Join in the Fantasy World Cup Competition!!

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by Jan

Finally, he has it together. Your Blog Captain Jan Da Man has a Fantasy Competition for the World Cup.

After days of programming some minutes of uploading a plugin, we can finally play ourselves…

This is going to be AWESOME!

But before I go into detail…. I need to ask you this….

I had to pay the annual bills again re: hosting and domain names and templates and plugins and whatnots… So your humble blogger could really use a couple of nice donations to pull me through for another year of bloggin…. It is HIGHLY appreciated (and will not go towards beer, believe it or not….). Details are on the home page. I thank you in advance….

louis zwaait

And I need to ask you this too:

I am getting a lot of requests for ads and pop ups. I have always said no. As I believe you guys would hate these things on the site. But I am getting some really good offers now and want to there fore ask you:

Back to the Fantasy Competition!!

You know the drill: go to the page, fill in the scores you believe will end up on the score board after 90 minutes.

There will be different rounds and different deadlines but I believe the software will tell you how it works. I need to copy the rules of the game in here, and you can all read how it works.

I will have three amazing prizes for the top 3 of this competition!!!

So go to the menu button called “Fantasy World Cup Predictions” (as pointed towards by Johan Cruyff, who else?) and fill in the predictions. You can enter predictions until the moment the game starts. Once it has begun, it’s off limits.

I will publish the scores and the updates during the World Cup.

rvp schiphol

So the Dutch team said farewell and is on the plane as we speak. A nice group of fans waived them out loudly. Louis van Gaal: “The vibe is great. This group is solid and tight and we are having a great time. So we are in a tough group? So what. We will not plan on coming home anytime soon. In football, anything is possible. Our game might not be highly attractive at the moment, but did you see the other top nations in their friendlies? We will go for result first, and if we can do this with sparkling play, we certainly will of course, but we are not as a bad as some so-called experts think.”

Wesley Sneijder was one of the first players to arrive at the hotel to prepare for the trip. “I can’t wait to go! Obviously, we are not the top faves but we can surprise for sure!”

Ron Vlaar showed his leadership at the back against Wales and is quite positive. “Listen, we are not there yet, but we are getting there. We do play less dominant and don’t mind the opponent, like Wales, to have the ball. We scored twice from those situations and they only got dangerous due to our own mistakes. So it’s not that bad. It’s different, but this type of game will offer us benefits. I am pretty confident, actually.”

Two former center backs of Oranje, Ronald Koeman and Arie Haan, do not share that optimism. Koeman: “If Holland plays like this (Wales) against Spain, they get massacred. Martins Indi is a great defender but building up and passing is not his strength. Why play him left back if you have options? Janmaat is superb of course and I always had my faith in De Vrij, but I can’t imagine why Clasie doesn’t play. He is the smartest of the lot and great in small spaces. Against football playing teams like Spain or Chile you want to use Clasie!” Arie Haan: “I work in China and there Holland is synonymous with attractive wing play. Van Gaal struck them out. That is not Dutch football. That is a big mistake!”

 

Here is a nice pic from the room Louis van Gaal will most likely claim.

oranje rio

Ok peeps, I am on my way to Brazil now!! I found a cheap way of getting there. Laters….!!!!

jan the blogger

 

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115 comments

  2. If only!!!!!!!!
    Strootman and Ginkel injuries man!!!
    ——————defense————
    —van Ginkel—sneijder—strootman
    —robben—van persie—depay—–

    This would’ve been an unstoppable team!!

