Tag: Van Bommel

July 17, 2015 by Jan

Dutch football, where do we stand….?

Well, time for reflection. The football-less summer is here. The one in which we can marvel at the South Americans or smirk at the women…

I had a serious bout of bloggers curse! I wrote a long piece on Hiddink and the future of Oranje and then two things happened: a computer crash wiped out half of the text and at the same time it appeared Hiddink was out and San Marco in so my whole rant was outdated and needed reworking. This put me off for a spell. Apologies. I will rehash the old post and add all the new items in it.

The odd summers are always a bore :-). I love the big tournaments and the excitement of it all. I’m sorry I couldn’t feel it for the Lionesses. Not that I don’t like Women’s football. I think its cool that the girls get a lot of attention and all that. But I can’t watch it like I watch men’s. I see so many silly mistakes. Bad touches, bad vision, defensive errors… I don’t enjoy it. I would support our women all the way to the gold obviously but watching it is frustrating. I saw highlights of most and the full match vs Japan and we are still a bit behind them, the Ozzies, the Germans and the US. Our speed in handling the ball and movement in particular. And decision making. We also allowed several dangerous headers by the little Japanese girls while we do have some tall mofos at the back. Anyway… there is always the Olympics :-).

Lots of movement on the transfer front but not a lot of real action. Maarten Stekelenburg to Southampton is good news. For him. Not sure if we need Maarten for Oranje. But Koeman will have more patience with him I suppose. He still has 5 good years in him, I think. Karim Rekik will leave PSV. The youngster is keen to move to France or Italy. I was surprised by his move as City was not unhappy with him at PSV and the new champs are playing CL next season but Rekik wants more apparently. Otherwise, no real interest as yet in Clasie, Wijnaldum or Willems.

It appeared that the Zeist management has had question marks around Hiddink for a while now. His lack of passion, his alleged laziness, his lack of clarity and direction and the relationship between him and the technical staff and the key players apparently is fragile.

Hiddink was a great servant to Dutch football but the time came for him to leave. Danny will take over asap in the role of team manager and none other than Marco van Basten will take the role of assistant manager in the staff. San Marco and Danny have worked together in different roles (players, coach and manager) and appreciate each other’s contributions. “Marco is one of the best analists I have come across and dares to speak his mind. He is an independent thinker and very creative tactically. He is also a great and loyal guy,” said Danny Blind.

Marco could have stayed with AZ to work under Van den Brom and was doubting whether he should take the step, but working towards a Euro and World Cup tournament with the best players of the country really appealed to him. Ruud van Nistelrooy will stay on as assistant as well.

In the meantime, some exciting transfers happened…. For starters, Skipper Van Persie leaves Man United to play in Fenerbahce’s colours. The former Feyenoord man will follow in Kuyt’s footsteps, who made his way back to Feyenoord. Van Persie signed on for three years. Louis van Gaal: “I wish him well. I sent him a text message already. Robin knew what he could expect with Man United. I was clear to him about his future here. I would have loved for him to stay, but I was not giving him a starter spot, without question. He wanted to play and keep himself on the radar for Oranje. That is his choice. I wish him well.” The crowd in Turkey greeted RVP already and Dirk tweeted a nice message to his mate. “It is not hard to fall in love with this club. I am sure Robin will love playing there and I am sure the fans will love him back.”

Jordy Clasie is reunited with Ronald Koeman, with whom he built up a deep relationship. Clasie cried on the pitch when Koeman said his farewell one season ago and will join Southampton on a 5 year deal. Clasie knew he wanted to work with Koeman again, but in the last week before his decision suddenly Lazio Roma other clubs started to zoom in. Feyenoord signed Swede Gustavson as another midfielder replacement for the little playmaker. “A dream come true. In my 15 years in the Feyenoord jersey I was always told I might not reach the top. Under Koeman I made my big step up and even made it to Oranje. To go and play in the Premier League is a dream come true. But I will always remain a Feyenoord man at heart.”

Another reunion in the EPL is the move of Jeremain Lens to Advocaat’s Sunderland.

And if you need another reason to cast your eye on the EPL: Georghinio Wijnaldum signed for Newcastle United where he will join Janmaat, Siem de Jong, Anita and Krul under Steve McLaren.

Leaves us with the question “What to do to improve our Dutch football?”. The analysis needed to answer this needs to focus on the question “What is wrong with it?”. And obviously, as with anything, money is a key factor. I believe Sunderland in the EPL has more money to spend per season than all the Eredivisie clubs put together. Or something like that. There is one major issue. Which will not be resolved just like that.

