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Edwin van der Sar: Pride of the Nation
Comments(84)
Ajax had Stanley Menzo. A sensational goalie. Athletic, strong, smiling, agile, spectacular, good with his feet and fast. But according to the experts, the lanky Voorhouter who was coming up through the ranks was even better. A former football player with great feet but who was forced to play goalie due to a long injury and who became an even better keeper than player.
Van Gaal was renowned for his bad breath!
Louis van Gaal was present at a Klaverjas night ( Dutch card game, and what a card game!!) at VV Noordwijk when the coach of the amateurs whispered in Louis’ ear: “We have a goalie here… You need to see him!”. The rest is history.
Edwin van der Sar is the name. But my friends call me Tiger!
It was like Wim Kieft – Marco van Basten. Kieft scored 33 goals and won the Golden Boot in Europe. But the ones in the know said: Ah…wait until Van Basten comes on…
Menzo made a typical Menzo blunder in a European Cup game against Auxerre. A corner kick. A badly judged ball and like a volley ball player Menzo smashed the ball in his own net. Or something like that.
Davids: “How’s the weather up there?”
Enter Van der Sar.
He didn’t look like an athlete. A Peter Pan like lad, with spikey hair, a thin, pointy face. A high pitched voice. And he surely had a bit of a Crouch like posture.
He did well at Ajax. But when people started to say he needed to become Oranje’s goalie, most critics balked. Sure, Ajax dominated Oranje and in 1995/1996 it made sense to have a goalie that knew and worked with Reiziger, De Boer, Bogarde, Blind, Davids and the likes. But Ed de Goey hadn’t let Oranje down, had he?
The Best Ajax player of the 90s with the best goalie
Until that infamous quarter finals in 1994. Free kick. Branco. 3-2. Van der Sar became Oranje’s goalie and despite a 1-0 loss in his debut against Belarus, Sar would remain the Big Number 1 for quite some time.
This will be Sar’s last season as a pro. He already ended his international career – and in all honesty: who missed him in South Africa?? – but the Red Devils will also have to say goodbye to their goalie.
Sir Alex Ferguson recently said that the biggest mistake in his career is not signing Sar immediately after Schmeichel retired.
Sar, the Penalty Killer. At Long Last…
After 21 seasons of pro-football – 9 at Ajax, 2 at Juventus, 4 at Fulham and 6 in Manchester – Sar will give up his keeper’s gloves.
Sar played almost 600 games. He won two world cups for teams and two Champion League Cups ( with Ajax and Man United). He holds the record for international games in Oranje ( 103 games) and he is a true Legend of the Game.
Sar, in dire need of a personal stylist, hairdresser, facial expression coach…the works, really….
Sar: “There’s that hot air balloon. I’m gonna try to blow him away….”
The goalie has retired. Long live the new goalie!
Simply the Best!
Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 84 comments.
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Jan Am not yet added to the netherlands blog facebook. My facebook handle is Wanyama van sneijder
Posted from 
Kuwait
Royston Drenthe is wishing to leave Hercules… (yeah that’s for sure – to go almost anywhere else!)
WRT: Robben, VdV and MvB – Mueller seems to have a problem with the success of Robben – but Robben has to calm down big time. Robben has too much class, skill and talent to get involved in stuff like this.
Tottenham defence was terrible – don’t think VdV had a bad game – the whole team did. Hope they get back on track next match.
It was so so very funny to see the look of innocent astonishment on Mark’s face as he was carded! “What me foul a player – NEVER!”. Anyways once he figures out how to operate in Serie A – Mark will be an even better player than he already is. I think that Italy is a good opportunity for him.
OJF
Feyenoord got rid of El Ahmadi, and got striker Soren Larsen, arsenal loanee, Miyaichi, and 30 year old midfielder Marcel Meeuwis. Hopefully Meeuwis can add some experience and calm in midfield among those talents.
Posted from 
Netherlands
Barazite has left Arsenal for Austria Vienna
John Heitinga possibly to Chelsea… half an hour left for last minute deals..
Posted from Netherlands
Andy Carrol 35 million pounds. The most expensive english player in history.
Torres jumps ship to chelsea, will his form suddenly improve?
Bruma needs to leave, Ancelotti has no faith in him.
Arsene Wenger lets yet another transfer window pass by without doing anything of note. Koscielny? Squillaci?
Is there any chance of a result against Barca?
Heitinga? Chelsea just bought David Luiz from Benfica… I can’t see Johnny joining them.
Oh, and torres was 50 million. Insane.
Don’t the financial fair play rules coming mean anything?
Did Ajax sign anyone?
@Carlos: any idea how i search for that article on 5 world class dutch keepers? Thanks.
