Douglas and Gouweleeuw best players!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Tij – I wish you a Merry Christmas but enuff with the same old anti-Kuyt / Bula / Joris / etc rants. We get your point! Now enuff! Please. Everyone is tired of it. For the love of the baby Jesus (appropriate for today) STOP.

Just want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! Here’s to gold in euro 2012…

If anyone can bring us the gold, it’s LORD BABY JESUS…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuAUI_0knfk

Merry Christmass guys.

Posted from  Greece

To my favourite blog writer Jan and the rest,have yourselves a Merry Xmas…My Xmas wish is to win the Euros next year.We have the squad to do it but we shall need luck as well… here from Africa,Uganda,Kampala….

Merry Christmas and Happy 2012 where we will see oranje champs.

hey friends, happy holidays

Posted from  Canada

Someone console Tiju… we haven’t played the championship and he’s already crying in his beer. Please man, lighten up! Germany can suck just as bad as us on the day. You’d think you were a Nazi sympathizer or something – or the guy on the radio trying to break our spirit… the defence of holland is shit, you will win nothing, Van Bommel is a child mollester…

New Years resolution for you… take a happy pill.

Posted from  United States

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story/_/id/1000232/norman-hubbard:-best-players-in-the-premier-league?cc=3888

@Tiju: I agree with you that it is 23 men squad and it is nice to have depth, but I recalled the 88 squad won with many sub play minimal minutes. Only Kieft came in and scored the winning goal vs Rep. of Ireland. You may argue the game has changed but being a fan, I am always optimistic for Oranje every Euro and WC. Yes, my hope is only rewarded once but I always hope that they win again. I’m very nervous watching the game live but it makes watching the game very exciting. Baring injuries, Kuyt, Joris, Van Bommel will make the squad. As long as we have good subs who contributed at the right time we will be fine. I had a good Xmas meal with my brothers and my dad and they all pointed out the weakest point is the defense. We should follow JC’s philosophy: as long as you score more than your opponents (it should be modified adding “and not into your own net”). Still 6 months away and I still believe that we will win.

Merry Christmas everyone!

by the way: what happened with Ajax issue??

A lot of talk about our defense and honestly it isn’t that bad or we wouldn’t have made it to the final. We conceded one goal in the group stage. The Brazil goal was a brain-fart they caught us early; then we shut them down. Uruguay’s 2nd goal in that semi came after we were up 3-1 and we started celebrating before the whistle. The final itself was a disastrous match with Nigel and Bommel playing as hired thugs rather than footballers but we still held Spain off (the goal was BS as we should have been given a corner). We have a great side but international football is game of precision. There are a few players relying on past reputations that don’t have the legs for it anymore and they should be replaced. Other than that I’m looking forward to that group stage!

TIJU…. WTF man, really?
I mean I’m the first guy to say Kuyt, Bommel, Joris have to go but how can it be in every sentence of every post of yours.

and then theres “znider, Gogi Lo, brapheid”. I won’t dislike you for it if you honestly admit you come on this forum to irritate people. Don’t you?

Ahmer,

>A lot of talk about our defense and honestly it isn’t that bad or we wouldn’t have made it to the final.

it depends what is your definition of the defense. if the defense is the “4-2″ part of the 4-2-3-1 then our defense is very good because of Nigel and Mark.

if you talk about just the “4″ part then we leave a lot to be desired …

If you allocate 4+2 = 6 out of the 11 in pure defensive duties and you have good defense then you have a high cost … you simply using too many resources to accomplish a goal. In that sense our defense is great. But at a high cost. We want to lower the cost by improving the “4″ part.

>Nigel and Bommel playing as hired thugs

have to totally disagree. Iniesta and the rest of the comedians fly like a grenade exploded next to them. They cry even when you stare them. The only cards that could be really justified during the game was one to DeJong for the clearly stupid but also clearly unintended kick and one to Puyol for his attempt on Robben. Both could be red or both could be yellow. Personally I would yellow both of them cause once you red card someone in the final is like giving a penalty. The games should be won on the field not by manipulating regulations.

