Olympics for Makaay, Jaliens and Sibon

July 15th, 2008 | by: Jan |

Last Tuesday, Foppe de Haan published his definitive selection for the Olympics. Roy Makaay, Kew Jaliens and Gerald Sibon are the “dispensation” players (sorry, don’t know the right English term). De Haan selected his 18 players, and has four on stand-by in case one or more players get injured.
The four stand-by players are goalie Tim Krul, defender Christian Kum, midfielder Siem de Jong and striker Amrabat

De Haan made some changes from the Sweden-group (where the Olympics played some warm up games): Royston Drenthe, Ryan Babel and Urby Emanuelson are added.

Ismail Aissati (PSV), Luigi Bruins (Feyenoord) and Ryan Donk (AZ) didn’t make it. Aissati and De Haan have a strained relationship, while De Haan stated not to be too impressed with Ryan Donk’s performance either. Bruins is a bit puzzled why he was dropped. “De Haan probably didn’t need me. I don’t know. But he told me in person and I am not happy but I’ll except it”. Feyenoord coach Gert Jan Verbeek wasn’t too disappointed. “For me and for Feyenoord this is better. In all honesty, I would like to have De Guzman and Makaay in Rotterdam as well. But it’s sad for Luigi of course.”

“It’s hard to choose,” De Haan said Tuesday. “But you don’t do it in one day. It’s a long and precise process. Some players are beyond discussion, like Dirk Marcellis, with others it depends on little details. Jeremain Lens for instance, would be a sure thing, but he is still a tad injured. I don’t want to take any risks with him. We already have Ryan Babel who’s not 100% fit and one of those is enough. I had to choose between Babel or Lens.”

The four stand-by players won’t travel with the group to China. “In Holland, they can participate in the prep of their club. For Amrabat and De Jong, that’s important so they’ll have the best chances to secure a spot in their club-teams. And should we need them at the last moment, they’ll be fit anyway.”

Liverpool manager Benitez tried hard to keep Babel in Liverpool, but the striker will make the trip to China with the Dutch Olympic team.

De Haan: “Ryan told me he wanted to come.” Liverpool is obliged to allow Babel to go, since he falls in the group till 23 years old. Clubs can only veto the so-called dispensation players, as AC Milan did with Kaka and will probably do with Ronaldinho (as Barca will too).

Babel’s manager Haatrecht: “Ryan is quite uncomplicated in his thinking. If he’s called up and fit, he’ll do it. That’s according to the rules. Ryan wants to play matches at a high level to become match fit and he can do that with De Haan and with Liverpool. He chose to go with the Olympics.”

De Haan’s toughest choices were upfront. It’s remarkable how huge talents like Bruins, Amrabat and Aissati were dropped. “It’s simple. Aissati hasn’t played a lot. He was sick when we did the Sweden games, so…what can I say. I couldn’t really judge him. Luigi Bruins, see, here’s a player with tremendous potential but mentally…he doesn’t seem to get what top football is all about. It’s all to happy-go-lucky with him. Some days great, other days in another world. I don’t want to have to motivate players at this level. You need to ooze that you want to eat the grass and your opponent as well. De Guzman has that mentality, Bruins is too easy…”

Nordin Amrabat was the best man in the Sweden-games, but De Haan selected Beerens in his place. “Beerens is a real winger, who can take a man on and cross the ball in. Amrabat is a player who tends to want to go centrally. I have many players who do that, like Babel, Makaay and Drenthe. I can use Beerens better to have more options tactically.”

The Olympic team will play a friendly against Belgium on July 23.

The final selection is:

Goal: Piet Velthuizen (Vitesse), Kenneth Vermeer (Ajax)
Defense: Kew Jaliens (AZ), Calvin Jong-A-Pin (SC Heerenveen), Kees Luijcks (AZ), Dirk Marcelis (PSV), Erik Pieters (PSV), Gianni Zuiverloon (West Bromwich Albion)
Midfield: Otman Bakkal (PSV), Urby Emanuelson (Ajax), Jonathan de Guzman (Feyenoord), Hedwiges Maduro (Valencia), Evander Sno (Celtic)
Attack: Roy Beerens (sc Heerenveen), Ryan Babel (Liverpool), Royston Drenthe (Real Madrid), Roy Makaay (Feyenoord), Gerald Sibon (sc Heerenveen).

Feyenoord developed Zuiverloon, de Guzman, Sno and Drenthe.
PSV developed Marcelis, Bakkal and Roy Beerens.
Ajax developed Vermeer, Amrabat, De Jong, Emanuelson, Maduro, Babel and Sibon.

Tags: Babel, de Guzman, De Haan, Holland, Makaay, Olympic and Young Oranje, Olympics, Oranje

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Comments

By Michel-Olivier | July 15th, 2008 at 10:05 pm

-bruins, nordin, and de jong?
-jong a pin is going because his chinese descent.
-drenthe in attack? emanuelson in midfield? i though they were fullbacks.
-Sno is not that good.