  3. on my behalf i’m gonna stop criticizing the way van gaal will play or the players he’ll choose in the starting lineup because now its time to support…yea i didn’t like a lot of things in the friendlies and sure as hell i didn’t like the way we played but lets not forget that van gaal is a top manager and i’m sure he can deliver when it matters most. honestly if 5-3-2 is gonna give us the wins by playing unattractive football, then so be it. we never won a world cup by playing beautiful football, so why not try it the ugly way and maybe with luck on our side, we can finally win it!! HUP HOLLAND HUP

  4. Dear LVG…Even if you go with
    ———–Hunter————-
    Lenz——–Roben——-Wijnaldum
    ——-Blind—–Dejong———-
    Kongolo——————Janmaat
    ———Vlaar—Devrij———
    ————–Krul————–
    You will win it
    Sneijedr,Depay can come in

    1. Tiju no hate but don’t you feel bored contradicting as much yourself ?

      I know contradiction is in human nature and is even a proof of intelligence and open mind, but in your case it’s worrying.

      You were writing lines and lines about De Vrij the turtle, you even made a list of “dangerous” players for NT where he was inside, now he is in your line up. Same for Huntelaar. And that was only one month ago.

      Then De Vrij had 2 good friendlies so he should start against Spain ? You already forgive him for everything ?

      Try to have more nuances in your speech cause it’s either black or white.

      1. Tiju reminds me of John Nash in his darkest days, from the movie A Beautiful Mind, haha.
        Going through scores and scores of fictitious code (in your case line-ups, Tiju) from thousands of magazine all lying around on the floor in one big pile of mess.

        2. Could not agree more. I don’t comment much, but have been on this blog since before the last wc…

          This tiju is insane. Jan, why can you not just block his IP address from making posts. He adds nothing to the conversation.

          He will be posting lineups of who should have been taken even after we win the wc.

          2. ‘This tiju is insane. Jan, why can you not just block his IP address from making posts. He adds nothing to the conversation.’

            ^ This!!

            +1

            (it’s what Jesus would do)

        1. So lets play with turtles if we have only remains..we cannt do anything apart from welwishing as fan..I dont like sniejdr over vaart and Depay over wijnaldum,but still we are left with these options only,,,.

          1. Son of lion of Judah
            June 6, 2014 at 2:51 pm
            ‘lets support the team,thats it…..nothing else’

            Son of lion of Judah
            June 6, 2014 at 2:53 pm
            ‘I dont like sniejdr over vaart and Depay over wijnaldum,’

            Tiju, it took you TWO WHOLE MINUTES to reply to your own comment. Is this a record?

            Do you even realise that in this reply you say EXACTLY THE FUCKING OPPOSITE of your first comment??

            DO YOU REALISE THIS???

            Are you retarded? Seriously, I need to know. The religion. The negative world view. The job at McDonalds. The hate. Where does all this come from? And what did we do to deserve all you?

            Love you buddy, but seriously man, you kill me.

  6. Haa the competition ! I was looking forward to that. Will enter my numbers in a couple of days, because i dont want anyone to copy my winning predictions ;P

  8. I want to Thank you Jan for this blog. I think I owe you a lot , bro.

    Back to what Alaa said about Ginkel and strootman ;

    I think you can put Akè for sneijder and you can get , hopefully , our line-up for the next WC. May be with Nouri in front of them so we can go for 4-4-2 diamond shape , with Depay and Kishna up fornt. That would be FaNtAsTiQuE 😀 .

  9. Herenveen priced Ziyech at 5m (last year contract)
    Sno free transfer to Westerloo
    Feyenoord after Van Wolfswinkel
    Kruiff is optimistic about Dutch chance in WC 2018.
    Twente,NAC Breda, Excelsoir warned by KNVB because of financial issues.
    Roman Abramovich(Chelsea owner) sponsored Vitesse 10m per season.
    Lokhoof become assistant coach of Wolfusberg
    Go Ahead Eagles after Van Der Hart and Room
    Feyenoord priced Janmaat at 9m(last year contract).
    Amesterdam will be Dutch’s home for Euro 2016 Qualification
    De Guzman and De Jong switched their numbers
    Juventus after Promes
    Swansea increased Castaignos bid to 8.5m

  12. Hi Jan,

    First of all I want to reiterate how grateful we are to the work you put into this blog. You have dedicated endless hours of your life to ensuring that English and Dutch-speaking Oranje fans have a home, a community to celebrate Dutch football; and for that I thank you. It must be extremely difficult to juggle your work and constantly update this site. Kudos.

