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National Cup has started…

September 24th, 2008 | By: Jan | 20 Comments »

Makaay realizes he can’t remember the dance moves to Village People’s YMCA!

And where in the world can you get a fixture like: PSV - PSV?

Allright then, it was PSV 1 - PSV 2… And the juniors really wanted to take the game to the big boys, but they simply couldn’t… PSV is on to the next round :-). PSV 1 of course…

Feyenoord had a shaky start. A horrible warm up season, lots of injuries, a first competition loss, a UEFA cup upset at home but also a very promising battle against rivals Ajax. Gertjan Verbeek hoped to see his team further push up the confidence against Top Oss (longtime ugly duckling in Dutch pro football).
Feyenoord won 3-0. But it wasn’t easy… It took extra time (30 minutes) after a goalless game. Roy Makaay scored the first and young Polish signing Michal Janota scored two in the last minutes.
This time around, it was the veterans who let the team down: De Cler, Gio van Bronckhorst and Roy Makaay already seem to be in Groningen or Sweden with their heads, although the Top Oss goalie deserves the credits for keeping the score goalless for a long time. And the cross bar…

FC Twente, Heerenveen, Roda JC…all the usual suspects eased through…

In Spain, apparently, Rafael van der Vaart scored his first hattrick. I saw Bruce posted the link to the goals and I will happily view them….now!

Laters

Tags: Beker, Bruins, Dutch Eredivisie, Holland, Janota, Makaay, Oranje, PSV, Sparta, Twente

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Comments

By alaa | September 24th, 2008 at 10:39 pm

i watched the real madrid game today, mannnnnnnnnn i was so happy to see van der vaart and robben score 4 goals, good impression:)

Posted from United States

By Ramy | September 25th, 2008 at 1:17 am

Was an amazing match… Real is the ’shit’ at the moment!!!!

By Alex | September 25th, 2008 at 2:59 am

Why do V.d.Vaart, Robben only seem to show this at Real and barely with Oranje, i can honoustly say i long to see another match like those against Italy and France. Fingers crossed for the Iceland and Norway games. But this is a pretty good display of their quality, i can only hope that when Sneijder returns, Real will play with a Dutch foursome, V.Nistelrooij, Sneijder, V.d.Vaart and Robben, With Raul next to Ruud of course.

Posted from Netherlands

By Jan | September 25th, 2008 at 5:09 am

Gijon didn’t defend very good, to put it mildly. I was amazed. Great goals (why did Raf take that chance with the second, he could have easily put it away “normal style” without a risk?)…

Robben had a good shot too, which allowed Raul his first of the season.

Feyenoord coach Gertjan Verbeek was questioned about Polish talent Janota: “Well, obviously, he is not too smart”… Verbeek referred to Janota taking off his shirt after his first goal, resulting in a yellow card.

“I’m happy he didn’t take it off after his second goal!”

The 18 year old was supposed to play with the Feyenoord juniors but impressed Verbeek so much that he kept him at the first team.

“Most of my players were on the dunny at half time, all suffering diarrhea, so I’m actually proud that they finished the game.”

Romeo Castelen will be out with injury till beginning of next year.

By Michel-Olivier | September 25th, 2008 at 7:13 am

@ alex
“V.d.Vaart, Robben only seem to show this at Real and barely with Oranje”
because they don’t have to defend/track back when they are playing for madrid, because madrid have a solid back four and a good gk.

Posted from United States

By Carlos | September 25th, 2008 at 7:27 am

Jan, which youtube flick is showing the Real Gijon game properly without all those “come to my website”ones ???

Posted from Singapore

By Caleb | September 25th, 2008 at 11:13 am

Wow, I just watched the Real Madrid highlights… wow! Those are some great goals! That first one is just excellent passing/team play, with a very nice finish as well.
I just wish I had known this game was on yesterday so that I could have watched it!
Too bad Ruud wasn’t playing, otherwise he probably would have gotten a hat-trick as well. Guess you have to rest him sometimes though, so that he can be his best in big games.

