Who’s gonna stop Oranje?

Jeroen, for once i disagree with you about the pool games. I think it is exactly the opposite. We would do much better (and do most of the teams that have won the EC or WC)if we were placed in an easy group. In the last 2 tournaments we were placed in the groups of death and after brillantly escaping both times we fell at the first hurdle Portugal and russia. I think the explanation is that we became too confident and everyone saw us going very far. This is the recipee for disaster especially with our team. Look at France in 06, pathetic beyond belief in teh firt round and then they grew as a team and managed to get in to the final. Look at us in 98, not especially brillant during the first round but then grew as a team. I really hope the draw is kind to us and will allow an easy passage into the second round. Otherwise, you have to be at your best from day 1 and it is inevitable to have a bad game when it matters most ie the direct elimination rounds. Playing tough teams saps your energy so we really don’t want that to happen.

Posted from  United States

I too would love to see Robben and Elia on either flank. I don’t care which flanks they start from because they could switch during the match. That would be between them, van Marwijk and tactics. Right now, Robben draws a lot of attention to himself on one side so two fast wingers would really stretch defences out kind of like what I predict will happen at Bayern this season with Robben and Ribery (=Robbery). Two wingers also need a poacher who can knock in the goals and that man is Huntelaar.

How About:

–Van Bommel-Sneijder–
Elia–Van Persie–Robben
——-Huntelaar——

I think this is pretty balanced but for a more defensive team we can bring on De Jong for a forward.

Also there’s a pretty decent article on Goal.com right now on Oranje. I don’t know if it’s OK to post links but’s under Netherlands news.

World Cup Analysis: Dutch Vulnerable At The Back…
http://www.goal.com/en/news/462/netherlands/2009/09/10/1492219/world-cup-analysis-dutch-vulnerable-at-the-back-eljero-elia-adds-

Posted from  United States

diamond

———-vbommel——–
elia——————-robben
———sneijder———
—–vpersie—hunter—–

Posted from  United States

Totally agree with jeff ,
when we won italy and france , we underestimated russia , and they won us
I always belive that ego can destroy any team !

@Jeff,

I actually meant exactly what you are talking about. Holland had a difficult time in 98 and 88 and went on to do great. I didnt necessarily mean lose from good teams, what i meant was barely get by in the first round

Posted from  Netherlands

My 2 cents: I want to see Huntelaar up front and Kuyt on the right, and I think Sneijder still looks rusty – he needs to get back into his groove at Inter this year because he’s so important for the team. Otherwise, it was good to win a tough game against a very motivated team in a difficult environment.

Is it just me, or when you quickly look at the picture at the top of this article, it looks like De Jong is pregnant (because Ooijer butt behind him is sticking out exactly where De Jong’s belly is)??

It might be difficult to play well when your DM is pregnant…

Posted from  Japan

I dont think I would start with BOTH Elia and Robben. I think either one as an impact player for the last 45min or even last 25 minutes when Kuyt has run everyone ragged is probably the best option(well for me anyway). I would also alternate between the 2 for a starting position. You tend to place opposing team more on the backfoot by putting in a fresh attacker instead of a defender(Italian strategy). This is Dutch strategy (except for advocaat in 2004 with Robben) and it works !

Posted from  Singapore

The goal.com article is a little too hard on Mathijsen. I mean, he can be challenged, but he is our top man at that spot, with Boulah as his backup.

