Group of Death, Group of Schmeath…

December 3rd, 2011 | by: Jan |

draw1

After a couple of seconds of “WTF!?!?!!!??” the real Oranje fan shrugs his shoulders and cries: “We don’t care! We want to win this! So if we have to beat them all to do so, we will!!”.

And let’s face it. We don’t do well in friendlies or against minions. We need to be on our toes from day 1. And with Germany and Portugal in the group, we will. And we do have a big score to settle with Denmark too, so bring it on!

We will start our campaign in this third Group of Death ™ against Denmark on June 9 in the Ukraine. We will play all our group games in Charkov, Ukraine.

Our Germany game – find your diaries, people – is on June 13. Portugal will be our last group opponent.

The World Cup 2010 runners up against the Euro Cup 2008 runners up, the nation that whipped our ass only weeks ago with 3-0.

We do have our fair share of lousy memories with Portugal too. They kept us from going to the World Cup in 2002 ( or was it Louis?) and ousted us in 2004 and 2006 tournaments. The latter game being a disgraceful performance by both ( and in particular the ref, one should add).

draw2
“Oh look how funny it is!!”

Interestingly enough, Portugal had issues qualifying – despite on C Ronaldo – and Denmark was the group winner of Group H. Portugal had to take on Bosnia Herzegovina to find a ticket to Poland.

Germany had the perfect qualification series. Die Mannschaft won all ten group games and scored 34 goals. Only Spain was able to do the same.

When Oranje qualifies for the knock-out stages, it will face a team from group A, with Dick Advocaat’s Russia.

Wesley Sneijder responded directly via the phone. “It’s a tough draw, but if you want to win this you will need to be able to beat any opponent. We know the opponents well and I think it’s good to start against Denmark. We want to win all our games and it’s interesting to see what Germany and Portugal will do. I love playing tough games and I wouldn’t want to be in Group A, for instance. You want to play tough games and we know now how not to play the Germans, haha. That was a friendly. This is a real game. It’s great to have everyone awake and focused from the first game on…”

John Heitinga: “Group of Death? Well, not for us. We want to win this tournament. It is a tough draw, sure, but the others will think that too. As a player, these are the games you live for.”

Dirk Kuyt: “Great draw. We have some revenge to take on Germany, and on Portugal too. In 1992, Denmark blocked our way to the finals, I remember that well, so time for some Euro revenge on them too, haha.”

The Liverpool engine again: “It’s simple. If you want to win the tournament, you can’t moan about the draw. We need to take every team on and beat them. That’s not hard to process.”

draw wes

Bert van Marwijk concurred with “tough draw” and added: “I didn’t see smiles on the faces of the other coaches. The advantage for us as coach is that these fixtures will draw out the best performances of the players. These are all great opponents that will result in great games. I’m actually not unhappy with Germany in our group. I’m a bit more disappointed wih our home city of Charkov, which will be a drag to travel to for the fans.”

“I have had contact with a number of players and they can’t wait for this tournament to start.”

Skipper Mark van Bommel is one of them. “These are great opponents. If you beat those and then go on to win it, no one in the world will say we don’t deserve it. And don’t forget we always play with 12. The fans wil carry us through and push us forward. If all these crazy people show up and color the stadiums orange, we can reach a higher level of play, even.”

Van Bommel warns for too much focus on Germany and Portugal. “Don’t forget Denmark. They’re the number 11 of the world now and they did leave Portugal behind them. There are no easy games anymore.”

draw bert
Bert with Marco on his right and Kees Media-tiger Jansma on his left

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Comments

Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 100 comments.

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By Jalepinho | December 6th, 2011 at 11:42 am

Sol, I disagree with you.

We have 2 world class (excellent) gk not 1. Stek, currently is not in form. But When he’s at his best, he’s world class…

Posted from Australia

By Kelvin | December 6th, 2011 at 11:44 am

Roma was down to 10 men at 16′ and eventually 8 men
2 of the goals were penalties caused by stupid defenders
you cant really blame it on Stek

Posted from Hong Kong

By primo | December 6th, 2011 at 11:54 am

Holland should invade Belgium. Problem solved. No one would really care or even notice.

I always thought Holland would be unstoppable if we had some of Belgium’s defenders (Vermaelen, Kompany).

By primo | December 6th, 2011 at 11:55 am

I am still flabbergasted at why Stekelenburg went to Roma. Sure he gets paid more but its a huge leap backwards from Ajax. Surely other clubs would have been interested as well.

By Jason | December 6th, 2011 at 12:26 pm

Roma as a club are in a state of disarray and as a result Steks will end up being the victim of that. they are bloody aweful at the moment. Steks should lose his spot (but won’t), which could cost us dearly.

Holland invading Belgium is just funny. Two countries with hardly an army to speak of… I suppose when ammo is scare they can throw potatoes at each other.

