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Afellay, Vaart and Bommel…

October 11th, 2008 | By: Jan | 36 Comments »

Arsenal has set it’s sights on Ibrahim Afellay. Gunner-scouts have followed the young PSV midfielder for some time now and apparently the first bid of 6 - 7 Million euros is already on the table.

Raf van der Vaart doesn’t need to worry Sneijder or Van Persie will snatch a free kick off him against Iceland. Van Persie is injured and Sneijder will not start. However, captain Gio van Bronckhorst explained that Van Marwijk hasn’t appointed a dedicated free kick man. “Van Marwijk wants a left footer to take the free kicks from the right wing and the other way around. We have at least three gifted specialists in Raf, Wes and Robin. Van Marwijk wants us to sort it out in the game. And I do believe we’re mature enough to do so.”

Mark van Bommel doesn’t want to discuss his situation at Bayern. When confronted with questions, he either pauses a long time and pulls a face or he says “if you believe that, why don’t you write it down”… He hasn’t discussed his situation with his manager Klinsmann but it’s clear that he doesn’t agree with his choices. And pretty quickly in the interview, he’ll point at the KNVB logo and says: “Let’s talk Oranje now, ok?”.

“I’m the captain of Bayern so it’s quite normal that I don’t talk to the press about potential issues. You discuss that internally. That’s how it works.”

Ok, Oranje then… What’s wrong with Oranje and Van Bommel. In 2000 he was too young to be a starter. In 2002 Oranje didn’t qualify and in 2004 he was injured. “Let’s simply not talk about 2006 and 2008, ok?” The 31 year old knows his last chance for glory will be in 2010. “Yeah, time flies when you’re having fun.”

“But I had good periods under Van Gaal and Advocaat, but I was a bit less remarkable. A servant’s role, if you want. Now I had one assist and everyone says finally Van Bommel is important for the team. But people who see the game know I’m always valuable when I play. Last year, I only scored twice for Bayern but I didn’t have a bad season. Some people only think you’re good if you score…”

Mark van Bommel was one of the heroes of the impressive champions team of Hitzfeld.

Hitzfeld even praised his aggressiveness and called him aggresiv-leader. “That was a compliment. But of course, it’s easy to see it as a negative term and the media are the first to pick that up. But I’m not saying it’s the media’s fault. I only can thank myself for that.”

Jurgen Klinsmann, follower of the peaceful zen-buddhists, was disappointed with Mark’s short fuse.

“After my first red card, Klinsmann started me in the next game. I don’t think that has played a part.” Klinsmann said he wanted to use the roulation system, although Van Bommel was benched four out of seven games. Not long before that however, Klinsmann said “Van Bommel was destined to be the Bayern skipper”…

Van Bommel: “He actually called me a role model, a fine human being and a good communicator. I even read that in the Dutch papers.

Klinsmann know calls it a tactical decision and favors Demichelis and Ottl on the holding positions.

Last season, Van Bommel played there with Brazilian Ze Roberto. “We had a strong link, like Nigel de Jong and I have now in Oranje. You can’t train that, that just is… I can sense what Nigel does and the other way around. It’s great. Even if you’re both right footed, it doesn’t matter. You have that click.”

Klinsmann has changed the so-called house-style of Bayern, playing 3-5-2 and sometimes 4-2-3-1. “Yes yes, we do roulate a lot…”

In Van Marwijk’s set-up, there is no question about who are the preferred holding midfielders. De Jong and Van Bommel guard the balance. “I feel great at Oranje again. You just feel it. For starters at training sessions. Most things just happen, I played my best football at Bayern and Barca and it just happens.”

Oliver Kahn, former captain, joined in the broad discussion in Germany about Van Bommel and supported the former PSV player. “Kahn knows me well and he knows Bayern. You can’t say he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

Van Bommel doesn’t feel any doubts from Van Marwijk, who is also his father in law… That is sometimes an issue in the changing room. “Ah yeah, you know football humor. The lads sometimes annoy me with it… They keep on asking what time is lunch, or when does the bus leave…hahahaaa… I can handle them.”

