Month: June 2012

by Jan

11 Reasons why Oranje will beat the Germans!

Holland going home?? No way! We will beat the Germans and Thursday, life will be different. Eleven reasons why…

Second Game Syndrome
Germany only won the second game once in the last seven major tournaments. In 2008 and 2012 they lost the second group game. The Dutch were the strongest in their second group games in 2008 and 2012.

Fans
Holland will have 25,000 fans in Charkov (not all with tickets) while Germany can only field 3,000 fans. The Dutch are loud and orange, while the Germans are polite and shy. We will overpower them with chanting, singing and partying.

Dutch Open Communication
The Dutch are known for their debating and constant talking. As Cruyff said: “In Spain you give instructions and they say “Yes Sir”. In Holland you give instructions, they say “Yes, but””.
Raf van der Vaart was the first to voice his agitation. Nigel de Jong conducted it in his behavior, and so did Robin van Persie and Klaas Jan Huntelaar. In Holland, that is a good thing. You let the air out. It releases tension. As in exhaling. It’s said and it’s all good. Our venom might well get us past the Germans.

Louis van Gaal
Former team manager (and semi German) Louis van Gaal always seems jealous that other coaches have success where he failed. He was supposed to be part of the Analysis Team on telly but he had to cancel due to health reasons. That is one negative component out of the way.

Joking Germans
The Germans are not known for their humor. They start making jokes about us in their newspapers. Seriously!!? They first copy our playing style, then they want our players, then they ridicule on of our best and now they are the ones making jokes about us???? That is the world upside down! We need to put them in their place. The balance of the universe depends on this. Remember, you want a world in which the English are the comics, the Germans the mechanics, the French the cooks and the Italians the lovers, right? Not the English are the lovers, the Germans are the comics, the French are the mechanics and the Italians the cooks…

32 Years
We have beaten the Germans more than lost against them at Euros. We haven’t lost against them in 32 years when a lucky West-Germany won at the 1980 Euros with 3-2. Our goals were made by Rep and Willy van de Kerkhof. And in all honesty…the West-Germans weren’t lucky. They were better….

Charkov supports Oranje
The Ukrainians support Holland. The Germans are not too popular here. Has something to do with some big battles in the second world war… The Battle of Charkov. 100,000s of people got killed…


Not sure, but I believe this helmet was made for the WC2006 but taken out of the shops as it was too painful for WWII survivors…

Cartoon
Arjen Robben was telling the media about mental power when discussing the Germany game. Cartoon king Toon made the following cartoon about this. It does make you smile…


And I dedicate this one to Beckenbauer


And this one to Bildzeitung!

Never lost twice
We never lost twice in the group stages of a Euro Tournament. The worst performance was in 1980, when we won against Greece, lost against Germany and then drew against the Czechs. This result got us out of the tournament. We won’t do this this time around…

Most predicted result: 2-1
The betting and gambling odds are slightly in our favour. The most used prediction for the game result is 2-1.

German license plate
The end result is set. We saw this German license plate. What can you say? 3-0, with goals by Van Persie, Huntelaar and Robben. Some truthsayer does see a red card for Van Persie, which means Klaas Jan will have to do the job against Portugal :-).


“We have proof now…”

This clip shows a nice panna by Sneijder on Willems.

Check how relaxed all the lads are together. Smiles, hands over shoulders… Star Sneijder consoling debutant Willems and Van Persie with a big smile…

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by Jan

RIP Finnster

Today is a sad day for me… It is with much regret that I have to announce to all his friends here on the Blog that Finnster passed away last night…

I got the message early this morning via email. Apparently, he suffered a heart attack…

Finn came to the blog many years ago, probably around 2006 and we all gotten to know him as the sharp-tongued Norwegian from Nu Yok. Liverpool fan. Dirk Kuyt fan.

Funny as they come.

And passionate about Dutch football. I had the opportunity to spend time with him in real life, like passing ships.

I didn’t really know him. But I am surely going to miss him.

Our thoughts are with his loved ones…. May he rest in peace….

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by Jan

Players' Talk

Wesley Sneijder is convinced we will beat the Germans. “It can’t be that I have been playing qualification games for two years only for us to go home after three matches?!”.

The little big man has made his way to the press after the “closed off practice session”. The media wanted to see Van Persie and Huntelaar too but these two decided to pass the opportunity on. Sneijder: “I get that. There has been so much humbug around those two. Everyone has an opinion and everyone is an expert.”

