Live Blog Australia – Holland

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by Jan

Well good peeps. We are back on air. Last time we did a Live Blog (Spain) we lost the blog for days, so please be patient and don’t hit the refresh button too often :-).

Lets hope we are ready for this!

I am watching this in the middle of the night with some good friends (Aussie supporters) and – in all honesty – not so confident as normal.

Playing Spain will bring the best out of Holland (as did playing Brazil in 2010) but against minions (with all respect) is not always easy for us…

Anyway, join me at this exciting second game of Oranje. If we win: we are through! If we don’t, we are not (yet) :-).

What to expect? The Aussies will not play as arrogant as the Spanish. They will want to take the game to Holland but they will be cautious. It will either be a tough, fast paced game or the Aussies will be too cautious in their approach and Holland might be too smart not to attack like crazy. Which could result in a boring match, where a patient Holland will snatch the 3 points with one or two goals difference.

It seems that Louis van Gaal wants to play with the same team in the same line up. So 5-3-2, is the general expectation.

By the way, the Dutch hockey team was basically humiliated by a very fit and agile Aussie team: 6-1. The Dutch fans fear a similar fit and physically demanding Socceroo team. I am not sure. In hockey, Australia is world class. Not so much in soccer football.

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93 comments

  2. I think, if we win this game with 2-0 or 3-0 then we’ll make it to the final.

    If not then it tells me that we’re not as focused and will not make it far …

  11. I thought LvG might have watched the Argentina game to see how bad 5-3-2 can be against an opponent like Bosnia or Australia. We’ve given up the midfield. Why should we allow Australia to have so much of the ball?

  12. Does anyone thinking that the Australians will be able to maintain this high-pressing game?

    Calm down guys, our time will come when the Aussies tire in the second half …

  19. It seems we are better in playing teams like Spain who are not very fast and play an open game. Things not looking good. It will be terrible if we don’t qualify after that big win.

  20. The intensity from the first game has suddenly disappeared
    Robben now thinks he can make goals from any angle..
    I like it better when nobody considers us…

  24. Shoot the ball, Blind! He’s got space close to goal for a shot and he tries to cross into a crowd of aussies. bad decision.

    de guzman is doing NOTHING.

  28. Can De Guzman only pass back?

    We need some creative midfielders in the game ASAP. I don’t know what do with the defense. Martins Indi is like a headless chicken and De Vrij is slower than any other Australian player on the pitch.

  32. Pretty depressed now looking at the ball movements/possessions by the Socceroos.

    We desperately need the break at half time and a smack down by LvG!

    Hup HOLLAND HUP!

  34. We need players who can dribble. Especially in midfield.

    BMI looks like he’s injured. He looks unconscious. My worst fear against this team was injuries as I posted earlier. After seeing how they played Chile

    1. Not a big loss to be honest, I’m not even sure he is really “unconscious”, the contact wasn’t that hard.

      BMI is shit since the beginning of the tornament, besides playing really bad, he has a bad attitude, his action with Diego Costa was a bad comedy, and now again he was staying on the grass for little contacts, exagerrating.

      What to say about Sneijder first half ? The worst ever

  37. I haven’t been able to see any of the first half. Did we play 532 again or switch to 433?

    If 532, will we switch to 433 at the half? It sounds like help is needed in the midfield.

    I also keep seeing the HostGator guy, but hopefully the site will stay up.

    1. JB. It doesn’t matter how we play 343 or 532 or 811. This guys ejaculated in the first game and can’t get hard again. I guess it is a dutch thing. Disgusting.

  39. Fuckin dirty australia… I was worried they’d injure one of our players, and sure enough cahill, that dirty bastard, lived up to his name…

  42. Guys:

    I’ve only seen the second half but this has been fantastic, frenetic, constant attacking football with countless defensive errors.

    If the result were not so vital, it must be tremendously entertaining to watch as a neutral.

    Every Australian restart is immediate, and our guys are desperately trying to keep pace.

    Playing this open of a style has got to benefit our attacking players though, forcing them to be instantaneously creative under high-pressure and running at full speed

    Each game is its own challenge, regardless of the opponent, and Australia played with an extremely high work rate.  They took the game aggressively to us, and we had to respond.

    Yes, there were innumerable misplaced passes and some real lack of cohesion, but this type of gritty, frantic, end-to-end performance will serve the team well in the long run.