But money doesn’t buy trophies. So we need to find the solution in our coach prowess, among other things. We might not have the funds to buy the same players as Sunderland or Monaco or Basel or Benfica. But we should be able to use the players we have to create a better team. This has been done many times by the Germans (1990, 1996, 1974), in 2004 by the Greek, Louis van Gaal did it in 2014 with Oranje and at club level Atletico Madrid comes to mind.

Oranje will always be able to shine, in my opinion. We do create enough talents to fill at least 22 seats with good players. If we can have a good coach who can instil a playing style that fits the players we should be able to remain amongst the best 8 teams in Europe. I think that the new bunch of players (Depay, Willems, Clasie, Klaassen, Bazoer, Chery, Zyiech, Van Beek, Vilhena, Rekik, Berghuis) have more than enough talent to rise to the occassion. Add to this a Strootman, a Janmaat, a De Vrij and a Robben and you have a decent team.

At club level I think it will be very hard to compete. But not totally undoable. Although it will take a very strong coach with an entrepreneurial club management to come up with the goods. And every 5 years I think it should be possible for an Ajax, Feyenoord or PSV to do well in the CL.

PSV had its chance this coming season. If they’d be able to cling on to Depay and Wijnaldum for one more year. The option is always there. You promise the top players you need a free exit from the club, or something like that. In return for another year to perform in the CL. The price money you can collect might be worth it… Although… Depay 35 Mio. Wijnaldum 19 Mio. It’s a lot of money…. Is it thinkable that PSV and the players would have said no to their chance to take a next step up?

Or will it be a small team like AZ with a talented young coach like Van den Brom and players like Berghuis and Muhren maybe? To perform with excellence in the Europa League?

Who knows… Your opinion please?

April 26, 2015April 26, 2015 by Jan

Congratulations to Phillip Cocu!

I have never been a PSV fan. And I have shared it many times here. But… I do like and have liked many of their players… What is not to like… Romario, Wim Kieft, Willy van der Kuylen, Luc Nilis… Awesome players. And I am a big Phillip Cocu fan. From creative left winger to midfielder and leader. I liked him at PSV and admired him in his 6 years at Barca and all his games in Oranje.

It seemed he would be a good coach. Good mentality. Tactical intelligence. Great skill. Gentleman personality.

He decided to go through the phase of coaching youth team after youth team, while also assisting Bert van Marwijk with Oranje. He started his career at PSV with a young squad and started that season (last year) with tremendously sexy football. Attractive, attacking, fast, many goals… But somehow suddenly that team choked. And Phillip got pressure and flak. And when he asked Hiddink for council, the media ate him up claiming he was vulnerable and weak. In the meantime, he also battled with cancer while just been gone through divorce.

Not too happy times but Phillip turned it around. He was able to use a couple of new players coming in (Guardado, Luuk de Jong) and could count on the strength of two players who just starred at the World Cup Brazil, Depay and Wijnaldum. On top of that Adam Maher, the prodigal son, started to develop himself and find a spot in the team.

So this season, it all clicked. They started the season in winning form and kept on going. I don’t think they ever played as good as last season but they never played as bad as in the second half of last season. Consistent. Smart. Focused. With Wijnaldum in a leadership role and Depay as the miracle man and Willems as provider and Guardado guarding the balance.

Ajax simply was not good enough. Consistent in grinding out results, but not good enough.

Feyenoord started with 4 or 5 new players and lost points in the start of the season and lacked PSV’s consistency, although they probably played better football on the highs. But lacking scoring power a la Pelle, they could never challenge Ajax or PSV.

So after 5 years of drought, the trophy returns to Eindhoven.

On starting his career with AZ Alkmaar….

Cocu: “I got my first break as a first team player at AZ under Hugo Hovenkamp. He was stand in care taker manager when Eijkenbroek was ill and he used me. I was 18 years old. I had had three stints on the bench before that. The clock was ticking agewise. The club didn’t want to use me in the first team as they would have to pay a significant sum to my amateur clubs where I started. So they pressed Hugo to not use me for another couple of months. But Hugo said “nope, forget it, results come first” and he put me in. That was a whole thing, back then. I was very inconsistent back then, but AZ played first division so no one noticed hahaha. I could play 20 minutes great football and then I would invisible for 30 minutes… But I was driven, wanted to learn and had talent. I was already playing for regional rep teams and by then Young Orange came into view for me as well. We wanted to go to the Olympics in Barcelona but were beaten by Australia in the play offs. Ned Zelic scored the winner for them late. Was a disappointment, I remember. We had a tremendous generation. Taument, Ronald de Boer, Arthur Numan, Marc Overmars, but no Games for us….”

