Van Marwijk: Oranje needs to stay sharp!

Poor first half followed by a decent/good second half.. norway was pushed back the whole time… I just realised how important van persie is for the team and how much we depend on him.. it seems that oranje are playing with two playmakers (van der vaart and van persie). i saw some beautiful combos and passes down the flanks.. too bad we didnt score evn more. I really do not like having kuyt and babel play as our wingers… they arent creative enough.. Kuyt is really usefull if we play oponents who like to hold on to the ball as he will be able to help recuperate the ball much faster. I really want to see holland vs spain btw…A heavyweight showdown between the two top footballing nations of the moment.

Posted from  Switzerland

It should have been more.

The only two people that wanted to play football for Norway was the big man Carew and Braaten.

Which actually begs the question: What are Oranje going to do with a big target man if he has someone to support him? Carew constantly received and held on the ball but he had no one to play it to. If Oranje play Germany or even England, that could be literally a “big” problem.

Not convinced defensively, and very careless up front, but two very good goals and congratualtions Netherlands, now I can focus completely on Oranje and it makes my life a lot simpler!

i only watched the last 30 minutes. oranje played all right,at 50% of their potential. the problem is that this group was so easy that we don’t know exactly how good oranje is.

Posted from  Hungary

I liked the way we played today:), I tooked half day off just to watch the game. too bad the first half was ruined by the rain. anyway robben is tremendous, man he was faster than a ferrari today:), van persie awsome first half as right winger, second half as a playmaker with van der vaart who was awsome too:) (you could see the worried face of sneijder:). then braafeid seems to be good:), I would love to see him play instead of van bronckhorst, he is faster younger and seems to be more skilled.

good game, anyway before I get too excited I am looking forward to see the friendly games against the big teams to see how effective our back line and defensive midfielders!

Great play under difficult circumstances. Just wonderful that it was Ooijer that scored in that watery mess in the first half (smart foul earned by vPersie).

vPersie played great, he looked a bit sad to go off, looked like he may have wanted some more, but I think he did great.

I can’t really name any mistakes, yeah sure, a couple of slips and weird situations because of the wet surface and slippery ball, but other than that, they adepted real well to the circumstances and when it dried up in the second half they really started flying again.

Funny how Huntelaar wanted the ball so badly in the last few minutes. Better luck next games.

Excellent match. You can say all you like about weak opponents and so on, but it takes a good team to just keep on winning like that against teams that NEED to win and under such wet conditions which I thought at first those Vikings were going to take advantage of, but they really didn’t get a chance.

Posted from  Netherlands

Oh, and don’t forget, Stekelenburg made that nice safe.

They all played pretty good. Babel had some good moves, and some bad ones, no matter, the ball was slippery, just ignore that weak finish, give him some slack, the move before that was solid.

Posted from  Netherlands

is dirk the weak link upfront now who will be sat when sneijder comes back? Ive always been a big dirk supporter but i think VDV and RVP on the feild with sneijder are more important to us.

some stuff berts gotta figure out in the next year

Posted from  United States

OK, my choice now would be (not considering form):

——–Hunter——–
-Robben-Sneijder-vPersie
—de Jong—vBommel—
vBronckh.-Mathijs.-Ooijer-Heitinga

If behind or if wanting to take more risk to create more chances, sub vBommel for vdVaart, or bring Kuyt for one less defender. Ahh, that last part is all dependent on the situation on the field, so that’s just some options. If you miss something upfront, bring Kuyt, if you miss something in the build-up, bring vdVaart, or start with vdVaart en bring Sneijder, that’s a difficult choice now.

Posted from  Netherlands

Interesting guys! I’ll be back later with more of course, but the Dutch media hail Van der Vaart as a genius and the Man of the Match. I haven’t seen the game (yet) but apparently that pass on Robben for the 2-0 was out of this world?!

If Sneijder comes back we can slide van Persie up front, and van der vaart out right, and then Sneijder goes in the middle. Huntelaar and Kuyt don’t fit into the attacking formation, just because of their style of play. Don’t take anything away from them their both fantastic, they just really don’t fit in.

P.S. Braafheid played a really good second half, and he definitely has to find his place in the line-up before World Cup 2010.

Posted from  Canada

If Sneijder comes back, it is better to remove one of defensive midfielders. Sneijder or VdV is too good to sit on the bench.