  43. The way this game went I would have been pleased with even a tie. We could have lost just like we won it. Lots of luck when that aussie guy chested the ball and Cillesen couldn’t hold it. Half a metter to the right and it would have been 1-3 to Aus. Right after that RVP scored. Thank God for Depay. No one except Depay played really well. BMI a zombie, Janmaat caused the penalty, deVrij a wreck, Blind nothing special but OK, Sneijder meh, deJong sometime terrible sometime excellent, RvP and Robben ordinary except for the goals. I am happy with the win but I suffered a lot. I expected a tough game but not this close. After 3-2 there were several easy chances to close the game but no one could. Thank you Depay.

  44. Looking at it from a neutral perspective, i dont think its too bad. These games are very difficult but in the end we managed to win it. We were lucky at times but that is a requisite for big teams. They were also lucky with the timing of the goal and with the penalty gift.

    Im curious to see whether and what LVG will change tactically.

  45. I think it was the execution which made the difference especially when you take into account chance both NT and Australia had.

    Once again the gambling has paid off for Van Gaal and the question is will it work every time, especially in Knockout stages.. The Australians completely dominated the first half and faces on the bench said it all and again one injury forced to change the formation.

    I think the Australians had no depth on their bench and when Cahill went the game was already summed up.

  51. A few interesting notes from the game today (Yahoo stats):

    Australia had 10 shots (4 on target) while we had 14 shots (9 on target). That was probably the difference right there.

    Possession was 50/50
    Tackle success was 80 / 83
    Corners 3 / 2
    Fouls 18 / 25

    All in all, it was a pretty even game and honestly one of the more exciting games I’ve seen in terms of just all out attacking play.

    I’ll say this, this 2014 team is certainly capable of scoring goals!

    Next up – Chile, but without RVP and maybe BMI. But here’s the thing, the Group A final games (Brazil vs Cameroon, Mexico vs Croatia) will be played several hours after the Group B final games (Netherlands vs Chile, Spain vs Australia). This means that we won’t know who’s going to win Group A when we play our final game against Chile.

    Obviously, I think we should go all out to beat Chile and win Group A in what hopefully will be an entertaining game as well. And if we end up playing Brazil as a result, so be it!

    Hup Holland!

    1. Frankly, I don’t see much difference between playing Brazil or Mexico. Mexico is a very energetic side who play with a lot of passion, and focus on midfield domination. They rarely penetrate the defense but do spend a lot of time on the ball in midfield. Brazil play more direct but, at the moment, lack creativity, with only Neymar providing much of any. Brazil have lots of defense-minded players, and maybe that defensive style would suit us better. We don’t do so well with pacey players coming at our defense.

      I hope that this game kills off any further idea of playing 5-3-2 against defensive opponents. The Aussies were probably rather worried going into this game, after our performance vs. Spain. What did we do? Parked half our team in the penalty area and gave them the midfield. What kind of strategy is that? Same one that Argentina employed to scrape by Bosnia, barely, in utterly unconvincing fashion.

      I thought both Blind and Janmaat were some of our weakest performers, especially offensively. Blind kept fouling and turning over possession to the other side. Man of the match in my view was DeJong. He won almost everything in the 2nd half and gave us the ability to counter attack and keep the ball in the Aussie half. DePay also gets honorable mention – let’s see more of him!

      1. @VanX

        There’s no way I would want us to play Brazil over Mexico in the 2nd round. Mexico barely made the world cup after struggling through CONCACAF qualification. The fired their original coach because they almost crashed out. Just because they played one good game doesn’t mean they are a team to be avoided. Their goalie had a great game. Had Brazil scored one earlier, it would have opened them up.

        Anyways, Brazil is overrated but they won’t be taken out easily. With our defense, they might convert some of their chances early on and it could be a totally different game. Never underestimate the pressure they are under. With all the protest going on they have to do something to give the public something back. They will do whatever is necessary to fight and survive.

        We need to at least get a draw to make sure we finish top of the group.

  53. Well, to be honest; this game v Australia is like i thought this team wud perform during this WC. 2 very good players up front; the rest just trying to do as little damage as possible. But,, lots of respect for their hard work,,and good results. Just for oldtimes sake ill garde the the team..

    Cillessen; 6- ; shud really work on his long kick,,and shud listen to Frans Hoek next time who told him to go for the other corner with the penalty

    Janmaat; 5,5 : one of my personal big disappointments. Thought he was one of the best during qualifying but seems a lil tense.

