Friendy No.1: Oranje – Ukraine

May 23rd, 2008 | by: Jan |

Ooh….the butterflies are at work already. Hot damn!! Tomorrow. In De Kuip, the Dutch football temple.

Oranje will start it’s prep campaign for the EC2008 with a friendly against the Ukraine.

Robin van Persie won’t start. That’s for sure. Van Nistelrooy, Robben, Sneijder, Vennegoor and Sar will be rested as well. So what can we expect. We can’t expect the starting line up for Italy. We can’t expect an explosive Oranje… Players will be tested and will feel the pressure. Bassie will try some tactical stuff maybe. Who knows, maybe Boulah will start so Marco can see how fit he is, now Melchiot appears to be a question mark for the EC.

And what will Ukraine do? Will they do as least as possible for the euros they’re getting? How do they play these days? What is their level? And… does it really matter?

The Kuip will be pretty full up. The Dutch fans love to cheer the boys before they set off to the Alps. Most Dutch fans won’t be able to see the EC matches live, so we can at least expect one big Orange party. Part preparation match, part fitness test, part Orange Rave, I’d say…

Anyway, the Ukrainians… The were part of the USSR in the past. Players like Onopko, Mychailichenko,
Yuran and Salenko were from the Ukraine and more recently big names like Andrej Schevchenko, Liverpools Voronin and Zenith midfielder Tymochuk hail from the south of Russia.

Dynamo Kiev was the gem of Ukrainian football, with Lobanovski as the architect of the team that gave us wonderfootball in the 1970s and 1980s. Since the WC2006, the Ukraine is a autonomous football nation. They had mixed results in the WC, but did come into the quarterfinals where Italy beat them (should have been Australia, but I will leave that discussion dormant for now). France, Italy and Scotland proved a tad too much for the Ukrainians.

I’m not sure which squad they’ll bring but there is a fair chance Levhen Levchenko of FC Groningen will be part of the team.

I will post the presumed line up for Oranje tomorrow, hopefully.

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Comments

By goose | May 23rd, 2008 at 6:59 am

Highlight of this years preperations (till now)…

2 days ago Oranje trained at the Katwijk pitch…Katwijk is the place of birth of Dirk Kuijt…Kuijts whole family was at the training including his 3 year old daughter… she waited till the Oranje training was finished and ran to her father..as Dirk picked up his daughter she began to sing (all was captured on national tv), she sung on the top of her voice, on the training pitch with all Oranje players still there; “helemaal niets, helemaal niets, helemaal niets voor Amsterdam” wich is a popular anti-ajax song saying “nothing at all for Amsterdam”! hahahahaha… guess at Kuijts house people are still supporting Feyenoord!!
now shes the national teddy bear for all non-ajax supporers

Posted from Netherlands

By finnster01 | May 23rd, 2008 at 8:06 am

@Goose, that is very funny. Being an Ajax fan myself, you have to see the humour in that. Excellent!!

@Jan, how could you miss out on the best Ukraine & Dynamo Kiev player of all time? Oleg Blokhin. European Player of the year in 1975. Possibly the fastest footballer with (and without) the ball I have ever seen. Old school player, coached for years on the side by Valeriy Borzov (who took the gold medal in 100m at the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics) which obviously didn’t hurt his development. Best burst of pace ever. Unfortunately a bit controversial with some racial undertones off the field, but none the less a great football player, and that is all we care about. Quit coaching Ukraine after they failed to qualify for EC08…Now coaching FC Moscow.

Posted from United States

By Caleb | May 23rd, 2008 at 10:22 am

Goose, that sounds like a great clip. Can you find it on the internet anywhere?

Posted from Canada

By Ramy | May 23rd, 2008 at 10:24 am

Hmmm.. I predict the line -up as follows, considering Melchiot is not available:

Stekelenburg

Heitinga——–Ooijer——Mathijsen——-Bouma
———de Zeuuw————Gio————-
—Kuyt———-Van der Vaart———-Babel—
——————Huntelaar——————-

not bad.. Melchiot is crucial though i find for our defense.. It is imperative he recovers from his injury in time.

Posted from Canada

By ayl | May 23rd, 2008 at 10:47 am

Hey Jan, this game wont be shown on Foxtel will it?? Do they normally show international friendlies which will likely attract a rather samll audience (being in Oz and all)… by the way, don’t bring up the whole Italy/Australia WC2006 thing… it gets me so fired up!!! Robbed i tell ya!! Robbed! haha jokes

By Mario Rosado (Dutch admirer) | May 23rd, 2008 at 11:16 am

I liked what Marco said about dropping a defender instead of a striker.

By goose | May 23rd, 2008 at 12:21 pm

Found the clip with Kuijts daughter, but also a great link to watch clips of Oranje training (someone here asked for that)and all other Oranje and EC news, its from the studio sport site so its all in dutch but lots of vids on Oranje

http://www.nos.nl/nosstudiosport/voorpagina/index.html

go to; mediatheek
go to; Derde trainingsdag Oranje

the clip will start; Kuijts daughter is on 4.07

the journalist who saw the training tought that; Kuijt, Affelay, Engelaar will play

also vBasten talk about his relationship with Cruijff, they are not on speaking terms anymore

grtz

Posted from Netherlands

By goose | May 23rd, 2008 at 12:22 pm

test

http://player.nos.nl/index.php/media/play/tcmid/tcm:5-379430/

Posted from Netherlands

By Caleb | May 23rd, 2008 at 1:03 pm

Thanks for the link goose, that was interesting. Kuyt’s daughter was very cute.

