Oranje 1978 ready to collect the World Cup

February 18th, 2012 | by: Jan |

oranje78

You can’t just focus on something else for just one second. Before you know it, there is world news. Our Oranje might have won that 1978 cup after all!!

And all our 1978 internationals were called and congratulated with their title. Maybe a bit too early, but the ex-internationals enjoyed being in the limelight. FIFA, however, will not ( as yet) start an investigation.

“Wow, I might be off to pick up the cup after all,” Ruud Krol, skipper of the 1978 team, laughed. “Obviously, we knew it was fishy. Peru never lost games with that sort of numbers. It would be great if they’d go and check this out once and for all.”

The rumors are old. The story was that Peru allowed Argentina the big win in the semis in return for money and grain. But there was no proof. But the former Peruvian senator Ledesma stated under oath that the Peru president Bermudez made a deal with Videla. In exchange for a big victory and a spot in the finals, Argentina would release 13 Peruvian dissidents.

Robbie Rensenbrink: “I heard these stories years back already and a Brittish journalist ( David Yallop) wrote a book about this, right? We couldn’t score against Peru, that was quite a strong team. It would have been extraordinary if Argentina beat them with so many goals, but it’s Brazil that should be really complaining.”

And while this will probably go on for a bit ( and there IS A REAL PETITION ON THE INTERNET : http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/crown-oranje-wc-78-champions—disqualify-the-cheaters/ ), Ajax, AZ, Twente and PSV played European games this mid week.

Now, as a Feyenoord fan, I do feel for Ajax.

Why? Well, because Ajax deserves respect. Even from Feyenoord fans. They gave us ( once) that great youth system, they gave us Cruyff, Neeskens, Keizer, Krol… and later Kieft, Van Basten, Rijkaard, Schip, Davids, Seedorf, Kluivert, Van der Vaart and Sneijder…

krol
Skipper Ruud Krol

I like Ajax. I don’t mind them. I like their arrogance, their style, their pzzazz… But it does seem it’s all a thing from the past. To have a strong Feyenoord ( or Eredivisie) we need a strong Ajax.

To me, they are still in the Champions League ( they beat Real Madrid 2-1 at home in my world) and played Hapoel this Wednesday.

But in any other person’s world, they lost to Madrid and lost now to Man United as well.

AJax, the RKC of Europe… And it’s sad. Because all the bullshit will have seriously undermined Frank de Boer’s work. The off-the-pitch shenanigans between Camp JC and Camp Ten Have. What was Van Gaal thinking??????? I mean, seriously…? How can Van Gaal claim to be an Ajax-man?? And now, after two weeks, he’s suddenly a PSV man?? What a dikc!

And Ajax has serious injuries. And sure, they might be caused by bad training practices, but Sightorsson and Boerrigter came to Amsterdam with injuries already. There’ Van der Wiel, now Enoh… Ajax had to play without Siem de Jong and Alderweireld for a while and Sulejmani claims to play with pain all the time.

vertonghen

Not good. And on top of all that, the ref during Ajax – Man U clearly missed a foul on the Ajax number 7 in the box, waiving a clear penalty shout away.

How could it become worse?

But, with AZ playing really well against Anderlecht ( but not scoring enough) and Twente beating Bukarest at their own ground, while PSV won in Turkey. There still is hope for Dutch football.

But Ajax is in real trouble. Number 6 in the Eredivisie, out of the Europa League (as they won’t stand a chance at Old Trafford) and chasing ex youth players to come to the Arena.
Luciano Narsingh, their right winger target at Heerenveen, was one of the players Ajax youth coaches sent away. Like Jeremiah Lens was sent away. And like Eljero Elia was sent away.

So, it seems that the biggest trophy we might be winning any time soon will be a trophy from 1978.

For any trophy we want in the future, we might have to look at AZ, PSV or Twente…

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Comments

Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 49 comments.

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By Sol | February 19th, 2012 at 10:12 am

Alberto, as soon as any Eredivisie club (you mentioned AZ) comes up against some decent opposition in Europe they fail miserably. So -thinking back to BvM’s selections- when you see players in the eredivisie playing well against eachother and start selecting players for Oranje based on that I feel that there is some risk to be considered (if you end up using them in the coming EC for example).

I am now for example thinking about the players that have been selected from Heerenveen and AZ, clubs that might look real good on paper when looking at their ranking in the eredivisie, but does that say more about AZ and Heerenveen or Ajaz and Twente who have both lost their best players this season and didn’t replace them for equal quality (Suarez, Stekelenburg / Ruiz, Janssen – special case, doesn’t fit in somehow at Ajax).