Tags: Afellay, Arsenal, Bommel, Holland, Marwijk, Oranje, Vaart, World Cup 2010

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Comments

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

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By Peter vdL | October 11th, 2008 at 1:01 pm

anyone have a link for tonights game? only the germany russia games on live free to air tv here… =(

Posted from Germany

By Caleb | October 11th, 2008 at 1:05 pm

Oh yeah, I’m watching the game on t.v. on delay, so I won’t be around to comment on it, but for people looking for a link, try these:

http://www3.myp2p.eu/broadcast.php?matchid=20684&part=sports

By Michel-Olivier | October 11th, 2008 at 1:38 pm

lineup
1. van der Sar, Edwin
2. Marcellis, Dirk
3. Ooijer, André
4. Mathijsen, Joris
5. Van Bronckhorst, Giovanni
6. van Bommel, Mark
7. Kuyt, Dirk
8. de Jong, Nigel
9. Huntelaar, Klaas-Jan
10. van der Vaart, Rafael
11. Babel, Ryan

Posted from United States

By Mario | October 11th, 2008 at 1:39 pm

nice shauna, me too! haha

By Peter vdL | October 11th, 2008 at 1:46 pm

none of those links work for me
thanks anyway though.

Posted from Germany

By dirk v.d. Berg | October 11th, 2008 at 2:04 pm

Nigel de Jong off injured in the 14th minute. Demy de Zeeuw comes on.

Posted from Canada

By dirk v.d. Berg | October 11th, 2008 at 2:05 pm

Goal for Mathijsen, off a van der Vaart corner.

Posted from Canada

By Michel-Olivier | October 11th, 2008 at 2:20 pm

Marcellis is having a good game at RB

Posted from United States

By Peter vdL | October 11th, 2008 at 2:26 pm

michel.. how you watching this?
i can only watch live commentary on soccernet.com

Posted from Germany

By Michel-Olivier | October 11th, 2008 at 2:33 pm

@ Peter vdL
live
http://atdhe.net/live-tv-64.html

Posted from United States

By Michel-Olivier | October 11th, 2008 at 2:34 pm

@ Peter vdL
live
http://atdhe.net

Posted from United States

By Peter vdL | October 11th, 2008 at 2:39 pm

thank u thank u!

Posted from Germany

By dirk v.d. Berg | October 11th, 2008 at 3:10 pm

goal Huntelaar

Posted from Canada

By dirk v.d. Berg | October 11th, 2008 at 3:14 pm

Iceland’s defense is staying really far back, and is making it hard for the Netherlands to push forward. Gudjohsen is constantly offside, he’s not playing like a target man in a 1 striker system.

Posted from Canada

By Michel-Olivier | October 11th, 2008 at 3:14 pm

nice goal by hunter

Posted from United States

By Michel-Olivier | October 11th, 2008 at 3:15 pm

ibrahim in for babel

Posted from United States

By dirk v.d. Berg | October 11th, 2008 at 3:17 pm

De zeeuw’s pushing up a lot, looks more like we’re playing a 4-1-4-1

Posted from Canada

By dirk v.d. Berg | October 11th, 2008 at 3:31 pm

So many good plays in front of the box, but no one wants to shoot.

Posted from Canada

By Mario | October 11th, 2008 at 5:29 pm

I already saw the goals and Hunter´s one was very nice.

I think we could have scored more but we have started brightly under van Marwijk. I think that Norway and Scotland will fight hard for the secont spot because we are much better than them and they tied today.

Hup Holland, thank God van Basten is out doing stupid things with his Ajax.

By Caleb | October 11th, 2008 at 5:57 pm

Good game today, but not great - could have been better, especially in the final third. More later (I have to eat)!

By finnster01 | October 11th, 2008 at 6:48 pm

Sctland - Norway rundown: As Caleb said earlier, a very exciting 0-0 game. Both teams played 4-4-1-1, which will be the same formation Norway will be using on Wednesday against Oranje. Scotland had the most of possession but did not create more chances than Norway. Both teams should have scored several times, it could easily have been 2-2. Iwelumo for Scotland missed an open goal from 2 yards out, which I couldn’t do even if I tried. That was just ater he came on as a sub for McFadden. Bet Burley the manager is kicking himself for not leaving McFadden in. Possibly the worst miss I have seen in my life (and I have seen many, trust me .