    De Vrij : 5 : im sure he plays about as good as he can..which just isnt good enough on this level..seemed to be a sleep with the Cahill goal

    Vlaar: 6 ; best oranje defender by some margin. Shame he cant really play football or pass a decent ball over 10 meters

    Martins Indi : 5 : same as for De Vrij ..maybe a + for singing Het Wilhelmus with so much passion.

    Blind : 5 : gets boring but same as De Vrij and Indi..

    De Guzman : 5 : cant name anything positive nor negative..cant remember seeing him at all. Maybe we shud take out a missing-person add. Who have seen this man?

    Sneijder: 3 : i cant honestly think of seeing a game where Sneijder played this weak. He cudnt pull off a 5 meter pass if he wud have tried all day. Lets hope a game like this will not happen again.

    De Jong: 6 : made a stupid foul within the first 2 mins of the game but calmed down after. Really took us home last 10 minutes,,on desire

    vPersie; 6,5 : great striker goal..didnt get too many decent balls from our weak midfield.

    Robben: 6,5 : scored a good goal..just looks very fit and sharp over all. Like vPersie Robben suffered from our midfield

    Depay: 6,5 : played very good when he got on for Indi. Did what i saw him do most of the year for PSV. One of the great prospects of dutch football

    Van Gaal got it wrong in the line-up, when Indi was out and Depay on we changed back to a 4-3-3..that worked (a lil) better. Was pretty shocked by the difference in quality between the Spain game and this one. I thought that esp. our defense wud showed a little more confidence after last friday.

    But eh; seems like we have at least another 2 games of football; that 1 more than i expected!

    1. Agree with you on most of the ratings, but would give DeJong and DePay higher marks. For DePay’s debut game, what more could he do? A 6.5 seems miserly.

      Against Chile, with Hunter now being the striker, I would like to see a 4-5-1 formation, more like Bayern, with Robben and Lens starting at the outside wing midfielders, and giving our wingbacks license to attack. We’ll need that kind of crossing service for Hunter, and at the same time on defense we can pack the midfield.

  55. BMI was poor today. He and Cillessen were again the worst players on our team. They’re by far our weakest links.

    Cillessen’s distribution still sucks. @Laurent mentioned in a previous thread how he has trouble catching a ball, and it was on display today. The Aussies weren’t close enough to capitalize when it slipped out of his fingers, but a team like Chile can kill us there.

    There’s just no sense of safety with Cillessen in net. Every time an Aussie player would get close, I would get worried.

    I’m still glad we got the win, but there’s definitely room for improvement. I’d like to see Huntelaar start vs. Chile in a 4-3-3; his size can be useful vs. the short Chilean defenders around the box. We can use Depay and Robben on the other flanks to provide crosses.

    1. RVP, Robben, Depay, and De Jong. I give credit to all of them. Everyone else did very poorly. De Jong towards the end of the game was giving it his all. His energy level and determination were very encouraging even if some of his tackles and passes were not very good.

      We need to use the right side of our attack more.

      BMI didn’t play very well but I think he has more talent than De Vrij. Under a good coach, he can be molded into a more effective player. I feel De Vrij is an Ooijer clone in terms of performance.

      De Vrij and Vlaar have excellent size and physique for a defender but the former loses concentration and is prone to mistake while the latter just lacks quick reaction. A dangerous combination. You can get away with one bad defender if the other one is good and can cover for the other.

      Cillissen is very inexperienced and it showed. I would go with Vorm because Krul gives up some easy goals when playing for Newcastle.

      Van Persie was dumb to pick up a yellow. He always has that temper which is very dangerous. Players like Materazzi can get under his skin by taunting him.

      Maybe we should try Clasie for Sneijder or De Guzman. Our midfield needs some change.

      Cillisen = 6
      Janmatt = 5.5
      De Vrij = 5
      Vlaar = 5.5
      BMI = 5.5
      Blind = 6

      Sneijder = 5.5
      De Guzman = 6
      DeJong = 8

      RVP = 7.5
      Robben = 7.5

      Subs
      Depay = 7
      Wijnaldum = 6
      Lens = 5

  56. The win was good as it is enough for us to earn a tie with Chile to avoid Brazil while Chile has to win the last game. It is also a good lesson for us.