Of course you select players based on their individual performances and not that of their clubs, but it doesn’t help if you don’t play with and against the best players in the world on a fairly regular basis. I don’t see Heerenveen playing any club of any signifance, PSV isn’t a proper opponent either with players like Toivonen, Manolev, Willems, Wijnaldum, Lens to name just a few players who I consider to be below EC or WC level for any serious contender.

That said, I have seen someone like Ola John do well against what I considered to be serious opposition at the time, don’t ask me who that was. I have a good feeling about him, still prefer Drenthe or Emanuelsson for leftwing probably though. A leftfoot on the left may prove to be perfect for Walcott type assists *:) been watching vPersie a bit too much this season).

Perhaps we can use Ola on the right. Love that first name. Suddenly have a craving for icecream.

Posted from Netherlands

By Alex | February 19th, 2012 at 10:57 am

The thing is, what i hate about Eredivisie clubs… there is not a really stable, high-level performer, almost all of them play great and win convincingly one week, and fail miserably the next.

Posted from Netherlands

By Sol | February 19th, 2012 at 11:38 am

Seeing Malaga being behind 3-0 after 60 minutes against a midtable team while playing with Mathijssen makes me shudder with the thought of Mathijssen starting against teams like Portugal and Germany. This scary feeling is also based on the many other pisspoor defensive results of that team and the fact their keeper is ranked as the world’s best keeper in the Castrol rankings, meaning he is forced to make wayyy too many saves (and the fact that they’re still letting in too many goals in spite of those saves).

Brouwers seems to be doing fine with Borussia M.Gladbach.

Haven’t really seen either of them play, so hard for me to tell, but it gives me an uneasy feeling (seeing Brouwers not selected and instead Vlaar? or who else? who is Mathijssen’s backup officially now?).

Posted from Netherlands

By Sol | February 19th, 2012 at 11:38 am

Or in other words, Ooijer’s replacement?

Posted from Netherlands

By Jason | February 19th, 2012 at 12:05 pm

I think Ajax’s situation with the first team can be solved quite easily. They have to identify more players like Theo Jannsen. People who are great footballers in the Eredivisie and in the latter half of their carreers so they won’t leave because they are set where they are and won’t jump ship. Then of course train them to be proper Ajax material.

Their youth policy has created a vicous circle and bites them in the ass every time. Not to say that its not the best or that its also highly profitable but there are more than one way to skin a cat.

Posted from Canada

By hien | February 19th, 2012 at 12:57 pm

Ajax: Let JC and his people rebuild Ajax first then we will get the rewards. Now they are not ready to win anything at all, not Europa League, not Dutch league,…perhaps nothing this year.
WC78: Fifa will not investigate anything, petition or not. You need to look at its president and those scandal involving re-run for president as well as the way the WC host is selected and you find your answer.
Drenthe: He needs to prove his consistency. I agreed with OranjeFan’s comments.

Posted from Canada

By Sol | February 19th, 2012 at 2:09 pm

With the amount of experience Brouwers has against players of the German national team he’d be the ideal candidate to start against Germany.

This year alone, Brouwers played in Borussia M.Gladbach’s victories over Schalke (3-0) and twice over Bayern München (3-1 and 0-1). That’s a lot of players in the German national team (mostly Bayern, against Schalke he stopped Huntelaar from scoring which is just as good as stopping Bayern’s Gomez).

Bert is not making sense to me atm. No Drenthe and no Brouwers is pretty inexcusable for me, probably why I’m commenting so much about it, really frustrating to see that we do HAVE the quality to win the EC, it’s just still a question whether our coach will see it too or go with his standard ’safe’ line-up as usual (or should I use the word conservative?).

Posted from Netherlands

By SamDC | February 19th, 2012 at 5:00 pm

I have never liked Matijsen. It’s really hard for me to imagine we don’t have any other options to send him to the bench.
This is a golden generation. Van Persie, Sneijder, Huntelaar, VDV, Robben etc but we are so unlucky in central defenders.
How did this happen? No programs in Holland are focusing on development of defenders?

Posted from United States

By oranje_crush | February 19th, 2012 at 6:52 pm

I agree with Sol on Matheijsen. It’s very difficult to even imagine Matheijson stands a chance against world class strikers, especially in Oranje’s group.

What do you think of Matheijsen against a quick counter attack from Germany or Portugal? With the speed of Germany? I don’t know…

By oranje_crush | February 19th, 2012 at 6:55 pm

wait a second, i know!!! Matheijsen will look lost and confused! He would look awkward and out of place; he would not know what’d just hit him.

By Miguel Rosado | February 19th, 2012 at 7:33 pm

Emanuelson has to go to the EC!!!. He will be very helpful.

By Keko | February 19th, 2012 at 8:07 pm

Hello Jan. I live in Peru and maybe I can investigate what the newspapers, at that time, said about it.

