Ten Reasons why we will beat France!

11. edwin van der sar ended Anelka’s dream in europe champions one month ago. although he may not be the 11 players against, this will be a great wall in front of france striker!

Posted from  China

Jan, I have one important addition: Today is Friday the 13th. It will be unlucky for the full-time astrologer and part-time coach of the French Team. I think it will be another thumping win for Holland. 5-0.

Posted from  Australia

Hi guys
back after four days.
@goose we miss u very much(My spelling Teacher)hope u can join us soon
Well we played against a lucky team (italy)and won convincingly.
But as like rob said till our diffence is shaky
italians do nt have the skill to drible except delpiero
ohh look at ribery,henry,maluda, and forthcoming crying babe christiano,quresma,simao,jao muntihno etc
ooiger was horrible luckly we escaped.but we cannt win matches all time with luck (italy proved this against us Mr Stasio).
I like the current attitude of the players they especially wesley,raf,vanpersie,roban,heitinga all of them having some killer spirit that will lead us to glory.
as like van persie said France are better than italy and it will difficult to beat them but i hope we will beat them
hup holland hup

11. French players see not only Carla Bruni but also Sylvie Meis, and they start to argue with each other which one can explain better the difference between “soccer” and “football”.

Posted from  Japan

1. trezeguet isn’t a striker for france since 3years, the team is defitinively not built for a finisher like him. he crap during amicals and qualifications.
2. ribery or nasri are great players able to head as n°10. (nasri for people who don’t know him is only 20 and far better than zidane at 20).
3. henry is the best barca’s scorer this year even if he didn’t play a lot.
his huge ego is pushing him to show he’s not dead at this EC.

8. platini scored 9 goals in 5 matchs in EC’84, most of them were awesome collectives actions. and if i remember well zidane only scored once by freekick it was against spain in quarter EC’2000.
9. gio ‘ll be very very busy to try to defend on govou (i’m sur govou is better as basket ball player but he may be so hard to stop).
10. domenech is a strange guy, but defenitively stop to think he use tarot cards to built his team.

as a french i worry a little, cause i know france is more ready than oranje, even if the first game seem to show the opposite.
we lost too many easy balls in the second half against italy, and be sur france’ll use them better if we don’t correct that.
a draw won’t be bad, 4points before playing romania (according to me the most difficult to play in our group).

Posted from  France

Hey Jan
Check out what we are doing in Singapore to support Oranje

http://www.winebos.com/dutchpromo

Oh again – can’t wait !! 3-0 again ??

Posted from  Singapore

@jan PLz dont belive in FRIDAY 13 .it sucks
Here in india lot of blind belives is roaming like any thing.
at least i am having some faith in u peoples plz dont say like that.
an interesting thing yesterday i spoke with one of my collegue i just asked abt the game he replied me india won the match i saw trhe game.
My indian mates are busy with one stupid game Circket(A foolish game like americans said)

LOL!! This was fun..And I sure hell as do hope Dutch beat the shit out of Domenech!! Forza Azzurri and Forza Alex Del Piero !!

Maybe if France fails to advance out of the group stages we can sack our horrible coach.

Posted from  United States

Another one:
France left their best defender at home..

Posted from  Denmark

Good Morning and happy group of death (day 2) day!
It’s Friday the 13th and I hope that means nothing.

Italy vs. Romania:
This is a pivotal game for the Italians. I think if they don’t get the win today they are out. They are going to make a bunch of changes to their lineup and attack Romania full throttle. I am looking for a couple things in this match.

How well will Romania control the ball and pack their defense in? I expect Italy to have most of the possession, but have a tough time breaking down the back 4 of Romania.

The Romanians are very good defensively and can counter attack. We saw with the Holland / Italy game that the Italians can be vulnerable on the counter.

I expect a massive onslaught of pressure by Italy that Romania absorbs in the first half. 0-0 going into the break

There are 2 things that can happen then:
1) Italy continues the pressure and breaks through for a 1-0 lead, probably on a Del Piero free kick. At this point the Italians are able to tack on one more when the Romanian’s attack more and the final is 2-0.