    1. It shows that there are a lot of rooms to improve on our defense. We have a tough time against physical team. It is no good to play high ball as Australia winning most of them (poor Sneijder, De Guzman and De Jong, all one head below Australian players). High ball to Robben and RVP is not a good plan, we need pass on the ground. Australian also pressure our defense very well so our build up is not good.
    2. The team has faced adversity, coming from behind vs Spain, now losing the lead so quick, falling behind and still manage to come back vs Australia.
    3. Again, De Vrij and Janmaat failed to pick up Cahill (more De Vrij than Janmaat). Blind is not good but BMI was a better defender. His injury worries me.
    4. Perhaps I am biased but that was not a good penalty call. I did not see intentional handball at all. Is defender supposed to keep their hand next to his body? When you are running and stretching to block, your hand is in motion.
    5. The rhythm was off for many players. For example Blind was not good today, missing many simple pass. Many bad back pass.
    6. De Guzman was invisible. At least Wijnaldum won some challenges. De Jong showed how it is done, the hustle back, either clear the ball or win the ball back.
    7. We lost many 50/50 ball. The Aussie showed more hungry and motivated than us.
    8. Van Persie again commit many unnecessary fouls and the 2nd yellow card to miss Chile match.
    9. After Robben’s goal, Australian learned to shut Robben down.
    10. Robben, RVP still can score and of course Depay contributes which is nice.
    11. We lost control of the midfield and has a big gap. The midfield either stays too deep when we have possesion.
    12. Croatia can still beat Mexico to advance unless they screwed up their lead vs Cameroon. Either team can upset us. I am looking too far ahead so let’s focus on Chile. Fast Counter attack, fit, but I still think with the talents we have, we should be able to earn a draw. I think Lens will replace RVP instead of Hunter. I think Kongolo will replace BMI. Perhaps Wijnaldum will replace De Guzman to start the game. We will play 5-3-2.

    1. Interesting thought about playing Kongolo. But isn’t he a bit green — especially to take on a fox like Sanchez?

      If healthy, BMI may be a better option, as he is fairly quick (compared to our other backs). Another intriguing possibility is putting Verhaegh at RB. He is aggressive and likes to press forward. We need that ambition, and a thought worth considering in light of Janmaat’s lackluster performance. Janmaat was just to slow to advance, as was Blind.

      A possible 4-5-1 formation, designed to smother Chile’s midfield game and slow them down, yet allow us to break down the wings, is as follows –

      — Hunter —
      Lens – deJong – Sneijder – deGuzman? – Robben
      BMI – Veltman – Vlaar – Verhaegh

      This might give us more speed down the flanks. Vlaar is not the fastest, but he’s experienced, and can make critical tackles in the box (something tells me we’ll need that).

    1. Kevin as I have mentioned this before Van Gaal always like to play with players who fit in his system and not the way around. and I agree with you about Hunter getting o minutes. I think Hunter was never in his plan from Day 1 and its is most likely it will be lens and 532 fromation vs Chile. I dont think Van Gaal will dare to go with 4-3-3 vs chile coz of Vidal, Vargas and Sanchez.

      Once again BMI injury raises the question on how well Kongolo is physiology prepared to face Chile in the pool decider coz that will decided who faces Brazil and which also raises the question of why only 4 CBS were selected when the the idea was to change the formation to 5-3-2.

      I mean you look at Kuyt ,Fer, I dont think they will get any minutes which I mentioned way before and their selection is simply unjustifiable and yet players like Rekik were not considered which would have come hand in this situation.

  58. I could not believe how bad the Dutch played in the first half. The midfield was asleep and getting beat to every ball and the back four were very nervous and tentative–why, I can’t fathom. One would think the team would be full of vigor and confidence after beating Spain but it wasn’t. No rhythm and slow tempo. It was better in the second half–but if the Dutch play like that against Chile it will be a loss. No reason for RVP to get a yellow–that was dumb.

    Chile impressed me: Like Mexico, they are VERY fit and play hard. They had a couple of bad giveaways in the first half but for the most part were very well organized and, unlike the Dutch back four today, their defenders were comfortable with pressure. Spain had almost no good chances in this game. This will be a good test for the team going into the knockout stage. Need a much sharper start.

    1. “No reason for RVP to get a yellow–that was dumb.”
      He wanted to get a rest for the 3rd round 🙂
      I really don’t know who’s tougher 16th round opponent: Brazil or Croatia, cause former is a host nation and the later is just plainly good team. It will be a game to watch.

