And football won!

I affirm all that Jan wrote–the best team won, far from the best team lost, and in spite of the “troubled” history between Spain and the Netherlands as countries, I liked the way Spain played. The Torres goal was incredible! Spain appears to have overcome their “dry spell” for winning tournaments–56 years wasn’t it–so good for them.

I continue to wonder why the quality of the referee teams is so poor. Is it the speed of the matches which makes their ability to make correct calls so inconsistent? The referees did not determine the outcome of this match, but they did add a level of aggravation, especially if you were cheering for Spain. Hopefully UEFA will do a referee review and seek to improve the quality.

How nice would it have been if Holland had been there, and acheived what Spain did? More dreams, maybe next time…

Posted from  United States

what if?
does any of you think, holland could beat spain if we didn’t loss at quarter finals?
Who can say no at circumstances everything goes right?

Posted from  Australia

Alaa! I’d rather go…
stekelenburg
kromkamp——–boularhouz——-heitinga
affelay——–Dejong———–sneijder——–drenthe
robben——huntelaar———–babel

vaart and persie ..let them sit in bench until some proves back again!

Posted from  Australia

Last time they won was 1964. Last time in a finals was 1984, losing 2-0 to France (Platini and co). The ref was full of himself. Why did Casillas get that yellow card??

the refree sucked, did you see the save lehman did when he touched the ball outside the box with his hand? he didn’t give the spanish any free kick and yellow for lehman.

Posted from  United States

Guys:

Why Boulahrouz???He is the worst defender Holland has had ever!. He can´t even control the ball, he is slow and is not tall enough to play in central defense and as right back he sucks.

I´d say:

1- Stekelenbur

2-Kromkamp 3- Heitinga 5-Gio(de Cler/Bouma)

4-Mathijser/Bouma

6- van Bommel

7- Sneijder 11-Robben(Babel if injured)

10- van Persie

9- Ruud (in case he retires or loses form then we have Huntelaar)

Germany should be proud of their players. They are good enough as other german´s generations but they always fight and get to the semifinals or finals. They got into the WC2002 with a mediocre team and did it agains in this Euro 2008. We, the Dutch should be more demanding of our players and coaches. How Mr. van Basten can say he did a good job?. With the players he had he should have beaten the Russians, the Spanish and the Germans. I hope van Marwijk can change the attitude of this team because the way they played against Russia shows that this team need more mental toughness to win such a tournament and with Cocu and Frank de Boer as his assistants the future looks bright for me.

why do people in this blog like affelay and kromkamp?
there are much better dutch footballers out there.

Posted from  United States

I wanted to say that this generation of German players are not as good as other players they had in the past such as Klinsman, Mattheus, Brehme, Kohler, Hassler and of course Beckenbauer, Vogst, Muller…but they always fight and play their football. That´s what we have been lacking and I think the last tournament that we played brilliant football was in 2000 but unfortunately the penalties didn´t help us. I think that with the set of players he have now we can beat Italy, France, Spain, Brazil, Argentina, Germany but fot that you need consistency.

Besides that we have to play our game which is to have the ball and attack. It has been proved by Spain that you can win titles attacking of course that defending too but I am very positive that a very good attacking team vs. a good defending is more likely that the team with the best attack will win. Like Spain vs. Italy or even Russia vs. Holland.

If you attack , play your game and score nobody will stop you.

Football did indeed win today.

However, still annoyed that Lehmahn got away with the obvious handball. I would have sent him straight in the shower. By the way, how come Germany has not had a vaguely sympathetic goalie since Sepp Maier? As much as he killed Oranje in his day, he was actually a pretty likeable fellow.

Lehman throws his toys outside his pram everytime he doesn’t start for Arsenal, which is now always. Kahn was just a grumpy old man the last 4 years. Schumacher was a thug and should still be in jail for assault.

Every team has a player or two people don’t like. Usually, it is somebody different than the goal keeper. Except I guess in Germany. Unless you have a nasty personality you will not start. Compare that to EVDS. Enough said. Wonder what they have in store for us next?

