Disappointing win Oranje: no champagne…

October 7th, 2011 | by: Jan |

hunter kuyt

Oranje beat Moldova after a difficult game ( 1-0). It was the 17th win in a row for Van Marwijk and as a result Oranje will be a group leader at the draw on December 2 for the upcoming European Championship.

The Dutch team secured qualification in Finland last month but wanted to celebrated in home game with the loyal legion. Unfortunately, the defensive Moldova hadn’t come to Rotterdam to join the party but more to spoil it.

Without the injured Sneijder, Robben and Heitinga, Oranje couldn’t play fast enough to surprise the visitors. And whenever a Dutch player did find himself in a good position, Moldova’s goalie Namasco had different plans, stopping Huntelaar, Van Persie and Kuyt with tremendous saves. In the 40est minute however, the Schalke striker scored his eleventh goal in this series.

Van Marwijk started with Bruma as center back and Kevin Strootman got the nod over Nigel de Jong. Raf van der Vaart played his 91st international game on his fave position behind the striker but the stylish playmaker couldn’t do it as convincing as Sneijder in the recent games. Van der Vaart was subbed for Elia.

Oranje created enough opportunities in the first half, but in the second half concentration went and the pace went down even more. This disappointed the fans, obviously and Oranje couldn’t find the net for a second time.

Robin Mold

Skipper Mark van Bommel was never bothered by an opponent that tried to outsmart him or his mates. Van Bommel was mainly struggling to tear the defense down. “I think we did play well in the first half. We mainly didn’t manage to score a fast goal. That makes all the difference. We got sloppier in the second half and didn’t offer enough. We didn’t play well.”

“Whenever you’re used to win 11-0 than 1-0 is pretty bad…. But at least we did win.”

Bert van Marwijk: “When we came back in the dressing room we had champagne waiting for us but no one took one sip. We were pretty down. We played under par. I’m actually happy that all the lads were down. That’s a good point actually. No one played really bad, but most of the players didn’t score very good either.”

Bommeltje

Erik Pieters was the only defender who could distinguish himself, more than his Ajax colleague on the other side. Bruma and Mathijsen didn’t do much more than passing the ball to the midfielders, while Vorm only had to act once.

Kevin Strootman played a pretty good game next to Van Bommel and demonstrated why Van Marwijk believes the young PSV player “has a gift”.

Van der Vaart played on Sneijder’s spot but has played much better games for Oranje. Kuyt worked his butt off, like always but never added much to the game. He made the playing field too small – like Van Persie – by wanting to penetrate centrally, but the Arsenal skipper did bring threats to the match and was the best man in orange. Huntelaar did what he needs to do: score goals.

In the past Raf van der Vaart would respond agitated when subbed. This time around, he didn’t seem to worry too much when he was replaced.

“In all honesty, I was surprised I was able to play this long, haha… Not seriously, I could see that it was better for the team. It was hard against these guys. You do need two teams for a nice match and I think I gave what I had today. I am on my way back from injury and I could totally live with this decision.”

raf mold

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Comments

Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 26 comments.

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By Jad | October 8th, 2011 at 9:10 am

Now holland guaranteed a pot 1 spot with spain,ukraine and poland.

We have to mention yesterday it was raining heavily in roterdam. Am more than ok with the performance, specially they already qualified.

By primo | October 8th, 2011 at 12:18 pm

Sweden should be a much more attractive game. Sweden will play to win so there will be lots of space.

Posted from United States

By goose | October 8th, 2011 at 12:45 pm

Oranje without Sneijder is 15/20% less; its that simple

Posted from Netherlands

By Jake | October 8th, 2011 at 3:49 pm

Sneider make everyone play better including dvaart. So vaart best position is still behind the striker, but sneider as playmaker in the team is compulsary. He can play next to bommel or dejong. My theory is when sneider and vaart play, dejong play, if sneider or vaart plays, bommel and strootman play. But the team is less without sneider.

