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Oranje vs Romania 2-0

June 17th, 2008 | By: Jan | 47 Comments »

It’s easy to talk about everything we didn’t do well. In the first half, pace too slow, first touches letting us down, Boulah starting horribly, etc etc. But… Three things to say in “our” defense: 1. this team never really played together; 2. the real pressure to play top wasn’t there and 3. Romania didn’t help with their placid, passive football style. Romania needed a win, but never in the game was that very obvious.

Holland created chances in the first half, with Robben’s little dribble on a Huntelaar flick as the biggest, Romania had some chances but the first half really, wasn’t really exciting.

In the second half, Romania opened up a tad more, allowing Holland immediately to show their strength and score. Afellay played more wide in the second half and his cross was easily tapped in by KJ Huntelaar. It was astonishing to me how weak Romania played from then onwards. Until 5 minutes before time, they didn’t create anything! In that last rumble in the box, Oranje’s defending was pisspoor but still Romania – incl Mutu – couldn’t make anything of it. Van Persie got a huge chance after a Heitinga pass, there were some interesting distant shots but it wouldn’t be till the 87th minute when Van Persie collected a De Zeeuw pass to finish with his magnificent left: 2-0.

Italy had beaten France, Romania just didn’t deserve it… So for neutral football lovers and purists, the two right teams are moving on, with a chance for Oranje to meet Italy again in the semis.

Worst moment of the match: a Oranje corner kick, taken short and immediately resulting in the taker – Van Persie – being off side! What a waste!

Best moment of the match: The Swiss referee backheeling the ball

All in all, not a world class performance by the Dutch, but it would be very foolish to expect that in these circumstances.

Some notes on individual players:

Stekelenburg: solid, wasn’t tested really
Bouma: strong, concentrated
De Cler: strong in build up, iffy in defense
Boulah: bad start, build up play pretty good
Heitinga: ok first half, excellent second half
De Zeeuw: good enough but not present enough
Engelaar: strong again, one of the best
Robben: misses some “oomph” but moments of brilliance
Van Persie: mediocre first half, very strong second
Huntelaar: as he is: invisible for a long time, but scoring when he can
Afellay: busy, active, working hard, a tad too egotistical
Kuyt: Excellent game, strong on the ball
Melchiot: didn’t look 100% but strong in the build up
Long John: excellent in celebrating Van Persie’s goal.

Van Basten/Van ‘t Schip did well. Good line-up, the right substitutes and they don’t have to sell their Italian houses…

Tags: Afellay, Basten, De Zeeuw, Euro 2008, Huntelaar, Oranje

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Comments

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By Jelle | June 17th, 2008 at 4:49 pm

We didnt play too well in the first half but in the second things started to connect. Well played Holland!

Posted from Netherlands

By marbel | June 17th, 2008 at 4:54 pm

They showed the ‘covered noses’ clip on the BBC when they discussed the game

v. Persie said it wasn’t his best game and he was right. He played nicely, great ball handling, but Affelay was my manofthematch. It took Robben a long time to get into his game I thought. Still, it is nice to have this kind of B-team ;D

By dave | June 17th, 2008 at 4:59 pm

For the 1/4 final: Robben and v Persie come on as subs and go with the same lineup as first two games. Would like to see vdv go back a line and sit engelaar and start robben but not likley to see it, at least not to start. May have to consider Heitinga for Boula, he was so brutal today in first half-can’t have that against a real team. And Romania is not: They were lifeless and pathetic in a game they had to win. Good riddance. And anyway, the Spanish give us the toughest test due to their finishers, and Italy has about a 100x better chance of beating them than did the Romanians.

Posted from United States

By Jan | June 17th, 2008 at 5:05 pm

I thought Robben wasn’t that shit hot either. But most people love him for his moments, I guess. But he should up his game a bit.

But Engelaar… Yeah, I see that he lacks that pace a bit, but I tell ya, that’s what everyone said about Rijkaard too when he still played!