2) Or Italy cannot break the Romanian defense and begin to get nervous and frustrated. This leads to a huge mistake and Romania scores late for the 1-0 win. Italy goes home.

This match should be interesting to watch and I am looking forward to seeing what the result will mean for the Dutch in game 2.

Posted from  United States

On too our game.
Let’s face it. the Dutch supporters have been on cloud 9 since Monday. With good reason. Holland just doesn’t have that happen very often. We are usually on the other side of underachieving and losing games in a horrible way.

I don’t have to recite for you how often this has happen to the Dutch. Seeing our team come out and play flawless football for the most part, was refreshing and re energized the supporters that we are indeed a favorite to win this tournament.

When the team walked out on the pitch Monday, I have to admit I said this was not a good lineup for us. I questioned Marco Van Basten’s thought process on a couple things:

1) Why was De Jong starting? There had been no discussion of him being a holding midfielder and I felt it was a bad pick. I was wrong, he and Engelaar played fantastic defense and were great feeders of the ball to Sneijder, Van Der Vaart and Kuyt.

2) Why was Boulahrouz our right back? He was a late addition to the team and hasn’t played much for his club team. I was wrong, Khalid was strong in that position and was quick to alleviate any pressure.

3) Why is Mathijsen, who looked terrible in the warm up matches, still getting the nod as a center back. I was wrong, he and Ooijer were decent and kept the Italians out of the net (that’s all that counts).

4) Why was Dirk Kuyt getting the start over a quicker Afellay who could replace Robben with speed and quickness on the wing. I was wrong, Kuyt is a pitbull who doesn’t stop running. He works hard and made a huge impact on the game.

So going into the France game I am not going to question Van Basten’s lineup (which I think will be the same). I want Robben or Van Persie to start but if it doesn’t happen I wont question it.

France has their backs to the wall and need a win. They will be attacking us more on the perimeter, which will be a difference from the Italians who attack more up the middle. We will need to stay calm and counter attack.

Desailly said in an interview with the BBC that he is scared. This was an hilarious interview but also very telling. I know there is not one dutch player or ex player who is scared of the French. We just have to play our game and we will get the points.

A win or a tie in this match would make me content, but a win is something I really want. I hate going into match 3 needing a result and I would like to avoid Spain in the quarters by getting the top spot. Although Sweden would be no push over either.

Today is a big day and I again I couldn’t sleep last night. It is time to show the world that Holland’s game against Italy was not a fluke.
Hup Holland Hup
-Ryan

Posted from  United States

Edwin. Edwin. And Edwin.

Posted from  Canada

Hey guys, check out this hilarious picture:

http://www.geenstijl.nl/archives/images/huisvlijt.jpg

hopefully this is what we do today

Posted from  Canada

ALLEZ LES BLEUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hup holland hup!
Italy & France 2 wc finalists were killed in action. Next!

Posted from  Netherlands

I dunno much bout anything. But i know one thing. I wanted Netherlands to be in the final of WC2006. Maybe i was too early on hopes. Too early and shortsighted in rooting for the Netherlands team. But i did. I have seen the heady days of ‘88 as a kid and i had read about the excellent run-up to the WC which they couldn’t take home with Johann Cruyff and Total Football. And may be my short sight in the 2006WC was a precursor to the way things were going for Dutch football which has now proven it’s worth in the salt of the player’s sweat if not in gold. And well all i can say is that Sneijder is better than Zidane in his heady days and his best is on the way. And Robben. Well, having admired his football since his Chelsea days i sometimes wonder if there is a magnet in his shoe that keeps the ball stuck on his left foot as he comes into play. Kuyt has proved a revelation. No nonsense approach blended with extra miles on the ground. I could go on and on about the players and the team but there is really only one thing this indian supporter from an idyllic village in the southern tip of india would really like to say. GO ORANJE! GO ORANJE GO! I remember my dad telling me that in World War 2 when the germans arrived and asked the Jews to wear yellow arm bands, the dutch people all wore yellow arm bands to show solidarity with the oppressed. I am an admirer of Dutch qualities and i love the way you guys are playing your football. GO! ORANJE! GO! The world is a better place because of you. And you make me happy.

Posted from  India