@Carlos - here’s the link provided by Bruce in a previous article comment:
http://goalday.blogspot.com/2008/09/real-madrid-vs-sporting-gijn-24092008.html

@Alex - I agree with you, I hope Schuster goes with that Dutch foursome, it would be awesome! Vaart and Sneijder over Guti any day!

Posted from Canada

By Alex | September 25th, 2008 at 12:17 pm

Dont’t think defending is the problem with Robben and V.d.Vaart, they put in just as much defending work with Real as they do with the national team.
V.d.Sar was just as good as Casillas, that’s a real loss for Oranje, i’ll admit that. But Stekelenburg isn’t that bad.
But i have to admit; Sergio Ramos, Pepe, Cannavaro and Heinze is a pretty decent defence, but Heitinga, Boulahrouz no less then for example Heinze for me, and i’ve seen them all play more than enough to judge. Besides that, it really has nothing to do with this, but Pepe does score alot for a defender, just like Heitinga really.
You know i really think V.Marwijk should always put in Huntelaar, V.Persie, Sneijder, V.Bommel, De Jong, Boulahrouz, Heitinga and Stekelenburg.
With the luxury of being able to choose between Afellay, Kuyt, V.d.Vaart, Robben and Babel for the remaining attacking places.
At LB Gio will do for now, and he could rotate with new players like Zuiverloon, Marcellis for CB and RB next to regulars Heitinga and Boulahrouz, Mathijsen should get a permanent seet on the bench.

Posted from Netherlands

By Bruce | September 25th, 2008 at 2:26 pm

Carlos. Here is another link if that other one doesn’t work for you…

http://www.fliggo.com/video/iP2i9XDV

RE: Alex and MO

I think the main problem is training time. Rafael and Wes spend so much tim training with their teams every week, and as a result they will perform better when playing at club level. Then when they make the trip home, they are playing with different mates, and sometime struggle to find chemistry with one another. Sometimes it all clicks (ie, France, Italy), but I think it will just take some time, and the fact that we know have five potential starters all at one (HUGE) club can only be good for Oranje. That is my take on the situation…

Posted from Republic Of Korea

By Jan | September 25th, 2008 at 5:31 pm

Guys, I watched the full 90 minutes of Madrid last night on ESPN and in all honesty: Real Madrid didn’t impress me apart from the goals :-).

Gijon was playing a good game in the first 30 minutes (they aren’t a real good side though) and Real Madrid played sloppy and mediocre. It’s just that at times, they can suddenly switch the magic on, accelerate and the class of Raul, Raf, Robben and Higuain makes sure they score goals. Seeing the highlihgts gets you into 7th heaven, seeing the match is a different thing.

Robben didn’t impress. He had many many big C Ronaldo moments (looking at the ref, pleading at the ref, diving and going for goal himself (he had one howler that ended up somewhere in the Madrid suburbs) and Raf wasn’t dominant at all… But he did score three :-).

By Michel-Olivier | September 25th, 2008 at 5:50 pm

ramos and marcello can run up and down the flank without living holes, lets be honest here gio don’t have the legs to do that anymore and heitinga can’t run. when heitinga/gio go forward they leave a big hole in the flank so robben/vdv have to track back and cover. when ramos and marcello lost the ball they track back quickly, however gio and heitinga(his not a fullback) walk back down. until we have at least 3 good fullbacks(rb/lwb/rwb) we have no chance of winning a major tourney.

the dutch team is good but you can’t always rely on robben/vdv/hunter/wes… sometime you have to play/win ugly and the only way to that is to have a solid back four. ex russia euro 08, when ruud scored i thought the game was going to turn around but the dutch defense suck we concede 2 goals from the wings.
recap ned-rus look at the defenders espesialy gio and ooijer walking around.

Posted from United States

By Igor | September 25th, 2008 at 5:57 pm

excellent and very interesting article on the dutch cup competition.

