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The Knock Out Stage is Here!

June 19th, 2008 | By: Jan | 36 Comments »

It’s over with all that fiddling and tinkering and calculating and hiding.

The boys are separated from the men! Now, it’s all or nothing. It’s Death or the Gladiolas. It’s honour or mud. Glory or Gory (gosh, I can go on for hours like this…).

And for sure there are some surprises… France going home wasn’t a surprise for me. Romania out the tournament is. I actually expected Holland and Romania to go through. Well, we did our best but the Romanians train without goals too much :-). The Czechs are out, I expected them to come up with the goods, but without Nedved and Rosicky, they’re not that hot. Turkey was a bit of a surprise for me but the way they fought themselves back into the tournament, you’d have to say: well done! No thanksgiving for the Czechs! And Russia! No surprise for me either.

Let’s look at some fixtures, shall we?

Spain vs Italy
Honestly, Spain is the better side. More talent, better free-flowing football, we have seen exciting stuff already. I hope Spain wins. Italy has never looked really good and winning against ten older French dudes… I don’t know. Italy may have the rep to fight themselves into a tournament, but Spain will be one bridge too far.

Germany vs Portugal
Germany doesn’t look the bizznizz. I don’t know what it is, maybe some internal stuff between players (papers rumoured that Ballack is annoyed with some players and Low is very hard to impress…), maybe they just lack the quality. Portugal looks shit hot, let’s face it. Deco is having fun, CR is always dangerous and Nuno Gomez (Nono Goals) may not score he is a constant threat. So is the Gomez on the German side, but he is a threat to the Germans! Gosh, can’t they find a better striker in Germany?
Portugal goes through…

Croatia vs Turkey
I think Turkey has celebrated too much. They will be swept aside by Croatia Oranje-style. Biut, Croatia will have to play for it, that’s at least something the Turks will make sure of. They’ll put up a fight.

Holland vs Russia
Whoa… I will post a more detailed pre-view later, but for now…. Russia’s minusses: sloppy defending, a mediocre goalie, indecisive finishing… But then again their plusses: Hiddink, free-flowing one-touch counterfootball and the underdog… Hmmm….
Oranje’s minusses: not too tight defensively, maybe too much confidence, chance of infighting (I honestly don’t believe that this time around, but the media on a worldwide basis seem to want to say this all the time, so why not mention it to get three minusses just like the Russians…). On the plus side: Marco van Basten, the flow of the previous games, a wonderful collection of hard working, smart and exceptionally skilled players… I’d have to say: Oranje moves to the semis.

Tags: Euro 2008, France, Hiddink, Holland, Oranje, Pirlo, Sneijder

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Comments

Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 36 comments.

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By alaa | June 19th, 2008 at 8:39 am

our condolences to boula and his family!

Posted from United States

By Tineke | June 19th, 2008 at 8:44 am

What a sad news about Boula! He was fighting his heart out in the defense and did very well. Go Oranje: win the Saturday-match for him and his family.

Posted from United States

By alessio | June 19th, 2008 at 8:49 am

A lighter note for you Oranje fans: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/euro_2008/7461166.stm

Posted from United States

By Michel-Olivier | June 19th, 2008 at 9:05 am

i hope the dutch win for Boula

Posted from United States

By Caleb | June 19th, 2008 at 9:28 am

Terrible news for Boulah, I feel sorry for him and his family. Go on Oranje, win it for him!

Posted from Canada

By goose | June 19th, 2008 at 10:22 am

lerkot! where are you (have you been) my friend??

btw; its official; Boula will play

Posted from Netherlands

By Johnny (ASR) | June 19th, 2008 at 11:26 am

Boula will not only play but will also score, got that feeling. I think whoever score first will go over to Boula and celebrate. Group is united and all.

And my condoleances to Boula, his wife and family.

Posted from Netherlands

By Van Basten | June 19th, 2008 at 11:48 am

Boulahrouj is a man of great character.I personally like him, and appreciate his sacrifice for the team. The fact that he is going to continue on, and play against Russia exemplifies what he is all about : A Great Man with Great Character.
All the best to him!!!

