Victim of overflow of great players: Afellay

Affelay’s shot was not inches past the post more like 3 feet. o__0

Posted from  Canada

We have never had such a bright beginning in a qualification process and we have had many injured players but we goy quality on the bench. I am very happy that van Bommel scored, he is a leader and he deserves his place in Oranje and we lacked a player like him in Euro 2008 because neither De Zeeuw, De Jong, Engelaar or anybody are close to his level and leadership.

If he has been benched at Bayern is very strange decision by Klinsmann but things are not going well at Bayern this year and last year when they were champions one of their best players was van Bommel.

Now at Oranje things look great and although the level of play hasn´t been the best in this kind of games the only thing that matters is getting a result. South Africa seems pretty close to the Netherlands already…

here are my notes:

vdSar; 6,5 ; not much to do, respect for everything he has done for Oranje

Marcellis; 4 ; it all was a bit too much for Marcellis, he still has a long way to go before hes at international level, still has many years to improve ofcourse

Ooijer; 6 ; played ok, nothing special, never looks very confident in defense and certainly not in building up

Matijsen; 5 ; is just not a very good defender, looks small and slow and like the rest of defense no use in building up

vBronckhorst; 6 ; played ok, is beginning to look a bit old, played better in the second half

Kuijt; 6,5 ; played very poor in the first half, played a much better second half after switching to the central striker position

vBommel ; 4 ; really isnt in good form, had some amazing bad passes, didnt looks to intelligent..great goal btw

vdVaart ; 5 ; again really could make the difference, isnt really the leader in the team like Sneijder, worked hard tough

Sneijder (76) ; played not enough minutes to really make his mark, hes the man the team should be build around

deZeeuw ; 2 ; he played so poor it almost made me cry .. this guy adds nothing to the team (he reminds me of Landzaat), everything he did was poor

Babel ; too bad he was kicked out of the game…pretty poor challange by the norwegian guy

Affelay (26) ; 6 ; didnt really play well but sparks of his talent showed, almost scored but made too many mistakes

Huntelaar ; 2 ; his worst game in an Oranje shirt imo, dont remember seeing him do anything that worked, always offside, never a good control, just shit

vPersie ; 6 ; not a special performance, played on the right hand side after Kuyt went to the striker position

All in all another pretty poor performance but its 3 points in the bag, looks like were almost qualified after only 3 games.
Huntelaar was pathetic and after Kuyt switched to the striker position thing were much better.
Defense still looks not very confident and the lack of build-up-qualities is frightening; it leaves us with long balls from the goalie, thats a real waste with all the great midfield players we have.

Posted from  Netherlands

It wasn’t a great performance, on the balance of play Norway deserved at least a draw and probably a win. Points:

Marcellis – looked good but too poor in the air to play centre half for Oranje, I’d prefer him at right back. He can learn his trade there now.

Van Bommel – got the goal, took it well, ran his socks off, I still hate him.

Babel – got hacked to pieces with no repercussions. Joke.

Van Persie – was quality when he came on.

Van der Vaart – went missing for most of the game.

Same old Oranje as last time around qualifying – the opposition defence sits deep and there’s no penetration at all. Huntelaar looked isolated and no-one had any ideas. Didn’t create any clear cut chances until Norway were chasing the game. Norway were more dangerous on the counter and had more chances before they went 1-0 down. It’s an away win, which is great, but it was a disappointing performance against a very average Norway side. The Oranje defence did pretty well though for once, and stood up against a tall Norway attack.

Posted from  Japan

@goose – sure, but remember that Norway were chasing the game when Kuyt went up top. Huntelaar’s main problem was that they were able to sit back against him and he didn’t have anyone supporting him to play off. Van der Vaart didn’t help him enough by getting forward.

Posted from  Japan

just think Huntelaar played very poor, part of his quality should be to hold the ball up front so the midfield players can move up behind him, his lack of control stopped that from happening, i do agree that vdVaart did liitle to help out Huntelaar but i guess he was to busy cleaning up the mess deZeeuw and vBommel left in midfield

Posted from  Netherlands

@goose: I think you’re a bit harsh about De Zeeuw. I thought he did decent today, he covered lots of ground, won tackles, and added muscle to the midfield. Okay, his passing is piss poor and he add nothing on the offensive end, but in all fairness he did what he is asked to (i.e. protect the back line). I’d still take De Jong any day over De Zeeuw, though. Van Bommel responded very well today, miles better than the last game vs. Iceland. I’ve been very critical to him, but if he plays like he did today, it’s a huge advantage to Oranje.

