World

Europe

Netherlands

Mark van Bommel skipper of Oranje?

August 15th, 2008 | By: Jan | 16 Comments »

Mark van Bommel is back. New team manager Bert van Marwijk has selected the skipper of Bayern Munich for next Wednesday’s friendly against Hiddink’s Russia.

The 31 year old played his last international at the WC2006 in Germany.

Bert van Marwijk said, when he presented his selection for the friendly, that the selection of his son in law is logical. “I select the best players and Mark is one of them. He is strong physically, can play football ans can read the game well. He is the first non-German captain of Bayern Munich, that tells you something… I need players who can battle as well. Who can say “this is where the buck stops”. Mark is also a good coach on the pitch. I didn’t have to think for a second what I wanted with him.”

Van Marwijk admitted that his son in law has a tendency to take his eagerness too far at times. “Sure. He knows that too. At Bayern they work with that as well. He will need to control himself. The fact that he is my son in law doesn’t bother me. People will come up with stories, I don’t care. I knew that when I started this job.”

He even hinted that Van Bommel could become Oranje’s next skipper. “Next Tuesday, I will select my new captain.” Van Nistelrooy and Van der Sar won’t be among the candidates, of course.

Clarence Seedorf would still love to play for Oranje, but is not selected. “I think with Van Persie, Afellay, Van der Vaart and Sneijder we have many creative and explosive players. But, Clarence is on the radar. If I get in trouble with the players I selected in terms of form or suspensions and injuries, I know I can call on Clarence. I’ve seen him play many times in the last years as analyst for Sport 1 and I highly enjoyed his performances. But I respect him too much to select him now and then bench him. I know how to reach Clarence when I need him.”

Van Marwijk called the friendly against Russia a serious game. “We have a score to settle and any first match for any new team manager is a biggie. But I’m not too happy with the planning. Most players are still in the warm up, while the Russians are in the middle of their competition. But, our first real game is in September against Macedonia, so we need to get ready.”

Van Marwijk admitted he needed to get used to his new job. “Normally, I am working from July 1 onwards. Every day on the pitch. This time around, I needed to think hard what to do and where to start,” said the former Feyenoord coach who traveled a lot to see his new players.

“I watched a lot of games and session. I haven’t seen Boulahrouz play, that’s the only one I missed. He’s injured and we’ll need to see if he makes it for Russia. Engelaar is a bit under the weather with his knee.” Wesley Sneijder and Wilfred Bouma are also out due to injuries.

“I wanted to give out a message with this group. I selected only 19 players. A small, fixed team. I want to create more consistency like this. It’s tough for any club trainer to gel a team together, let alone as team manager. I won’t select players who play one or two great games. I need to see more. I want to create a core of players who belong in Oranje and I will only experiment when forced to.”

Van Marwijk didn’t want to talk systems yet, but did say this. “At the EC2008 we’ve seen how most goals came from turn around situations. If a team has the right positioning, it’s very hard to create something. Our team has demonstrated it can play sensational football, but still our best man was Edwin van der Sar. That tells you a lot. We need to focus on our defensive organisation when we lose possession.”

Van Basten always said that Van Bommel was too blame when opponents took over the initiative, because he neglected his defensive tasks. Van Basten also thought Van Bommel didn’t have the leadership.

Selection Nederlands elftal

Goal: Maarten Stekelenburg, Henk Timmer
Defense: Khalid Boulahrouz, Tim de Cler, John Heitinga, Joris Mathijsen, Andre Ooijer;
Midfield: Demy de Zeeuw, Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Mark van Bommel, Orlando Engelaar, Nigel de Jong, Ibrahim Afellay, Rafael van der Vaart
Attack: Arjen Robben, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, Robin van Persie, Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink and Dirk Kuijt

Tags: Bommel, Holland, Huntelaar, Oranje, Persie, Robben, Russia, Sar, Sneijder, Van Marwijk, World Cup 2010

Netherlands World Cup RSS Feed

del.icio.us:Mark van Bommel skipper of Oranje?

newsvine:Mark van Bommel skipper of Oranje?

reddit:Mark van Bommel skipper of Oranje?

stumbleupon:Mark van Bommel skipper of Oranje?

Comments

By Rob(ben :D) | August 16th, 2008 at 4:18 am

Looking forward to finally seeing Huntelaar on the 1st team!

By ejb | August 16th, 2008 at 10:11 am

drenthe was the worst player on our field today. terrible shots, sloppy passes, and dribbling the ball no where. so dissapointed in him this tournement.

although we started to play better when argentina was gassed, vermeer is still the brightest spot on this team

By Carlos | August 16th, 2008 at 11:39 am

Holland Argentina 1-2 after extra time (1-1)
Actually this was our best game of the tournament. In fact losing 2-1 after extra time against Argentina is no disgrace.
Drenthe woeful – but tried very hard always looking for the ball – he (like many other Dutch players) are out of touch or just not in form. Sno made a dfference and we were finally stringing some good passes together. Unfortunately he picked up a yellow and obviously Foppe did not want to play with 10 just n case. So on came Maduro *sigh….well a little better for 10-15 minutes but then again runnng next to Riquelme most of the game when we were in possession. We looked the better side in the last 15 minutes of normal time and more like likely to score.Drenthe had an open goal with 5 min left could side foot it in from 10 metres,instead heaved it over the bar.
Babel again looked out of form but like Drenthe worked quite hard,hs first touch was terrible and Sibon -last 10 minutes on – again did Nothing with his height.
Best players – de Guzman, Vermeer, Zuiverloon, Emanuelson.

Holland Russia next !

Posted from Singapore

By Michel-Olivier | August 16th, 2008 at 11:53 am

Drenthe should of kill the game instead he blast the ball.