By Steve | February 19th, 2012 at 8:30 pm

I agree Brouwers and Emanuelson deserve invitations…
what happened to Maduro and Elia!!?!

By Carlos | February 20th, 2012 at 2:54 am

Keko – that would be great – however would be more interested in what the papers of TODAY are saying about it.
Apperantly Ledesma was one of the 13 dissidents sent to Argentina.

Posted from Singapore

By Carlos | February 20th, 2012 at 3:08 am

Watch this before they take it off you tube – Drenthe & Heitinga in action !!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-h-YtjsjcTc&feature=related

Posted from Singapore

By Miguel Rosado | February 20th, 2012 at 3:10 am

Van Bommel’s video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQE2lPFHKls

By Miguel Rosado | February 20th, 2012 at 3:22 am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtimMNizVQ4

Drenthe seems to be coming back

By Ahmer | February 20th, 2012 at 3:26 am

@Sol
You bring up a lot of good points. We have played too conservatively. I think back to our opening games in the WC against Denmark and Japan and can’t believe I didn’t fall asleep considering how early I got up to watch and how boring they were. I think BvM has said the players asked him to play this formation but he needs to take charge and be the manager. I’m really eager to see how Oranje will play later this month.

Elia-Sneijder-Castaignos need to leave Italy ASAP!

By Carlos | February 20th, 2012 at 3:27 am

Spot the ODD result in Argentina’s last 6 matches before the final against Holland
Peru were reigning Copa América champions and Holland could NOT beat them in the group stage, while Argentina had crashed out in the group stage at he Copa America.
In 1979 Copa América was held again and Argentina crashed out in the group stage again…

Spot the odd result:
02-06-1978 Buenos Aires Hungary FIFA World Cup 2-1
06-06-1978 Buenos Aires France FIFA World Cup 2-1
10-06-1978 Buenos Aires Italy FIFA World Cup 0-1
14-06-1978 Rosario Poland FIFA World Cup 2-0
18-06-1978 Rosario Brazil FIFA World Cup 0-0
21-06-1978 Rosario Peru FIFA World Cup 6-0
FINAL: After 90 miutes Holland 1-1

Is there one strange result here ? lets ask a 5 year old OK ?????

Posted from Singapore

By Alex | February 20th, 2012 at 4:52 am

Do you know why Drenthe and Emanuelson suddenly start hitting their level… because they are playing regularly on top level and gained confidence. Line Elia up for 5 weeks in row in a constant team and his confidence will grow. I agree, Sneijder needs to go to Man. Utd. Elia needs to leave or start playing if he wants his career to get better and Castaignos needs to find a club that will have him play every week in a top competition. On top of that, V.Persie is also wasting..

AND BTW, back in the days of Ooijer-Mathijsen i was petrified each match, but then Mathijsen started having a reliable streak.. this is over though xD he’s worse than before so I would suggest to cut him out for Brouwers, at least he has rythm and experience, and height and STAMINA.

Posted from Netherlands

By Sol | February 20th, 2012 at 10:15 am

I think Bert’s problem with Brouwers is that he’s right-footed and consequently plays on the RCB-spot, unlike Mathijssen being leftfooted and playing on the LCB-spot.

One of these days someone is gonna have to explain to me why that is such a strong requirement in Bert’s (and other coaches) eyes. All I know is that it has to do with build-up (in Dutch I could possibly describe it better, ‘the way one opens up after receiving the ball’? turn and pass?).

Anyway, Brouwers would still make a good backup/competition for Heitinga. I think Bert is thinking Bruma as backup for Heitinga.

Mathijssen’s biggest weakness is/was his aerial abilities (clearing high crosses and such). I think that’s Brouwer’s strength (1.92m).

Posted from Netherlands

By Sol | February 20th, 2012 at 10:22 am

This would be my backline:

Pieters-Brouwers-Heitinga-vdWiel
————Krul————

All big strong intimidating tall guys, a typical Inter Milan physical-style defence. I don’t care about getting a left-footer in there.

Posted from Netherlands

By Sol | February 20th, 2012 at 10:25 am

well except for Heitinga who may not be very tall, but he’s got a more physical style than Mathijssen

Posted from Netherlands

By Tom Finn | February 21st, 2012 at 7:18 am

This is probably the greatest team I have ever seen in my lifetime. The 1978 world cup was just fantastic, who can forget all those long range goals that were scored. It was this team that made me a fan of Dutch football, and even to this day I always root for Holland except for when the play England of course.

Posted from Spain

By Batmukh | March 11th, 2012 at 8:40 am

So, are rewritten simremues not counted no matter what? I just did a proper summery for the Planetary preview where there was originally just information on where it previously appeared, but no actual details on what the plot was about.Also, there wouldn’t happen to be a way to spy on the competition and see how many simremues others have written, is there? Or would that ruin the fun of competition?

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