The Inter playmaker told the coach what his preference is. “But I’m sure you will accept it if I don’t tell you about it, hahaha. And it’s not that important, what I say. They’re both world class striker. And the coach decides. What is key, is that everyone is totally focused against Germany. The heads need to be free from stress and shit.”

Sneijder knows Oranje needs to play different against Germany. “We missed a lot of chances and opportunities but we also lacked discipline. At a certain point, everybody was out of position. That is killing, even against so-called smaller football nations. Against Germany, we need to be watertight. They are so quick in the turnaround. They beat us recently in the friendly and at the World Cup they eliminated England and Argentina.”

When confronted with the hilarious “egoland vs legoland” headline of that Belgium paper, he smiles. “It’s normal that some players have a bigger ego now. Huntelaar is the Bundesliga top scorer. Of course he wants to play. And De Jong won the title in England. He is allowed to be pissed off when he’s subbed. And I don’t hear anyone talk about Kuyt. But he was a starter for many years and now he’s benched and you don’t hear him, do you? All credits for Dirk.”


How do you do this exactly? Controlling the ball with the chin?

Is the vibe different then 2 years back? “Of course. We won everything until the finals. And listen, we don’t have to be all mates, do we? This group will stick together though and will not disperse into little clans. If that happens, I will lash out. Because I’m here to win this.”

Robin van Persie is Oranje’s first penalty taker. This is what Robben said. Holland deserved a penalty in the Denmark game and Arjen Robben told the media that if the ref would have given it, it would have been Van Persie behind the ball.”

Rafa van der Vaart is a little bit down. The 97 times capped midfielder can’t see a major role for himself, despite his passionately desired starting berth.

“I have to face it, the chance is small that the coach changes something. I think Van Marwijk has his team in his head and I’m not in it. We have seen that he doesn’t change a lot. That is great when you are in the starting eleven but sucks when you are on the bench.”

The media suggested that he was mentally bruised. Van der Vaart shrugs that off. “That is highly exaggerated. I never said that. But it is true that it is hard for me to be totally eager and motivated every day. Some days are easier than others. I am simply disappointed. I give it my all but it doesn’t change a thing. I will always give 100% during practice because the squad deserves this. And I love the game too much to ever wing it, you know. And I don’t think players should demand things or slam their fist on the table. As a player, you have to accept what the coach wants. Simple. But I do believe I have a right to voice my disappointment….”

The Spurs midfielder was allowed 20 minutes against Denmark. “That didn’t go too well… It was a mess that last phase. Everyone was out of position. The field was too long… I tried to take risks in my passing but they didn’t connect. What a game. First I had to wait 10 minutes before the ball went out of play. It sucks, I am in form and I want to be important for the team…”

The desire to win a prize is huge in Arjen Robben. The 28 year old Bayern winger realises that one doesn’t get too many chances to win one.

Robben feels it has to happen now, at this Euros. But we do need to wipe the disgracefull loss against Denmark of the board. And we can do so against Germany. Losing most likely means going home.

“It’s all or nothing against Germany,” Robben says. The ex Groningen player doesn’t enjoy finals. As if these games are jinxed. Twice this season, he could touch the main prize but twice he saw it evaporate thanks to him missing a penalty. First against Dortmund for the title and secondly against Chelsea for the CL.

“That last one was a massive blow. We had a match point a number of times and you fail. That is tough. I though, my Lord, I won’t win anything ever again. I need time to give that one a spot, you know. And the facts are not goodL I played one World Cup finals and two CL finals and lost them all. But then again, to lose them you do need to get there and play them… There’s still lots of players who will never even play a World Cup finals.”

Will you carry this with you into the Germany game? “No, I don’t think so. But it hurts. And it still hurts thinking about it. The Chelsea one in particular, we were so close and we deserved it so much. We were totally dominating the game. But it doesn’t count. This is something I will have to live with.”

Do you believe in a higher power? “No, I don’t have any faith or religion or anything. But I do wonder: why does this happen…That last time, I actually wanted to quit altogether. Like I won’t win this ever so let’s retire. But then I go: I still have a couple of good years in me so I can still win it.”

So what is the best trophy you won? “The title with Bayern was pretty good. My first season at Bayern was tremendous. The lost World Cup finals doesn’t count as a trophy. Second places don’t count.”

