Hiddink: “Doctor, look what I’ve got growing on my hand!!”
Let’s evaluate the EC a bit more from a distance from it all…
With the Olympics underway and all that fresh news from all the big competitions in Europe, maybe it’s good to have a fresh look back and forward regarding our beloved Oranje.
The VI magazine had [...]

The EC is well behind us and in all evaluations of the performance of the Dutch (more to come!) it’s clear that little big man Wesley Sneijder is seen as our new skipper and navigator. We’ll look at Wes’ progress with Danny Blind, Edgar Davids, Henk ten Cate and his dad Barry Sneijder.
The youngster started [...]

If there’s one compliment Foppe de Haan deserves it’s praise on his ability to gel teams together. He was responsible for winning two European championships in a row with Young Oranje, a unique feat in Dutch football history.
De Haan spent some time in Switzerland to watch the Dutch seniors try to win the title as [...]

We’ll have our team soon… We’re counting the ballots. But who is to coach this motley crew?
And the Best Oranje coach would be…. ( polls)
Keep them votes coming in, my friends!

How do you feel, being an assistant coach after all those years as an active player?
I definitely feel I’m a coach now. I’ve said goodbye to my identity as a player. It did take some time, but that’s how I feel. Also because I made a step up at Ajax (coaching A1 in the new [...]

The EC is history. Spain won. So what? It’s old news. Bring on the new…
The next big thing will be the World Cup (have I lost you already? Us Dutchies know how to put heartache behind them and look positively into the future…).
We checked out the technical staff and the goalies in part 1. We [...]

Football fans could chose the EC’s best goal on the UEFA website. Wesley Sneijder’s wonderful strike fromm outside the box, the 4-1 against France, received most votes and is officially the EC’s most beautiful goal!
Sneijder’s goal received 40% of all votes. Nihat’s late winner against the Czech Republic ended second with 14%. Arshavin’s goal against [...]

Football mania has left the Swiss capital Bern, but they won’t forget the Dutch fans. Ever. Two weeks, the city was orange and the party went on for two weeks. The people of Bern found a way to thank the Dutch fans, via a website with photo’s and video-clips. The mayor also wrote a thank-you-note [...]

Wesley Sneijder and Edwin van der Sar have secured a position in the UEFA star-squad, chosen by “a select team of football experts” (they didn’t consult me!!). 23 players in total and Spain dominates this group with nine players.
Xavi Hernandez is part of the group obviously, chosen as the best player of the tournament.
This is [...]

* Playing lousy and copping criticism and playing out-of-this-world football can be sleeping on the same pillow.
* Playing out-of-this-world football and playing crap in the knock-out stages can be sleeping on the same pillow.
* The so-called leaders can fail to deliver when their teams need them, Cristiano, Michael, Wesley, Andrea, Thierry…
* Guus Hiddink feels at [...]