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What will the future bring? Part 1.

June 25th, 2008 | By: Jan | 28 Comments »

The team manager is gone, long live the new one!

Let’s have a look at our crystal ball again…

The coaching staff
Bert van Marwijk (ex-Fortuna Sittard, ex-Feyenoord, ex-Borussia Dortmund, ex-Feyenoord again) will be assisted by Cocky Voorn, Frank de Boer and Phillip Cocu. The latter will be assisting as an apprentice (Cocu is still “studying” for his coaching license). Voorn has been Van Marwijk’s assistant since Fortuna. He didn’t join Van Marwijk at his first Feyenoord stint, but did follow him to Borussia Dortmund and last season assisted Van Bommel’s father-in-law at Feyenoord. Voorn is Van Marwijk’s consigliere, is a good field-trainer, has great scouting-skills and acts as confidante for the players as well. Frank de Boer, well…you all know who he is. Frank’s day-time job is youth coach at Ajax (reporting into Oranje’s former coach Marco van Basten). According to the criticasters, Van Marwijk has assembled all three blood-types: Feyenoord (Bert himself), Ajax (Frank) and PSV (Cocu). Van Basten’s staff (Marco, Van ‘t Schip, Witschge and Spelbos) had Ajax written all over it.

Van Marwijk has done well as head coach at club level. He was never the “innovator” like Van Gaal or Adriaanse, but he is well liked by his players, tried to play attractive Dutch school football, is a good communicator and his head is well screwed on, one might say. He had enormous success with little provincial club Fortuna (with his son in law Mark van Bommel, Kevin Hofland and Wilfred Bouma) and his first stint at Feyenoord was quite successful. He never managed to win the title (came close) but did win that UEFA cup. He created a strong team at Feyenoord with mental strength and pragmatic yet opportunistic football. He never shyed away from selecting head strong players (Bosvelt, Van Hooijdonk, Van Wonderen) and always tried to use creative players in his line up (Shinji Ono, Robin van Persie, Bona Kalou and Jon Dahl Tomasson). His 2,5 seasons at Dortmund were also quite successful, bar the last couple of months. The last year at Feyenoord was a season with mixed results. Bert had signed on and immediately the expectations of the fans had spiralled out of control. Along with Van Marwijk, Hofland, De Cler, Makaay and Mols came on board, while Denny Landzaat was signed in the winter-break. The first seasons half was quite allright. Feyenoord even had the number 1 position for a while and the quality of play was promising. In the second seasons half, two things happened. Players like Hofland, Slory, Hofs and Makaay got seriously injured, Sahin lost his form and Van Marwijk decided to move to Oranje. The results and the qualitiy of play got hurt by this and Feyenoord could at long last end the season on a high note, with Feyenoord winning the national cup.

Goalkeepers
Edwin van der Sar is one of the best keepers of the world. Period. No one can replace him, really. Van Marwijk will try to convince the former Ajax and Juventus keeper to stay on, but he seems adamant to stop his international career. Keepers that will compete for the number 1 position are:
* Henk Timmer; a tremendously talented keeper but missing the personality in the goal of Van der Sar. He is getting on in age (35?) and didn’t do too well against Austria. Still, over the last two seasons at Feyenoord, he impressed. His advantage is that Van Marwijk knows him very well and Van Basten saw him as a vital component in the dressing room.
* Maarten Stekelenburg; according to the former Oranje staff and the Ajax clan, Stekelenburg is The Man. He seems to be an all round goalie, but never impressed as a keeper who wins points. He is tall, like Van der Sar, but lacks (for now) Sar’s personality.
* Piet Velthuizen; a young Vitesse goalie. Apparently, the most gifted but also a tad inexperienced at top level.
* Boy Waterman; Foppe de Haan’s choice for the U21 and Olympic team. Athletic and cat-like, but momentarily, Louis van Gaal has lost faith in the AZ goalie. Apparently, he is allowed to leave AZ.
* Sander Boschker; the Twente goalie (played for Ajax for one season) is mentally super strong, but is said to be too small to be a great keeper. Is getting on in life as well, age-wise.

In Part 2. we’ll look at the defense and midfield options…

Tags: Babel, Bommel, Euro 2008, Seedorf, Sneijder, Vaart, Van Marwijk

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Comments

Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 28 comments.

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By Rob(ben :D) | June 25th, 2008 at 4:46 pm

Piet Velthuizen gets my vote. havent seen him play. but someone described as “the most talented” and “inexperience” only needs one thing….experience. till then…stekelenburg. hes had a few matches with our defense

By OhYeah | June 25th, 2008 at 5:20 pm

Stekelenburg seemed solid against Romania in EC. He is also young and if he will get more top-class experience, he can be your man. I’m not sure he will be the next Van der Sar, but then again those are some tough shoes to fill.

