fielder and can play without being the central focus. If Seedorf does not play the role he has in Milan, it is only logical, Davids was always better. Anyway, the personnel on Van Bastens team changes so much that in 3 years they have not developed any re pore as a team that complements one another or anticipates each others moves. If Marco wants to bring back old timers I vote for Jap Stam. As far as I can see we could use a center back that kills attacks dead; an imposing physical presence in the back seems to be lacking. We have enough passing play makers, like gio and Heitenga, but no bruts like Stam to close down attacks and get in the way of oncoming strikers. It just seems like there are holes in every department of the field, nothing in the Van Basten team is good enough to leave alone and move on. The defence is questionable, the mid field is unable to set up strikers or close down attacks, and the strikers are constantly changing; so they have no chemistry together and have trouble starting pressure, never mind finishing. I think Bergkamp may make a good coach one day, personality wise he seems like a better fit than ego van basten. And he was instrumental in helping Van Persie flourish in Arsenal. Too bad about the flying thing but it would not affect the Euro competition. Right now our team is as bad as England but our fans seem to be more tolerant? KNVB must be thinking about Van Bastens replacement by now, if all of us can see the writing on the wall they must be looking beyond the Euro’s too? I mean thats their job, right? I don’t think we can blame the players, the talent is their in abundance, but we just don’t have a team. We need management that can galvanize this generation into a group that plays collectively. All I see now is a bunch of players running around like it’s their first time on the pitch together? No one is playing to each others strengths and the result is a collective weakness. At the center of the sh*t storm sits Marco Van Basten, claiming that he is making good progress. I wonder how the players feel about the job he is doing? I know how I feel.

Definitively Sneijder is a great player, so strong with his two legs.
He is special, I do not see with whom I can compare him.
The Dutch team offered us some good moments. But as you say, friendly matches are often poor.

what i find frustrating about marco is the way he tries to impose his system on the team instead of creating a strategy that makes the most of his players’ strenghts. now i’m a fan of 4-3-3 but why did marco use that system against russia when he did not have a single winger at his disposal which forced kuyt and van der vaart to play out of position? i would have thought that the injuries to robben and v. persie would have provided an opportunity to try something different and play vaart in a free role behind the two strikers. i also feel that we are missing a holding midfield player that is comfortable on the ball. what do you guys think about playing sneijder there? he’s not very physical and it might constrain his creativity and shooting a little, but it would be way to effectively use both sneijder and vaart in the same line up. i also agree with misha that it would be great to have stam back, but unfortunately he already has declined marco’s invitation to come out of international retirement.

Posted from  Canada