Posted from Canada

By Igor | September 25th, 2008 at 6:01 pm

@MO, well its clear that any team that relies on robben tracking back and covering on defense is doomed to fail…robben can only run in one direction and thats towards the opponent’s goal. that’s why its good to have a mix of “robbens” and “kuyts” in a team.

Posted from Canada

By Carlos | September 25th, 2008 at 8:03 pm

Thanks Bruce/Caleb for the links to Real /Gijon …yep they sure looked good - but Jan’s comments are sobering especially if he saw the whole game.
Big week in Singapore guys F1 is here - first evr night race and Yes last night I did see Kimmi, Massa and a few others. A sister of one of our suppliers is the Ferrari PR lady. I dont think I should tell her I am a McLaren Fan.
Given the choice however would prefer to watch a Dutch Classic like Ajax Feyenoord.
Talking about players tracking back,IMO Persie has improved 100% in this area, when he is shoved out on the wing. He is becoming the complete player. Not sure if you follow EPL, but have watched Rooney doing a hell of a lot of tracking back and playing out of position. He is doing qiuite well. Dont like ManU, Never liked Rooney (as a person) but have to respect talent! he is showing it. Both he n Persie have impressed me in their ways of tracking back and becoming the first line of defence.

Posted from Singapore

By Michel-Olivier | September 25th, 2008 at 9:26 pm

euro 2016 set to expand to 24 team

Posted from United States

By finnster01 | September 25th, 2008 at 11:31 pm

@carlos: Being a ‘pool man, I hate everything Man U (except EVDS, Giggs and SAF) but Rooney has indeed developed. He doesn’t even get sent off every other week anymore However, their captain of the Portuguese diving team is back in action and I fully expect a season of nonsense as it will surely be his last before he joins Real and SAF retires.

I just wish Vinnie Jones was still playing. I don’t think Ronaldo’s antics would be on display in those days. Or Tommy Smith and Terry Butcher a couple of decades earlier. They would have taken care of business. Have you noticed possibly with the exception of John Terry, there are no “hard men” left at CB in the EPL? We need some at Oranje, but the EPL could do with a few too.

By Bruce | September 26th, 2008 at 6:39 am

Being a ‘pool man, aren’t you forgetting a certain Jamie Carragher?!

Posted from Republic Of Korea

By Caleb | September 26th, 2008 at 8:50 am

About Rooney: sure he’s good at tracking back and running all over the place, but as a striker he is completely overrated. He doesn’t score near enough goals and misses so many great chances. But he runs a lot, so people always say “look at him, that lad’s got some true British grit!”… overrated!

@MO - Yeah, I heard the same thing this morning. Greedy, money-worshiping, useless Platini and UEFA are set to increase the EC to 24 teams. What a load of crap! There goes the quality of the competition. All they think about is money… UEFA really pisses me off lately!

Posted from Canada

By goose | September 26th, 2008 at 1:55 pm

to be honest; always have had a soft spot for Rooney; i think he is pretty great!

f&^%&*^! shame on the Uefa, totally agree Caleb, its all about the money,

they are also changing the setup for the Uefa-Cup; given it a new name ‘Uefa Europa League’ (now guess what the next step will be!) starting with 48 teams and poules (no knock-outs at the start)

Uefa and Fifa (and the IOC) are all money-grabbing facist institutions

Posted from Netherlands

By finnster01 | September 26th, 2008 at 4:31 pm

@Goose: You forgot to add KNVB to the list.

@Bruce: I don’t view Jamie as a CB. He has started more games as a RB than anything else. I don’t question his heart though. He is as good a right back as they come in my book, and came up through the system. Love the guy.

All I was saying is that the old days of the hard nosed central defenders (like Oranje needs) seemed to have gone missing. Terry is the closest thing in the EPL now adays. Fredinand, maybe, but he isn’t nasty enough.

As Goose keeps saying we need the proverbial “bastard” at Oranje and we dont have him, and certainly not in central defense. That is about as manly as Sarah Palin running for VP here in the US. Maybe she could be the next Oranje Angel (if she buys a new set of titties)?

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