Robben out for a week!

June 8th, 2008 | By: Jan | 2 Comments »

It has been mentioned already in a thread I suppose, but I don’t read your comments until after I have seen today’s games .

I’m sorry… But I either have to get up at 2 am to watch two games and ruin my life (and marriage) after that (I am not 24 years old anymore!!!) or I watch the reruns in the evening, which I prefer. But then I don’t want to read any remarks on the matches… Hence, I post… But I don’t read your comments. Don’t feel neglected, I will read them later on and comment on it of course…

Anyway, Arjen is out for a week (at least). Bad news. We need to forget about him. For now.

The Oranje players still don’t know who will play and what Van Basten wants to do with the Robben replacement. “I do this like I always do this… I won’t give anything out, till just before the game. If that secrecy can help us maybe 2%, fooling the opponent, that it’s worth it. Don’t forget, we’re playing a tough game Monday, we need to pull every string.”

It seems only Sneijder, Van der Sar, Van der Vaart and Van Nistelrooy are 100% certain they’ll play. Van Basten still has different options for the other spots.

Asked what he’ll do to replace Robben, he said: “Don’t worry. We have a nifty solution there.”

Van Basten has worked hard to push the team forward, after the abysmal defeat against Portugal two years ago. He has worked on intimidation, for instance. During the qualifications for the EC, there were several matches (vs Albania and Belarus) where the opponent tried to get under the Dutch’ skin. This time around, powderkegs like Van Persie and Van Nistelrooy kept their emotions at bay. With notorious hierarchy-obsessed players like Seedorf and Van Bommel out, it seems Van Basten can keep his team tight and together.

“They’ve grown in the last two years. Tremendously. And that Portugal game certainly was an expensive, but good lesson.” Also for Van Basten we hope. As a manager, he had the responsibility to reign his team in and make adjustments that would change the game. And against Portugal, Van Basten failed to do so.