dot   Home     World     Europe     Netherlands  
Flag Netherlands

Netherlands

Warm up to the Olympics: Hedwiges Maduro

Summers normally mean football for Hedwiges Maduro. In 2005 he played the WC under 20, in 2006 he was with Oranje at the big WC in Germany and in 2007 he played the EC under 21. This summer, again Maduro defends the Dutch flag, this time at the Olympics. But he could take a little holiday first.

“It does feel like a new season,” says Maduro. The Valencia midfielder is sharp and top fit. “The last years, I couldn’t take a break after a season with the club, but this time around there was some time to take a break.”

Since July, Maduro trains on a daily basis in Zeist. His club Valencia didn’t force him to spend the first prep weeks in Spain. “That would have been a hassle. I’d have to fly back and forth for the Olympic prep-sessions. Now, I can take my rest when needed.”

The former Ajax midfielder expects a tough tournament. “The climate, the smog… I don’t expect ideal circumstances to play football. And, we only have 18 players versus 23 for the senior tournaments. But, all nations have these same circumstances, so…”

Maduro doesn’t have time for extra-curricular activities in Bejing. “We need to be focused on that one goal. The Gold. We play a match every two days, so there is no time for excursions. I do regret not staying in the Olympic village with the other athletes. I do want to watch other sports, but we’ll have to do that on the tv. I like swimming, hockey and athletics, but football is number one.”

Subscribe

 

rss icon Netherlands World Cup Blog RSS Feed

Print

Share

Comments
By finnster01 | July 18th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
Top

Why are they not staying in the Olympic Village with the other athletes?

Is the accomodation not good enough? It’s the Olympics, and I am not sure Oranje is a team that responds very well to an ultra conservative approach to life.

JC and Neeskens would be right there in the midst of things. So would Gullit, Rijkard and Davids.

This sounds strange to me. Another smart KNVB move by the lads wearing the blue blazers?

Posted from United States United States

By Michel-Olivier | July 18th, 2008 at 11:32 pm
Top

any news from bert van marwijk about the dutch team?

Posted from United States United States

By Jan | July 19th, 2008 at 1:18 am
Top

It’s official: Aissati is an Ajax player. PSV and Ajax struck a deal.
Van Basten is also after Barca’s Oleguer…

By Jan | July 19th, 2008 at 1:20 am
Top

No, basically it’s because the football tournament is not in Bejing :-) .

When they reach the last four (?) they travel to Bejing.

No news as yet. Players are on a holiday or have just started and Van Marwijk is with De Haan in Honk Kong. I expect Bert to arrange a get together after the olympics.

By finnster01 | July 19th, 2008 at 5:05 am
Top

I see, that makes sense. Just thought that the whole team had caught a nasty case of VanPersielitis. Thank goodness that wasn’t the case!!

Posted from United States United States

By Caleb | July 19th, 2008 at 11:50 am
Top

Thinking from a purely logistical sense, it probably makes sense too. I don’t know if the Olympic village is big enough to accommodate all the football teams (18 players plus staff) from all the different countries, along with all the other athletes. The village would be overrun with football players.

By Caleb | July 19th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Top

Unrelated, but today Nacer Barazite scored the winning goal for Arsenal in a pre-season friendly:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vx43Do7KZE

By Jan | July 19th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
Top

Unrelated it is not… Why isn’t he part of the Olympic squad?

So…now we’re on-topic :-)

By Jan | July 19th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
Top

Now this is off topic: Gio declared he wants to stay on as Oranje player…

By tiju | July 20th, 2008 at 4:44 am
Top

hi guys i was silent almost one and half month becoz i saw so many unwanted assholes came in to our blog.they hurted some of us.
well looking to forward
i have good faith in de haan coz he is a superb observer and a good analyst he knows how to make balenced team.not like vanbasten and eu08 coaches except argones and hiddink.
i was so sad after seeing our attitude towards the game against Russia.even though we had some luck against france and italy.
our guys thought that some russians will score goal for us.(look at their attitude at time of van der varts free kicks).
we(not we MR vanbasten) never noticed we dont have the stamina to play for even 90 minutes.
under van basten our players never had the stamina for even 90 minutes.so we payed penalty.
ivory coast proved this against us in wc 2006
now russia
in 2010 is it senegal or camroon.
i think most of the european teams are going to be kicked out from the first round itself including netherlands due to the HOT CLIMATE OF SOUTH AFRICA only brazil can survive .
@HOPE YOU GUYS JAN,GOOSE,FINNISTER,ROB,CALEB,FERENECS,STEPHEN ALL R WELL.