Posted from  Indonesia

I am all for Kuyt being in the team…but NOT as an out and out striker.
The first cross that came in from Robben (after a few minutes) he missed by inches. Quite sure Hunter would have connected (he is inches taller). But seriously would have preferred vP up front and do regular swaps with Kuyt and Robben. Ingeneral the play was good. Waiting for Goose’s player ratings.

Posted from  Singapore

i watched new zealand play italy on sky and the holland norway on espn at the same time. flicked between the two. italy conceded 3 goals against the 82nd ranked team in the world and were lucky to win 4-3 with some counterattacking goals. they didnt even manage to earn a corner and NZ earned 9! man they looked horrible.
Oranje has very little to be worried about i believe. midfield looked great. van der vaart is one of the best. i have always believed this since watching him weekend week out whilst i was living in germany for a couple of years. That man just needs 1st team football next season at a reasonable club. A move back to HSV wouldn’t be that bad. I think bundesliga is a good place for dutch players.
i believe van bommel just adds that little bit of steel that they were lacking during the vB era. yeah he makes mistakes but any oranje team with van bommel is better than any oranje without.
If Braafheid manages to become a starting player at Bayern and Ooijer gets replaced by Marcellis or even Boularouz i think oranje’s defense will be very sound too. hup holland.

Posted from  New Zealand

Agree with Carlos, RVP more effective when he moved inside; especially as a distributer, his close quarter skills were terrific. Enjoyed watching Schaars, he keeps the ball moving and energetic, came forward well, but he is going to have to wait his turn behind MVB and De Jong. Liked VDV today, lovely flicks, touches and passes everywhere. Finally, Braafheid looked terrific; very safe. After a year with Bayern, it will be difficult to keep him out of the starting 11 in SA.

Andrew

Posted from  United States

Peter well said,with brapheid and bula orange diffence will become a rock.Heitinga can sit in bench as susbstitute central diffender along with marcelis.For me zuiverloon and Vanderweil are the candidates at the rightback.it should not be hetinga.i cannt think heitinga against messi,sergiokun,kaka,robinho,Cristiano,arshavin.it may result in another 3-1 defeat for us(quarter final?semi?final?).
So
first eleven
Brapheid-Mathjenson-Bula-Zuiverloon is must againstArjentina,Brazil,Portugal,Russia,Spainis or otherwise no hope for orange.
Bouma-Marcelis-Heitinga-Vanderweil can be the substitues.

Posted from  India

Still very concerned about the central defense against big tall strikers that actually has some support behind them.

Hopefully the friendly against England can test some of that assuming England goes with Heskey or Crouchie on top.

I am not convinced a WC match against a big Drogba, Anelka etc. is what this team defensively can handle. The good news is offensively it looks very good, so if worst comes to worst, we’ll just have to make it a tennis match!!

Tiju I agree with you that Van der Sar has been brilliant and saved us in his long career for the dutch side, but I disagree with you on why we lost that Russia game. The defense was the problem but we had the players to stop Russia, Marco just did not put them in. Thats right, Wilfred Bouma and Johnny Heitinga should have been playing centerback.

Italy: Andre Ooijer and Joris Mathijsen matched up prefectly against the big, awkward, slow Luca Tomi. Ooijer and Mathijsen’s strengths are mainly winning headers and they shut down Luca Toni relatively well and you cannot deny this.

France: The french attack provided foreshadow for the Russia game, the pace of Thierry Henry, Malouda, Ribery, and Govou gave the dutch backline scary moments especially in the first 15 minutes. But the brilliant play of our attack saved us, but we cannot expect them to be so uttely fantastic, are last 3 goals were all sublime, with a touch of luck (Robben) but the point is Van Basten should have seen the trouble Ooijer and Mathijsen had but I think he was swept in the excitement of defeated Italy and France each by 3 goals.

Romania: I do not think we can leave out this game because I know one thing, Romania were playing to qualify. Who were the defenders Bouma and Heitinga. Bouma and Heitinga being much more mobile, quick, and better and 1v1 defending completly shut down Adrian Mutu and company, even though they were not even playing for much.

Then we have Russia. If Van Basten had watched Russia’s thrashing of Sweden he probably would have seen similarities between the swedish defense and his own. Both Big and Awkward, and what happened the likes of Arshavin, Zyrianov, and company easily crushed them.

Failing to put all of these things together Van Basten fielded Ooijer and Mathijsen to play against the very quick Russians, example number 1 Andrey Arshavin. Did they stop him once? It was a complete mismatch. I am positive if he had put the pairing of heitinga and bouma they would have done much better. If Marco had done that we would have seen the game of the Euro in Holland and Spain and who knows what would have happened.

