Van Persie treated with placenta fluids….

@Finn my question is kuyt is a proven failure in central striker spot ,the why he is experimenting him there.i wish kuyt will prove i am wrong,if it happens we will win the cup.i am the most optimistic person about orange but also i am the most pessimistic person on BVM,Kuyt,Vanbommel,Ooiger,Gio.so that tells everything.i still belive if wed drop some players we will have a very very good chance to win the cup.

Posted from  India

Tiju if you are the most optimistic person about Oranje then you should be optimistic about BVM and anyone selected for Oranje even if its van Bommel’s wife (where have I heard that b4 ?). I actually thot Engelaar played OK (not spectecular) and am certainly not his biggest fan. Would have preferred Schaars to show up, but hey I am not the coach !

Posted from  Singapore

@Tiju:

I´d rather see Holland scoring when it matters than in important games. Any top team historically depends in some players.

Let´s say some examples (just to mention very few):

Brazil 1966.- Pelé got injured and then they were kicked out of the cup.
Napoli in the 80´s.- When Maradona left the team then they lost their spirit.
Holland 1988.- Without Van Basten, Gullit and Rijkaard that team wouldn´t have been able to win the EC.
Brazil 1994.- No Romario, no Bebeto= No World Cup.
Holland 1998.- No Bergkamp= No team.
France 1998.- No Zidane= Mediocre team.
Italy 2006= Without Totti, Cannavaro and Buffon they would have been a disgrace.
Spain 2008= Without Xavi, Iniesta and Torres that team would not have worked like they did. Sure they have a great squad but without them the quality is just average regardless of what everybody says.
Holland 2009= No Robben, No RVN, No Sneijder= No party.

It´s like that…you can´t have eleven great players. To win a World Cup you need your top players fit. Any team needs that and Holland is no exception. Tiju, let´s wait and see. Holland can do it. But without our best players that will be impossible.

Hup Holland!!!!!!!

I meant

@Tiju:
“I´d rather see Holland scoring when it matters than in friendly games”

@carlos brother..i am also not a coach,i am a yelling fan….i tried ,but cannt see the additonal qualities of ooiger,gio,kuyt,vanbommel.Englaar would have played a better game but that doesnt win the WC.We got to set our path right then we could think about optimism.

Posted from  India

My point is to qualify for the WC,vanbasten and BVM are enough but to win the WC we need,lipi,Cryuff,Kaiser,Sagallo,Up coming winner dunga etc.Dunga has tested 80 players for brazil..oofcourse i dont want to test 80 players but at least 35 member squad is must.there you will get the depth.

Posted from  India

@Carlos
Henry “the cheater” is not along. Remember Trézéguet’s “goal” against Croatia in Euro 2004?

Posted from  Taiwan

Lads, if we want to talk about cheating we should focus on Holzenbein in 1974 which cost us a world cup.

I think Dejong-De saaw or Maduro-Emmanuelson cmbination would be much btter than de jong-Vanbommel combo.in both diffencive and opffencive aspects.
For the striker spot RVN,RVP,Wolswinkel and babel are the candidates.we dont have to think about others.if we think so that is a sin.but i consider Babel and RVP as allrounders.They will give plenty of options to BVM.

Posted from  India

@finn could you please tell about holzenbain story i dont know about that.

Posted from  India

@finnster
Speaking of cheater, Holzenbein is the king!

Posted from  Taiwan

@Tiju: Jan has a post about it quite some time ago. Can’t remember what it is called though.

In any event, the German Holzenbein dived on a challenge from Wim Jansen in the WC final and got a penalty which Paul Breitner converted before Gerd Muller hit the winner for the Germans.

Holzenbein has admitted in a book/magazine later that he did indeed dive and it never should have been a penalty.

thanks buddy

Posted from  India

@Tiju

The following link is for your reference.

http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~goldkeep/Holland74/WGermany.htm

Posted from  Australia

@Futbol:

That is a very nice link. I actually started crying. It felt like yesterday. I must be completely losing the plot…

Thanks Futbol buddy

Posted from  India

Hello finnster
You’re always welcome. If you have time, I strongly recommend you to read the other articles in that website. Below is the homepage.

http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~goldkeep/Holland74/index.htm

Enjoy!