By finnster01 | July 20th, 2008 at 4:56 am
Top

@tiju;
everything is good. Great to have you back.

Posted from United States United States

By sandesh | July 20th, 2008 at 4:59 am
Top

hello there tiju
i have been following the articles as usual. jan has been doing gre8 job 4 us.
rite now i always look forward to listen some good transfer news regarding the dutch players. esp van der vaart. to barcelona or madrid
good to know naser was on score sheet for arsenal. hope he will get chance in the first team.
best of luck for van basten and co. for their coming season. but its terrible not to see ajax in UCL. btw wats new stuff about steve mcclaren at twente how is he shaping up the team? i know the big task ahead of him is to win the champions league qualifier. hope the opponent wont be that strong
i dont know whether i will be able to watch the Oranje games in he olympics.
there r about 3 channels which will telecast the events but not sure if i will be lucky.
was van persie seriously injured in that GOAL 4 africa match??
how is he doing Jan??
Caleb, thanks 4 the video

Posted from Nepal Nepal

By finnster01 | July 20th, 2008 at 8:35 am
Top

McLaren has brought several very large umbrellas with him to Twente so he can continue where he left off with England.

I wish him luck, but if I was a Twente fan, I’d sell my season tickets quickly. You can expect to fall asleep very early in the second half. I don’t think he can ever be accused of having any Brazilian or Dutch relatives…

Posted from United States United States

By Caleb | July 20th, 2008 at 11:04 am
Top

Tiju – nice to have you back again, and it looks like you’ve been doing some spelling practice :-P

Sandesh – what’s this about Van Persie being injured in an Africa match?

Jan – good point, why isn’t Bazarite in the Olympic squad? Is he under the radar over at Arsenal?

Finnster – I actually enjoyed watching Middlesborough when McLaren was coach there. His time as England head coach was terrible, but I’d blame the players at least as much as the coach, if not more.

By Alex | July 20th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
Top

Barazite has just come back from injury and only 18 i believe, wouldn’t be fair to the other players to invite him while he has hardly played last season. off-topic, i’m not that exctied about Gio in Oranje anymore, don’t hope V.Marwijk selects him, hes over the top better give
Bouma/De Cler/Pieters/Drenthe/Emanuelson the chance. I surely hope V.Marwijk isn’t going to take a majority of Feyenoord players with him, only Timmer(3rd choice?), Vlaar, De Guzman and maybe Hofland would have a chance with me. Maduro might surprise friend and foe next season at Valencia, would be nice to see him finally live up to his full potential.

Posted from Netherlands Netherlands

By Michel-Olivier | July 20th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Top

who will make the dutch team come September 10(WC qualifier against macedonia)?
gerald sibon(new RvN)
marcellis
wijnaldum
aissati
van der wiel
leroy fer
s. de jong
barazite
de guzman
pieters
drenthe
zuiverloon
amrabat
beerens

Posted from United States United States

By Carlos | July 20th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
Top

@tiju
South Africa in August is freezing cold and perfect for football, not like USA or Japan in August (occasionally Europe :) . So the weather is not going to be a factor. Think having it in Australia would be great too apart from great weather in August – great time zone too (for us in Asia).
Read somewhere Blatter has a plan B in case security in SA fails to provide. Mexico has been asked to stand by ? Ouch !!! Jan get the Aussies to have Plan B ready for Seppy please .