  59. Well, it was a difficult game. AUS proved again that they are difficult counterpart for the Dutch. The most important thing is that we won it, showed a character and overcame traditionally difficult opponent. Not everybody played well. Based on two games, the weakest part of our defense is a SdV-BMI tandem. However, I do not really believe that current Dutch selection has better replacement for SdV-BMI. Both Veltman and Kongolo are young and inexperienced, and i do not think LvG will let them play. In case, BMI injury is serious, Veltman will be his replacement. In midfield, JdG has not impressed so far, and I do not understand why he has not been replaced by Wejnaldum.

    I believe LvG is still experimenting with formation. 5:3:2 worked perfectly with Spain, but never worked with AUS. It is hard to predict which formation will work against Chili, which is a good team but nothing more than that. With smart play they can be overcame. Too bad that we lost RvP, because Lens is not an equivalent replacement for him. But what happened that happened, so Jermaine will get a chance.

    Overall, we do a great job. Remember, one week ago, nobody would have imagined that as of June 18th, 2014 Dutch national team would be holding first place in the group of Death, while Spanish team would head home in advance.

    So, we have to be very proud of our team, which have been doing above and beyond of their abilities!!! I am confident that Dutch will go far. How far? Nobody knows. Let’s just send our positive energy to our team through TV and this wonderful blog. You all have a good night and good morning!

  60. It’s good we saw the real Holland, and not the circus game against Spain. Of course the game against Spain will stay in the world cup History for a long time but it had nothing to teach us for in my opinion, especially with Chile beating them just after.

    Yesterday we saw the Holland that we know for years, and how hard it is for our team to create opportunities. Especially with the 5-3-2. Things got much better in second half in my opinion. I don’t think that we should go back to the 5-3-2, no matter if Brazil, Croatia or Mexico. Especially with BMI injury, no need to put Veltman or Kongolo, let’s just to add a winger.

    De Guzman is doing bad in my opinion, big lack of grint, no creation, Clasie should get his chance against Chile. Wijnaldum is making good entries, but I don’t think it’s a smart idea to start with. I also want to see Fer.

    Sneijder is also doing bad, I didn’t like him against Spain, despite his assist, he missed an easy chance and still bring really few ball control to the team. Yesterday it was even worse, he missed so many easy passes, I just remember he took a good long shot, that’s all. He didn’t deserve to stay on the field more than 60 minutes.

    Depay was 50/50 in my opinion. 50 positive for his assist, and his “lucky” goal, 50 negative for playing too easy. Sometimes he thinks he is playing beach soccer or don’t know what, doing silly skills and little fashion passes. Just play normal please.

    Lens showed again that he can easily win 1vs1 situations with his speed, he seems to be fit, should get more time.

    Also even if Cillessen didn’t do anything really bad yesterday (except his distribution again), I think we should replace him as soon as possible, cause one mistake will cost much.

  61. I wonder how some of you guys can criticize Cillessen, he is the only one from that back 5 (I repeat) back 5! that gives confidence. He looks insecure cause that back 5 is horrible…
    penalties are almost impossible to save and that cahill was difficult to anticipate.

    De vrij, Vlaar and BMI don’t rotate and cover each other like they should do. Sometimes they overlap each other and mark the same guy while leaving another one free.

    If you pay close attention, Holland actually plays with 6 at the back, Janmaat De Vrij (RB) vlaar (center) BMI Blind (LB) while De “lost” guzman covers this back five.

    As I’ve said before, sneijder is useless. he should be the center of our creativity joining forces with de jong and de guzman. but other than de jong, sneijder and de guzman are just sitting ducks

    1. I don’t remember Cillessen having caught a penalty so far. Maybe he did in some eredivisie games but I do remember that against Celtic, Salzburg, Spain and Australia now, he caught none. So if we have to go to penalty kicks in the second round, be ready to have a bad taste in your mouth.

      Why you say horrible back 5 ? Vlaar is doing pretty well so far, De Vrij better than expected, Blind is ok, had some good and bad moments. Only Janmaat and BMI are under the general level.

  62. I don’t think we should go back to 4-3-3, we should maintain the unpredictable factor with 5-3-2.

    Holland is just so predictable with 4-3-3, attacking through the flanks, multiple touches between defense and midfielders, confused and lost when the opponent parks the bus. Robben cutting in and shooting the ball, Van Persie waiting and waiting, sneijder lost and parked at the back, defense having numerous problems with quick and physical opponents.

    We are the dark horse of this competition and it should stay like that..

