Van Persie leads Oranje to victory

any news from b team

Posted from  United States

@Mo; yes; they lost 3-0 v young sweden

Posted from  Netherlands

I thought it was a good game yesterday (although I’m surprised to hear goose say so because usually I’m the optimist and he’s the pessimist!). We completely controlled the game, having most of the possession, passing the ball around very well. That’s normal for us though, we usually have lots of possession and good passing in the middle of the field. What was different this time around is that we had good passing all over the field, including in the final third. We created a lot of good opportunities and played a lot of dangerous passes into the box – something we usually have problems with.

Van Persie looked very dangerous. If I had to choose between him and Kuyt up front, I’d put VP up front and Kuyt on the right side – that way Kuyt can run up and down the flank and Van Persie can score the chances.

Surprisingly, for the most part our defence looked pretty solid. The goal they scored was the result of a nice 1-2 from Sweden, and one of our players didn’t stay with his mark – I think it was Van Bommel (?). Our player got lazy and left his man, and the Swedish player blasted it at the net. I think Vorm probably should have saved it considering how much he contact he made with the ball, but probably just a touch of nerves.

The second goal was nicely worked, although I have to admit I though that Van der Vaart had wasted the opportunity. Nice patience in the end.

Posted from  Canada

Oh yeah, I also thought that De Cler played very well. He looked very good attacking and pretty solid in defending. I’d probably play him in front of Gio. Da Silva played pretty well too – made some good passes at least.

Posted from  Canada

1-o vPersie

http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=o3N7lwN92Tg

2-0 vPerisie (great goal)

http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=f3swKUMklUY

cant find kuijts

Posted from  Netherlands

Found it; kuijts 3-0

http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=hESsAGh_7bA

Posted from  Netherlands

@Caleb; it was indeed van Bommel who didn’t stay his mark, and basically it was the issue Van Basten didn’t want him in Oranje, cause, of letting his man go, but I think it is due to his play. If Oranje would play in this formation against better opponents, with RVP, WS and VdV in midfield, but with just one controlling midfielder, it could be a problem. However, sh*t happens once in a while, and I do think that MvB was much unfair with van Bommel and others in Mark’s place didn’t do much better.

Posted from  Netherlands

@lowiesje – I was remembering the same thing, about Van Basten saying this was Van Bommel’s problem. I think it is a problem, but Van Bommel also contributed a lot in other areas of the game, so I would agree that Van Bommel is still a good addition to the team.

Posted from  Canada

I would love a 2010 final between Brazil and Holland like Carlos and Tiju and that we win that game with whatever score. We have a hugely talented side and our defense has proved that is a good one. We don´t have a Franco Baresi and a Ronald Koeman back there but our defenders have shown security in top games. We got everything to beat any team in the world.

Mario, I love you to death brother, but isn’t this a little early to open the bottle?

Haha, the cycles of an Oranje supporter’s emotion! I guess we are in the optimism stage now

Posted from  Canada

I think it was quite boring in the beginning, we had the initiatif but didn’t do very much with it, at they did show some good play, but in the second half however, things were a lot better, nice combinations, nice attacks, we dominated and won quite comfortably from such a defending side.
V.Persie showed us a few times what he’s capable of. Magnificent footwork, i like him better when he’s on the move for an action then when he stands still and does his tricks. When he’s moving with the ball on his feet he’s almost unstoppable.
Sneijder was revived after V.d.Vaart came into play. Rafael made a lot of clever, fantastic passes, too bad Kuyt was up front, he wasted quite a bit of the chances that came out of those.
Kuyt is a decent striker, but not absolute world-class. I think he would function best with a technical moving striker directly around him, but that doesn’t matter now.
V.Bommel made a bit of a slip by letting his man walk free, but Michel Vorm really is the man to blame, he says it himself, “from that distance, it should have been mine, no matter what”. I thought overall it was the best game from our side since the game against Romania in the EC. This really was dominating and attacking football. V.Basten must be pleased to see this .
I thought Mendes da Silva did quite good on right-back, had some good passes. Never really made a defending mistake, although he did only play for like 20 minutes.
Unfortunately Boulahrouz was supposed to have played but V.Marwijk had already used his 6 subs, so Boulah wasn’t allowed to enter the field by the fourth official.
Also Mathijsen improved himself this game. Although I would have liked to see him against Zlatan.
I really hope that Bouma will come back from injury soon and Heitinga, Boulahrouz, Marcellis stay fit. Cause those are the best defenders we have. No offence but, De cler; mediate player, third left-back for a reason, hope Emanuelson can take over from him pretty soon.
Gio:is getting old and losing his sharpness, won’t be good enough by 2010
,same for Ooijer, he can hide his flaws pretty good during these kind of matches. But I join with Jaap Stam who said He would use Heitinga in centre and Boulahrouz on the right for now. Please forgive me because I’m about to get a bit dramatic and this won’t be suitable for all to read.

