Oranje: in what shape are we?

Rafael van der Vaart never played so much games in one season. Robin van Persie never played less. Two weeks before the EC, AD.nl looks at the balance. The State of the Oranje Union, in other words.

Marco van Basten said it almost casually on day 1 of Oranje’s prep: “Maybe it’s good for some players to not have to kick a ball for some days…”.

Now Sneijder and Sar are part of Oranje, as the last two, the focus of Oranje will be on the EC and more particularly on the starting match against the reigning World Champions.

Every player receives a personal training program for the first week. All players have undergone their physical tests. The results will be used to design the individual programs for training and nutrition. Fitness and mental freshness are crucial ingredients for a good tournament, as proved Greece in 2004 and Germany in 2006.

A quick view on the state of the players shows the big differences and discrepancies between players. Heitinga, Mathijsen, Van der Sar and Van der Vaart have played 50 games this season, with Joris Mathijsen as record holder with 4.000 minutes of playing for Hamburg SV and 600 for Oranje. He played 55 games in total.

Heitinga played 97.8% of all Ajax’ games this season and he played six out of nine Oranje matches. When Van Basten says some players could do without the ball, he refers to these two in particular.

Number 3 is Raf van der Vaart. Unique for him, because normally he would always have some time off due to injuries. Afellay has played 83.2% of all matches for PSV, but due to PSV’s title, he hasn’t played a lot since winning that. He made a well rested and hungry impression in the first days of training.

And interestingly, the players who are likely to make a difference for Oranje - Sneijder, Babel, Robben, Van Nistelrooy and Van Persie - have all had their different “resting” periods.

En er intrigeert nog meer aan de seizoenstotalen. Knip de ranglijst doormidden en je ziet dat van de mannen die straks het verschil kunnen maken bij Oranje, de meesten nog relatief weinig hebben gespeeld. Van Nistelrooy, Van Persie, Robben, Babel en Sneijder hebben allemaal hun (meestal gedwongen) rustperiodes gekend dit seizoen. Sneijder had a short injurie period but started in more than half of Real Madrid’s games.

Ryan Babel had it tough on a mental level, being part of Benitez unfathomable roulation system. The youngster was subbed 42 times out of 49 matches. However, Ryan Babel did win the prize of Most Talented Liverpool Player of the year.