And so, the former PSV, Chelsea and Real Madrid winger still waits on his big trophy. With another finals around the corner. “It’s all or nothing. But we’re confident. We need to win and we will win. And then we will turn this thing around.”


Robben is practicing attacking the referee against Germany

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by Jan

What Willem and Johan say….

The whole nation will be keen to respond to anything that happens around Oranje but at the end of the day people will always be waiting for what the two Oracles have to say… Johan Cruyff and Willem van Hanegem.

Today, both wrote their columns. Have a read… Willem first.

“I have seen the best pass of the whole tournament already. That Sneijder pass on Huntelaar! A shame that Klaas Jan couldn’t finish that one. Everything would have been different now. Unfortunately, I hear a lot of people complaining now.

And I thought we’d win the first one too, to be honest, but let’s not act as if those Danes are a bunch of nitwits. Well, maybe Bendtner is one, but other than that, they played decent football and created opportunities. It wasn’t necessary to lose against them but it’s not a disgrace.

But why did we lose? Let me start positively by the way. Jetro Willems. I was very happy with his game. This is a true asset to the team. Started in his first minutes with a nice shot on goal and a wide pass to Robben. Wonderful. Sneijder was the biggest disappointment to me. Although he played well, I do expect even more from him. Sneijder is so gifted, I would want him to step up more. But, he is improving and in the second half I could see him do many good things. When Huntelaar came and Van Persie dropped a bit, Sneijder was pushed to the left and he seemed to play a bit more freely.

Some people seem to think Robben doesn’t play well? I didn’t see that. All those talking heads on tv, but I think he created a lot. And whenever Robben is in good form, he doesn’t need a lot of support but in this game he did, and he didn’t get a lot. It’s sad to see how his team mates let him drown.

Van der Wiel overlapped him actually only once! And sometimes it was Van Persie who seeked him out. Van Bommel, the right midfielder, should support Robben much more, but the skipper was too busy with his own game. Van Bommel needs to support him, make himself available, play off him. I didn’t get Bert’s subs, by the way? Why did Afellay have to go? And Nigel de Jong’s sub was a mystery to me. He played good. I would have subbed Mark van Bommel. He was struggling and had copped a yellow already.

I think it would have been more logical to replace Van Persie with Hunter and bring Huntelaar. Maybe Narsingh on the flank for Van Bommel and Afellay drops back to midfield. So Robben can play on the left.


Willem as assistant coach in 2004

And now, Bert is a bit in trouble. Because changing your system after one disappointing game is not a good thing. I think he needs to play Van Persie, otherwise you can best send him home. And blame him on the loss. Which would be ridiculous of course. I think Bert should have started against the Danes with one holding midfielder. Bring Huntelaar up front and let Van Persie play off him from midfield.

I think we would have won then. And then you can play against the Germans with two holding midfielders and let Hunter start off the bench. That was logical. Now I would replace Van der Wiel with Boula and play Mathijsen for Vlaar. Who, by the way, didn’t do too shabby.


It’s good that Willem kept his dayjob…

The last thing I want to say: what was Van Persie doing with that phone on his ear right after the match? What kind of impression does that leave to his team mates and the fans? You just lost a big game and you missed a number of huge chances and you take a phone to chit chat about something?? I think it’s ridiculous. I don’t think Van Marwijk should accept that. I don’t care who he had on the phone and why. It’s not done. And I’ve never seen anyone do this. Not Balotelli, not C Ronaldo, not Messi, not Cruyff.”

Speaking of which…. What did Cruyff say?

“Ok, so we lost. It is how it is. But now we need to support the team. This is when the team needs it most. But we also need to learn from the mistakes. We missed a lot of chances. That is never a problem for me. The fact that you create them is key. In the next match, some of them will go in, I’m not too worried about that. But I do think our game play needs further analysis.

One of the causes of our disappointing result is the build up. Our defensive midfielders De Jong and Van Bommel had too much of the ball. That is not their strength. We have other players in the team for that.

And against Denmark, it was clear we didn’t need two defensive mids. Our problem was not in defense. I even thought it was cool to see how debutant Willems had the best kick of our six defensive players. He was seriously the best build up player we had. His direct opponent was the first to be subbed, which says something too.

I enjoyed watching that lad. He’s strong, technically skilled, quick and mentally strong too! He has solved our left back problem, as far as I’m concerned.