Posted from United States

By Marc | June 19th, 2008 at 1:33 pm

my condolecense to him and his family.. this is quite sad and could affect the general mentality if the dutch.. hopefully it will make them stronger. btw Jan.. did the national team still train today despite the tradjedy?

Posted from Switzerland

By Jan | June 19th, 2008 at 1:44 pm

Training was on, press conference was canceled. It is a terrible thing, this… Preparing mentally, emotionally, physically to receive the gift of God and than it gets taken away…without reason… It must be totally devastating for the family and I suppose in particular for his wife… Sports is totally irrelevant when something like this happens.

I write this without judging Boulah, but I don’t think I would play in his situation… Honestly…

By GD | June 19th, 2008 at 1:49 pm

Horrible news indeed.

By goose | June 19th, 2008 at 2:12 pm

Off topic, sorry;
Germany 2-0 up!!! YES!! hahaha f handbags

Posted from Netherlands

By Hana | June 19th, 2008 at 2:41 pm

My deepest condolences to Bouhla. Terrible, terrible stuff.

By sphinx | June 19th, 2008 at 2:41 pm

shcolary back! 2-1 by nuno gomez

Posted from Australia

By Ross | June 19th, 2008 at 3:10 pm

3-1 by Ballack!

Posted from Canada

By sphinx | June 19th, 2008 at 3:31 pm

3-2 by simao..89 min: so exciting

Posted from Australia

By sphinx | June 19th, 2008 at 3:35 pm

4 min ..extra time? too long
germans never play time wasting game like portugals in wc2006
congrats!

Posted from Australia

By goose | June 19th, 2008 at 3:37 pm

hehehe… lets all feel sorry for the portugese!! i for one feel terrible!! hahahaha, lets hope little ronnie wont cry too loud

lets meet up with the krauts in the final

russia
italy
germany

Posted from Netherlands

By alaa | June 19th, 2008 at 3:41 pm

that sucks, i hate portugal but i hate germany too. i am starting to get worried it seems like the revenge games are taking place in semifinals, if croatia tomorrow wins, and then the oranje and italy.

mannnn i don’t wanna see neither italy nor germany in the final. i am hoping for a netherlands croatia final.

Posted from United States

By Caleb | June 20th, 2008 at 8:53 am

Haha! Portugal’s out! Let’s all dance a jig and celebrate

Posted from Canada

By Alexey | June 20th, 2008 at 8:59 am

Funny thing. Dick Advocaat said he will support Russia in his interview for Russian TV. I wonder if he can say the same speaking to Dutch reporter.

Posted from Russian Federation

By Zhalgas | June 20th, 2008 at 10:08 am

…don’t agree about russian goalie. Mediocre? Common, the guy is one of the strongest point in the team and one of the best in tournament. Don’t count the Spain game, 4-1 was because of your next minus - “sloppy defending”.
I won’t be surprised if he will play for big club after this Euro.
I’m confident we gonna through, but this guy can make us problems.

Posted from China

By Alexey | June 20th, 2008 at 1:05 pm

indecisive finishing - absolutely agree
sloppy defending - also true, but not that bad as seemed verses Spain
mediocre goalie - Jan, the writer knows a lot about our team. But this time he missed something. Akenfeev is among our best players together with Arshavin and Zhirkov.

Posted from Russian Federation

By ajaxeen | June 20th, 2008 at 5:34 pm

Oranje… show Europe what you can do.. I’m from England and believe in the Dutch technique and way of playing football. Amazing that a small country produces so many top coaches and players. Must be a reason why!
Van Basten was the best fotballer I ever saw.
Just a shame that the Dutch players always look across the borders to play for so-called bigger clubs….Otherwise Ajax, Feijenoord (note correct spelling) and PSV Eindhoven could once again be top clubs in Europe. But anyway, at least the national team can prove the quality that exists.

Posted from United Kingdom

By Jan | June 20th, 2008 at 6:21 pm

Well said Ajaxeen. Thanks for all that. The Feijenoord spelling by the way has officially been changed to Feyenoord for reasons you pointed out with your note No one abroad would get it right, so Feyenoord chanced it… haha…

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