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Van Gaal re-invents football rules…
Louis seems to take out this linesman with a karate kick!
Louis van Gaal is a bit like Johan Cruyff. He has an opinion about everything. I may have been that character trait which motivated the Ajax managers of the 1970s to appoint Van Gaal – the playmaker of Ajax C – as the successor to Cruyff, should he ever leave. JC left for Barcelona to get promoted from money-wolf to El Salvador but Louis never made it in the Ajax 1 team.
I saw him play many times, though, and Louis was indeed a gifted playmaker. A man with vision and leadership skills. And like JC, when he wants your opinion, he’ll give it to you.
Now “the best of the world” is back in the highlight after a desk-job at Ajax, a failed stint as National team manager and questionable tenures at Barca, Louis is happy to share his ideas with anyone. And like always, his ideas are interesting…
Louis at Sparta, with my old school-buddy Edwin second on the left…
Louis came up with some ideas to make football more honest and more atractive.
The most remarkable suggestion: sack all linesmen / assistant refs. Van Gaal: “The job of linesmen (sic) is to determine who gets the throw in and off side. They also tend to put their flag up when they spot a foul but 9 out of 10 times they wait for the ref’s whistle, until they start flagging. In today’s football, off side is extremely hard to determine. The game is quicker now and to be able to view the moment a ball is played and to check at the same time where the forwards are is basically an impossibility. It’s not just hard, it’s virtually impossible. No one can see those moments at the same time. The fact that linesmen get it right is as much a coincidence as anything. It’s not fair to them and it’s not fair to the players, fans and sponsors. I say, forget about them. There are electronic systems that can determine if the ball crossed the line.”
So no linesmen? How do we judge off side? Van Gaal: “You need two refs on the pitch and one third man higher up in the stands. They all have those headsets with mikes. The third man has a computer at his disposal which allows him to view whether a player is on or off side. The technology is objective and will make our sports honest again.”
German sports magazine Der Kicker asked Van Gaal about his vision for football in the future. The main problem facing football, Louis said, is it’s credibility. “Little boys all over the world saw that one of the biggest stars of today’s football cheated. Henry used his hands to shoot France to the World Cup. The last decades, football as a sports is enormously on the rise. You can tell at all levels, the money stream, the number of viewers, the development of nations like Australia and the USA, which normally have lots of other sports to engage with… We need to embrace that global interest. The World Cup is the platform for all that is football. At the 2002 World Cup, South Korea won three games because the referees ruled out three goals that – in my view – were legitimate. Mistakes are human, I know, but there’s lots at stake so I say, let’s use technology where we can.”
Van Gaal wants to change the rules too. No more throw in, but a free-kick on the line. “A throw in should be a positive thing for a team, but more than half of the throw ins, the ball ends up with the opponent. It’s easy to defend a thrown ball. And it’s a bit weird too… It’s FOOTball, so why would we suddenly use our hands for a throw in? Once you chance it into free-kicks, you’ll see more action in the box.”
And he’s not ready yet. Maybe it’s because he’s Dutch, but he doesn’t like penalties either. “I have never spoken to a fan or an expert who likes the penalty-series. Sure, if you’re on the winning side of a series, you don’t care too much, but all in all, it’s a horrible way to end a game. Can you imagine a World Cup finals being decided by penalties? It’s a lottery, isn’t it? I’d rather see a gladiator event. During the extra time, both teams need to sacrifice one player every 5 minutes. As off the 115th minute, it’s six versus six. And then we apply the golden goal rule.”
Van Gaal realizes that his ideas might be chucked straight into the bin at the FIFA offices. “I know. That’s a bunch of old men up there. They don’t seem to care about the game, they care about keeping their jobs and offices and expenses budgets. This is the biggest sports in the world and it’s governed by the most conservative people, who are willing to gamble the future of our sports for personal reasons. But hey, they can’t stop me from thinking…”
Van Gaal: “Blatter! There is the exit, you moron! Am I so smart or are you so dumb?”
Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 63 comments.