In the end, a draw was a fair result. Great result for Oranje. 3 points on Wednesday, and this thing is over. Book tickest to South Africa. A loss and the group becomes interesting again. Carew looked indeed dangerous, and should have scored twice. He also is an excellent target man because of his size and created several chances for others with flickons and headers. Oranje need to button him down. Pedersen (Blackburn) came on as a sub in second half and immediately made an impact. He should probably have started, but he has had a string of mediochre performances both for the NT and Blackburn. He should know ooijer well though, and I would not be surprised to see him start on Wed. Norway’s defense on the flanks looked horrible (as I predicted). Speed on the transition and good old school wing play will cause them many problems. The goalkeeper, Knudsen, made his debut as a 33 year old. He plays in the domestic league for the front running team, Stabaek, and has had a very good season. However, he is inexperienced at this level and although he didn’t make any big mistakes, I felt always nervous about him, so there’s another angle to exploit.

The one danger on Wed is the set pieces. Don’t create stupid freekicks outside the box (Pedersen and Riise both have hammers and then you have the 2 meter brigade inside the box, Carew, Iversen and Hangeland), in addition to throw-ins (Riise make them look like corners). I predict Oranje will win as Norway is not anywhere near that quality, but have some very good individuals that will cause big problems if given the opportunity.

By Caleb | October 11th, 2008 at 8:21 pm

So I thought we played well today, but we could have been better. We dominated, as one would expect, but should have scored more considering how much we dominated. We had the ball for the vast majority of the game, but we still let Iceland have a few relatively easy chances - I mean chances that we should never have let them have. Luckily they didn’t score any and Gudjohnsen was not in the groove tonight, otherwise they could have scored one and made the game really interesting.

In the back I thought Marcellis did very well. At the beginning he looked nervous and passed every ball that he got backwards (probably influenced by Ooijer and Mathijsen), but as the game went on he got forward more and played well down the right flank. I also thought he looked quite solid defensively for the most part - there was just one time when he didn’t cover his man closely enough in the first half which resulted in the player getting the ball in free space at the top corner of the box, but I think he covered back and blocked the shot though (mostly because the Icelandic player took too long with the ball however - with a more dangerous forward it could have been costly).

Offensively I thought we were a little lacking. We scored two goals but could have scored more for sure. Sometimes we seemed a little uncreative and sometimes it seemed like no one wanted to take the chance. Playing it safe and keeping possession I guess…
I thought Huntelaar in particular looked kind of mediocre. He finished one chance very well (although he did narrowly miss a free header in the first half that he should have scored from), but I thought he always looked a little bit off… like a little bit slow in some situations, not alert enough in other situations… just didn’t quite work. He needs to anticipate the play a little more - there were a few times when a pass or loose ball came near to him but the defenders were always able to get there before him - he looked a little flat-footed. Could have just been an off game though; I still think he is a very good player and will grow more.

Babel played very well in the first half, playing out wide on the wing and getting in behind the defence. We can definitely use play like that against Norway on Wednesday. I’m not taking back what I said about him previously, but he did play excellently today. Maybe he is starting to mature. The second half he played more in the middle of the field and didn’t do nearly as well though. Afellay did better again when he replaced him. Sneijder looked really sharp when he came on for 10 minutes as well. I guess he is really eager to get back into it.

Sorry for the long, rambling post… just my thoughts on the game.

By ghost of steve finnan | October 11th, 2008 at 8:22 pm

@Mario, I disagree. In reality, MVB was a good national team coach. He rebuilt the brand and the excitement surrounding Oranje, in my view. Lets be very honest. Holland’s defense is not even close to top standards and there was no way they could have realistically gone any further than they did in euros or wc under v basten. And if not for his tactics in the games against italy and france, its entirely possible ,if not likely, that oranje would have failed to get out of the group stage, which WAS quite an accomplishment for such a limited team! Now, with Marcellis coming on the scene, with Heitinga getting more experience, the defense should be better and maybe Van Marwijk can take them to another level. But MVB was pretty good overall by my estimation.

Posted from United States

By Michel-Olivier | October 11th, 2008 at 8:28 pm

I agree with finnan

Posted from United States

By Jan | October 13th, 2008 at 2:02 am

I think MvB was obviously learning on the job. He has the goods to be a great coach or even technical director (at Ajax for instance) but as a team manager, he lacked experience:

the Seedorf saga
the Davids saga
the Nistelrooy saga
the Bommel saga.

A seasoned coach would have handled that much better.

On the other hand, expectations when he was assigned (after the bland Advocaat) were high. He did fuel those himself of course (not smart, but very honest) and he did have to rebuild the squad.

I’d say: a 7-.

Advocaat was a 5.

Rijkaard an 8.

Van Gaal a 4.

Hiddink an 8.

Bert scores a 10. For now

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