On his Vitesse spell…

“Roda JC wanted to sign me but I wasn’t impressed with their story. My parents wanted me to finish high school in case football didn’t work out. Roda wasn’t too supportive of this. It didn’t feel good to me. And as I was good at studying, I decided to do some more school work. At the end of my first year as a starter, Vitesse came. I lived in that area before with my family and it felt like home a bit. I wanted to study marketing and combine it with football but the uni didn’t cooperate! In this day and age, that would be unheard of. When I came to Vitesse, they just finished fourth! Was a top team, with Van den Brom, Laamers, Eijer, Latuheru, Sturing and Bos. In my first week I broke my leg. That was rough. But it allowed me to work on my foundations. Bert Jacobs was the coach. He was an amazing coach. He was a pretty weird sort of guy, but a great coach. We would kill for him, you know. And it was all about football with him. When Jacobs left and Herbert Neumann came, he put me in midfield. That was a big one. I think I could have had a good career as a left winger too, but never as good as a midfielder. Neumann was a good coach too by the way, but a bit more German discipline. As a midfielder, you cannot be inconsistent. You have to take care of the balance in the team and that helped me a lot as a player.”

On his step up to PSV.

“I was 24 when I left for PSV. I had 5 years at Vitesse. Ajax wanted me earlier on but Vitesse asked a lot for me. I signed a new deal with a limited fee for a transfer. When PSV came, I was ready to go. Vitesse chairman Aalbers gave me a blank check to sign, but I didn’t do it. I wanted to play top flite football and Vitesse was not making that final step. Today, players of 24 make the step abroad but I was born in Eindhoven, my family is from Eindhoven. I love PSV, the club values, the atmosphere. I still have that bond with Vitesse as well. That is important for me. I won my first trophy with PSV in 1997. That moment, I can still feel. A tremendous orgasm of joy and release. I have made that trip on the flat trailer a number of times now. It’s special. What a team we had: Wim Jonk, Ronaldo, Luc Nilis, Jaap Stam. We actually didn’t even win that much. Just one cup and one title. But Ajax had a pretty good generation too, so… it was good times.”

Playing with Ronaldo:

“He is definitely the best player I have ever played with. There is no category for that lad. He came to PSV 17 years old and simply scored 30 goals in his first season. I recently saw this compilation of him, he was unbelievable. Really passionate about football. He and I spent a lot of time together. We were good mates. He enjoyed going out for a drink or spending some time socially. The pressure he had to endure at a young age. And every couple of years he’d go to another club, bigger and better, and he never succumbed under the pressure. A phenomenon..”

On missing a penalty against Brazil, WC1998…

“That has haunted me for quite a while. I am telling you…missing like this… that is really bad. I suffered from these sorts of situations much longer than I enjoyed winning something. This was after 120 minutes of top football against Brazil and I was done for. I was empty. I didn’t strike it hard enough, really. It could have gone a bit more in the corner too. Simply not good enough. This was my favorite tournament. The Euro2000 was good too, but this one… Everything clicked. We were staying outside of Monaco. The vibe was so good. So different to the 1996 Euros. We started with 0-0 against Belgium and we lost Pat Kluivert in that match. The pressure was on for the South Korea game and we won 5-0. Here I score the first and Edje Davids is almost tearing my jersey off my back, hahahaha. All that passion and drive. I love that.”

On friendships in football:

“The football world is a bit shallow. Someimes one or two friendships is all you have left. Weird. But the pace is constantly high. Lots of games with the club and then the international games with the country. Whenever you have time off you want to spend it with real mates or family. I still hang with my old buddies from school. I value that. Going out for a bite to eat. They know me for who I am, not because I’m a cool football player. I do have real friendships in football, by the way. Frank de Boer and I are very close. We met at Oranje and played together in Barcelona and became close. We would go on holidays together and play foot-volley tournaments together. We are both extremely fanatical about winning. But he is a real mate.”

On playing against the best of the best:

“This is against Zidane. Man, what a gifted player. One of the best ever. Very elegant and skillful. On this pic I am captain of Barcelona. I was and still am so proud of that. I also skippered Holland. Also something I was very proud of. I played six seasons in Spain. Barcelona is as warm as PSV. A real family oriented club. I still go back to watch a game every now and then. I was there recently to see Barca play Real Madrid. The people always treat me very warmly and respectfully. I have gone through highs and lows in Spain, but at a certain point we had an amazing team…. Kluivert, Figo, Rivaldo, Ronald de Boer, Luis Enrique… ”

On his exit from Barcelona:

“My last season was the first one of Frank Rijkaard and Ronaldinho. I rate Ronaldinho very high. Up there with Ronaldo. The joy was back in the dressing room…. A news period of successes. I was not going to be part of it. My contract ended. I was allowed to stay but the club was not doing well financially. I had already sacrificed earlier on with a new deal and as the skipper I felt the respect of that last offer was lacking…. Sure, you try to be there in good and bad times and as the skipper I played my part but this particular offer didn’t show a lot of respect. I am quite principled in that sense. And when PSV called, I got excited. They wanted to do something at Champions League level. I had a good feeling about it.”