@Tiju
Don’t mention it. I like this blog and all you guy’s comment!

Posted from  Taiwan

i discovered this site some years ago ad it’s really great.

Tiju,buddy: van bommel was our best player yesterday,so i really don’t know what you’re talking about… maduro? why should bvm select him? because he plays one copa del rey game every month and 5-15 minutes on each third la liga game? n oway,sorry. and you’d like to titularize some u21,u19 players forgetting that in south africa men and not boys will fight for the gold. castelen,zuiverloon and all – where are they playing? if van bommel makes one minor mistake you would ban him for one year but you would call benchwarmers from secunda division teams.

about henry: in his case i would have done the same but i’m not a footballer and not happy at all that a barca player did such a cheating. i don’t think that frank and pep told him “hey titi,use your hand…”

Posted from  Hungary

My problem with BVM stems from the fact that the majority of the squad he selects has been playing together since pre euro 2008 more or less. If your gonna call up brama give him majority of the game to play, if you want hunterlaar to regain confidence give him the entire match not 13 mins!!!! For this team to be playing together so long a still not look like a fleunt side dissapoints me.

If you want key players to step up there game give them a reason to do so by increasing competiton (utilization of subs/starting fringes players/more new faces/youth) or show absolute faith in those you have (I.e not 13mins here or there).

I also can’t see much of a difference between holland under BVM and van basten.

Posted from  United Kingdom

ferenc – its an “instant” thing this Henry incident – I was fuming because with slow replay it looked Sooooo deliberate. Like you I probably would have done the same in that instance and expect to be booked. I just read that Henry TOLD the referee he handled ????? Is that true ? Anyone ?
This I cant believe – The Ref deciding against a player admitting he handled ?

I wonder what Blatter and Platini are saying especially since they decided on “seedings” a few weeks before they saw that both Germany and France could be in Playoffs with Portugal as well.

Posted from  Singapore

@Lucas – being called up like Brama/Bakkal is NOT about MUST play. First of all its a signal from the coach that you are VERY close. So you wanna make it you work harder and harder and get noticed. Secondly the experience of being with the A team – rub shoulders – socialize – understand the little idiosynchrasies of each player at the camp. So much to learn and absorp. Just being called up and training with the guys is a big lift for the newbies. If they get the break – even better. I dont think BVM is anything like MVB in fact they are totally reversed and opposite (not just in initials). Marco was criticised for bringing in a 1001 new players and Bert is criticised for keeping the same team. I am quite happy with BVM’s tactics and I think 8-12 solid players getting used to each other is necessary. His problem areas (to me) are strikers and fit playmakers. Really our defence with de Jong and Bommel is second to NONE.

Posted from  Singapore

Ferenc buddy i dont rate player with a one match.But mark my words vanbommel will let us down in WC2010.Castelen is injured so i am not expecting him.Both Maduro nad castelen has potentials.Vanbommel is no where near them in terms of talent.castelen is playing for a german top side hamburg,at present hamburg is flying..bayern is no where near them.Castelen did very well whenever he got the chance for orange,Hamburg and feynoord.He never dissappointed us.His injuries are bad lucks for us and him equally.
Maduro may not be playing in week to week but he is playing as a susbstitute nowadays.
We need some energetic guys like essien in the mid,at present de jong is the only one man doing all the dirty works.i expect some more hard work and skills from vanbommel.this man cannt deliver that.Ultimately some teams will out run us.
Zuiverloon is the best right back of holland as of now,though i admit van derweil is better option in offence.
Both gio and brapheid are not good at LB.Now tyndally looks much better than both of them.

Posted from  India

I think if we look back a few more games, we will all feel more confident about the oranje. How was their qualifying? Perfect, with Many goals. These are friendlies. Van Marwijk seems set on the van Bommel/ de Jong midfield. Perhaps it is not the most adventurous, but it did very well during qualifying. Also, van Bommel is returning recently from injury. We were missing van Persie, Sneijder, Robben. Huntelaar and van der Vaart both don’t play regularly. So five offensive players who are not at their best. Will they all be in the same situation by next year? I sure hope not. With these players all healthy, get regular playing time. Ar far as players that could/should be dropped, I think Ooijer tops my list. van Bronkhorst may not have the legs he once had, but he does have experience, Emanuelson could be called as cover.