Posted from Estonia

By Van Basten | June 25th, 2008 at 5:29 pm

Who are those kids with the trophy?Are they JAN’s kids?

Posted from United States

By lowiesje | June 25th, 2008 at 6:01 pm

For now I would say Stekelenburg, and Piet Velthuizen, a spectaculair goalkeeper with a bright future, if all turns well. Waterman, I don’t know… seems to have a lack of mentality, makes to many mistakes in my opinion.

Posted from Netherlands

By Jan | June 25th, 2008 at 6:12 pm

No man , that’s young Raf van der Vaart with the actual 1988 cup!!

Check the post archive for many great posts you missed!

(Btw, you scored the second in the finals dude, did you forget?)

By Michel-Olivier | June 25th, 2008 at 6:56 pm

i saw the german-turkish match today and it’s not fair. The germans played bad football during this entire euro, the dutch played one bad game, just one bad game and they are out. How unlucky are the dutch!? now i want russia/spain to win but we all know its not going to happen.

Posted from United States

By bunchapooha | June 25th, 2008 at 7:36 pm

Germans always seem to have an easier road to the final, they always do, I can’t remember the last time they were seeded in a tough group. Anyone? Pretty sickening actually.

Posted from Netherlands

By --HedonistiX | June 25th, 2008 at 7:42 pm

@Michel-Olivier:
i saw the german-turkish match today and it’s not fair. The germans played bad football during this entire euro, the dutch played one bad game, just one bad game and they are out. How unlucky are the dutch!? now i want russia/spain to win but we all know its not going to happen ….

*****

As a (former) German hater, I used to think that. But as wise old men said “you’ll get luckier if you work harder”. I’m now telling myself that I can’t keep telling my friends that “My Oranje is just unlucky in that match, so we lost”.

The GER-TUR match was amazing in term of the energy and “willingness to win” displayed by both sides. If the Oranje has the heart like that, I think we’ll be untouchable (not even by Brazil or Argentina).

–H

Posted from United States

By Jan | June 25th, 2008 at 8:43 pm

I guess you’re all right .

The Turks played great football, but lacked a finisher. They should have been up 3-0 at halftime. It only takes 20 seconds or so to score a goal and Germany doesn’t have to dominate to win. Quite a game, actually. I rooted for the Turks of course… It’s quite sad.

By --HedonistiX | June 25th, 2008 at 8:56 pm

@Jan:
…. According to the criticasters, Van Marwijk has assembled all three blood-types: Feyenoord (Bert himself), Ajax (Frank) and PSV (Cocu). Van Basten’s staff (Marco, Van ‘t Schip, Witschge and Spelbos) had Ajax written all over it ….

*****

This is awesome! Hopefully can get rid of potential conflicts in the future.

I don’t know how I’ll be able to love the Oranje more …. Frank de Boer was (and still is) my fav. Oranje …. this is getting better …. any assessment on how ‘competent’ he is as a coach?

–H

By Jenica | June 25th, 2008 at 9:45 pm

hi,HedonistiX i like your “as wise old men said ‘you’ll get lukier if you work harder’.” I think that’s true. In fact, I think at the first half of that Germany VS Turkey match, German players was almost controled by the Turkish and the Turkish had more shots,corner kicks. At the begining, the German players looked kind of sleepy, but fortunately, they realized it fast and took action fast. The second half of the match, they were better. I think it was the referee’s mistake by not giving German team a free kick or penalty kick or something when Lahm was brought down by the turkish. In the end, the German won with high spirit and really putting their head in the game.

Posted from China

By OMY | June 25th, 2008 at 9:52 pm

@bunchapooha

Euro 1996
Germany, Italy, Czech Republic, Russia
= the highest ranked group of death ever. Then Croatia and winner of England-Spain with England as host and pretty good at the time.

What happened in that tournament I forget?
Netherlands lost to England 1-4 and tied Scotland then lost on penalties to France.

Posted from United States

By Jan | June 25th, 2008 at 10:09 pm

Hedo: Van Marwijk is a competent coach and he could well be better as team manager than as a club coach. To compare: Van Gaal loves working with his players every day and almost sits on them. Almost advises them who to marry and where to go on holidays. Bert is more distant and expects his players to be able to motivate themselves. He did well at Fortuna, Feyenoord and Borussia Dortmund. He may not be the most innovative of coaches, but he is stable, honest and straight. He also has the experience and personality to work well with ego’s and experienced players.

By --HedonistiX | June 25th, 2008 at 10:34 pm

@Jan:

Thanks for the quick recap on Bert, but I was actually asking about de Boer as a coach. I know that he is coaching Ajax Youth since some time last year, but I haven’t read much about him as a coach. I’m just glad that he’ll be back at team Bert with the Oranje.