On the second journey with PSV:

“For years, PSV wasn’t able to get that break in Europe. That quest was exciting for me. The way Hiddink embraced me and made me co-responsible for this was something I enjoyed. I try to use that approach myself now too, to make the players accountable. Not everyone is sensitive to this, there is always that, but a lot of them are. My first year back was great. We lost in the semi finals against AC Milan but we should have gone on to the finals. We were better over two games, but we let ourselves down. But, we won the title, the cup and got semi finals CL… Not that bad. More experienced players can be crucial in that process and this is why I am also keen to work with players with similar bagage. They can give the team that crucial last push.” (Jan: Schaars was one of the players in this category for PSV but he was injured most of the season).

On his final game for PSV:

“A crazy end to a crazy season. We won the title on the last day on goal difference and it was me scoring that final goal. This is probably the most emotional moment of my football career. I knew I would quit so it made it extra special. My sons are all football players. The middle one plays in the Vitesse youth, the others are at the local amateur club. I love watching them play and watch like a dad, not as a coach. They have good coaches and I want to enjoy them as their father. Obviously, they come and watch PSV play when we play at home.”

On resurfacing at Al-Jazira Club….

“Crazy. I was retired. And a week into my holiday I freaked out. I was invited to play in Munich for the farewell of Roy Makaay and Scholl and while I was there, Al Jazira was in a trainings camp there. And Rob Janssen, my manager, spoke with them and they made him an offer. One more year, in another culture… Quite an adventure. And quite a good pay-check. I decided to do it. In my first game, I scored with an overhead kick so my entrance was quite good, hahaha. During the season I did realise I was actually really getting over it a bit. And that was it. We won the Europa League of the Arab nations. Good fun. But that was it. I played Jaap Stam’s farewell game too that summer and enjoyed being in the dressing room with the lads. I missed that.”

On life as a retired football player:

“I never saw myself as a coach, like Frank did. He knew as a player he’d go into coaching. I did want to get that diploma but it was Van Marwijk who called me to assist him, with Frank, at Oranje. I loved it. I knew it was ideal to do this in combination with my studies. And being amongst the lads, on the pitch, always a ball around…was great. The South Africa World Cup was amazing! I started to work at PSV and took over when Rutten was sacked. We actually won the Cup and that is my first trophy as a coach. They all matter. I’m really happy that PSV saw me as a good coach, and just like with my football career, I do wish to achieve the highest possible.”

Cocu did suffer some setbacks in his recent years. He divorced from his wife and the mother of his three kids after she appeared to have an affair for years. He also was diagnosed with a tumor in his back, which was taken out last year.

July 4, 2014 by Jan

Dirk Kuyt: Soldier of Orange

Willem van Hanegem: “In all honesty. I am not a big Kuyt fan. I find him too artificially positive in his interviews. He seems to build an image of ideal son in law. The people’s player. His football style is also not mine… But man oh man, what was he good and what was he important again for Oranje. I tip my hat.”

Johan Cruyff: “This Dutch team does not play Total Football. They have forsaken the way we developed football and how internationally we got to be revered. But something has come in the place of that creativity and dominance. And by golly, it works. It is direct and effective and it is built on passion and team spirit. Robben might be the star, Sneijder might be the tragic hero who has sacrificed himself…but the symbol of this team is Dirk Kuyt.”

And I could easily add Tiju to this list of quotable people but in all honesty, to list Tiju with De Kromme and JC would be a bit much, even for me…

But even Tiju finally sees the light. Dirk Kuyt is a phenomenon.