It’s a good thing that JC kept his dayjob…

But the way we position ourselves as a team is still a concern. This needs to be improved. At certain times, we played with two blocks: three forwards, six defenders and poor Sneijder. He had to drop to pick up the ball and try and find the forwards. He must have ran too many yards like this. Very tough and ungrateful work. The forwards don’t get the best out of Wesley and he is being physically eroded.

But, to remain positive: we had 5 or 6 really good opportunities. That is good. We normally have players that can finish. And in the coming games, we will. We now have a couple of days to fix things. And to realise that those mistakes can no longer be made.”

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by Jan

What Bert should do now…

Thanks to the AD for this insightful article. I have used what I can and added my own opinion to it :-).

Willem van Hanegem said it ( I think). “Football is a simple game. But playing simple football is hard.” And we saw that demonstrated by Oranje. Despite all the quality, all the experience, all the will and all the chances, we lost.

So, is our coach suddenly not able to motivate them? Has Van Persie unlearned to score? Has Italian football wasted Stekelenburg? No…

It’s tactics.

It’s system and player selection.

In the last months, things aren’t going too well for the team manager. Like with Van Basten’s 4-3-3, the time for this current system to be binned could we be here. The idea of the 4-2-3-1 is to play tighter and not let a mouse slip though the trenches. The 6 at the back defend the fort and the thoroughbreds up top need to score. Well, in the last months, the six at back conceded a lot of goals and the guys up top can’t find the net.

And if you recall the Denmark game, you’ll have to agree that it indeed looked like “6 at the back” and “four on top”. The gap between the forwards and the rest was huge. The stars wanted to attack attack and pushed up high while the insecure defense (incl De Jong) tracked back whenever they could. In particular after the Danish goal. The result? Gaps for the Danes to exploit and lots and lots of yards to cover for our lads.

“Those forwards need to do better in the turnaround”.

No, that is too easy. If you do that, you’ll be playing like we did in the World Cup. But do you think Denmark and even Germany or Portugal will have a go at us if we play counter football? Dutch football is forward pressure and high paced football in a small space.

Pic 1: Our current system is too static and predictable and when executed like Saturday leaves a huge hole in midfield.

But, this system reached the finals at the World Cup!

Was it because of the system, or despite the system? Did we play really good football? Were we lucky? We had an easy group against three teams counting on us winning. Cameroon didn’t lay down and play dead, but Japan and Denmark invited the Dutch victory in.

Our first knock out game was atrocious! The Brazil game was too, in the first half. In the second half, Raf van der Vaart came in for Nigel de Jong… We won, but also because Brazil imploded.

The Uruguay game was not that good. Hell, I remember plugging my butt in the last 10 minutes!! We scored the first but allowed them back on the scoresheet.

And we all know what happened in the finals.

So, the system, to me, was not the hero of the World Cup. The difference was the sheer quality of and will of our individual players! And some luck, at the right times.

It’s clear that if your defense is the weakest link, you should make sure the defense will not come under pressure. As Cruyff always says: if you don’t want to be under pressure, you simply have to put more pressure on them. Our best game in the last two years was against Sweden. Little hint: Nigel de Jong didn’t play, but Rafael played on his spot. Silencing the “Sneijder and Vaart can’t play together” crowd.

So, is Van der Vaart the solution?

No. It’s never one player. The solution is, to bring more football from the holding position. Like in Spain, where Xabi Alonso plays there, but that is one hell of a playmaker. Or Pirlo in Italy. Or Schweini in Germany. Very tough lads, sure, but mostly football players.

If you have Hunter and Van Persie, you should bring Sneijder back on line. Let Sneijder direct play from midfield with skipper Bommel. Let Van Persie play on the 10 position and bring Hunter up top. And yes: Robben on the LEFT!!

In stead of 4-2-3-1 we should play 4-1-4-1. With Bommel in the lone holding role and Sneijder next to Van Persie centrally. Van Persie playing in the Litmanen role, as a shadow striker. In reality, it will play like a 4-3-3 in possession. Which means there is always a player in reach within 12 yards. And this relieves our defense even more.

See pic 2.

So what to do with Huntelaar if we don’t cross balls in?

Well for starters: to think Hunter is dependent on crosses should check Hunter’s goals for Schalke on YouTube again. He is fine in the combination with a Raul type behind him. But bringing crosses in will work, obviously and with a free flowing Van Persie behind him, we can become quite a threat… In particular if Bommel and Sneijder are there for the loose balls.