By Carlos | October 8th, 2011 at 6:16 pm

The highlights of a boring game….watch it before youtube “untubes” it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WhXLwHO9qI

Posted from Singapore

By Jan | October 8th, 2011 at 6:33 pm

I think it’s a bit too easy to say it’s all Van der Vaart’s fault.

I think winning against a defensive and tough as nails opponent like Moldova is hard on any team. Holland, Spain, France, Germany…

I think with a bit of luck ( or killer mentality) we would score earlier in the game and the resilience would be broken earlier.

Now, the Moldovian goalie was allowed to grow into the game.

Another problem, is the two wingers Bert used. Against Moldova like bus parkers you need wdth and depth and players who can take on opponents individually. Van Persie and Kuyt kept on closing down space and our full backs didn’t utilise the wings too well (Pieters was ok).

I think the Barca style of playing ( no center striker) is the best against teams like this. And instead of Kuyt ( sorry!) we needed someone like Wijndaldum or Elia who has speed and depth.

I would have played without Hunter and Kuyt. Someone else would have scored.

Look at how the goal happened: there was space, there was a deep ball (perfect pass Van Bommel) a runner went to the byline and the cross was converted.

Sneijder is better dan Vaart, yes. But it’s not that with Sneijder this game would be won 6-0.

By Jan | October 8th, 2011 at 6:38 pm

first half wasn’t that bad…

By Sam | October 8th, 2011 at 7:21 pm

first half wasn’t bad and oranje could’ve/should’ve scored 2 or 3 goals. It was a combination of good goalie saves and taking too long with the ball sometimes

By goose | October 9th, 2011 at 12:21 am

@Jan; true, with Sneijder we prop. would not have won 6-0, but Sneijder is good enough to find space even in a crowded defense…

of course its not vdVaart fault we played a boring game, but it was very obvious that Sneijder (at the moment) is way better than Rafael

and have to agree with you on Kuijt; i think he played some pretty mediocre (at best) games for Oranje the last couple of times… against a weak, defensive team we should have more football on that part of the pitch

Pieters was the only one with some decent crosses in; i think hes a great find …

Posted from Netherlands

By OranjeAussie | October 9th, 2011 at 12:55 am

I think hunterlaar up front is a perfect… He is what we need… With everyone fit you have van Persie and Robben on the wings and Sneijder attacking mid… You have so much creativity that all you need is a great finisher like The Hunter to finish of there work… I’ve said it before that’s why Gomez scores so much for Bayern as he has such good delivery from Robben, Ribery etc… He can’t not score.

Posted from Australia

By Jan | October 9th, 2011 at 2:36 am

True…. ( the Gomez comment of Oranje Aussie)….

I was basically referring to the way you “kill off” a negative opponent. Don’t allow them static opponents to sink their teeth in…

Like Barca, with Messi drifting all over the place… I believe Robben could even play in that role…

But I’m getting carried away. Against Moldova we could have played Hunter as goalie.

By Aron | October 9th, 2011 at 5:35 am

yes Sweden is going to play to win (or for the draw) but we aren´t going to do what we did last year in Amsterdam, no we are going to try and crowd the midfield and then counter. Ibrahimovic is banned from this game and therefore we will playing a different tune (one that will probably make us better). Still the Netherlands should win this game. Would it be too much to ask to let us get a last second win and get the best second spot? Its not like we are going to be able to do much at the tournament next year anyway!

By Sam | October 9th, 2011 at 9:58 am

Interesting piece… if sweden beat oranje, it’s possible portugal won’t qualify if they lose against denmark. Do you rather Oranje win this meaningless game of portugal be left out? Interesting Dilemma!

It’s Denmark v Portugal in the qualifying showdown, with both sides level on 16 points. Portugal hold the head to head lead so Denmark must win to top the group. However, the runner-up in the group stands a good chance of qualifying automatically as the best runner-up if Sweden lose to Netherlands.

By Bill | October 9th, 2011 at 11:38 am

The Kuip, Rotterdam. That explains it all. Sort of a miracle they managed to win the game if you look at their historically bad results whenever they play there.