Posted from 
United States
Van Bommel played a very good game for Milan. That 2nd yellow was totally innocent. He played the ball to the sides well and his one touch pass up front and back to keeper are awesome, to maintain the flow of the play or keep possession. He read the game so well even though he barely know his teammates.
Posted from 
Canada
Just too much money is thrown for players in todays football… This is insane! Madness!(Sparta!!)
@gooranje –
how do you think Bayern is going fare, now that Mark is gone? Will Robben be affected by MvB’s absence? And who is MvB’s replacement at Bayern?
OJF
Hien – ask Jan to send you his article on Dutch Keepers of the past. Jan ???
I AM a VDS fan and how quick we forget the euro08 when EVERYONE said that it was HIM who kept out Italy and France. I never thought he was brilliant, but still held him in high regard. As Ferguson said one of his biggest mistake was not getting VDS when Schmeichel retired. But then what does SAF know huh ?
Posted from 
Singapore
Ajax did not get anyone – Dost was close but at the last minute Heerenveen increased the price to 7 mil Eur.
Castaignos is going to Inter at the end of this season for 3-4 million (how did that happen ?)
Posted from Singapore
@OranjeFan
I’m not that familiar with Bayern, but they seem to have enough good players to make up for Van Bommel. It might take them some time to get used to without him, but with Robben back from injury I think they will just keep winning in the German league.
Posted from Canada
Man, I’m so frustrated about Heerenveen and Hercules.
Both clubs blocked Dost and Drenthe’s transfer. Especially Drenthe, he spoke up when he didn’t get paid, which is the club’s fault to start with, and now they are angry with him and won’t play him but at the same time won’t let him leave even they so underperformed without him playing.
Dost’s case is a tad different as the club has done nothing wrong in the first place. But then they get angry with Dost because Dost sounded like he deserved to play but is not allowed to…
What do you guys think? Is Dost really deserve to be on the bench at Heerenveen based on his effort and performance on the field?
He keeps scoring for them and Jong Oranje though.
Posted from Canada
@carlos, i think (not sure) his contract will finish in 2012 thats why.
@carlos buddy we dont foget the saves VDS did..it VDS who kept us clean against russia untill first 45 minutes..and he continued that….it was the fault of vanbasten not him both in 2006 and 2008.we were pointing that VDS never seems to stop penalty that what the feelings we had,in all these time…
i always thought VDS is afraid of ferrocious shots or he gives up trying on ferrocious shots.he just dives with out touching the ball and he just acts like he really tried for that.thats what i feel.it may be my feeling and opinion.
We dont think ferguson is a fool…he needs a goal keeper who can work well with his diffenders..and he likes goal keepers with good ball distribution skills and goal keepers who able to anticipate opponent attacks,with very good reflexes..VDS was excellent in all those areas.that is why he kept clean sheet for more than 1000 minutes.
Liverpool’s management just cracks me up (at least we won’t have to worry about Kuyt being benched)…
QUOTE from goal.com about the acquisition of Caroll and Suarez (values are in euros): “Two strikers combined value of 70 MILLION! Not worth it, not even close. With that money they cud have had Ibra/Tevez, or Balotelli/Villa.”[/ENDQUOTE]
Let’s see, for that kind of money, they could also have gotten (if they planned for it and had a management that was paying attention in the past 18 months or so):
Sneijder = 15m
Robben = 25m
Huntelaar = 10m
vBommel = free
vdVaart = 9.5m
Elia = 9m
Total = 68.5m
Suarez+Carroll is 67.5m Euro.
I would have gone with Robben, VDV, vBommel and Elia and still would have had plenty of cash left to pay their salaries for at least the next 2 years.
Posted from Netherlands
I will try and find the article on goalies….
De Zeeuw wasn’t going to Vitesse! Fenerbace wanted De Zeeuw but Ajax blocked it.
@Jan, I didnt say he was going to Vitesse, but my guess is they wanted to sell De Zeeuw, and get Davy Propper from Vitesse as replacement for him for less money.
Posted from Netherlands
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BTW, Luiz, the Benfica CB going to Chelsea along with Torres, for insane money… Seriously, no CB is worth 30 million… But. will this mean Jeffrey Bruma will still make his long wanted loan move to HSV. Chelsea didnt wanna let him go because they wanted to get cover for CB first, well now they have that… Maybe we’ll see Bruma move on loan in the next 3 hours.
Also, within PL. English players always are WAY WAY overpriced, they pay 20 million easily for average teenage defenders and talents, even 17 year old talents are bought for prices up to 10 million. And even Bent sold for like 30 million….. In that prospect, Robben would cost 60 million easily.
Carroll is a good player, but in no way worth that much.
Anyways, Vitesse denied Ajax’ last minute offer for young talented midfielder Davy Pröpper. Im guessing they tried to sell De Zeeuw and get Propper back.
Posted from
Netherlands