Juventus In Surprise Van Persie Link

The Dutch team poorly before Euro ‘08? Really?

Like shellacking Croatia after they beat England? Thought that they played pretty well. Anyway…

Personally I wouldn’t call Italy less physical than England - less running yes, but not less physical. Agree that Van Persie needs to figure out the injuries - but don’t think Italy would really help.

And completely agree on the comments on Italy. I know I’m hopelessly biased becase Italian football just seems boring. But despite that I think the league hierarchy is pretty clear now:

1) England,
2) Spain.

3) ???

And it’s the money. English and Spanish are the dominant tongues world-wide. Tons of exposure all over the globe. Germany and Italy just don’t have that - and probably never will.

Thus, if you want to be the biggest football star - you play either in England or Spain.

Posted from  United States

Hmmmmm Brazil Olympic Team in Singapore
Ronaldhino & Co are rubbing shoulders with the locals and playing here on Monday….papers are full of pics of Daffy Duck & Friends
Hope to run into them at some night spots …..

Posted from  Singapore

Good luck Carlos. Let us know if you run into any of them.

Personally, I would be more excited if the Brasilian women team would show up though

Posted from  United States

Samuel - don’t be confused - even though there are so many players rolling around on the ground so often, that doesn’t actually mean that it’s a physical league I agree with you that Spain and England are the top two leagues now. I’m not sure which should be top, but they are both above the rest for sure.

Posted from  Canada

Real Madrid offered 6million for van der Vaart, and Hamburg rejected it, even though van der Vaart has a buyout clause of 1million.

Posted from  Canada

We won’t see V.Persie in a Juve shirt any time soon, why would he, he’s happy at Arsenal and Wenger wants him to stay. the Olympic squad did play terrible but you have to know that they had 2 or 3 intensive training sessions in the run-up to the game. De Haan always does that, first he makes sure that they all get 100% fit and in shape an build up stamina, and then they can concentrate on playing good matches and win at the OS. They did the same at the last two U-21 EC. And we all know how that turned out.

Posted from  Netherlands

ya think about it, in the u-21 2006, we lost our first match to the Ukraine, and then drew the next one 1-1 with Denmark, but we eventually got better and won it. In the 2007 edition, we started out with a 1-0 win over relatively weak Israel side, but picked it up fromt there. Our u-21 team always starts out slowly.

Posted from  Canada

Actually getting in the mood for the Olympics now. Might even watch it this time around Just sick of all these idiots getting caught doping though (Track/Tour De France/Baseball/You name the sport).

Actually pleasantly surprised there is not more of it in soccer. Seems to be almost always cocaine and stuff like that (Maradona and Mutu), not EPO which would actually make more sense if you wanted to cheat. You need to be pretty fit to do what Kuyt does week in and week out. Does anyone actually know how much testing there is in EPL/Spain/Italy? My guess is probably not an awful lot, but I don’t know.

Posted from  United States

Apparently Bouma picked up a major injury in his Aston Villa game, during the intertoto cup.

Posted from  Canada

@dirk,

you are right. Sounds serious. Play stopped in 5 minutes for treatment to be administered.

Here is the link to BBC match report which is normally pretty reliable and levelheaded.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/europe/7526708.stm

Posted from  United States

i’m very happy that oleguer signed a 3-year deal with ajax. he’s great and underestimated. quite sure that he will ad more quality and experience to the defence and hope that ajax will be the champion.

Posted from  Hungary

think Oleguer will be a most-needed strengthening of the defence for Ajax, Could be quite helpful for the young Vermaelen and V.d.Wiel to better develop as center backs. Heard Ajax wanted one extra defender after Oleguer, heard the names Marquez, Wielaert(FC Twente), Mokoena and Grygera(Former-Ajax players) but i wouldn’t count on Wielaert to make their defence better. And the other ones don’t sound very likely to me. Believe Ajax now has the best strikers of the Eredivisie, if Ajax manage to get their defence sorted, i don’t see why they couldn’t be Champions.

Posted from  Netherlands

a little of topic, do u guys think that van bommel should play in the team for the next world cup

what about

stekelenberg

heitenga donk vlaar drenthe

de jong van bommel

sneijder van der vaart robben (van persie as the super sub)

huntelaar

san marco should sell hunter and buy a good central midfielder. cvitavich can replace hunter so i’m not to worry. not a big fan of oleguer. ajax should release rommedahl, kennedy b., and luque because they suck.

@ sonneveld
bommel is a must in 2010, if his fit and playing regularly. i hope robben make 2010 cause the guy is glass.

Posted from  United States

v Bommel has just been appointed captain of Bayern Munchen !

Posted from  Singapore

Who is cvitavich? It is difficult to pronounce it. Is he Dutch? I heard also about Sulejmani, is he a Dutch also?

Posted from  Indonesia

Btw, I haven’t read any new news from this blog. The last article was about Van Persie. Where’s Jan?

Posted from  Indonesia

Jan was taking a short break :-). Just got back.

Cvitavich is an Argentine player with Croation (?) roots…

Sulejmani is a Czech if I’m not mistaken.

I can’t see Van Marwijk not selecting Van Bommel, since he is his son in law. Not sure whether it’s a good idea though…

cvitanich is argentine-croatian, he decided to represent croatia.
sulejmani is serbian.

Posted from  United States

Argentine-croatian, now there’s an interesting mix. If you can’t play football with that combo in your blood, there may be an issue or two.

I bet these days you can get Arsenal to buy someone like him at the clinic just by showing the parents passports…

Norwegian papers now report that Ajax is following Per Ciljan Skjelbred, midfielder at Rosenborg, 21 years old and certainly one of the biggest talents (if the not the biggest) in Norway.

Not that doesn’t really say too much these days, but he was also rated by some Italian sports mag as one of the worlds top 50 talents.

He is a good player IMO, and would be a good signing for Ajax. He has lots of European experience from Rosenborg and played when they beat NAC Breda in the Intertoto cup on Sunday to qualify for the Uefa cup.

van marwijk should go to argentina/brazil and search for players who are able to play for the dutch nt just like croatia and italy is doing.

Posted from  United States

Finnster, if Skjelbred already played in intertoto cup, is he uefa cup-tied now?

Posted from  United States

@Charles,

no he won’t be tied up until he plays in the UEFA cup game. They are viewed as two different tournaments, with the winner getting the oppty to play in another tournament. In other words, no different than a domestic cup winner getting the chance to play in the UEFA cup or a league winner getting the chance to play in CL.

I think he will be expensive though. Norwegian players have become expensive, in fact the Norwegian league is doing with Michel suggests above. They go to south America. A lot of unknown Brazilians, Uruguayians making a living there now. They are cheaper than homegrown talents. Sad but true.

on Bouma; dont know if any of you have seen it but its awful, if you dont have the stomach dont watch this…hell be out for more than 6 months!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9wvPhdRKZE

grtz

Posted from  Netherlands