    Having said that I do have a few comments and suggestions to improve the overall experience in the future:

    1) This site should always be dedicated to football first and foremost. As a regular voice here I really feel you should take an active approach to denounce all forms of hatred and racism going forward. Even the subtle comments should not be tolerated. We are living in 2014 and we need to simply get rid of this bigotry once and for all.

    2) Ads- I think this should be up to you since you know what you need to do to improve the site/blog. If you feel advertising money will give you the power to enhance the site then go for it. It should not be up to us since we don’t control the back end.

    3) Site upgrades- I do feel that you can incorporate a few things to improve the overall feel of this blog in the future. For example, build a live chat where we can all chime in during a live friendly or U21 game as well as World Cup games (like Facebook chat). You can also host the chat or have someone like DRB be guest speakers for U21 matches and other Ornaje games as we value any input here on the current state of Dutch football.

    4) More videos/highlights/images- I think the image gallery can be improved as well as the video gallery. Maybe you could even stream games somehow so we can catch them through this page. That would be awesome.

    5) Overall move towards a cleaner, more technologically advanced blog- We all love coming here so if you could enhance the site (Dutch Soccersite 2.0) and give it a fresh new face at some point, that would be amazing. I am sure there are techies who blog here and who would be willing to help. Most of us would make a contribution to help with this too if we aren’t as tech savvy as the rest.

    6) Membership fees- I think we all love coming here at this point. If you think membership fees are a bit much, then maybe make membership fees optional but it would at least push the site viewers to help on a more regular basis.

    7) Donations- I will send you a little something soon but I want you to know that we support you work 100% and thanks again.

    Now, ONTO ORANJE. HUP HOLLAND HUP!

    2. GREAT INPUT guys, I really love the ideas. I think I know a lot about football but only a little bit about web development so comments are very welcome!!

    3. in terms of misguided comments it could be dealt with by implementing an up vote/ down voting system , I’m not sure how hard that is to do but this means that any comments which don’t belong end up being buried

  14. Jan –

    I’m willing to donate a handsome amount… if you can ban tiju from this blog.

    I think you should go with Ads cause that can help take off the burden of owning the name, hosting the site etc etc, but definitely not pop-ups.

    We all spend a considerable amount of time here and giving back should not be a thoughtful process, it should be given.

    1. Would you be willing to increase that bounty if he throws in Wilson (at least from posting 12 man rosters that still can’t make room for van Persie)?

      1. ‘Would you be willing to increase that bounty if he throws in Wilson’

        Fuck it, I’ll toss some coins in the ol’ hat if he throws in Laurent too.
        Dribbling amateur anti-semite French fucktard.
        Oooops did I type that out loud? 🙂

          1. Hahahahaha funny guys…. I will not auction of the banning of blog visitors…. Or actually….

      1. I’m surprised you did not post a line-up with that comment. I’d be really worries if your line-ups coincide with your bowls movements… you’d be spending a LOT of time in the bathroom.

  16. Good post, Bitterballen.

    May i just add:

    Jan, can we please have a better ‘upcoming matches’ section, where we can check times, dates, locations of future Oranje matches? It never seems to get updated, and it is a really useful tool for the site – saves us clicking elsewhere for the info.

    Can we also have a proper login/name thing – maybe Facebook linked (that would sort the men from the boys)?

    And can we please also have an ignore button? Nearly all the problems here stem from a very select few compulsive retards. 3 to be precise. Thanks.

    Oh, one more thing.
    Can we have a section devoted to the ladies Oranje team?
    Then i can save more time and do my masturbating at the same site as my football analysis – huh? what?
    just kidding! but the ladies section would be kinda cool.

    keep up the great work.

    and ban laurent.

    cheers.

    bye now.

    bye.

    bye.

    *awkward silent exit*

    1. “Can we also have a proper login/name thing – maybe Facebook linked (that would sort the men from the boys)?”

      How will you do to troll and use others names ?