It’s too bad vBasten and JC aren’t speaking anymore… JC being a hard headed dutchman again?

Posted from Canada

By Igor | May 23rd, 2008 at 1:21 pm

Ramy, i agree because with melchiot in the squad it allows Heitinga to play in the centre of the defense. he had a great year and should definietly play centre back since that is one of our weaker positions anyway.

Posted from Canada

By Lerkot | May 23rd, 2008 at 2:41 pm

Hi, a bit off topic again… who is this fella..
http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/2471/25319601vn9.jpg

By Jan | May 23rd, 2008 at 5:39 pm

I expect Marco to rest the injured or formerly injured: so no Ooijer. I also expect him to play the “question marks” in selecting at least half a game: Engelaar, Landzaat, Afellay, Kuyt.

@Ayl, Foxtel does show friendlies but I haven’t checked if they will this Saturday and if yes, which games. I will though, and will report it here.

@Finn… I stand corrected! Of course I know old Oleg! A big fan of JC, I remember. But, since he never actually played for the Ukraine he slipped of my radar. He did play for Kiev some 76 years, so I should have spotted him of course…

Posted from Australia

By Jan | May 23rd, 2008 at 5:42 pm

This bloke is Otman Bakkal. Morrocan / Dutch midfielder of PSV Eindhoven. Scoring in the finals (?) of the U21 EC last year. Maduro is chasing him.

Bakkal had a great run under Koeman (yech!) at PSV. He is a hardworking dynamimc midfielder with scoring abilities. For me, Afellay is like Vaart/C. Ronaldo, Bakkal is like Ballack (could be distant relatives if you look at their names!!) and Aissati is like Van Persie. The latter is all play and no return on investment (yet, like Robin at Feyenoord) and Bakkal is less talented probably but more a team player.

When Koeman left PSV, his successors deemed it too risky to play both Afellay and Bakkal. There was talk of Van Basten keeping an eye on him for the EC, but when he lost his spot, that rumor died down.

Posted from Australia

By skillz | May 23rd, 2008 at 6:26 pm

Shevchenko will score. Also Voronin will play a big part of the game. But obviously Holland are the big favourites.

By Warouw | May 23rd, 2008 at 10:17 pm

Versus Ukraine:
Stekelenburg

Heitinga Boulahrouz Mathijsen De Cler

Babel De Zeeuw Engelaar Affelay
(V.Bronchorst sub)
Van De Vaart
/ Kuyt (Sub)
Huntelaar

By Jan | May 23rd, 2008 at 10:27 pm

Just read that Gio will be skipper, so he’ll play. Bassie used him as a left back during traing, by the way, so maybe Gio will play full back with De Zeeuw and Engelaar together as holders. Or even Sneijder and Engelaar ).

I won’t be surprised if Kuyt makes it as a starter! Vaart centrally, Robben left and Sneijder – as said – as holding midfielder.

By the way, Foxtel will air the Hungary Greece game and hopefully something else too, but they don’t publish the actual nations in their listings. They just say “Euro warm up match”. I won’t get up at 4 am if I’m not sure who will play…

Posted from Australia

By bobotoh | May 23rd, 2008 at 10:45 pm

In order to win the EC, Holland need someone like Rijkaard. Big and tall, who can pass the ball well, can defend also. You need this kind of person to stop someone like Luca Toni. Luca Toni is on fire in Germany, his heading is dangerous. Be careful.

Posted from Indonesia

By HUP | May 23rd, 2008 at 11:25 pm

The first friendly will definetely be more of a tryout then anything else. I think by the third match we will see our true potential.

Posted from Canada

By Jan | May 24th, 2008 at 1:09 am

@Bobo: Engelaar?

@HUP: true, the first one is to get acquainted again and for Marco to determine which players can go home. The last one will see the full line up for the Italy match.

Posted from Australia

By sphinx | May 24th, 2008 at 1:24 am

Size did matter. Engelaar is only prospective physically and Ooijer might be moved to that position..

Posted from Australia

By bobotoh | May 24th, 2008 at 5:04 am

I don’t know for sure about Engelaar. Is he tall? When I see Rijkaard, I also see Patrick Vieira. Their presence is very important. If he playes, I hope that he can help Sneijder. I always feel that Sneijder will play well if he is accompanied by a very good defensive midfielder (remember when Holland beat Scotland 6-1, in 2004?). There was Cocu at that time.

Posted from Indonesia

By Ramy | May 24th, 2008 at 2:30 pm

Great Goal by Kuyt!! That was one for you Goose.. haha

Have to say that Im really impressed with our 2-0 lead.. We’re playing very decent! Our offensive could be even more powerful, we have better than Affelay; but thats what id predict should happen with Robben, VanPersie, VNistelrooy and Sneijder still on the bench.. One player i feel is no good is ooijer, he needs to be replaced by Melchiot. Van Bronckhorst has really good moments, but does some mistakes.
Otherwise Id say we’re looking in good shape. Dezeeuw/Engelaar are also decent.

I predict Boulah, and babel to come in for ooijer and Affelay, second half.. Maybe de jong too at the end.

Go Holland!!

Posted from Canada

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