Posted from Singapore Singapore

By Jan | July 20th, 2008 at 7:56 pm
Top

That’s funny, Sibon the new RvN… :-) . I’d say Ruud is the new Sibon! Gerald Sibon is 34 years old and in the autumn of his career. He will never make Oranje anymore. He’s one of those players for whom a new spot in the line up needs to be invented. Not a striker, not a midfielder…

I expect to see Marcellis soon in the big Oranje, and that’s that, really.

By Michel-Olivier | July 21st, 2008 at 9:41 am
Top

@ jan
sibon is a late bloomer. van galen made hi debut at the age of 34 and van hooijdonk last dutch cap was when he was 34.

Posted from United States United States

By Lerkot | July 21st, 2008 at 10:56 am
Top

Sibon is a never bloomer, I’d say. He made a good season, sure, but he’s done that before just to suck the next season. Can see that happening again. Dont think he will do more than ten goals in 08/09.

By Jan | July 21st, 2008 at 5:35 pm
Top

Great clip Finn. Ajax scored by accident when a player is down. Ajax then allows the opponent to score against them :-)

By Jan | July 21st, 2008 at 5:39 pm
Top

Tidbits:

Bona Kalou (big bro of Salomon and ex-Feyenoord winger) returns to Holland. He’ll play for Heerenveen

Boulah has signed with VFB Stuttgart and will be Der Kannibal again.

Co Adriaanse impresses with Red Bull Salzburg. He leads the Austrian competition and gave the Armenian opponents a whipping with 7-0 for the UEFA cup.

Clarence Seedorf will hold on to the number 10 jersey, despite Ronaldinho joining AC Milan. The toothed-one will wear number 80.

By Caleb | July 22nd, 2008 at 8:53 am
Top

Number 80?? That’s stupid. This is football, not hockey, players should wear proper numbers!

Posted from Canada Canada

Comments are closed

 
 
 

MORE EUROPE BLOGS

france
France World Cup Blog
820 articles | 10,859 comments
 
croatia
Croatia World Cup Blog
200 articles | 1,848 comments
 
czechrepublic
Czech Republic World Cup Blog
196 articles | 321 comments
 
england
England Football Team World Cup Blog
883 articles | 3,194 comments
 
germany
Germany World Cup Blog Blog
528 articles | 3,274 comments
 
italy
Italy World Cup Blog
624 articles | 23,774 comments
 
netherlands
Netherlands World Cup Blog
2,091 articles | 31,219 comments
 
poland
Poland World Cup Blog
374 articles | 4,745 comments
 
portugal
Portugal World Cup Blog
462 articles | 7,139 comments
 
serbia
Serbia World Cup Team Blog
173 articles | 888 comments
 
spain
Spain World Cup Blog
236 articles | 1,946 comments
 
sweden
Sweden World Cup Blog
151 articles | 319 comments
 
switzerland
Switzerland World Cup Blog
226 articles | 353 comments
 
ukraine
Ukraine World Cup Team Blog
120 articles | 809 comments
 
greece
Greece World Cup Blog
147 articles | 80 comments
 
russia
Russia World Cup Blog
82 articles | 159 comments
 
scotland
Scotland World Cup Team Blog
104 articles | 111 comments
 
ireland
Ireland World Cup Team Blog
62 articles | 130 comments
 
norway
Norway World Cup Team Blog
13 articles | 8 comments
 
turkey
Turkey World Cup Blog
40 articles | 296 comments
 
romania
Romania World Cup Blog
78 articles | 281 comments
 
austria
Austria World Cup Blog
111 articles | 118 comments
 
denmark
Denmark World Cup Team Blog
13 articles | 32 comments
 
albania
Albania World Cup Team Blog
4 articles | 8 comments
 
belgium
Belgium World Cup Team Blog
49 articles | 59 comments
 
wales
Wales World Cup Team Blog
61 articles | 17 comments
 
bosnia
Bosnia World Cup Team Blog
31 articles | 89 comments
 
israel
Israel World Cup Team Blog
23 articles | 20 comments
 
slovakia
Slovakia World Cup Team Blog
3 articles | 2 comments
 
slovenia
Slovenia World Cup Team Blog
7 articles | 19 comments
 

CATEGORIES & ARCHIVES

 
 
Closer