Posted from Canada

By Robbert | December 6th, 2011 at 12:35 pm

————-Stekelenburg————-
———-Kompany—Vermaelen——-
Van der Wiel—————-Vertonghen
——-De Jong—–Van der Vaart——-
Robben———Sneijder——–Affelay–
————-Van Persie—————-
Subs:
-Heitinga
-Aldeirwereld
-Van Bommel
-Mertens
-Defour
-Huntelaar
-Krul

Lets trade Limburg for Vlaanderen and we have our team:p-

Posted from Netherlands

By Keko | December 6th, 2011 at 12:48 pm

Is Vlaanderen the north of Belgium?

By ClockworkOrange | December 6th, 2011 at 12:48 pm

@Robbert: If you trade Limburg for Vlaanderen then you will lose Van Bommel. Also, despite the fact that he was born in Uccle (technically in Vlaanderen, but also in Brussels) I’m not sure Vinny Kompany really considers himself Vlaams.

Posted from United States

By Keko | December 6th, 2011 at 1:01 pm

Vlaanderen= Flandes, one of the three regions of Belgium. Thanks Wikipedia.

By Ilir | December 6th, 2011 at 1:28 pm

Wasn’t Belgium at one point in history called the “Spanish Netherlands”? So taking Belgium back is just making a wrong right

By ajacied_23 | December 6th, 2011 at 1:41 pm

hey!!! i am from limburg!

Posted from United Kingdom

By Tiju | December 6th, 2011 at 2:41 pm

As far as i am concerned to win a title you need.
1-Motivation
2-Unity
3-Brilliance in game
4-Physical fitness
5-A clever coach
BVM is way too clever than many other coaches but Gogi low and Delbosque looks more clever than him…We can be happy that a hugely talented portugal is in hands of a foolish coach.BVM is so BIASED and afraid to make some radical changes,this is the negative point about him.

By Tiju | December 6th, 2011 at 2:43 pm

Guys there is a limit for fantasy…vermelen,komapany??????????

By Tiju | December 6th, 2011 at 2:48 pm

http://www.imscouting.com/global-news-article/Ricky-van-Wolfswinkel-The-prolific-Dutch-striker-on-Manchester-United-and-Chelsea-radar/13539/?
AN ARTICLE ON RICKY WOLF………WHY HE IS NOT IN ORANGE TEAM??????????

By Steve | December 6th, 2011 at 3:24 pm

@tiju – no time limit, sign up right away- you will only be 1 week off the pace..

Posted from Canada

By Alex | December 6th, 2011 at 5:22 pm

Lol, u know Belgian and Dutch fleet actually have joint command, so it would be fighting among each other. Just end Belgium and make the seperate 3 parts regions of the Netherlands, federation or something, be done with it and finally win a final in the World cup !! lol xD Yes my fantasy is insane and genius at the same time.

Posted from Netherlands

By Steve | December 6th, 2011 at 6:10 pm

ooohhhhhh THAT fantasy
Hahaha

Posted from Canada

By finnster01 | December 6th, 2011 at 6:24 pm

When it takes longer to form a government in Belgium than in Iraq, taking a little nibble of Flanders back shouldn’t be too difficult

Posted from Singapore

By Paul | December 6th, 2011 at 7:04 pm

haha @ finn, awesome…btw the new PM is French Belgian, so now is the time to pounce…

By Alex | December 6th, 2011 at 7:46 pm

I think we can get Flanders and Brussels for a few billion euros lol.. and then Wallon politicians will want in too cause they love brussels lol. So tadaa.. its easy lol

Posted from Netherlands

By hien | December 6th, 2011 at 8:46 pm

Real decides to rest many players for Barca match. Many subs will start in the match with Ajax. Is Ajax playing to win?

By Sol | December 7th, 2011 at 4:57 am

ah tnx Kelvin, that was just what I was looking for, was wondering how the actual match went. 2 penalties doesn’t sound that bad. It’s sad for him that Roma is doing so poorly (but should also be good practice).

Jalepinho, I just think there’s a bigger gap between Stekel and Krul than many on this blog (and Dutch media) feel about the 2. Krul is still being depicted as a talented rookie who is doing really well (there’s a suggestion in that that it’s temporary form). I think that’s overestimating Stekel and underestimating Krul (or 1 of those 2). There’s a gap for me between them. I do think the gap between Vorm and Stekel is bigger than between Stekel and Krul. now you could argue Stekel is worldclass, but then Krul would have to be just a bit beyond worldclass for me. It’s not like the whole of Italy (or serie A watchers) is excited and talking about or suggesting Stekel is one of serie A’s best goalkeeper if not THE best. This is however slowly starting to happen concerning the EPL and Krul. And in terms of goalkeepers, the EPL has probably some of the best goalkeepers in the world (Dudek, Reina, Howard, Gomez, Hart, all would probably be in my top 10 or perhaps Hart just outside that, dunno how many keepers I can come up with). Yet with all those excellent keepers, Krul is stealing the show.

Posted from Netherlands

By Graceland | December 7th, 2011 at 2:21 pm

This information is off the hzoiol!

By apehxe | December 22nd, 2011 at 11:55 pm

I have 2 tickets to Kharkov venue series. Unfortunetly I can not make it to the turnment. Anyone interested?

By apehxe | December 22nd, 2011 at 11:56 pm

Netherlands will play there all group games.

Comments are closed