I love how he is always, always available. He also sees the best option to pass very quickly and…and this is why I think he’s great…he always tried to find a striker when possible with a deep pass. His work rate is good too, so yeah. I like to see more of him. I think he is better than De Zeeuw and Landzaat at the moment. De Jong has more venom in his body, so he would be my first choice for holding midfielder.

I would love to see Sneijder play there, though. So Robben/Robin can play in midfield.

And man, Afellay…he wasn’t great today, but the potential eh?

By marbel | June 17th, 2008 at 5:10 pm

I thought Boula played very well. Heitinga played well too, but not better than Boula. I’m less thrilled with Engelaar: he seems to need a lot of room before he can actually play well.

By swiebertje | June 17th, 2008 at 5:17 pm

@ejb – nah, the first touch of Robben was horrible today, while Robin looked pretty dangerous couple o times; i would stick with Van Persie next game with Kuyt and Robben on the bench; in case we’ll need some grit and running in the 2nd half

By swiebertje | June 17th, 2008 at 5:21 pm

And about the first half – almost everybody in oranje was mediocre, but so what? They hit upon a drab wet wall when they expected fire and brimstone … I expected the Rumanians to put up a fight for their big chance. Instead the waited and waited and waited, scared shitless of oranjes counter attacking skills. Did they really expect to win with this waiting game? Pathetic.

By Caleb | June 17th, 2008 at 5:35 pm

Robben was almost invisible today, I was disappointed with him today – I was used to his great performances for Madrid in the second half of the season and his great sub appearances. Today he didn’t have it. Maybe it’s better for him to come on as a sub.
Van Persie grew into the game and got better and better as the game went on.
Huntelaar had a pretty weak first half but seemed to calm down and do better in the second half.
I was completely disappointed with Romania though… did they want to win that game?? Because it certainly didn’t look like it! If I didn’t know better, judging by that game I would have said that Holland was the team that needed the win and Romania was the team that was already qualified.

By frenchnetherlandsfan | June 17th, 2008 at 5:43 pm

agree with goose, robben was weak.
van persie didn’t show he deserve kuyt’s place.
engelaar … well, slow of course, and doesn’t seem to play good enough, but every time i though that, the minute after he succeed a real good opening for strikers.
vanbasten has the choice now.
play with the same past line-up, or put vaart or sneijder as defensives midfielders to start with robben.
and plz, heitinga in !!

Posted from France

By bunchapooha | June 17th, 2008 at 5:44 pm

Kuyt is desperately needed upfront, this gives the midfield so much more time and space to work with, he simply demolishes teams, it’s so great to see.

Posted from Netherlands

By richard | June 17th, 2008 at 5:46 pm

Robben can certainly race down the left flank with exceptional pace–but that seems to be the extent of his game, from what I’ve seen. Van Persie is dangerous in many ways. Kuyt will NOT be on the bench when the next game starts–are you kidding? After Sneijdner he’s probably the most valuable player on the team! I agree about Engelaar: He’s an excellent passer but he very methodical and needs space and time to make his passes; when pressured or hurried he’s not so good.

Posted from United States

By Robert | June 17th, 2008 at 5:56 pm

Don’t agree with the much of the Engelaar critisism. He is at times brilliant in distribution. If he ever lands a half a season with a top club watch out. I thought Bouma was outstanding; Huitinga is a great player who unfortunately can always be counted on for one or two absolutely horrid mistakes. He made them today too but this Romanian team can only play negative.
For the sake of a good tournament I am happy they are gone. Sure Italy scares me a little but it will be a much better game. Of course Italy would have to get past Spain first. I love the way Spain is playing but they really have not yet faced a decent defense so it will be hard to pick a winner in that.

By Jan | June 17th, 2008 at 6:02 pm

Yeah, Bouma was strong indeed.

I think Marco will stick with this starting 11. Robben isn’t 100% fit and Van Persie can’t be either. Let Kuyt break the opponent down and allow Robin and Robben to finish the job later in the game.

Go GUUS!

By Bashar | June 17th, 2008 at 6:06 pm

Before the tournament and on Friday I stated there was no integrity left in modern day football… Thanks for proving me wrong..

I’m an Italy fan, but if I could hand the Dutch the trophy now I would.. Nobody deserves it more.

