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Holland – Hungary; some tidbits….
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For the first time since his tackle on Ben Arfa, Nigel de Jong is back with his Oranje buddies. He’s looking forward to playing Hungary, is all he wanted to say.
“I spoke with our team manager. Do I understand his decision to not call me up? What does my opinion matter in this? I closed that book. I’m happy I’m back. Will I change my game? Did you see me play at Man City lately? I get a lot of support for the way I play there and I believe we’re doing ok.”
Van Marwijk: “Nigel is a tremendous midfielder. Eye for the pass, focused, and extremely strong in the duels. That is his biggest strength. But sometimes he needs to be a tad smarter.”
De Jong shrugged his shoulders when confronted with the coach’ words: “Again, this book is closed. I am happy to be back with Oranje. They look good.”
Van der Vaart played on De Jong’s spot next to Van Bommel and that looked really good. Does De Jong expect a starting spot? “I don’t decide that, that’s for the coach to decide.”
PSV player Balázs Dzsudzsák is also looking forward to the two games: “I think we can get a result. Hungary has gotten stronger!”.
The PSV winger is looking forward to playing Van der Wiel. “I like playing against him. Gregory is a football player and doesn’t rely on aggression but relies on his skills. I like that. What’s hard is that he loves to attack which means I have to defend more. I don’t like that, hahaha….”
The Hungarian talks more: “We have a good position in our group and hold our own destiny in our hands. We might be inexperienced, but we have a strong mentality.”
Oranje beat Hungary 6-1 in the last meeting. ” I look back in shame to that match. We shouldn’t have played that. We were already on our break and most of us were not top fit anymore. I did score in that game. Stekelenburg came up to me and said: damn, you always score against me!”.
Klaas Jan Huntelaar missed both Hungary games. The Schalke striker carries a knee injury and the qualification games come too early for him Bert van Marwijk has called up three fresh names: Ruud van Nistelrooy (HSV), Luuk de Jong ( Twente) and Jeremiah Lens ( PSV),
Arjen Robben and Theo Janssen also had to decline the invite.
Mark van Bommel didn’t train with the group due to a little knock, just like Erik Pieters and Maduro who took it slow.
Willem van Hanegem thinks Bert van Marwijk is the bees knees. “I think Van Marwijk is doing his job perfectly. His selection policy is firm and clear. If I see how he takes on the Stekelenburg replacement: well done.
Jelle ten Rouwelaar deserves this. But for a team manager, it’s so easy to rely on a bigger name or a bigger club, but no: Bert looks at NAC. People always doubted Ten Rouwelaar and since he left PSV people think he failed. Van Marwijk started to follow Ten Rouwelaar in time and the lad is ready for this.
I also like the fact he selected Boschker again. Ok, so Sander doesn’t start for Twente. So what? He’s got decades of experience and more importantly, he’s got the personality and the mentality. Boschker is the perfect second goalie, experience in the dressing room and important in his support for Vorm and Ten Rouwelaar. Van Marwijk basically selected a fifth assistant coach.
Bert is consistent, trusts the lads he knows. And sometimes he experiments. Like with Wisgerhof. And sometimes those players than disappear for a bit. But they’re never off the radar. Van Marwijk creates his team silently, slowly but surely.
I wish Jeroen Verhoeven at Ajax some silence in these days. It’s simply ridiculous how this goalie is being treated. I heard someone say that Ajax lost vs Moscow because of Verhoeven?! What a crock of shit. Verhoeven is not as good as Stekelenburg, who is world class. And that’s why Verhoeven is not starting at Ajax, but Maarten is. But he’s pretty good and has sensational reflexes. I think we need to worry about his sanity with the horrible defending in front of him.
And is he too heavy? Knock it off! I remember Piet Schrijvers, Oliver Kahn, Peter Schmeichel… Not the leanest either. It’s good for a goalie to be able to throw some weight in!
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@Finn: exactly – i cannot imagine even an oranje b loosing against the current hungarian team. oranje could and should finish the group without loosing a single point. actually the only one thing i’m worried about is the players’ overconfidence. dzsudzsak told the same to hungarian journalists: hungary’s biggest chance is that oranje players won’t consider their opponents seriously.
Posted from 
Hungary
I don’t know how many of you saw this, a very cute article on Soccernet about Stekelenburg.
Admittedly, I WAS one of the doubters of Stek’s ability to succeed v.d Sar in Oranje, but now I am a big fan of St. Maarten. Looking forward to see him next year playing in the EPL (finger-crossed).
Posted from 
United States
Mark van Bommel is a question mark. The knee again.
I think we’ll see Raf next to Nigel. Bert is saved from making big decisions.
Robin will take center striker role and Ruud might come on as a sub!
Vorm
Wiel Mathijsen Heitinga Pieters
Nigel Raf
Kuyt Sneijder Afellay
Van Persie
Btw, the more I see Pieters play, the more I like him.