    1. Good points Gio. Perhaps we can use a 4-2-3-1 with Huntelaar up front, Sneijder behind him, and Depay and Robben on both wings? The 5-3-2 formation showed its weaknesses today.

      Also, I see De Guzman’s getting a lot of heat, but what alternative do we have?

      Fer still doesn’t seem fully fit, and Wijnaldum isn’t as solid of a defender. I guess you can bring Clasie on, but he and Sneijder have never played well together.

  63. I have not been impressed much with de guzman–and yet Goal.com gave him the highest Dutch player rating–by far–today. Said he completed something like 90 percent of his passes. Maybe-but both he and Sneijder look pretty meh, IMO. Will the Chile game be more like a friendly now–or will both teams go after it? I guess if the loser gets Brazil then both teams will go hard!

  65. De Guzman is doing really bad. Wijnaldum or Clasie can do better than him.

    He has played 2 games already and has been the worst player. We need 3 midfielders not only 2 and yesterday Sneijder didn’t play great so at times I felt as if we only had Nigel.

    Indi has been really weak. Even against Spain during the 1st half he was playing really bad, the 2nd half he improved but yesterday he was doing really bad.

    1. I agree with your comment about De Guzman, but (one or two moments aside) Martins Indi has actually been quite solid for us at the back.

      I’m not sure which games you have been watching.

      1. “I’m not sure which games you have been watching.”

        He watched the same games than me and many others, BMI is bad since the beginning.

        But you don’t know anything about football lol

        So, seems like you are less excited now, are you already scared to see Holland losing sooner than you expected ?

  66. LVG wanted to play 4-3-3 against Australia but some comments from his players forced him to stick to 3-5-2. Robben, Sneijder and RVP hinted a “never change a winning team” so therefore LVG didn’t change our system.

    Because if your players are happy you think they’ll do better than they did yesterday.

    But given the fact that we won thanks to LVG’s change of tactics for the 2nd half back to 4-3-3 maybe our players should just let LVG do his magic!.

  67. lets hope martins indi is ok. at the end of the day this is just a game and he was out for a while which is very bad.

    holland only allowed one goal from open play. the real issue isnt with formation but with how holland lost the ball very easily. van gaal is one of the best and i think he forsaw things. i trust his technical staff and decision making. de guzman has been atrocious two games in a row. sneijder was really bad today we will see with chile a tie and we finish first

    cameroon is bad so unless mexico blows out croatia by 3 goals brazil will finish first as they have one goal more in goal difference

  68. A lot of negativity here as usual. Kind of sickening for a fan site.

    After the last Euro, I didn’t go out of my way to watch Oranje much. I was less interested. Now I can honestly say I have watched two entertaining Oranje games. Australia game was not perfect but we’ve never beat them before and they play tough.

    The only real issues was BMI, he was too slow in distribution and shaky on the ball. Everyone else has played well. Especially our back line – we actually look like a team that can defend.

    Everybody here is going on about Sneijder. He’s playing well BUT he is doing what he is supposed which is boss the midfield. He doesn’t need to be the main man as long as he runs more than anyone on the pitch.

      1. Onzie, we’d be lucky to reach this far.
        But if we do, believe me Argentina, are not the team to avoid. France or Germany are the main contenders. They’re the most rounded, they have the most depth and are best equipped to go all the way.

  69. oranje loses possession too easily, but the finishing quality is able to turn things aroung(28 shots, 25 on target which is the best of all teams…so far).

    On the positive side, that if we improve ball control and passing we can score loads of goals…lol

  70. About De Guzman, I think it’s just a Van Gaal obligation to play like that. He was happy after his game against Ghana. He probably wants him to play next to the defence, with Nigel, taking no risks.

    So Van Gaal is probably happy with what De Guzman is doing, as someone said here, he completed about 90 % of passes. Clasie or Fer would probably miss more passes than him, even if it’s only lateral or back passes.

  71. ANOTHER DUTCH VICTORY!!

    Hahahaha this is so much fun, reading all your comments.
    How old are you guys? 12? Never seen a football game before???
    Waaaaaaah!!! “we’re losing!!”, “we’re so shit!”
    Some of you whining, wailing children should be embarrassed.
    It’s just 11 men trying to be better than 11 other men at kicking a ball into a net. Relax. You’ll live longer.