The emergence of Elia is really important because it allows VM to alter his tactics during the game if it is not going well for us or even before a game to match the opponent better. This is huge. As everyone is alluding to, we could easily play with Robben and Elia, but we could as easily play with Robben and VP or Kuijt and so on. This will keep the other coaches guessing as to which tactic VM would employ. It essentially gives us many more options.
Just a word about our defense because I am really curious to know what the people on the blog who were old enough to have watched Holland in the 74 and 78 WC think. Holland is not a country known for having great defenders. Defending is a collective enterprise. Italy 06 (yes they had Cannavaro but Materazzi, Zambrotta and Grosso cannot be called superstars) proved it by playing amazing team defense and covering every square inch. Now let’s look at the great Dutch teams of the 70s. The defense was made of great players but it was as a team that we defended. Yet, despite the Krol, Rijsbergen, Suurbier and so on, teams always had chances against us. Even the trashing of Austria in 78 5-1 Austria had chances to score. Same story in 88 (England game especially and even Ireland the header of Mc Grath) and 98 (vs Yougoslavia and of course Argentina). So my point is that we don’t need superstars but rather a tight organization and provided the players understand each other extremely well regarding positioning and so on, we may be able to get away with it. Our offensive talent is at least as good as that of 78,88 and 98. It will never match that of 74 but then again the Dutch team of 74 was the best team to ever play football. What do you think?

Posted from  United States

Carlos, you make good points about Kuyt and subs. Besides, Elia is still just starting out so lets not put all the weight of expectations on his shoulders just yet. I wouldn’t mind seeing kind of a flexible 4-4-2 with those same players either:

Kuyt-Van Bommel-Sneijder-Robben
——Huntelaar-Van Persie—–

With Van Bommel more defensive, of course, Sneijder as playmaker and Van Persie as shadow striker. This seems to me to be more like everyone’s natural positions anyways. At least we should keep something like this as an option because I think it’s important for teams to be able to play different formations at any time. Then we have De Jong if we need more muscle in midfield, and Elia and Van der Vaart as supersubs. (I’m really trying to restrain myself from mentioning Ruud van Nistelrooy too right now – too late). If only we could make sure that BVM reads some of our great ideas on this blog!

Good perspective about defense too, Jeff. I think Bert and Frank de Boer are actually trying to do something like that with the group they have. I’m just really impatient to bring new defenders in and give them playing time so they can learn to mesh with each other sooner rather than later. Then at the same time, we can phase out a couple of the oldies. I think I mentioned before that we might not have defensive superstars but we can easily aim to have a group of very decent defenders and midfielders (and forwards – thats where defense starts) who understand each other well and can act as a collective.

Gerard – If you want Bert van Marwijk to read this blog then spell his name out in full everytime you refer to Bert van Marwijk – slowly but surely this blog will carry Bert van Marwijk’s name more than any other publication doing a story on Bert van Marwijk. When ego centric people like Bert van Marwijk google themselves it always points to articles/blogs that mention Bert van Marwijk MORE than other articles mention Bert van Marwijk .

Posted from  Singapore

I just googled Bert van Marwijk and our blog now comes in No2 after Wiki.
All we need to do now is for Jan to do ONE story with the heading, “What would you tell Bert van Marwijk ” and we all just give our 2 cents worth whilst repeating his name and BINGO – he WILL read the blog and the comments attached.

Posted from  Singapore

Quite like cauliflower with a cheese sauce but instead of meatballs, how about chateaubriande whilst surfing the net ??

Posted from  Singapore

Quite like the chateaubriande bit, the cheese sauce, but for me I would simply replace the cauliflower with some freshly made bread and a few slices of prociutto on the side.

——schaars—van bommel——
van persie—sneijder—-robben
————huntelaar

and then after 45, bring on Elia and make it look more like

elia—–van bommel—sneijder—-robben
——–van persie—-huntelaar

with van bommel dropping back of course.

Posted from  Canada

I’m going to give my team some credit, and say that the only teams that could potentially beat us are Brazil, Germany, and Spain. England won’t beat us in a WC thats for sure, and Argentina are going to be so confused when they get there under Maradonna. I say just get some of our players to target there players in League games and we’re good.

Drenthe put in a hard tackle on Fabiano near the end of the season. Babel accidentally collide with Torres in the air. Robben pass on his health secrets to all of Bayern Munich…

Posted from  Canada