The “idea” with false wingers is that the full backs will overlap to give the cross. Well, we haven’t seen any decent cross from Willems or Van der Wiel… So it doesn’t work.

We need Afellay on the right ( or Narsingh) and we need Robben (or Afellay) on the left.

So, bottomline, will Bert make these changes for us?

No. Fat chance. Bert is married to the system. Believes in it. Told the journalists yesterday that no matter what people say, he will always do things “his way”. Bert thinks that if we keep on creating, we will start scoring soon. And win games. He also said confidence in the camp is still very high.

Let’s hope Bert is right!

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by Jan

Post Match Reviews…

Well, we’ve seen the opening games in Group A and B. We’ve seen half of the field in action. We’ve seen dark horse Russia deliver. And favorites Oranje and Germany not deliver. But we also saw Germany win the three points!!

Not delivering, but winning. Very Germany.
Playing well and not winning. Very Dutch.

Where to start? After having had a couple of hours to let this sink in, I still stick to my guns. We didn’t play bad. If we had scored a couple in the first half, we would have easily won this 5-0 ( or 5-1).

So why didn’t we score? Why was Robben’s aim so far off? Why did Van Persie look like Bambi on ice for the first time. (Not the drug, but the frozen water). Why did Afellay didn’t see his team mates in the second half? Why can’t Van der Wiel cross a ball in?

Bert van Marwijk said it like this ( and I tend to buy this): “We were too eager. We wanted it too badly. The guys seemed to block.”

This might apply to Robin van Persie.

At the same time, Arjen Robben’s decision making was not always good. I don’t agree with the Robben bashing. He played well in the first half, linking up with Robin a lot and even trying not to be selfish. But in the second half, tactics went out of the window. And everyone wanted to break the deadlock.

The only player with an eye for the game and for team mates was Wes Sneijder.

Tactically the second half was a mess. What struck me, was that Sneijder didn’t have a lot of space to play in, as Afellay seemed to block the left wing and Willems (rightfully so) came there too on the overlap.

In the second half, Sneijder got more space to roam in and was more important for us…

What does that say?

It sometimes felt the 4-2-3-1 was a 4-2-1-3 and the space was full up for the little midfield maestro to explore.

All in all, Sneijder was my MOTM. His killer pass on Van Persie in the first half deserved better, but Van Persie’s left foot abandoned him.

I personally don’t think Robin was shite. He actually played very well, again: linking up well in the first half and positioning himself wonderfully all the time. It is just the dreaded pulling of the trigger that went awry.

What will Bert do now?

Well, don’t expect too many changes. He will say: “We played well. We simply didn’t score.”


This image says it all..

And thus, I think Bert will change nothing. Subbing Van Persie now means losing him for the tournament. I’d start the exact same way against Germany.

The changes Bert needs to make are in midfield and defense though. Not upfront.

Our forwards will need to pressure better without the ball. That is a given.

But we need to keep the field smaller in possession. Wide, yes, but the defense needs to push up! At times, the distance between the creative 5 and the holding 5 was huge! I’d prefer Raf van der Vaart over Nigel de Jong anyday. Or even Strootman. I hope Mathijsen will be fit for Germany as Vlaar tends to keep the field too long.

Also, our full backs need to push up more. Van der Wiel was atrocious. Despite Willems’ mistakes here and there, I think he is da Man for the job. I wouldn’t sub him.

So, let’s look at the others:

Poland played well. Like Holland. Taking the game to the weaker Greeks, but forgetting to score. The Greek battled their way back into it and Group A looks like a lively group.

Russia wasn’t tested by the Czechs and the main problem Big Dick has with them is to get some consistency. They won this, they might win the next one, but Russia will most likely have an off day at some state and go back home.

Portugal can play football if they decide to do so. They have this sleezy counter attacking gameplan in their dna and as long as they play like this they will be depending on the opponent. They should have played more adventurous. I’m truly impressed with Coentrao, the Real left back. Great player!

Germany looked like Holland in the World Cup. Playing 4-2-3-1. Struggling to create. Ozil was mediocre in the first half, but very good coming from the left side. Podolski was invisible and Muller was struggling too, but they had luck on their side. They didn’t deserve it, but they did get it.

I think it’s about time Holland shows them who’s boss!