Yeah van Bommel was good yesterday.

My Notes:

Steks – 7. The guy kept a clean sheet and made the saves he needed to make. I would prefer it if he wouldn’t ram the ball away every time he has it at his feet, but one particular attempt at a short pass to v.d. Wiel is also scorched into my memory.

v.d. Wiel – 6. Attacking he was threatening enough, and defensively he was solid most of the time. But the one moment he gave the ball to the striker after the pass from Steks deducts a point from him. A mistake like that against a world class team is a goal against.

Heitinga – 6.5. Didn’t impress much, but did his defensive duties. To be honest, I did not see much of him during the game.

Mathijsen – 7. Very pleased with Mathijsen. Solid and stable as always. Not world class, but definitely a reliable factor.

Gio – 6. Better than against Italy. He had some good runs up the left, which at some point actually looked like they had speed. I don’t think he’s that slow yet, he just can’t keep the pace up for so long. Has been said many times before, but should be replaced soon.

De Jong – 7. Of course he got a yellow again, but he lays down the law in the midfield.

Van Bommel – 7. A straight 180 from the game against Italy. I thought van Bommel played well today. He and de Jong really shut down any attacks from the opposition. Now if van Bommel starts giving some of those wicked through passes he can give, then I will be a happy man.

Afellay – 5. Not convinced at all. Held on to the ball way too long on too many occasions. Going more for own glory than team victory in my opinion. Would like to see him start again, give him a second chance. On basis of this game, I wouldn’t let him start.

Van der Vaart – 8. Man of the match for me. Even with no rhythm the guy wins so many balls in the midfield and gives such nice passes. And he doesn’t lose the ball so quickly, even if he has 2-3 guys on him.

Elia – 6.5. Has potential to be really good, but he also tends to hold on to the ball a bit too long. I think in 8 months time, this guy can really shine at the WC.

Kuyt – 6. Please not Kuyt as striker. He did well in chasing down the ball etc, but we need a real striker to score.

Subs – (where to begin, so many!)

Babel – 5.5. Had a couple of nice moves to get past his mark. But every time I see Babel on the ball, I am never convinced he is ever going to score.

Brama – 5. His first pass was horrendous. Frankly, I did not notice him much the rest of the game. Definitely a step down from de Jong and van Bommel.

Braafheid – 3. Worst player of the match for me. Lost every ball he had except the couple of throw-ins he had to take. I was hoping he would shine like against England, but instead got the exact opposite. I take it this is the poor form he has also been showing at Bayern…?

Engelaar – 4.5. Why is he still in Oranje? He’s so slow…plus, how can a 2m tall buff guy like him not head in every corner. How many corners did we have in the second half, like at least 5-6? We had 14 corners throughout the game I think, and we don’t manage to score ONE.

Huntelaar – 5. A five, the story of KJH’s career this season so far.

Bakkal – 6. Not really on long enough to judge or make an impact, so I’ll give him an even 6.

All in all, a very disappointing game. We really do sorely miss our three most creative players. Although, I am convinced that VDV is still an excellent replacement for Sneijder (and in some situations I think VDV may be better as nr 10). And of course, the second half of 2009 has brought us Elia, so there are quite some positive developments the past few weeks. I also get the feeling Ooijer is slowly being removed from the starting line-up. GOOD GOOD!

Things will be bright my friends, I also have this unprecedented feeling of victory or at least semi-final success.

Posted from  Netherlands

I’m kind of surprised everyone is dumping on Afellay, personally I thought he looked quite good. He was full of energy and running, and he won the ball back for orange many, many times. Sometimes he lost the balls while trying to make runs, but I actually think we needed a player who would risk a bit to try and make something happen, otherwise we’d just keep passing it around in defence for the whole game (which is pretty much what we did).

Which brings me to my next point: we completely dominated possession and owned the ball for most of the game (stats said it was 70% for Holland, 30% for Paraguay) which is great, but we didn’t have nearly enough penetration. Too much passing the ball around in defence and back to the keeper. We rarely passed it in and around the box, so we weren’t dangerous enough for most of the game. We also really, really need to work on our crossing. Probably 90% of our crosses were very poor; I see better crosses in my games here in Canada!