      2. That would be good thing. Applicability though depends on worldpress capabilities. We might be asking too much from Jan from technical perspective.

  18. Guys, some of us have been having fun on this blog for years (Ive been here from well before 2010 even though I am not a regular poster). I think we should all invest in this great meeting place for Oranje supporters. Even small donations can be helpful … i did my donation. Lets all give that little something that can help Jan maintain this great project.

  20. We all love Oranje. However, lets be honest, we all know that Oranje won’t win the World Cup this year. They will probably not qualify for the Round of 16 either. Do you have any second favorites whom you will be rooting for once Holland departs?

    I am sick and tired of the usual “big guns”. So I will be rooting for Belgium.

    1. I also think Belgium can do something good, maybe quarter or even semi finals.

      Otherwise I’ll support african teams, especially after what happened to Ghana in 2010 against Uruguay.

      I have good expectations for Ivory Coast but their coach sucks.

    2. Belgium? Really?? The thing is I prefer one of the big guns to win it if Oranje doesn’t. The worldcup should be difficult for minnows to win it.. the worst tournament I ever watched was the Euro 2004 when Greece won it.

      Having countries not known for their football philosophy or history win it undermines the competition in my opinion.

        1. South Korea just lost to Tunisia and lost twice to Iran during qualifying, they are hard workers but they really need quality compared to 2002.

          Russia is having some good games but I’m really not impressed with their team, also they have a weak mentality during competitions.

          I expect Belgium and Algeria to go through.

  23. Germany 0 – 0 Armenia after 44′

    always pleasing to see mueller playing crap. after his run ins with Robben I have to say he’s one of my least favourites.

      1. “The news coming out of Germany is that Marco Reus has been rushed straight to hospital. Nailbiting moments for Joachim Low’s side.”

        Well, we are not the only ones to be harmed by injuries. It looks like things are evening out a bit.

      2. Reus is the only winger in the world I wish he was dutch. I would take him any day over CR7 , Hazard , Ribery or Bale. Pitty he will not play in the WC 😐 .

  24. serbia is kicking brazil’s ass, even with referee not calling fouls, and letting brazilians dive, too bad 0-0 serbia is looking like athletico madrid 442 formation with an emphasis on pressing with quick counters.

      1. with this referee, it will be 3-0 brazil at the end of the game, free kick goal, penalty kick, red card for serbia, one or more of these scenarios

        brazil reminds me of a mix between 2010 and 2012 holland

        4231 but way more physical then holland. lots of defensive mistakes. isolated attacking players. their only saving grace is that the referee has helped them out.

        Robben>neymar
        RVP>Fred
        Sneijder<Oscar
        janmaat<dani alves
        blindpaulinho
        tiago silva>all dutch defenders

        you know brazil is better defensively than offensively, its weird seeing that, its probably hollands future since we got soo many talented good defenders, and not many offensive talents in the future.

  25. i don’t think we can pull of an athletico madrid type 442, because sneijder doesn’t defend nor robben.

    ———-rvp—-robben———-
    depay————————lens
    ———de vrij—–ndj———-
    blind—bmi—-veltman—–janmaat

    i don’t think this formation works for holland

  28. Pity for Reus. Great player, nice guy, a beauty to watch playing. As I have said before I would never get happy if some other team’s player misses WC due to injury. Falcao, Reus etc absences will diminish the beauty of the WC. Reus absence may be the tipping factor to WC winner. I find it stupid to play a meaningless friendly just a few days before the start. Sad for him. During Holland 3 game friendly I kept worrying if someone would from our team would get hurt. So lucky.

    1. me too balkan, glad we escaped somewhat unharmed (still no word on RVP or deguzman although DG’s injury might be a blessing for us because he produced jack in the last friendly IMO).