–H

By Jason | June 26th, 2008 at 1:40 am

Timmer is horrible. Remember the friendly against Austria? Stekelenberg gets my vote on the basis of PK saves alone.

Posted from Canada

By goose | June 26th, 2008 at 1:41 am

Great to see the germans win (thats a first!haha) really dont like Turkey…all of Holland was supporting the germans…how times have changed!
but the germans didnt deserve to win…what kind of pathetic players do they have anyway?? looked like crap but in the end the result was no surprise
now lets hope for a Ger-Rus final so i at least can make some money out of this EC

GO GUUS

Posted from Netherlands

By Jan | June 26th, 2008 at 3:28 am

Oops Hedo … Sorry there. I have a wonderful interview with Frank de Boer. I will publish that soon ok. I think he has it in him, to be honest. He is tough, sees the game well, but his communication and personal pr are a bit underdeveloped. Ever heard an interview with him? Ahh….eh…..eh….aaah…..

By --HedonistiX | June 26th, 2008 at 7:56 am

@Jan,

Yes, I saw bits of Frank’s interview session ….. I had to change the channel NOT to change his image as my fav. Oranje. But he may not be comfortable talking to public, which is fine as long as he’s ok in front of the players. I meant, the guy used to be our captain, so he can’t be all that bad.

Look forward to reading the interview you’ll be posting!

–H

By --HedonistiX | June 26th, 2008 at 9:41 am

@goose,

Yeah, I also found it amazing that I was sort of rooting for Germany. It’s really a first. They do have pathetic players technical-wise, but Philip Lahm was awesome. He’s a midget with big heart, I wish we have someone like this in our Oranje. I was 99% sure Sneijder would be that person for our Oranje – he looked like it in the first 2 matches – but flopped when it counted.

–H

Posted from United States

By Jan | June 26th, 2008 at 11:57 am

Lahm? He was aweful! In defense, that is. Turkey constantly came on the right flank. And Lahm scored that winner in the end. The whole German back four is a bunch of amateurs (talking about Holland’s defense… the German defending was terrible), but the Germans are in the finals…

By --HedonistiX | June 26th, 2008 at 12:42 pm

Jan,

Have to disagree here ….. as much as it pains me to say, I believe Lahm, Metzelder and Mertesacker are better than Ooijer, Mathijsen and Gio (not Gio at his prime, though). They may not show it in yesterday’s match but we gotta give props to Turkey’s offense as well. But more importantly, they were able to “win ugly”, I thought when Turkey scored first, Germany was gone. And after Turkey equalized with the 2nd goal, I was more convinced. But Lahm redeemed his error and did that beautiful one-two to score.

I don’t know if this would constitute Germany defense is better than ours, but I guess I’ll throw back the “champion mentality” and “fighting spirit” argument again. Started to sound like a broken record now, but I think this is exactly what the Oranje is lacking.

–H

Posted from United States

By Jan | June 26th, 2008 at 1:20 pm

I agree with that, sure. But it just struck me as odd that in Holland everyone criticizes the defense, but Portugal, Germany and Italy even had howlers at the back. Mertesacker didn’t pass one ball right against Turkey. He was clueless. Metzfelder is ok, but Friedrich and Lahm were horrible.

By Van Basten | June 26th, 2008 at 1:28 pm

Jan…You said to “Check the post archive for many great posts you missed!”. But I can’t see any link to the archives. All I see are “related posts” and “tags”.
Also yes, I do remember that incredible physics and life defying volley that I scored against them Soviets, but I don’t remember Van der Vaart and the toddler playing in that match. So how comes he gets to pose with the “actual trophy”. Perhaps his father was part of the team? So how did he get the opportunity to hold the trophy? Did you write an article about that actual picture? Can you believe it…Van der Vaart with the actual EC Trophy. I never thought that is allowed. I never thought players could take the trophy home and allow their kids to take picture(in this instance) or have fun with it. I guess some kids in Italy are doing the same with the golden World Cup Trophy.
I am fascinated with the picture that’s all.

Posted from United States

By Caleb | June 26th, 2008 at 2:51 pm

Van Basten’s right, there isn’t a very good way to look at old posts. You can click on related posts and tags, but it’s very limited.

Before the new site format came around it was possible to go back to something like an archive/previous page of posts, but now if you want to go back you have to go back one post at a time which isn’t very practical…

@Van Basten – I did manage to find the link to the article Jan was talking about though:

http://netherlands.worldcupblog.org/euro-2008/1988-memories-classic-pictures.html

Posted from Canada

By Van Basten | June 26th, 2008 at 3:24 pm

Thanks Caleb…Now the picture makes great sense. Thanks!!!

Posted from United States

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