True heroes are the penalty shooters: Borst

Ha ha, i like the comment about the goalies not being the heroes. However, i do think that they deserve the attention. Like, for example, in the 2004 Euro’s against Sweden i really felt that Van der Sar was the hero in at least a sense. He was the one who ultimately stopped the shots, therebye allowing his teamates to be in the position to win.

Also, I don’t think that because there is no real ‘risk’ for a keeper they can’t be heroes. What if he pulled off 5 of the greatest penalty saves ever seen?? Saves that any other man (or keeper) would have missed?? Would he still play second fiddle to some guy who had to convert a spotkick, knowing that if he missed, the next man in line could have a dig??? Plus, the scorer of the final penalty is quite often labelled a hero too (think Aloisi, Stuart Pearce etc).

Sure, goalies very well may save the ‘easy’ shots while letting in the rest during a shoot-out and still be labelled a hero, but i don’t see much difference between that and an outfield player scoring a sitter in the final minutes of normal time and being labelled a hero while the goalie had saved sitters all night.

Just so that you know, i’m not a keeper, but i have great respect for every player on the field, and i think that keepers quite often get the short end of the stick. So, i think that they deserve to be heroes once in a while haha. But i understand exactly what you mean.

Posted from  Australia

………by ‘you’ i mean you and Borst.

Posted from  Australia

[...] Deval Patrick Watch wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptTrue heroes are the penalty shooters: Borst By: Jan | March 16th, 2008 | No Comments » Sometimes Hugo Borst has it right. His column in http://www.ad.nl “Two things I don’t get: 1. Why is it always the goalie who is the hero after penalty series? If Jenas would have scored the fifth penalty, Tottenham would have gone through. But he missed. Gomez’ save seemed great. But it was a piece of cake. Jan van Beveren would have caught the ball. I mean it. Analyze those five penalty kicks. It was about tim [...]

A superb analytical post jan
with reality(these news papers they want to increase their circulation only)
bakkal and marcelis are the real heros coz they asked coach to give the oppertunity and they reverted apresent to the coach.
remm
zedorf and penaltys?
ha ha ha

Grosso was hero for italy in final where were no saves, Shevchenko was the hero in the champions league final (3 years back?). I think it’s more who scored or saved the last penalty that makes him the hero… and i think it’s much more difficult to save a penalty than scoring one. In training on 10 penalties Bakkal and Marcellis would probably score all 10.

They have good mental qualities to do it in the champions league. But I think they did nothing special in scoring those penalties… (I underestimate mental qualities??)

Yeah Grosso was a real hero. I watched this movie called Australia – Italy. Man, did he perform well. Like a real movie star.

hey i know that this is off topic but is De Guzman more of a defencive midfielder or offensive? bcuz i thnk that holland is currently lacking one superstar in the defensive midfielder position to play in the holding role (like van bommel). And u guys shuld check the uefa site out cuz there is a game u can play to predict the scores of games that lets u win tickets to the euro.

Posted from  Switzerland

Kervin – If I’m not mistaken, didn’t Scheva miss his penalty in the Champions league final three years ago, and thus Liverpool were able to win it?

Posted from  Japan

@Caleb, I think he was implying that Shevchenko was the hero for Liverpool, I could be wrong though.

Posted from  Canada

I think Kervin was referring to Andriy’s goal against Juventus which won them the trophy in 2003, and not his miss against Liverpool a few years later…

Posted from  Republic Of Korea

Thanks Marc! Cool idea… De Guzman is a creative midfielder if I’m not mistaken. So, Seedorf, Persie, Sneijder, Vaart, Afellay and now also De Guzman… It’s a bit much…

Posted from  Australia

As I see it, De Guzman is a little bit different than those guys, he’s a bit more of a scorer and a bit less of a playmaker. Could be a useful sub in that way.

I do not think it is a good idea for Basten to choose De Guzman at this time. The Canadian made a little progress during the last two seasons. He will have his opportunity after this summer.

DeGuzman is too ‘light’at the moment to play in Oranjes midfield…the player on his position for the future is Affelay (altough deGuzman is a better finisher)

deGuzman should go to the Olympics with Foppe…much more for him to learn

Posted from  Netherlands

Sorry, i was referring to his goal against juventus; against liverpool, the show certainly was the dancing Dudek show!!

De guzman can play for netherlands!! His brother plays for Canada isn’t it?? The deportivo player? Watched Drenthe play for real against depor, in the 1-0 lost. He was the best player for real… He is quite a talent this guy!

if youre looking for a strong defensive midfielder, your best options are Stijn Schaars and Demy de Zeeuw, both playing for AZ Alkmaar, although Schaars is just coming back from serious injury.
But there are a few others who i think have less potential:
Nigel de Jong(HSV), David Mendes da Silva(AZ Alkmaar) and possibly Orlando Engelaar from FC Twente(quite old,28 i believe)
Besides that we have some defensive midfield talents like Wout Brama(FC Twente), Geert-Arend Roorda(SC Heerenveen), and Kees Luijckx(was loaned to Excelsior Rotterdam by AZ Alkmaar)

Posted from  Netherlands