BVM please stop playing Ooijer and Mathijsen, when Bouma comes back from injury play
Van Der Wield Heitinga Bouma Gio or Braafheid

Posted from  United States

Hi guys, remember what happened to Serbia Montenegro in World Cup 2006?
They had strong defense, fantastic record in qualification. But then what? The result: They were beaten 6-0 by Argentina.

I’m scared it will happen on us in WC 2010, and still: We don’t have strong defense!

Posted from  Indonesia

@Felix – Do you remember what happened to Argentina 24 hours ago ? and to France a few days ago ? and how many goals did Italy let in last night ? Stop sounding like worried old nannies everyone. If its our day to win it will happen. Our defence is still the tops on record.

Posted from  Singapore

I’m in complete agreement with you Carlos – lots of worried old nannies on this board. Comparing Oranje to Serbia and Montenegro… can you seriously do that with a straight face??
And I also agree with your point before that – I too believe we need Kuyt in the team but not as the central forward. He does much better on the right wing. It’ll be very very difficult choosing which players to leave out because we have so much talent in attack, but everyone needs to remember that you need some balance in a team. Kuyt gives excellent pressure, work ethic and ball winning ability, and those are skills we will certainly need against other top teams who will actually try to keep possession as well. Other than that, it’s not like Kuyt is completely useless in attack! He does well at putting in crosses and even seems to be pretty good at getting onto crosses or rebounds and scoring from the right wing position.

Posted from  Canada

My thoughts on the game (in somewhat random order):

- Amazing passing and build up. Such domination. Just incredible really. Even in the pouring rain with a sopping wet field the players still managed to pass it around and weight their passes correctly for the most part. It was even better in the second half when the field dried somewhat.
- Looks like Oranje is finally getting some consistency. Thank God! Yes, the group wasn’t the most difficult I think we can all agree, but there were still many opportunities to stumble and Oranje didn’t.
- Too bad Van Persie’s goal was incorrectly judged offside because that was a sweet goal.
- Schaars looked very good in the midfield. I’m not sure if he’s as good at being the destroyer as De Jong is, but he certainly gives a lot more creativity/attacking ability. It’ll be difficult to choose between the two.
- There should be no doubt about Van Bommel’s position. He adds steel and grit to the team that we certainly lacked in the Van Basten era.
- If all the players are fit, Van Marwijk is going to have one heck of a time choosing his attacking players!
- Van der Vaart has the best long distance free kicks into the box – I don’t mean shots, although he’s no slouch there either, but crosses like the one that set up Ooijer’s goal. I challenge anyone to name a player who’s better at this.
- Braafheid did very well and Gio actually looked pretty vulnerable in the first half. I hope this is a sign of a transition.
- Kuyt should be played on the right and Huntelaar should be up front. We need a natural finisher up there.

Great game overall, I’m pumped about how good Oranje is looking!

Posted from  Canada

Caleb: “I challenge anyone to name a player who’s better at this.”

Sneijder.

Well, they’re kinda equal aren’t they? It’s just a matter of who’s form is better and whether you want them to come from the right or the left. Sneijder’s is often more straight and less high than vdVaart’s. But they both can do both styles. So hard to choose.

Posted from  Netherlands

Jan’s point is a very good one “A good defense starts at the forwards”.

However, call me a nanny, but I think we have an unproven defense against teams with a big target man upfront with support behind him. John Carew had a field day in receiving and holding up the ball, but there was no support so eventually he’ll lose it. But very rarely did he not get the first touch, the first flick-on etc. What if that was Germany we were playing instead of Norway?

The second concern I have is that I think Stekel is dodgy.

At the end of the day, we will have to score more than the other guys to win and that may be the biggest reason we will win the WC, but I can easily see a few tennis matches along the way.

@Sol – Sneijder is great, but at these types of free kicks he’s not as good as VdVaart. I’d take Sneijder for closer in shots, but for these types of long distance free-kick passes, VdVaart is still better.

@Finnster – I’m not saying the defense is perfect, but to compare Oranje to Serbia and Montenegro is going too far! As for defending against Carew, I agree that he won most of the balls, but can Carew is probably one of the best players in the world for this type of play, don’t you think? It’s always going to be hard to shut him down, no matter which defender you play on him. So then maybe the key is to make sure that he has no one open to pass/flick it on too?

Posted from  Canada