Posted from United States

By Igor | June 17th, 2008 at 6:17 pm

am i the only one who thinks that Heitinga is our best central defender? its true he is error prone but so is oijer and i noticed Heitinga stepping up into the midfield to break up attacks early before the romanians ever got into the danger zone…very useful skill to have, you don’t want to always have to tackle the opponent in areas that could lead to dangerous free kicks. granted this was not the same caliber of opposition but i feel that bouma and heintinga are our most solid pairing in the centre of defense. (think, who do you want in a foot race versus villa or torres…i don’t think mathijsen or oijer are quick enough, but here i am getting ahead of myself)

Posted from Canada

By Michel-Olivier | June 17th, 2008 at 6:25 pm

@ jan
“Let Kuyt break the opponent down and allow Robin and Robben to finish the job later in the game.”
i agree, why change a winning formula

Posted from United States

By swiebertje | June 17th, 2008 at 6:53 pm

I still go for Van Persie in the lineup in the quarters, esp. since we are bound to meet defensive, negative teams – wheater it is Sweden or Russia – so we’d rather have a player who can make the difference with limited space or in static situations – Robin. If things get tough, we always have Dirk.

By TheQuotient | June 17th, 2008 at 7:54 pm

Bouma was strong? I’m not sure we saw the same game. He’s pretty muscular, but probably the slowest player on the pitch in distributing the ball. He took ages to pass it every single time. It had my heart beating a little too fast to see a defender who isn’t very nimble dally for so long on the ball. Terrible!

Posted from United States

By Jan | June 17th, 2008 at 8:02 pm

TheQuotient: I know what you mean but in my view, that is not Bouma’s fault. As a defender, he is solid, in build up I read that Marco rates him higher than Mathijsen but the problem was in the first half lack of decent movement up front. We see Bouma on telly being slow, but the real issue is not him but the others up front. I’ve said it many times before: the play without the ball is more important (individual players only have the ball for 4 minutes max in the whole 90 minutes!!!). So, it’s the other 86 minutes that count! What do you do? Bouma can’t take foolish risks, so he hangs on to the ball.

Same with Engelaar in the match vs France. He was constantly available and was passed the ball, but in particular Gio and others didn’t make themselves available, getting Engelaar in trouble. He loses possession and everybody blames him, but that’s not really fair.

@Igor: I agree! Heitinga can play holding midfielder, has a wonderful pass (the one on Van Persie, that Lobont stopped), is a more than decent header… I don’t know why he isn’t part of the starting eleven…
Maybe Van Basten punishes him for leaving Ajax

By TheQuotient | June 17th, 2008 at 8:35 pm

@Jan: Points taken. But, just for the record, I just looked at highlights again, and there was that one chance in the 1st half where Mutu completely ghosted past Bouma like he wasn’t even there. He reminds me a bit of Senderos in how slow he is to react. Against Torres, it was fatal for Arsenal… Good points on having players open though.

Posted from United States

By Rob | June 17th, 2008 at 10:35 pm

Wow – I’m surprised at some of the comments I’ve seen about this match. I personally thought it was far and away THE BEST performance of the three matches by Oranje – not for the neutral, but from an Oranje perspective. The defence was superb (I’ve read stuff like “Romania’s attack was useless” without the author realising that it’s because the defence was tight, well organised and closed people down for once). Engelaar was brilliant in posession, as was Affelay – Romania barely got a kick first half. Robben was crap, but I think it’s fairly obvious he realised it was a nothing game and didn’t play at full pace. Van Persie was pretty good (though not amazing or back to full sharpness by any means). Huntelaar lacked the support play that Ruud offers but got his goal.

In any case – I think the defence from this match, coupled with the attack from the previous two, would be a devastating combination. I hope Van Basten agrees.

Posted from Japan

By bobotoh | June 17th, 2008 at 10:45 pm

In my opinion, Engelaar did well against Romania. I like the way Afellay play. I think he is the next Sneijder. His long range passing is very good. The future is bright for Holland. This team will bring Holland to WC 2010, as long as they still use 4-2-3-1 formation.

Posted from Indonesia