Posted from Canada

By nad | October 9th, 2011 at 3:51 pm

I dont know why people keep bringing up Sneijder. He is very important but holland have played many ugly games with him too. Most of the world cup wins were ugly except mabe Uruguay

By Jan | October 9th, 2011 at 4:10 pm

Bill? Seriously? I always thought that De Kuip is regarded as Oranje’s home and Huntelaar even said it before the match: “I’m happy we play in De Kuip again. The atmosphere is sensational always.”

By susanne | October 9th, 2011 at 4:25 pm

Hey Jan. You promised us a Huntelaar interview?

Posted from Netherlands

By Jan | October 9th, 2011 at 5:33 pm

Spain set a new record in tika taka football against the Cechs…. The first team to have more than 1.000 passes in a game. According to OptaSports, thet passed the ball 1.088 times.

Now, this doesn’t win you awards and it’s probably annoying to watch, at times, but they also won 2-0. And they have the World Cup. And the European Cup. And they’re ranked no. 1. So they’re doing something right.

Their best club team won the Champions League last year by the way.

But… Oranje won 17 times in a row and is second, so that is not all that bad.

Let’s kick their ass next time we meet. Hopefully finals of the EC2012.

Let them score twice and tika-taka 1000 times against us.

We’ll score one more.

By Eduardo | October 9th, 2011 at 7:17 pm

My critic is not against VdVaart (is imposible to shine in all games)but is against Bert V Marwijk:

If the team ins´t working, if the team don´t have fresh ideas… well make some changes!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you have great young players that want to show their skills, and need to be proben; why BvM didn´t change VdVaart and Kuyt by Wijnaldum and Elia????

I had the wish to watch Wijnaldum play.., if Wijnaldun didn´t play yesterday, a team without Sneijer Affellay and a Vaart playing bad.. when will he play???

I really hope see wijnaldum and elia play against sweden, ate least a full half time

By jake | October 9th, 2011 at 8:45 pm

Agree with you eduardo,
against moldova was a good opportunity to give experience to wijnaldum (elia was came in eventhough a bit late), moldova didnt’t present any danger, it would be safe to play two young wingers
wijnaldum-persie-elia
huntelaar

I doubt BVM will play wijnaldum against sweden, unless we are leading with big margin, he may play last 10mnts.

Posted from Australia

By jake | October 9th, 2011 at 9:08 pm

Jan,
Spain will lose against scotlands and send Orange to the top fifa rank, that will be consolation before we meet spain and beat them.

But to be honest with you, orange has only small chance to beat spain, thats when we have full squad play excellent that day and if BVM implement a right strategy without changing our attacking play style. Whats strategy, I dont know, ask JC.

Posted from Australia

By hien | October 9th, 2011 at 9:11 pm

Of course I like to see Oranje dominate but I’m ok with Jan’s last comments: “Let them score twice and tika-taka 1000 times against us.We’ll score one more”.

By primo | October 9th, 2011 at 9:50 pm

If Casillas’ toe wasn’t in the way nobody would be talking about Spain right now.

Posted from United States

By Ahmer | October 10th, 2011 at 1:56 am

It was a rainy afternoon against a team who came in to put 11 men behind the ball, no big deal.

I agree with some of the Oranje supporters about the changes in playing style. Strootman has been a great find and excellent addition in the side. Barcelona’s style is after all the Dutch system Cruyff instilled there. Oranje could easily play that style. One of the main problems is the VdV/Sneijder and Huntelaar/v.Persie debate. If you play all 4 at the same time they will get in each others way. If you’ve seen the last few games v.Persie continually leaves the right wing to occupy Hunter’s space. Van Marwijk should play one and in that case you have to go with the Hunter.

Stekelenburg
VdW – Heitinga – Mathijsen – Pieters
Sneijder – v. Bommel – Strootman
Robben – Huntelaar – VdV

Would be interesting to see Oranje play this totaal voetball formation

By daniel | October 10th, 2011 at 5:16 am

great to see castaignos getting plenty of game time at inter

Posted from Australia

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