No other incident required a yellow card. The d**head referee wanted to be the star of the game and he accomplished it.

Posted from  United States

@Tiju:

1) Van Bommel was excellent with PSV.
2) He wasn’t a sub when he played for Barca I even remember he started the UCL final against Arsenal.
3) Saying Mark was captain at Bayern due to lack of quality is just stupid man!!!.
4) In Milan he is rotated.

I believe Mark is a great player but he never reached the potential I thought he could achieve.

@hein….there was no mediocre players in 1988,today we have plenty like brapheid,kuyt,bommel,joris,bulah etc…what will happen if sneijder/roben/persie get injured???????
@Miguel….interestin thing was when bommel got subbed for ineasta.on second half and after that barca played better football and they came from behind and beat arsenal..

no,Tiju,van bommel was subbed around the 65. minute by henrik larsson – but you’re right,after the substitution larsson had two brillian assists… (edmilson was subbed by iniesta,halftime)

i agree with Miguel on mark – he could have become greater,but sometime in his career he had a horrible injury and after that he hasn’t progressed any more

And Merry Xmas to all of you!!

Do you ever get the feeling that arguing with Tiju is complely pointless? That no matter how much you reason, no matter how much thought you put into your comment, the next post by him will be some crazy rant about “Kuyt zniejder, boula, braphied goetza, ozil,….. blah blah blah.

@ van den Berg, All the time.. xD LOL

Posted from  Netherlands

@ Demi
Yeah I agree with you that is entirely way too many players on defensive duties. I prefer playing with one holding midfielder in a 4-3-3 but aside from Wijnaldum /Strootman there aren’t many Oranje players who play for the same club to develop the fluidity needed for that formation. Also lets face it, with 7 players in the starting lineup Barcelona won the World Cup.

Iniesta is one of the top divers in the world and I wonder if he’s considered a career in Olympic diving over football. But with that said Nigel is a thug. 2 broken legs (Holden/Ben Arfa) and the kung-fu kick on Alonso in a year. We need a tough player in the center of the park but he is always 1 tackle away from a red. He’s a liability.

The officiating at the entire WC was terrible (Kaka/Klose’s red cards, Lampard’s disallowed goal, Nigel/Puyol not getting a red, Heitinga’s red, Our unrecognized corner kick or foul on Elia) but what sucks is Howard Webb is the sole referee selected from England for the Euro’s. I hope he stays the hell away from any of our matches.

Ahmer,

to the best of my knowledge DeJong has never been red carded. And for the tackle on Ben Arfa he only got a yellow. But it is true that he has build a bad reputation and he might get red carded easier in the future. So far, though no reds at all, I think. The Ben Arfa incident was pure bad luck. I personally consider Mark a little dirtier than DeJong but in any case none of them comes close to Galvan, Pasarella, Goikoetxea … talking about *real* thugs there.

Anyhow, we will see… all the best for the New Year

Posted from  United States

I think we can do without either of them. Ruud Vormer is having a great season. Wout Brama plays every minute for Twente. I really wish they’d play Leroy Fer. He’s a solid player and I think v.Bommel’s replacement.

I think Fer and Vormer should get a call-up for the next friendly.

The ability to play and pass is one thing. Experience/confidence/leadership is another. Mark and Nigel have done something very few Oranje have done, even Cruyff has never done it. They were part of the squad that turned around an important game against a very powerful opponent (Brazil). It is experience like this that is required to win competitions. Go back in time and see how many times Oranje have turned around a quarter or a semifinal These are the moments that make a champion out of you. And we need all the players who have been part of such moments.

On the other hand, chances should be given to some new players but carefully. It is a team sport and psychology plays a bigger role than “playability”.

Posted from  United States

Deep thought! Thanks for contriubting.