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Well…Sneijer and Robben showed how stupid are Florentino and Valdano because by trying to sell more and more shirts they sold two of the best players in the world (even if they are not that good for FIFA).
Sneijder and Robben have finally shown how important they are because they appeared when they had to do it. Hopefully they continue like that in the World Cup!!!.
By the way, I am very happy for Van Gaal. He has always been one of my favorite coaches and even though some people just concentrate in his failure when he was coach of the National Team I prefer to highlight his trophies with Ajax and Barca and right now he is on his way to achieve something important with Bayern Munich. He might be stubborn and he can have a very bad character but nobody can argue that he is a superb tactician and a great teacher for young players.
I’m glad that Real sold Robben and Sneijder as I believe they’re better players now.
So how did Sneijder play?
But seriously, considering the little big man was in bed with serious flu days before the game. I think he played a flawless perfect match. The commentators on SBS here in Australia (one Andy Gray) went berserk and couldn’t stop saying how brilliant Sneijder was. Man of the Match.
And indeed, with better strikers, Inter would have won 0-4.
Not impressed – still – with Maicon. Strong defensively, hopeless in offence. He doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing. Not a fan of Milito either. And I never liked Thiago Motta. His whole facial expression puts me off and I have that with Drogba too.
Who – as Finn likes to remind us – sort of chokes on big occasions, but than reversed. The whole Chelsea midfield is a bit too similar. Ballack and Lampard… I’d play one or the other. Lots of pressure, not a lot of brains.
I’m actually happy for Inter to progress and very happy with Sneijder’s performance.
First all of the accurate vision from Sneijder was great but how about the cheeky backheel that sent Pandev in?
Jan you are perhaps a little cheap on the Inter praise. Maicon is a defender and if he can defende that is good with me. But I also think he adds to the attack like the first chance of the game where Eto’o messed up on his cross. Milito is a poacher, a lesser van Nistelrooy, he showed that with a quality goal in the first leg and many more in Serie A.
I know we are all tired of the anti-Kuyt but I do think that he isn’t the perfect fit for our team. He either isn’t confident, clever or fast enough to get breakaway’s which with Sneijder and Van Persie supplying could be plentifull. And he isn’t that good at supplying one on one chances either. For Example I always noticed Ruud could get many one on one’s.( And always score them). I do think Kuyt is better fitted to play for Scotland or even England.
Ps. Honda played impressivly again, a export from the Eredivisie.
Well as long as Toyota isn’t playing, it is all good. At least Honda can stop. 
@Sonne kuyt is God…………our chances depend on him.Fingers crossed:-).
@Jan Znijder played superbly…with good amount of energy apart from his usual brilliance and techniques he ran well.
I NOTICED ONE THING whenever znjider plays against a big team,he wants to tear them.surely a big game player……..he will do the same against brazil,spain,england,arjentina,Germany, and italy.its is more than important for team like orange.
@sonne BVM will not give a chance to kuyt as a central striker coz his order is Vanpersie>RVN>Hunter.
in attcking midfeild section is already occupied by the big four ie Znijder,Vaart,Roben and Elia,so ony two spots are available there if he takes both RVN and hunter then it will reduce to one spot …people think kuyt is better than Emmanuleson,Wijnaldum and De guz man.
So pray for it i mean.
Striker spot-2nos
RVN,hunter/Basdost(Hunter is not in good shape and vanpersie will start every match as striker so i would go for a pinch hitter of 1.90cm).
Attacking -6
1znider-2Vaart-3Roban-4Elia-5Vaneprsie(striker)-6Emmanuleson/wijnaldum/Babel if he is not lazy.
kuyt cannt touch 4 holding mids and 8 diffenders.
Posted from 
India
Kuyt will start in WC2010 Tiju and you know it, so just stop. You are wasting energy and bandwith.
Finn i knew it very clearly that is what my worries with our old diffence.Anyways sonne started it and you know ,i will get involved automatically in that.
Posted from India
<3 sneijder.
