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Babel out, Boulah in…

May 31st, 2008 | By: Jan | 14 Comments »

It’s been reported here already. It’s a sad day. For Ryan Babel, the Liverpudlian danger man, for Marco, the man in charge, and for us…

He tore off his ankle tenons (?) during training. “It was weird. There wasn’t a man around. He wasn’t challenged, it just snapped. Maybe the result of too much fatigue in his system, I don’t know… It’s a little mysterie but we’re all sad. Ryan himself is totally out of it. He really needs to digest this before he will face the press. He is down and out. It’s bad for all of us. He is in tip top form and his sub turns were excellent. We’ll miss him,” said Van Basten shortly after the incident.

Van Basten didn’t think too long about his replacement. “We already had a creative player too much, looking at the balance. We were happy to take the risk because of Babel’s exceptional skills, but with him out, I thought it would be best to restore balance and get Boulah back. He at least is on par with us in terms of fitness.”

Van Basten knows that with Bouma, De Cler and Gio are options for left back, he can easily move either Gio or even De Cler one position up. And Engelaar has played behind the strikers too many times so it seems Afellay will be be the left flank option in situation Babel would be brought on.

Tim De Cler has resumed training and seems to be allright.

This will definitely hurt Oranje. Babel is a one of a kind player. He always reminds me of Gullit. But then without the enormous charisma. The man is fast, opportunistic, tricked and has a tremendous shot. Him coming on as a sub would definitely scare the opponent, whether they are Wales or Italy.

But, one has to move on, I suppose. Babel will be two months out, at least.

Tags: Babel, Boulah, de Cler, Euro 2008, Oranje, Van Basten

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Comments

By sphinx | May 31st, 2008 at 8:23 pm

Sad for Babel, but he’s still young and have huge opportunity to lead the new generation of orange.
for EU I don’t have mcuh worry for his absent. too many talents for left wing, robben, persie, afelly …enough.
Heartily welcome back Boula! we need him at the middle. surely basten don’t have to think twice, i am sure he missed boula laready since after danmark test.

Posted from Australia

By Michel-Olivier | May 31st, 2008 at 8:25 pm

khalid the cannibal, just what we needed for our back line. His going to eat tony, henry, and mutu apart. i hope marco play him in central defense.

Posted from United States

By Caleb | May 31st, 2008 at 10:50 pm

It’s too bad for him. I always feel sorry when players get injured before major tournaments. While I don’t think he was ready for a starting spot, I think he could have made a good impact as a substitute. I also think he needs to mature a lot if he’s going to be as good as he can be, and a tournament like this could have helped him to mature more.

By Tjeerd | May 31st, 2008 at 11:37 pm

If this is his achilles tendon then that is one serious injury.
Former Miami QB Dan Marino broke his achilles on a play in which he also was untouched.
He was out for a year. Was not the same afterword.

Ryan may get psyched, and change his style of play when he recovers. That is a concern.

By Ronald | May 31st, 2008 at 11:56 pm

Devastating…

Posted from Hong Kong

By Mario Rosado (Dutch admirer) | June 1st, 2008 at 5:04 am

really really sorry for him. I am a huge fan of Babel and i’m soooooo sad that he won’t play. It’s a major blow for us as he was a very important player for Holland.

By Rob | June 1st, 2008 at 6:48 am

Boulah’s selection hasn’t made me happy. Babel offered something different to bring on and make an impact – now Oranje has zero players who could do that. Should have been Drenthe really. Let’s face it, there’s no way Boulah’s ahead of Mathijsen or Bouma in Marco’s plans so don’t expect to see him kick a ball at the Euros.

Posted from Japan

By tiju | June 1st, 2008 at 7:16 am

Bulah in babel out i cannt undertsand?
Mathjenson should have been thrown out instead of bulah.
Two abssolute foot abllers are waing outside
Drenthe
Castelen
San marc is mad?
or ant to make another mistake like he did in wc06 portugal?

By tiju | June 1st, 2008 at 7:17 am

Bulah in babel out i cannt undertsand?
Mathjenson should have been thrown out instead of bulah.
Two absolute foot ballers are waing outside
Drenthe
Castelen
San marc is mad?
or ant to make another mistake like he did in wc06 portugal?

By tiju | June 1st, 2008 at 7:18 am

sorry for the speliing mistake i did

By ferenc | June 1st, 2008 at 7:29 am

tju: castelen hasn’t played a decent game for 2 years. drenthe is a sub at madrid,but his selection would have made some sense. as marco stated we have enough creative players and we don’t have too many defenders. this is why boulah was called. my sadness is not because of gis presence,but because of babel’s absence. as Mario i’m a huge fan of babel too… hope that robben won’t be injured because now he has a lot to do and no one can replace him. affelay is good but he doesn’t play the same game as robben or as babel. different style,deifferent position.

Posted from Hungary

By Rob | June 1st, 2008 at 8:19 am

Yes, there are a lot of creative players, but none that can make an impact off the bench with pace and strength. This is why Drenthe or Castelen were needed.

On a side note: anyone else incredibly pissed off that Mathijsen is starting against Wales? Hopefully he’ll make a horrible error that forces Van Basten to choosed Ooijer or Bouma in that spot.

Posted from Japan

By frenchnetherlandsfan | June 1st, 2008 at 8:59 am

i’m not really sad about it.
babel is not essential as creator like many of u said.
if kuyt bench at start, now marco is nearly forced to use him and that’s great
maybe i’ll go a little too far if i hope another hurt on left side to see drenthe at the EC … but i hope so.

Posted from France

By Caleb | June 2nd, 2008 at 8:56 am

Guys, calm down. Babel wasn’t that important to us. He was a good player to come off the bench and change things up a little, but he wasn’t an integral player at all. I think I would have liked to see Drenthe replace him because Drenthe can do the same thing off the bench, but like vBasten said, the team was unbalanced so nows he’s just making it balanced in case we have some injuries/suspensions in defence.

Rob – I agree, why is Mathijsen starting instead of Bouma?? I thought we already saw what Mathijsen is made of in the last few games..

Posted from Canada