Maduro replaced by Schaars… De Guzman, Brama and Siem de Jong deserve much more than Schaars(poor form).
line up: Vorm- Wiel-Heitinga-Mathijsen-MVB(De Zeeuw)-VdV-Kuyt-Sneijder-Elia-RVP.
i forgot pieters
I am sick of seeing De Zeeuw and Schaars called,when you have players like Jonathan De Guzman waiting!
Is De Zeeuw in the squad? I thought he was left out. I would lost faith in humanity if De Zeeuw played against Hungary, that’s how poor he has been this season…. he should be nowhere to the Ajax first eleven to begin with.
Posted from United States
Why suddenly the player get injured just before international games? Iam pretty sure the club want them to stay away from injury-fatique as these two months’re becoming crucial for the titles. robben and now bommel & maduro
Posted from 
Australia
@ finnster – Glad you liked it, hope your keyboard still works. I concede I was one-upped by goose. Well done mate. 
Orange to lose to Hungary over 2 legs…. Thats the analysis of the year..
I’m not expecting a cakewalk but i do think Oranje would win this. BVM preps his boys up well and i have yet to see BVM lose a game due to over-confidence. So i’m betting a 3-1 victory to the men in orange.
HUP HOLLAND HUP!
Quick question for Dutch speakers here. I want to say Happy Birthday to my oma, but it seems there are a couple different ways to say it, and I’m not sure which is most appropriate to say to my oma. For example, there is both “Hartelijk gefeliciteerd met je verjaardag” and “Hartelijk gefeliciteerd me Uw verjaardag”. What would you guys normally write in a birthday card?
I say “u” or “uw” (u=you; uw=your) if I’m adressing my oma, but I guess that could be different for yours. “U” is a more respectful way to adress ones elders, but there are many people who would respond to someone using “u” to adress them with: “zeg maar je hoor” (you can say “je”), which is sort of the standard way of someone pointing out that he/she would rather have a more personal relationship with you than the formal “u” and would prefer it if you used “je”.
So I guess there’s no safe way for you to find out before her birthday (unless you can get someone else in your family to adress her in Dutch before her birthday who uses “u” to find out if she responds with the usual “zeg maar je hoor”.)
Safest bet then is using “Hartelijk gefeliciteerd met uw verjaardag”. No need to use a capital letter, but I guess you were saying it anyway, not writing it on a card or something.
But, I’m not an expert on birthdays, I think most people just say “gefliciteerd” and leave it at that. The whole sentence is found on birthday cards.
Posted from 
Netherlands
If it’s grandma, it would be “uw” which is your in the respectful way ( which doesn’t exist in English since it’s all your in English).
To a mate you’d say “je”.
vBommel will miss fridays game .. and i will miss him!
Posted from Netherlands
Who wears the Captain’s armband if MVB is out? Kuyt would be my selection, leading by example is one of his strong suits. Heitinga is too much of a hot head, Mathijsen too quiet, Sneijder to much of an egotist, RVP to much of a whiner and Raf is just too cool!
I’d say Kuyt, Heitinga or Van der Vaart.
I think it is Kuyt, but with the danger of waking up Tiju and his 13 posts of why Kuyt should not be the captain, I’ll just leave it at that.
I’ve not been around much since the WC, pain still to great, but I do miss Tij’s rants!
@Finn; hahaha just love this blog
Posted from Netherlands
I wish all the best for the Netherlands!I will keep my fingers crossed for Ornaje!
OranjeRules – are Oranje players so weak? 
Ok, the most realistic captain would be Kuyt. But if Affelay would be older, in this situation he might be a good capatin. Or is he weak, too? (as a captain)
Posted from 
Lithuania
In the past Raf has usually been the vice-captain, but I like the idea of Kuyt being captain as well. Either way, both of these guys are generally liked and respected in the squad which makes them better choices than van Persie or Sneijder who you always feel compete with each other, and therefore making one of them captain might tip the delicate balance currently in place and/or divide the dressing room a bit.
Posted from 
Canada
Vaart’s the most cap among them, but he doesnt alway in the starting lineup makes him less favourable than heitinga or kuyt. Im pretty sure vaart will be in the startingline but not sure when bommel back, Whoever the captain, hes given guarantee to start.
Posted from Australia
@Sol and Jan – thanks a lot!
As for the captain issue, if my memory serves me correctly, whenever vBommel’s been subbed off in previous games, it’s always been Vaart who’s taken the arm band. Kuyt would be good as well I think though. Either way.
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@Sol: Did you take your medication this morning? No disrespect to Hungary, but losing is not an option. And Sweden is a shadow of the team it used to be at the moment. Probably the weakest team in Scandinavia. Norway and Denmark are far better. In fact, Norway is ranked 11 right now by FIFA.
Do not worry mate. This is not going to be the football remake of the movie 2012.