    Refs will give penalties when they are not deserved. Cats and dogs living together. Mass hysteria!
    Sneijder had a stinker, still won’t pass to RVP, but was still involved in a goal. He cannot play that badly again.
    Blind had a stinker too, but also stopped a goal chance. He’ll be better again next time also. A blip.
    Janmaat forgot to put the right boots on the right feet. It happens. Cheer up!!

    Tell you what though, there is no substitute for Nigel De Jong. He is one hell of an ‘enforcer’. Man of the match performance. I’d like to see Classie next to him, rather than De Guzman. Personal choice.
    Robben is on fire, and tracking back. He’s having his own golden boot competition with Van Persie. Would be nice to see him pass more in the final third, but that’s never going to happen. Killer instinct.
    Van Gaal is getting his secondary tactics spot on – even if his primary tactics aren’t quite hitting the mark yet. Keeping us on his toes. Haha! Good to see that he is keeping our heroes fit and healthy for a full 90 minutes – cannot say the same for some other teams.

    IMPORTANTLY though, Holland have been LOSING both games so far, and we have turned them BOTH around.
    That’s serious mental strength right there!!
    I’m not certain that so many Holland teams of the past could do this. SO PROUD!

    The clowns here who said Depay was a “useless selfish dribbler like Elia and Babel” should learn to watch full games and not YouTube highlights. ‘Dribbler’ Ha! The irony.
    Depay was a breath of fresh air last night. Great footballer. Great goal. We’ll see more of him. Get used to it.
    The Aussie goalkeeper was not unlucky. Grow up. There is no such thing as ‘luck’. It was a fierce shot, curling viciously away from him. Bad timing. Beautiful strike.

    Some supporters are only supporters when the team is winning and playing PlayStation football. So sad.
    So predictable. But hey, that’s the price of being beautiful Holland. We attract these weirdos!

    Negative bitter little boys (hey Laurent) will try to bring us down to their level – which MUST logically mean we are WAY ABOVE them to start with. That’s satisfying. It really is.
    As long as he keeps posting, with every little cynical cowardly jibe at Jan and Ajax and Oranje, we can be sure that he’s still impotently raging away behind his nazi keyboard. So jealous. So limp. So simple. So insecure. LOVE IT!! 🙂

    Australia fought like they were being dragged to the airport by their toenails. Fair play to them.
    True Aussie grit. Leave everything on the pitch.
    I admire that. They gave us a proper battle, as was expected. It was all or nothing from them – win or bust – and we rode their storm with our individual quality, and took advantage as they became tired.
    Tournaments give us games like this. It is nothing new.
    Why are some of you so shocked? Did you expect 5-1 every week now?? Hahaha!! Come on….
    Winning is a great habit to have, but show some common sense, people.

    I don’t care about meeting Brazil sooner or later. If we are to progress, we will have to beat the best at some point – and I’m not sure Brazil are actually the best anyway. They look pedestrian. We can take them. Chile look more dangerous.
    Germany and Italy have impressed me so far. They are better than us, but hey, any team can beat any team in a knockout. And the competition is still young. Much can happen.

    Platini bought the smelly frogtards a nice clear path, but they will comically trip over their own noses as usual.
    Argentina could still come to life. So could England (that’s a wrecking ball team if it gets going). It’s a very open tournament. But not for Spain. Sorry boys 😉

    Brazil have paid $BIG to host this, you can be sure they will be around for a bit longer. That’s how these things work. Very disturbing for us to see that the Group A final matches are played after the Group B ones. That’s interesting! Hmmm, I wonder why!!
    Great World Cup. Has Webb refereed yet? Didn’t think so.

    Probably we won’t go too far – and we are SMART and we know this – but hey, we are enjoying this tournament.
    Enjoying it a LOT!
    Enjoying it even more when the bitter little children try to bring us down. That’s how we know we’ve already won!!

    I’ll leave the ‘football analysis’ to the geniuses here.

    HUP HOLLAND!!

    FUCK YEAH!! 🙂

    AND we’re the first NATION through to the next round.

    Woop! Woop!

    Watch me dance, motherfuckers!

    Woop! Woop!

    Watch me dance!!

    🙂

  72. I feel that both JdG and Sneijder have a specific task assigned by LvG. They are sort of invisible…During the game, I personally have trouble to see what exactly those two guys do. However, LvG keep them in the team, which means they are doing well what they have been assigned to do….

  73. Wow…that was a relieve game…close one. Australians are allways hard to crack up. …on the field . Anyway…we done it and HUP HUP ORANJE ALL THE WAY……….

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