Huntelaar was shockingly bad. I think Bert might want to keep Ruud’s phone # handy. We can’t go to South Africa without deadly goalscorer.

bring back ruud horsey-face(ray hudson) or call nordin amrabat and frank demouge

Posted from  United States

Rob, are u van Basten´s brother or is he related to you?

OK, so I guess Hereeveen will be looking for a new coach soon. The country and some of the papers are already looking for heads to roll, and coach Sollied is the natural replacement (if he wants the job, I wouldn’t. Hereenveen is much more interesting)

A very average game, by two very average teams. Oranje has the quality to win on a bad day, which is always the sign of a good team. Norway should have taken their chances and won or at least got a draw, but didn’t, which is the sign of a very bad team.

At least we can now focus the attention on WC2010 and try to get this team (Oranje) functional over the next 2 years, because it sure needs it. This level will not get them very far in South Africa. Defense is extremely worrysome. Oranje play quality opposition like Brazil, Spain or Argentina right now, it will be a disaster. Even Norway exposed them on the counter which is pretty scary in my book. DeZeeuw is useless. Hunter looks like he doesn’t care and is out of it at the moment. He needs to go to a bigger club ASAP and play aginst the big boys on a regular basis. Eresdivise does not cut it and help his development nor his confidence. Somebody please convince EVDS that he still has 2 more years left in the tank. His calmness and confidence clearly helped the back 4.

This level is good enough to take Oranje to Johannesburg, but then what? Good news is there are still 2 years to fix it. Right now it certainly looks more like the team that lost to Russia than the team that butchered Italy and France.

I disagree that oranje “butchered” italy and france. Those teams dominated the game and chances, but oranje got on the counter noicely to win, but hardly butchered them.

Posted from  United States

What does a butcher do? He doesn’t play with his prey before the slaughter, like a cat plays with a mouse. He kills it off fast and efficient.

Oranje butchered Italy and France. No better way to describe those two games. End of story.

i agree finnster

Posted from  United States

NOt really, but I love you Dutchies spirit! Classic stuff. I’ll have to check out this site a bit . Great writing by Jan also. As for the italy and france games, lets remember them properly: the other sides had the majority of chances, of good chances. Only VDS kept you from LOSING both games. Lets be clear here. Great counter-attacking, wonderful play by many of your players, but if those teams take their chances as they would if they had they been in form, dutch would have maybe 1 point from those 2 games. But you all took your chances and converted deadly, whcih is what football is all about so hats off! But not in 2010 unless you draft some guys who can defend. But are there any in holland??

Posted from  United States

Definitely butchered Italy and France, there’s no other way to describe beating them by a three goal difference. And I hope no one has the idea to suggest that Italy and France were the better teams in those games, because that would be absolutely ridiculous.

Not really ridiculous. Jan, as for your scoring the first goal, and impacts first goals have on rhythym of games, I think you are right. However, lets remember-Holland was being outplayed early in both games prior to the surprise first goals. And only VDS kept it from being 1-0 to your opponents in both games. Dont underestimate his import to your wins. Anyway, I know no one on here will agree so its ok, but i do really like watching holland play usually. I think you all are top 3 in world ….outside your back 4. With that defense, you are top 10, but no better, and I think you all know that. But top 10 can still win it if the skies align properly!.

Posted from  United States

darius….get real!

i am right-not top3, but top 10. And you say “get real”????? you have maybe an outsized view of your team, like lots of fans. But its ok

Posted from  United States

Darius,

I think you may have a point re: the France game. But not Italy; the Dutch were on top of the Italians from the start. Wasn’t until the Dutch led 2-0 at halftime (and could/should have been 3-0), that the Italians started playing their game. The Italians did have a good spell for the first part of the second half. Still, the Netherland’s good spell led to goals; the Italy’s didn’t, and 3-0 is a blow out at that level. With France I can’t argue with you through the first half. Kuyt got the early header, but the French put them back on their heels most of the rest of the half. Then on came Robben and Van Persie, both teams ran at each other; the Dutch were much better in the second half; 4-1 is a rout, and there was nothing deceiving about the scoreline.

That said, I think your assessment of top 10 is about right, but their winning is less about the sun and the stars alining than it is about sorting out the defense, and getting the players healthy. A midfield of De Jong and Van Bommel providing cover to allow VP, VDV, Sneijder, Robben, RVN (and yep, I’ll be shocked if he doesn’t join the team in SA if he keeps up his form)to do their thing—well, they’re a match for anybody on their day.

Andrew

Posted from  United States

we need to naturalize some Greek defenders

“we need to naturalize some Greek defenders” : That would indeed help if we ever have to come from behind…

HAHAHAHAHAHAAAAHAHAAAAAAA

hahaha finn;

Posted from  Netherlands