Posted from United States

By Van Basten | August 16th, 2008 at 1:46 pm

A pretty bad Dutch team at the Olympics!!!What was the coach thinking with his selection? Argentina had world class players like Messi, Riquelme, Mascherano… and we had….well no one of the caliber of those guys. Mackaay is too old and out of shape, and Babel could not even score one goal in the whole tournament. That’s telling!
I dont think we will ever win an Olympic Gold in Football…and certainly the 2008 olympic final in football will be between Argentina and Brazil.
I thought we had the best talents and coach…but they were all disappointing. The Dutch always disappoint their fans.
Looking forward to what the national team can do, but i am hopeless. I am starting to think that I will never see Netherlands lift a major international trophy in my lifetime…I mean this 21st century!!!

Posted from United States

By goose | August 16th, 2008 at 2:29 pm

first time i saw all of the game live…terrible, some decent passing in the 2nd half but that was it
Drenthe pisses me of, hes all over the place

but eh; football in GB and Germany has started so who cares about these Olympics anyway?

Posted from Netherlands

By Jan | August 16th, 2008 at 5:06 pm

Some quick comments… Brazil and Argentina can’t make it to the finals. They meet in the semis. Furthermore, South American teams have the advantage being able to select big guns, while European teams just played an EC and De Haan couldn’t select Van Persie, Robben and Van Nistelrooy. To name a few.

I thought Holland played not bad. Argentina is/was better, I suppose, but I was impressed with the work ethics and courage of the Dutch. Sno played a weird game. He had howlers of passes but also some very insightful, courageous balls. I liked him! Drenthe did miss the big one only three minutes before the end of the game. Maduro was weak compared to Sno. Maduro only played 1 out of ten passes deep, whereas Sno constantly searched for Babel.

I didn’t see a lot of Emanuelson, really. He had some horrible passes and crosses. I’d like to see more of Beerens.

We never dominated the match, but we could have won….

By finnster01 | August 16th, 2008 at 7:24 pm

More coulda, woulda, shoulda…Again Oranje shows it is a good team. It only loses when it counts.

Bring on WC2010 qual and the Premier League.

Posted from United States

By Michel-Olivier | August 16th, 2008 at 7:53 pm

“De Haan couldn’t select Van Persie, Robben and Van Nistelrooy. To name a few.”
haan pick the wrong team. the dutch league and other leagues have good dutch players that haan could of pick. aissati, bruins, amrabat, koevermans, wijnaldum, siem de jong, vlaar, and bommel…. could of make a difference.

marcellis, zuiverloon, bakkal, pieters and vermeer had a good tourney, i can’t wait when they step into the senior team.
makaay, jaliens, sno, de guzman, maduro they were horrible, shit, crap, average at best, suck……

Posted from United States

By Jan | August 17th, 2008 at 4:00 am

True MO, but still…Messi, Requelme and Mascherano are no Amrabat, Koevermans and Vlaar. The latter was still injured by the way. Aissati…I don’t know. He didn’t make it really at PSV and was a constant problem for De Haan. I think Foppe did well, considering. If we could have played our top players like Argentina, we’d had a good chance. It is a bit competition fraud, the South americans fielding their top names while the Europeans couldn’t.

By Jan | August 17th, 2008 at 4:00 am

Oh, and I did see Sno making heaps of mistakes but he also showed brilliance. Does anyone agree?

By Dr.Mansur | August 19th, 2008 at 12:17 am

@ Van Basten, I also have started to beleive that Holland will never win anything big.Have not watched any of the Holland games in the Olympic, because I knew they’d lose in the first knockout match.I think Jan should take a poll among the bloggers here, how many of us really beleive that we will ever win anything big!!!

Posted from Australia

By goose | August 19th, 2008 at 4:55 am

@Dr.; we will NEVER win any major trophy… i lost faith after WC98
the only thing we can do is make sure we play nice, attacking football and hope people will enjoy watching….thats all
but losing faith is great…no more dissapointments

Posted from Netherlands

By --HedonistiX | August 20th, 2008 at 10:33 am

Gio is our new skipper.

I love the guy but this selection looks like the team is “looking back”, not forward. I would have picked Sneijder.

And yeah, I probably will also dampen my expectations in future WC/EC, been disappointed too often.

http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=afp-fblnedrusvanbronckhorst&prov=afp&type=lgns

THE HAGUE (AFP) – Giovanni van Bronckhorst has been appointed captain of the Dutch football team, national coach Bert van Marwijk said on Wednesday.

The international friendly on Wednesday night against Russia at Moscow’s Lokomotiv stadium will the midfielder’s 82nd cap.

The 33-year-old Feyenoord midfielder has been skipper at club level and Van Marwijk said he was “perfect in that role.”

“I made him my captain at Feyenoord,” said Van Marwijk. “I could only congratulate myself. He was perfect in this role and I have no doubt he will also be in the national team.”

The player, whose career has includes spells at Barcelona, Arsenal and Glasgow Rangers, inherits the role occupied by Edwin van der Sar who stepped down from international football after the Euro soccer championships last June.

Posted from United States

By s | August 20th, 2008 at 11:47 am

I believe that the dutch team will win…and win big. I know that its rather naive to have this belief after supporting them for 20 years through repeated disappointments. I have had my share of loss of faith (WC 98) and it stayed that way till EC 2008. Ok, the match against Russia was terrible, but …

By Caleb | August 21st, 2008 at 3:15 pm

HedonistiX – Sneijder is injured, he can’t be captain.

I haven’t lost all of my faith. I think there is still a chance that we can win a major tournament again. I won’t give up my hope!