Could we finally have a REAL World class defender again…….. Who will liberate us… will it be Boulahrouz, at last, reviving his reputation, slowly rising from the ashes at Stuttgart as a topdefender after 2 years wasted with Sevilla and Chelsea.
Heitinga, starting as a promising defender, after years of average play, finally developing at Ajax, alongside Stam, learning from the last real quality central defender and now emerging as a strong tackling defender at Atletico.
Mathijsen…………..no, silly me, of course not
Or Marcellis, our faint light in the dark ..

No seriously, I really hope we’ll have some world class defenders again, and i hope to see some young talented defenders finally breakthrough and establish themselves.

Posted from  Netherlands

Van Maarwijk is not experimenting which is very good, by the time the WC starts we will have a solid team.

Kuyt is not the best striker but he has proved that he’s a great addition to our team. Playing Kuyt as the lone striker wouldn’t be the best decision but I think that if he plays next to Persie, Huntelaar or other player he can be very dangerous.

England has been playing great and Capello is the one of the best so watch out.

@ goose
thanks, b team was a failure.

@ Miguel Rosado
“van Maarwijk is not experimenting which is very good”
that is bad because the team has no depth. if persie, wes, rafa, or someone else in the st. 11 get injured bert have no replacement. orange have no players who can come off the bench and make an impact. in euro the dutch impact players was robben and persie after that no one else. as i said before 11 players don’t win tournaments only pointless friendlies.

Posted from  United States

Well, I don’t know about that, MO. It seems there are at least 3 available super subs already on the attack-V persie, robben, affaley(if you start VDV, Sneijder, Kuyt and KJH), (plus an extra holding defender–DeZeeuw, and a couple extra defenders getting some runout now-) but the main idea for V Marjwik is to get this group of guys used to each other as much as possible given the natural limitations of national team chemistry. At the same time, he is bringing along a couple new talents as well but the focus is on the core.

Posted from  United States

Goose – thanks for the highlights -goals
Kuyt’s goal was a typical RVN style to sneak n front of the defender as the ball is being crossed. Defenders can do little against that millisecond lost space.

Posted from  Singapore

Michel-Olivier – we have no depth

cant disagree more

in forwards we have the options of the scoring ruthlesness of huntelaar, the effort of kuyt and the skill of van persie

in creative midfielders we have van der vaart, sneijder robben babel afellay and kuyt or van persie if their not forwards. In attack if someone gets injured we have perfect coverage and in defense we have no one good enough for them to be a big loss anyways.

hahaha Ian ! Good comment on the “we won’t miss you” tag for our defenders.

Posted from  Singapore

Finnster:

I know the World Cup will not start now but I also have hopes and I have always dreamed about that final. Anyway, this time I am very confident we will qualify easily. Norway and Scotland are not rivals for Oranje nor the other teams in our group we are too strong for them.

I haven’t seen the game myself guys, only the high lights.

On the depth thing: I do feel we’re doing ok. No team in Europe has 22 equal players. We have KJH, Drenthe, Afellay, Seedorf, Wijnaldum, Zuiverloon, Donk, Marcellis, Van der Wiel, Kromkamp, Boateng, Vorm, Timmer, Landzaat, De Guzman and many others… I’m not too fussed.

We don’t need one or two more great players to win titles. We need the discipline and focus to deliver 100% every match without in-fighting.

Not going to disagree with you Jan, except to say that I think Oranje could use more depth in the holding midfield players. I know that some have the opinion that Van Bommel has not distinguished himself in the qualifiers, but I do think that in the 4-2-3-1, he was the missing piece from the Euro’s. Engelaar didn’t look like he had the strength or the skill to hold the ball when the Russian went at him; De Jong did well but he was left alone to try to deal with the aggression of the Russians, and he doesn’t have the passing skills of MVB to make teams pay for committing to pressure in the midfield. I think MVB gives them both. But what if one of them (ala De Jong now) is hurt. Who steps in? Not sure that De Zeuw has the physical stature to stand in there. If Schaars is back and playing well perhaps he is the answer. Or maybe Emanuelson? I don’t see Ajax play enough to know where they’re playing him, but it always seemed to me that he would fit well as one of “2″s.

Posted from  United States

@mo,fini,carlos and others
Definitly we can meet brazil in final but we have to avoid portugal and gus hiddinks team(whether its russia that doesnt matter)at the same time brazil shouldnot face france.they will kill them,then there is chance of brazil holland final

Posted from  India

@Andrew, the last 6 games or so, Ajax has used Urby as an attacker, either from left mid or up front on the left wing (They’ve had alot of forwards go down). MVB seems to favor Jan Vertoghnen of Belgium at left back (even though he’s not a defender, really) and Urby at left mid for now.

Posted from  United States

Jan, Yes, I remember you mentioning El Ahmadi in an earlier post. Comparing him to Redondo is high praise indeed.
Ghost, Many thanks for the info. on Emanuelson. By all accounts he is playing well. (Any other regular Ajax watchers care to comment?) Always liked his physical skills and energy, but I never really saw him as a left back.

Posted from  United States