Posted from 
New Zealand
I don’t know if it means anything to you, but happy St Patrick’s Day to all of you.
Peace, and bless the lord.
haha ; nice one finn…
i was happy to hear that the dutch pundits shared my vision on Sneijder and Oranje ; build the team around Sneijder !!!
Posted from 
Netherlands
I noticed that “big game” mentality in Sneijder and that’s what makes big players.
I’m also happy to see him wear the no. 10. What a number! Van Hanegem, Overath, Mazzola, Antognioni, Platini, Hoddle… Sweet.
Why didn’t Zidane play with 10?
why didnt cryuff played with no10?
Posted from India
Spot on sonneveld I totally agree with you… Somebody give kuyt a uk passport!!!!
Lampard is not at home on a pitch full of world class players, this was clearly evident last night. Inters midfield had class, thrust and balance whilst Chelsea had no creativity. All Chelsea had was there physical presence last night. They missed the thrust of essien and mikel and lampard are brainless players who get an easy ride amongst the mediocraty of the premierships lesser teams. As for ballack the only effort he puts in is when he’s abusing the officials!
Inter played good creative football and I’m a fan of any team who does that!
Posted from 
Ireland
Johan played with 9 when he started at Ajax. In those days, the numbers were logically linked to positions. The left winger had 11, the playmaker 10, the striker 9, the right winger 7, etc. JC was a striker, ergo he had number 9.
In the season 70-71 he got a groin injury and was out for a spell. Gerrie Muhren started the season with 9. When JC came back from injury as a sub, he had 14 and he scored the winning goal in his first game back. And decided to keep the number, also in Oranje.
He was the only one in 1974 who could use another number. All players were given numbers based on the alphabet.
Anyway, JC was massively superstitious and didn’t want another number since.
Man, what a great game for Sneijder (as just about everyone else here has already said!). I haven’t seen him very much this season since his playing in Italy, but seeing the game today just reminded me of how good he really is! I was also impressed with the rest of Inter too, because they really played a good game, and they were much better than when I saw them in the group stages. Only thing they need are some better finishers who can finish off the chances Sneijder keeps making!
Now I just hope that Bayern, Arsenal and Inter can avoid each other in the next round 
Back to Van Gaal’s ideas…
He’s absolutely right:
They need 2 officials on the field.
They need 2 people to judge off-side fairly, one looking at the pass and the other at the player’s positions.
OT should be golden goal, and they should pull off players to increase the space on the field. Add’l subs would help too.
Funny how the Real situation worked out well for both Robben and Schneider too bad about Huntelaar.
Posted from 
United States
You don’t need two people to judge off side . The computer software they use for tv can take the moment the ball leaves the foot and freeze the frame and determine off side or not within the second. Not hard.
OK, a little late, but about the qualifying series towards WC 2002. I can remember feeling so dissapointed about what happened at EC 2000, that I didn’t even watch the qualifying games for the WC, that’s how much I cared about them. I think my feelings aren’t even that far off from the feelings in the minds of the players back then, their minds were already on the WC and not the qualifying matches. I was all ready to watch the WC as well, and suddenly it all goes wrong from a 2-0 lead against Portugal (which I did watch) just because it seemed like they thought they had already done enough.
Posted from Netherlands
Rob: “This was a huge game for Inter and he absolutely rose to the occasion – several times I was thinking that if it was a Robben or a Van Persie on the end of those passes it’s a goal.”
—
I’d say:
RVN 90% chance of goal, 10% chance of missing
RVP 80/20
Hunter 70/30
Elia 60/40
Robben 50/50
VDV 40/60
Kuyt 30/70
Posted from Netherlands
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Sneijder was tremendous. He clealry made the difference tonight between the lacklustre inter of last season against Man U and the sharp creavtive yet organised side which has seen out the physical challenge of chelsea. Marvellous.
Give credit to walter samuel, lucio, cambiasso and the tirless 36 year old javier zanetti. they also had great games over the two legs.
Posted from
United Kingdom