      And regarding Clasie, love this guy! Why can’t he be included in the starting 11…

      Did anyone catch this on Soccernet’s 32 teams 32days….. today is NL. I like Holland’s formation on top with Lens and RVP up front and Robben next to Nigel And Sneij-hey…..

      http://www.espnfc.us/fifa-world-cup/story/1802817/32-teams-in-32-days—-netherlands

      1. Agree with Balkan. Saw Reus play as a teenager with Moenchengladbach, and have been following him since. He is a real player who deserves to be seen on the world stage…and, yes, as with the other comments, while watching the second halves of the Ghana and Wales matches, I found myself muttering, “C’mon, Louis, Robben’s been out there long enough. Didn’t you watch the warm up in 2010.”

      2. This is from yesterday, but is promising: Van Persie says:
        “I wouldn’t call it an injury. It built up during the game so I decided it was sensible to come off.”
        When LvG was asked whether RVP would be available for the game against Spain, he said: “I hope so, and I think it is so.”

      3. Hey Jan…just donated you a beer for all the good reading over the last 4 years, keep it going!

        I agree Bitterballen…yes I read the article yesterday on ESPN Soccernet, and saw the formation, based on the the 23 available, with Lens replacing De Guzman on top with Robin, this may be our best chance of scoring goals, I may not agree with that starting 11 overall from the pool of talent we have, but from the 23 available, I agree, best chance to score and best chance of winning with the defending Van Gaal has in mind, with Depay our main sub ala, Elia 4 years agod

        Any thoughts?

  30. If we play 5-3-2 we will never defeat spain. It jus like giving them the posession until somebody cracks the nut. We cant jus relay on De Jong to break the attack and launch counter balls up front. It will just like playing with 9 defenders and a lone striker.

      1. There’s not a lot of acclimatization to go through, two cities we’d be playing in (Sao Paolo, Porto allegre), have a european climate this time of year, and the other city Salvador where we’ll be playing Spain is going to be a city that’s equally humid to both teams. Spain is still today playing a friendly in Washington, USA I believe, while the Dutch players are already in Brazi getting used to the climate, and hopefully workin on their stamina,among other things.

  31. so how do we register for the fantasy world cup competition?? i entered my e-mail and it said that a password was gonna be sent to my email….but still waiting for it!!

    1. Arjentina—Messi—Demaria–aguero
      Brazil——Neymer–Oscar–Hulk
      Dutch——-Roben—Lenz–Wijnaldum
      So i feel dutch is stronget than both when these 3 players on feild at same time.
      But brazil defense looks better than duthc and arjentines..So they have chance.
      I am forgetting main strikers like Milito,Higuian and RVP and Fred..i feel dutch is superior .its down to physical stretgh of Wijnaldum and lenz,they are not easily falling down cry baes like Neymar,Demaria and aguero..

          1. I think Tiju watchs football game like he is watching a movie about roman empire or something like that.

            Players are warriors, they must not fall down, he’ll always support the strongest…

            He forgot that it’s 22 men running behind a ball, and an entertainement for most of the fans.

          2. Mohamed: In the prediction I put both in finale but I’m honestly not sure at all about it.

            Brazil has the strongest defence but I think it’s their worst attack ever. I don’t expect Fred to score much, Hulk neither, so maybe Neymar will take the keys. To be honest I really don’t know about them, they can reach finale as they can lose in quarters, I’d not be surprised anyway.

            I expect Argentina to do semi at least, their team is better than in 2010, they have better defenders.

          3. Thank you for your reply , Laurent.
            I agree Brazil is not that strong neither up front nor even their midfeild.
            i.e. Oranje’s midfeild in 2010 was better imo , but we all watched how they managed to destroy Spain. Scloari is gery good manager with NTs.
            Argentina’s midfeild has the same Problem as ours imo. They don’t have a good box to box. Mascherano and Gago ? Not sure about ’em. Similar to de jong and De guzman actually. , but they have a great attack. The best in the tournament, indeed.

  34. Jan, remember the old site, World Cup blog where we can click on one of the banners to a football site store and if we buy shirts, the blog gets a percentage of the sale. Perhaps you can do something like that since I’m sure the folks here buy soccer shirts and other fan gear. Its a win win situation for u, us and the soccer shop.

