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Van Basten: I’m not complaining…

June 17th, 2008 | By: Jan | 21 Comments »

Van Basten: “Oi, oi… Romanian players! There is our goal!!”

After Oranje’s third victory on this EC, team manager Van Basten does not have a lot of criticism. “I don’t have a lot to complain… As technical staff, we do what we always do. We didn’t use any magic tricks or anything. But, with the players under our wings for some weeks, things fall into place. We score, we create opportunities, everybody is hungry… I think as a group we’re doing ok.”

Van Basten started nine new players against Romania. “I wanted to play Melchiot too but he wasn’t 100%. Boulah always wants to play, so that was no issue. We started a bit rusty. We didn’t know what to expect from Romania and the boys needed some time to settle, but when the match progressed we got more tight and solid. The main gain I see, is that in all situations we just kept on playing football. Communication was good, the team as a unit played well. Of course, some individuals had a better day than others, but that’s always the case.”

Wesley Sneijder didn’t play but saw his team win with nine subs. “They have done so well. They picked up where we left off.” Sneijder wasn’t unhappy with his rest. “Listen, we play three big games in a short timespan. We know we’ll play the quarter finals so if you can rest, you should. Not that I was tired or anything but you just don’t want to risk anything.”

Klaas Jan Huntelaar scored the first. “I always want to score when I play. After the break, they had to come out a bit more and once we get a bit of space we can play them to pieces. We wanted to win this one, and we did.”

Tags: Afellay, Basten, De Zeeuw, Euro 2008, Holland, Huntelaar, Kuyt, Oranje, Sneijder

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Comments

By Tjeerd | June 17th, 2008 at 8:25 pm

Drove down Yonge St in Richmond Hill Ontario Canada with a Orange KNVB car flag and a Netherlands Car Flag, was met by a pack of 20 or so Italian flag wavers on the street. “thank -you Holland”. Another guy yelled- “we will return the favour in the semi’s”…..That game scares me!

By Jan | June 17th, 2008 at 8:33 pm

Well done Tjeerd! Did they buy you at least a Sambuca? Next time, shoot some photos!! I don’t think the Italians will reach the semis. And maybe we won’t either. Only a 25% chance, you know. Don’t fear anything with those odds

Spain will knock Italy out! The Italians are drunk with joy and will feel the French match in their legs. Spain will eat them alive.

And even if we do meet them: Ajax played AC Milan twice in the 1995 CL group stages (won twice) and then met them in the finals and won again!

Why can’t we?

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

i am extremely mad! did you see what gullit say on espn? he said i hope marco doesn’t regr’t et it at the end!

why would we take this risk of meeting them in the semifinal? they are whiners and lucky, italians are always like this, they qualify in a very weird way and then their luck starts playing with them! we should’ve lost, i believe if they were in our place they would’ve lost and made this big biscotto, i am not saying that we should’ve cheated or any thing, but just play like it was a training game not a real game. i hate to lose in the penalties at the end with the italians, as happened in 2000.

Posted from United States

By alaa | June 17th, 2008 at 8:36 pm

i love you jan, reminding me of what ajax did to them in 1995, we beat them 3 times in the same year, that was awsomeeeeeeee:)

Posted from United States

By Michel-Olivier | June 17th, 2008 at 8:37 pm

group c is called group of death because the dutch team is the Grim Reaper.
portugal, germany, spain, and italy are still favourites to win the euro, the dutch team just have to take game by game.
melchiot did not impressed against romania. the hunter had a good game but need more service from midfield.

Posted from United States

By alaa | June 17th, 2008 at 8:42 pm

@jan,
i want to order the new jersey before the quarter final, but i don’t understand the knvb website! by the way when are we going to have an english version of the knvb????

is there like a good website to order the new jersies from it?

Posted from United States

By Jan | June 17th, 2008 at 8:59 pm

Alaa, I have asked the English website question many times and they promised to get it live before the EC! But they haven’t. The ladies I communicate with are at the EC themselves, supporting Marco and Kees Jansma, so I don’t think we’ll see it soon.