Posted from  United States

Beautiful! Simply beautiful! What a fascinating game! The Spanirad won, they fought hard and they deserved to win! A whole bunch of young, talented, vigorous players rocked the world! I do hope our young Dutch team can be like them!

Posted from  China

Thank you, Espana! There are hopes for positive football. Let this Spain’s victory and our loss inspire the Oranje for the bigger stage in 2010 (no, I don’t care who will get the gold in the Olympics).

I have asked the “what if” questions lots of time but I have to say that, to me, Spain winning the cup is the best consolation for our loss. There is no doubt they are the best team in this tournament. They managed to shake off their jinx and beat Italians in PK, beat the so-called young attacking Russian team (that beat the “favorite”) and finally beat the best tournament (despite boring) team.

Spain should have won by more goals, Lehmann should have been given a yellow with the hand touch outside the box, etc. but at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter. Spain won without their best striker, they won despite Germany not playing attacking and open football.

As much as it pains me to say this, I think this year’s Spain squad is better than our beloved Oranje, if they had met in the semis - everything being equal - believe they would have beaten us anyway; so I would have ended up hurting either way.

–H

Mario.. Why Kromkamp???He is the worst defender Holland has had ever!. He can´t even control the ball, he is slow and is not tall enough to play in central defense and as right back he sucks.

Posted from  Netherlands

Did you see the blood on Ballack’s face during the game? That’s the fighting spirit that we Oranje need during these tournaments.Win or Lose, we must fight, bleed, get injured…whather, but we should never give up. The Turks showed that same spirit, and Ballack was emblematic for Germany.

Posted from  United States

Nah. Alright, Kromkamp maybe is a little taller than Bouhlarouz, but not much faster, at least, not that I can recall, that’s things I don’t really pay too much attention to tbh, let’s just say that both don’t strike me as being particularly fast.

But to the point. I just think it’s weird to include Kromkamp after his horrible season at PSV. Not that Bouhlarouz has played so great these last season(s), but his performance at the WC two years ago still impresses me, as opposed to Kromkamp, who was one of the weaker links back then. No, I’m glad that Jan hasn’t been selected this time around, he needs to improve imo.

Posted from  Netherlands

Bunchapooha, Boulahrouz was red carded in the most important game at the World Cup and he fouled Rolaldo pretty badly. He doesn´t have the level now for Oranje, perhaps if he gets a regular position at his club then he can fight for a spot but now he doesn´t even start for his club.

What Ballack did for his team (never give up a match, even if you’re literally bleeding) is the essence of why Germany always is at least in the semifinals of every big tournament. Their “never stop fighting” attitude and their team spirit is unrivalled. Well, that is until the Turks showed up some true nerve in this 2008. So if the Turks managed it, maybe Oranje can manage it too. How about naturalizing a German player (to be the temperamental leader of the team?) Every other team out there is naturalizing Brazilians. Luckily Oranje is oozing in talent, but god knows they need some nerve.

Posted from  Albania

Posted from  Albania

So, once again you avoid my questions regharding Kromkamp Mario. What exactly makes Kromkamp so much better? The guy’s a joke. I can’t believe it really.. Zonneveld, the dude who has played less than Kromkamp and is originally a mid could do better than Jan at his position at PSV. I mean, seriously, do you even follow Dutch football? I’ve seen nearly every game last season and yeah, Kromkamp was rubbish.

Posted from  Netherlands

شكرا اسبانيا امتعتي الجمهور العربي

Posted from  Saudi Arabia

hahahha… guess you should put out your spaghetti-keybard-mode!!

@bunchapoha; mate go easy on MR, please.. i watch some dutch football myself and i can tell you that before his move to Pool i thought Kromkamp was great…sure; he lost some momentum and dint have his best of seasons but he is as good a back as deCler, Bouma etc., i think his attacking abilities are pretty good; hes a decent defender all in all

Posted from  Netherlands

السعودية - We’d love to hear what you got to say, but you’re going to have to write in English… after all this is an English blog.

Posted from  Canada

Best of luck Holland. You have a golden generation in your future. You gave us beautiful football and an exuberance that cannot be matched. Imagine a Spain v Holland match. Awesome..

Posted from  United States