  36. I liked De Guzman against Ghana. He didn’t miss a single pass, he was very reliable and he was growing in confidence in the game giving some through balls to Robben.

    Although I’d rather have Clasie as starter, De Guzman is a good option.

  37. This 5-3-2 system is a good system to face Spain and other big countries given the fact that our defenders might not be ready to play a 4-3-3.

    But I hope we don’t sit back and wait Spain and only play counter attacking football against them because I’ll be very disappointed if that happens. LVG and the whole team have to remember they are Dutch and they have to respect our style.

    Actually I don’t think LVG will send our team to defend. I expect Holland to use Janmaat and Blind going forward a lot making a 3-5-2 system at times.

  39. When I see all the injuries for Germany, I start to doubt about them. Really. They won’t go to finale for sure, semi finals should be their goal.

    I’m also starting to doubt about Italy, for others reasons, their team doesn’t really impress me. It would be better with El Shaarawy.

    I don’t exclude that England and Uruguay can beat Italy from the first round.

    And I’m thinking more and more about Belgium being a serious contender. Their team is really complete, and Lukaku is the perfect striker for such climatic conditions, very athletic player.

  40. @Miguel, me too i liked wijnaldum against portugal. he knows how to hold the ball, plus he has the skills and the balls to do a dribble here and there which is very needed when the other two midfielders are de jong who is 100% defense only and sneijder who is more of a good passer than a dribbler or a midfielder who advances with the ball!!

    1. Interesting. It shows its not all about luck. There has to be something that Germany is doing right, and Holland/England/Italy aren’t.

    2. This confirms what we’ve all joked about for years. And, yes, Germany has been doing something right for a long time. Discipline and structure yield results. The rich get richer.

      It’s not hard to imagine that success builds upon itself in shoot-outs: Losers console themselves in rationalizations, and don’t build a practice discipline around shoot-outs; winners experience shoot-outs as ways to win, so they prepare more consistently.

      Over time, it adds up.

  42. Diego Costa is back but might not be in form. Spain looks really boring in this first half against Slavador. The only danger they can create is when the opponent lose the ball at midfield.

    1. Spain won 2:0 2nd goal is hand ball. Not that impressive, Diego Costa barely get involved in the game. With a disciplined defence, we can at least manage a tie against them.

  43. It’s making me angry how the whole world says we will not win against Spain. I believe we can kick their asses but if our players are afraid of them then we are fu**ed.

    If our players have a good attitude we can win. They are not unbeatable.

    1. That is what I am worried about, this team lacks experience, I am pretty confident about Indi, Janmaat taking pressure. I am not sure about Cillessen, De Vrij, Blind and De Guzman.

    2. Miguel, in my view it is not a matter of attitude but one of expertise which Spain has in tons. Who knows, maybe with God’s help we can get a draw but I have a feeling that after 80 mins of a deathly boring game we will lose concentration and suffer a couple of easy goals. I will be pissed as I am planning to take the day off from work.

    3. i also can’t understand why some people look very highly to spain than our oranje. Go and watch the rewind of 2010 final and if the person is genuinely a football fan then he or she must agree that oranje play better and have better chance than spain and ( not to make any excuse ) if heitinga was not red carded….it may be a different story all.

      I am sure the senior’s will ensure the youngsters to make an impact and get revenge by beating spain on day 1… not only to start off with a win but to show the world we are indeed better.

  44. look at all the other big countries in the recent friendlies if we had had the same results we would all be complaining much more.

    I think we can seriously do something this world cup if we reach our potential.

    1. Actually this is quite fucked up. I don’t get it, why do they need tough training sessions instead of just light exercise when they just had a whole camp and 3 friendlies in the last 2 weeks. These guys are excuasted.
      With regards to RVP we still have Hunter but Sneijder is irreplaceable.

    1. i know man crazy.. both can be replaced (clasie and hunt) and that is why both should have gotten more playing time in the friendlies rather than RVP and Wes

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