Afellay said he felt Oranje was bossing the game. “We created so much. It did resemble some games we played with Barcelona. What it is…concentration, luck, sharpness… no idea…”

Skipper Van Bommel was terrible down. “I don’t know what to say. I’m knackered. The humidity got to us too. But that was not the reason for this defeat. Even that handball, we can’t blame anyone. We had 5 big chances to score and we didn’t score. Simple as that.”

Sneijder: “We all worked hard, and we did what we could to bring our forwards in to position. If they don’t score, it’s game over. We know we would give opportunities away. At this level, the opponent will always get one or two chances. The point is, that we simply need to score more. And we failed. Now we simply need to win the remaining games. Hard, but doable.”

Robben: “I’m sure the Danes pinch themselves still. How could they have won this. I don’t think our loss was a disgrace. We played too good for that. It was more a miracle. And a total disappointment for us… But, we need to regroup and focus on winning all our other matches.”

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by Jan

The Danish ate us!!

I’m going to keep this brief. It’s almost 4 am and I’m not a happy trooper.

My goodness. We have the best strikers in the world. We couldn’t stop scoring in the qualifications and here we simply can not find the target. AAARRGGHHH…

Let me start by saying that the Danes did really well and are most certainly not the weak side. They were shrewd and they worked hard.

What exactly went wrong with us?

I believe we were a little to cocky and complacent I think. A bit too easy maybe. Denmark played with intensity which I didn’t see from our lads. But other than that, we didn’t do too much wrong. No big blunders, but we simply didn’t demonstrate the hunger and desire one should have at this level.

A second problem I had with our team, is that the field was too long. Our defense ( 4 players) kept at the back too much, against one striker! Van der Wiel had to be invited for seconds to come and overlap (Willems showed much more eagerness) but in general there were too many gaps between our forwards and our midfield. Nigel was invisible and not as domineering as he normally is and there was not that much support for Sneijder/Afellay/Robben.

But, all of these things would have been a moot point if Van Persie would have taken his hattrick.

According to my stats, Holland has 29 attempts on goal but only six (!) on target…And zero in the net. Oh and did I mention the two handballs in one single action? Late in the second half?

That tells the whole story.

So now, we need to simply beat Germany and Portugal. And I think that was always our plan, so nothing changed.

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by Jan

Let's have some Danish tonight!

So tonight it will all cut loose for us. Pondering this opponent, what comes to mind is this…

1. Who the ^#@() is Michael Krohn-Dehli?

I know that name… And then it sinks in. This guy played for Ajax. Then Sparta and then RKC and then he went back to Denmark. There’s more mediocre Eredivisie players in the Danish squad ( with all due respect). There’s Pedersen, Schone, Rommedahl and Silberbauer. Not names that will panic Van Marwijk any time soon. These guys wouldn’t make it to our squad. Simon Poulsen, the AZ leftback would be the only player who’d be called up, most likely. Even Christian Eriksen, the Danish star, would have left after the prelim days were over. With Wijnaldum and Maher.

In other words: Oranje has much more quality.

2. Agger
Liverpool defender Daniel Agger got on the score sheet in the World Cup 2010. By beating his own goalie. The center back, playing Van Persie tonight, will most certainly remember this.

3. 1967
Oranje hasn’t been beaten by the Danes since 1967!!! That is, if we count matches to be decided in 90 minutes! And that is how long we’ll play tomorrow. Oranje lost 3-2 in 1967. Cruyff played his fourth cap and Wim Jansen made his debut. (We do not mention the lost semis in 1992!!)

4. Danish attack
Our defense may be a bit wobbly at times. With Denmark it’s the forwards. Their star player is Nicklas Bendtner. He was loaned out by Wenger and he scored eight goals for Sunderland in 27 games. Yes, eight. Huntelaar and Van Persie score that number after a quarter of the competition. Their other striker is Tobias Mikkelsen. Played 4 internationals, scored zero. So you know.

5. Decisions…
Team manager Morten Olsen was confronted with a late decision to be made. His midfielder Zimling ( formerly of NEC) got injured and needs to be replaced. Bert van Marwijk already knows who he will play (and that he’ll miss Mathijsen). The big question for us is: will Jetro Willems grab Scifo’s record of youngest player ever on a Euros?