Posted from United States

By dirk v.d.berg | July 15th, 2008 at 10:35 pm

@Michel-Olivier, Drenthe can really play anywhere along the wings, so if they need him as attack, thats what they’ll do, and Emanuelsson sometimes played midfield for Ajax. As for Sno, he’s pretty good for the u-21 squad, but he normally plays as attacking mid, or striker under de Haan, even tho he plays defensive midfield for Celtic.

@Jan, i don’t think there are 23 guys in your final selection, or maybe there’s not allowed 23.

—————–vermeer—————–
zuiverloon–marcellis–jaliens–emanuelson
——s. de jong——maduro————
de guzman——sno—————drenthe
————makaay—————–

thats my lineup, with babel playing if he’s healthy.

Posted from Canada

By alaa | July 15th, 2008 at 10:45 pm

nice, we will get the chance to know some of the new players. in the states it is hard for us to follow the erdivisie but with this olympic team we can know who are the new faces that have the chance to join sneijder, van persie, robben and the other guys of the first team. i still want to see drenthe playing really good and that he makes the impact. he needs to become the star we are looking for. i wish we can use him in the oranje as a holding midfielder, he can be the new davids.

thanks jan for the nice and interesting articles, and don’t worry about the “dispensation” word or other words, most of us english is not our first language, so we are in the same boat:)

By Miguel Rosado | July 15th, 2008 at 11:06 pm

——————-Vermeer——————-

—-Zuiverloon–Marcellis–Jaliens–Emanuelson–

–Beerens—-Guzman—-Maduro—Drenthe–

—————Babel—Makaay———–

By Jan | July 16th, 2008 at 12:08 am

I think they can only take 18 players to the OS.

By Dr.Mansur | July 16th, 2008 at 5:52 am

I am a Dutch fan and hope Holland to win the Olympic. But I feel Argentina is the biggest contender for the gold, they seem to have a very strong lineup, sp with the addition of Requelme.Jan, how strong are the other teams apart from Holland?

Posted from Australia

By Carlos | July 16th, 2008 at 5:56 am

Jan
In most english papers they just refer to players such as Makaay, Ronaldinho,Riquelme (great player) as “over age” players.
Looking forward to it especially since we dont have to stay up till all hours of the morning. Am a bit of an Aussie fan too of course

Posted from Singapore

By Jan | July 16th, 2008 at 6:59 am

Me too Carlos .

Dr Mansur: I think Brazil and Argentina are seen as top notch. Nigeria will be difficult outsider. The rest are dark horses I suppose.

By Caleb | July 16th, 2008 at 8:29 am

Interesting that Bruins was dropped, I liked what I saw of him last summer. But I guess De Haan has a good point about mentality – we all saw what happens when players don’t have the right mentality. Also interesting that he said De Guzman has that mentality because I remember an article about him before the EC talking about his lack of concentration and mistakes for Feyenoord. Is he maturing?

Posted from Canada

By Jan | July 16th, 2008 at 3:02 pm

Choosing Makaay was a very good choice. They’ll need an experienced player to add yet another trophy to the tally!

Posted from Italy

By Jan | July 16th, 2008 at 5:56 pm

Caleb: I think De G. is definitely maturing. These boys are praised during their run up to the first team. Remember, they don’t have a lot of opposition in the youth competitions but the step up to the seniors is a big one. De Guzman needed that criticism and has learned. He must know he is sooo close to the top now (Oranje and who knows a big move in the next two years to the EPL for instance) that he will pay attention. Bruins only made his move last season to Feyenoord. This season will be his difficult sophomore season…

By Jan | July 16th, 2008 at 9:23 pm

Feyenoord and Heerenveen are competing to sign Newcastle goalie Tim Krul. The 20 year old goalie moved from ADO Den Haag to the EPL three years ago. Krul, on standby for the Olympics, is supposed to be Henk Timmer’s successor at Feyenoord in the future. Timmer – 36 years old – will have at least one more season as Feyenoord’s number one.

By Jan | July 16th, 2008 at 9:25 pm

Ronaldinho signed for AC Milan and one of the conditions was that Ronnie is allowed to go to the Olympics. The only prize the Heavenly Canaries are missing is Olympic gold. Kaka is not allowed to go.

By Alex | July 20th, 2008 at 12:05 pm

Bruins is somewhat lazy, De Guzman defenitaly better, I expect Babel and Makaay to form a pair up front.

i think
Velthuizen
Zuiverloon-Jaliens-Marcellis-Pieters
Sno-Maduro
De Guzman-Beerens/Drenthe/Emanuelson?
Makaay-Babel
Pieters is at least at the moment a much better leftback then Emanuelson
Drenthe/Emanuelson his replacements at leftback. and Jong-a-pin could also play there. too bad Donk wasn’t selected, had a rough time but was just beginning to find his form, we might see a new and improved Donk next season. Other then that i would have taken Amrabat over Sibon anyday, and i still wonder about V.Bommel/ was he ever invited or not.

Posted from Netherlands