I will look to see what I can do. Maybe I can give you some instructions. And maybe someone else here can post a link to an English site. Laters…

By Jan | June 17th, 2008 at 9:02 pm

By the way, I just saw JC’s comments on the match and he made sense: he said the new pitch was very slippery and wet, causing a lot of wrong touches and passes in the first 15 minutes. Normally you adjust after that and I think we did see improvement after some 20 minutes. He als said that most of the players haven’t played a match in two weeks, which will also have negative effect on the rhythm. He didn’t think we should worry about their level. He even said, that we’re lucky to have had the chance to play them, because if you need one of these players coming Saturday they will be settled in much sooner.

By Jan | June 17th, 2008 at 9:11 pm

@Alaa: http://www.football-england.com/holland_football_shirt.html

http://www.lacancha.com/bigkithol.html

http://www.worldsoccershop.com/shop-by-team-holland-national-soccer-team.html

http://www.uksoccershop.com/categories/5_295_327.html?aff_sys=webgains&siteid=13507

Or go to KNVB.nl. There is a menu button saying “shop en diensten” (shop and services). If you click that you’ll see as an option “Tenue Nederlands Elftal” which means “kit Dutch team”.

Click that and you’ll see all the options you can buy. If you click the shirt you’ll get some info and you need to choose your “maat”. Which means size. You get a fan shirt and a shawl for free. For the imprint, there is a tab on top of the screen with the shirt photo saying “bedrukking”. Which means “print”. For 25 euros extra you can get a shirt with any name and number, for instance “Jan” with number “99″.

See how you go!

By alaa | June 17th, 2008 at 9:23 pm

@ jan, thanks man, we have the best blog here, and you are the best. i wish we can be like this even during the qualifications for the wc till we get to south africa.
my love to this oranje grows day after day since 1988 and it will keep growing till the last day.
i will follow the instructions you gave. thanks again!

Posted from United States

By alaa | June 17th, 2008 at 9:26 pm

VAN DER SAR!!!!!
Did you guys start to think that we have to force sar to stay with us till the wc 2010 even if he doesn’t want to. with all my respect to steklenberg but i just can’t imagine us without van der sar any more.

SAR please stay with us, plssssssssssssssssssssss!

Posted from United States

By Jan | June 17th, 2008 at 9:58 pm

@Alaa, you’re welcome! And we did have this blog going through the EC2008 qualifications and we will have this blog going through the next qualifications . So stay with us!

Bert van Marwijk, the new Oranje team manager, has already stated publicly that his first task after the EC will be to talk to Sar to convince him to stay on board a tad longer…

By justin | June 17th, 2008 at 10:13 pm

NO BISCOTTO!!! YAY!!!

Posted from Canada

By alaa | June 17th, 2008 at 10:18 pm

nice:), good job from our new manager!

Posted from United States

By Mario Rosado (Dutch admirer) | June 17th, 2008 at 10:49 pm

Very profesional of Holland but Italy alive will be a menace.

By Copper | June 17th, 2008 at 11:24 pm

Awesome to watch these guys play as a unified team with so much success! The commentators here in the States on ESPN can’t say enough about the Dutch team! I am flying my orange flag on my house as well as on my police car here in Los Angeles, California. Go Holland!!

Posted from United States

By Jan | June 17th, 2008 at 11:53 pm

You have gotto be kiddin’?? You are a police officer in LA with a Dutch flag on the car? Wow

Any chance of sending in a picture of that?

Cool runnings, copper. Post more often, ok?

By Martijn | June 18th, 2008 at 1:03 am

Everyone here talking about italy alive is dangerous. If you want to be European champions, you should be able to beat any team at any time. Let them italians come again, i have all the faith in our boys. And losing because the only reason for that is that italy will be out of the tournement, rediculous. I atleast want some competition on the road to glory , and look back on matches and say, bejezus, we almost got kicked out of the tournement by those Iti’s in semi’s

By ayl | June 18th, 2008 at 1:42 am

Well said Martijn… bring the Italians on again!!

By Igor | June 18th, 2008 at 11:11 am

@alaa, try this link (english site) for tons of Oranje jerseys,plus i believe this is an american shop so this will save you some cash in shipping and custom fees since according to your flag you are in the USA as well.

http://shop.bigsoccer.com/shop-by-league-euro-2008-holland-national-soccer-team.html

Posted from Canada

By Copper | June 18th, 2008 at 9:48 pm

You have gotto be kiddin’?? You are a police officer in LA with a Dutch flag on the car? Wow

Any chance of sending in a picture of that?

Cool runnings, copper. Post more often, ok?

Ben geboren in Amsterdam – Zal ik doen!!

Posted from United States

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