Bert’s staff is making sure they cover everything. One item that came up is the low hanging sun at the start of our game. It’s skipper Mark van Bommel’s task to make sure we win the toss so he can have the Danish goalie squint his eyes…

Speaking of Van Bommel, our skipper is making his Euros debut at 35 years of age. He was injured for the Euros 2004 and not available for 2008 ( the Van Basten rift). “I am keen to play. I really want to win a trophy. I was heartbroken after the World Cup finals. I cried for days. I have never been able to watch the game ever again. And with the passing of time, I sort of regret mostly that we failed to play our own game. We were very reactive, and a bit stressed I suppose…”

Today is the day that Wesley Sneijder turns 28 years old. Isn’t that the age a player is at his peak??

Oranje: Stekelenburg; Van der Wiel, Heitinga, Vlaar, Willems; Van Bommel, De Jong; Robben, Sneijder, Afellay; Van Persie.

Denmark: Lindegaard; Jacbosen, Kjaer, Agger, S. Poulsen; Kvist, Eriksen, C. Poulsen; Rommedahl, Bendtner, Krohn-Dehli.

Venue: Metalist (Charkov)
Referee: Skomina (Slovenia)

The Sneijder pic above is made by Pim Ras

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by Jan

Let's get to know one another…

Dear friends, you all know that thing will get pretty hot very soon!! Before you know it, we are cheering, dancing, yelling, singing, celebrating, cursing, screaming and crying together. We will stand shoulder to shoulder and will sing hand in hand ( comrades). We will experience our wins and our losses together and even though it’s only virtual, only via this cyberhangspotforcooloranjefans, I think it’s cool if we would get to know one another a little bit… I mean would you jump into someone arms crying, without being introduced properly?

Right!

My name is Jan. A typical Dutch boys’ name. But I live in Australia now, where Jan is a…well…girls name. I grew up in Hendrik Ido Ambacht, close to Rotterdam. A Feyenoord town. Many Feyenoord players lived in our village. I played my football at ASWH – currently Hoofdklasse amateurs – and spent my weekends in De Kuip. I worked in marketing and sales in Holland and Europe before we immigrated to Australia. Why? Why not! Climate, space, lifestyle…

I’m married, have two daughters (who love football) and two labradors who love footballs. I live near Byron Bay on the east coast of Australia. I am in business and apart from football and writing, my hobbies are reading, watching movies, acting, playing the guitar, cooking (and eating) and playing sports (tennis, football, baseball).

The first tournament I watched in Oz was the EC 2004. I lived in Western Australia then and there was no coverage in tv. A friend of a friend in Oz taped the games of the commercial cable channel – not available in WA – and mailed it to us. We’d watch the games two days after they were played. But we watched them in the evening at least… I still remember the game against Czech Republic… Robben played great! Until Dick Advocaat…well…you remember.

I could watch the WC2006 live, early in the morning, after we moved to the East Coast. Which is when I found this site and not much later was asked to join as moderator.

Football background: Limited, was a talented but lazy left-footer, have had interesting connections to football (via players, managers, businesses)

Favorite clubs: Many… Feyenoord is in my blood, but I respect Ajax. Barcelona, Arsenal, Liverpool, AC Milan. But Oranje tops the list!

Fave players: Again, too many to mention: Cruyff, Van Hanegem, Nees, Van Basten, Bergkamp, Litmanen, Mario Been, Hoddle, Eder, Zico, Overath, Antognoni, Paulo Rossi, Richard Witschge, Edgar Davids, Gary Lineker, David Ginola

Fave players of our current Oranje: Raf van der Vaart, Mark van Bommel, Robin van Persie, Tim Krul

Fave moment of Oranje: The Van Basten goal in 1988, which I witnessed in the stands, behind the goal…

Sympathy for other nations: I do like Spain and have a soft spot for Italy and England. I truly wish Belgium will get their axto together for once!!

Bold predictions: Spain won’t survive the first round. Germany will but will be knocked out in the first knock out. Sweden will get far this tournament

How I watch Oranje: It’s bloody 4 am in the morning in the freezing cold here, so I watch with uggboots on and a blanket around me eating muesli and yoghurt where anywhere else in the world they party with beer and bitterballen :-(. Oh, and I’m obviously doing live webcasts for us all 🙂

One thing no one knows about me: Oh dear… Something secret…? Ok, I made my money in ICT and I currently blog like crazy but I’m actually the biggest computer illiterate you’ll find, hahaha…..

Anyhow, here’s a pic of me presenting a Johan Cruyff boot to the world… The guy next to me is actually the legendary no. 14

 

 

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