I said it here a couple of times already in the past. Every good generation of talent will be accompanied by one or two players that were totally ignored by the talent scouts in the youth system. Typical examples are Jaap Stam (made it to PSV when he was 23 years old and finally got the eye of the expert) and Jerryl Hasselbaink. Dirk Kuyt is also a player who took a long time to find a club in pro football (FC Utrecht) to give him a chance. He was signed as a pinch hitter, as he was not really productive as a striker for amateur club Quick Boys. When he went to play for Utrecht, the people who knew him said “he’ll never make it there…just not talented enough”. He did well for Utrecht and caught the eye of Feyenoord after beating the Rotterdam club in the Cup Final and scoring. When he made the step to Feyenoord for 1 mio euros, people said “he’ll never make it there, he is simply not good enough”. With Salo Kalou as his striking partner, he became a fan favorite quickly and he became top scorer for Feyenoord in 2005 with 29 goals. A career high. When Liverpool came, a season later, Kuyt made the jump for an undisclosed fee. The experts: “He’ll never make it at Liverpool, he’s not good enough.” As a striker, he actually didn’t make it. He lacked the speed and the touch in the confined spaces but his coach Benitez loved his work ethics and drive and decided to use him outwide in a 4-2-3-1 formation.

He would receive cult hero status in Liverpool as well, partly due to his work ethics partly due to his relationship and respect for the fans. He’d be at Anfield for 5 years and when it was time for Dirk to move on, Feyenoord allegedly wanted him back, initially, but later reneged on their offer as “Kuyt was getting on in age and was maybe not as good anymore”. Dirk felt snubbed and signed for Fenerbahce in Turkey, where he would play practically all games and win the Turkish title.

Overall Nice Guy: talking with little girl before the Mexico game

Dirk was selected for Oranje by Marco van Basten when he took over in September 2004 from Advocaat. He played his first Oranje game vs Liechtenstein, which was San Marco’s first game as coach. Van Basten dropped Kluivert and Makaay and decided to bring fresh blood into the team. He played 11 of the 12 qualification games for the WC2006 but lost his spot to Robin van Persie at the World Cup. He did play as a sub in the first game and was given the nod in the knock out game against Portugal over Van Nistelrooy, as the latter had clashed with coach Van Basten. Kuyt played an unlucky game in the striker role, missing a major chance to equalise in a game that became infamous for the number of yellow and red cards.

Kuyt did play as a starter under Van Basten at the 2008 Euros assisting two goals and scoring one. Kuyt played wide on midfield with Rafa van der Vaart and Sneijder in 2008. Kuyt started in all games in 2010 under Van Marwijk at the World Cup scoring against Denmark and assisting against Brazil and Uruguay.

Kuyt lost his spot under Van Marwijk in the 2012 Euros, with Robben played wide right and Afellay preferred on the left of the pitch. Van Gaal took over and Kuyt was surprisingly made vice captain, although he hardly played any minutes in the qualification games. Despite his success in Turkey, many people wrote him off for the World Cup. Only Van Gaal seemed to be convinced he would need the battler in Brazil and as per usual, Van Gaal seems to be right.

Dirk’s wife Gertrude is a down-to-Earth person like her hubby and she famously kept on working as a nurse while Kuyt had his run of fame and fortune. They founded the Dirk Kuyt foundation and are actively involved in supporting disadvantaged children in the developing countries.

Dirk with wife Gertrude (and kids)

Dirk has always been an underrated player, as my earlier comments attest. He is always seen as “the hard worker”. But Kuyt is more. He is a believer. He knows that with the right attitude you can perform magic. Not the magic of Robben or Van Persie. But Kuyt magic. Making things happen. Impacting the flow of the game. As Rene van der Gijp said recently: after the victory over Mexico and Oranje was back in Rio, Dirk grabbed a sponge and started to wash the players’ bus. That is Kuyt. Never complaining. If Van Gaal would say to Lens, Huntelaar or Van Persie “I want you to play right back!” they would probably repond with “Me? Why not him!”… Dirk says “Sure. Tell me what to do and I’ll do it.” He is very smart tactically. His positioning is pretty good. His match technique is pretty good too. He might not be able to do the Edgar Davids / Memphis Depay style trickery, or the flowing dribbles like Robben or sensational first time volleys like Van Persie, but his touch is solid. And his pass and move game above average. He can tackle, shoot, head a ball… He can do it all relatively well. And he will never let you down. So here is a guy who can play left back, left midfield, striker and right back all in the same 90 minutes.

Dirk with Mr BossMan

He earned his 100rd cap against Mexico and it meant a lot for him. Because it was exactly seven years ago on the day when his dad and biggest mate and fan died and Dirk became the 7th Dutch player to reach this milestone (behind Frank de Boer, Cocu, Van der Sar, Van der Vaart, Sneijder and Gio van Bronckhorst). He does have a record however. Because players like Sneijder and Van der Vaart reached the Oranje squad quite predictably before their 20st birthday. Dirk Kuyt was already 24 years old in 2004 when Van Basten invited him to the squad. He made his debut with Romano Dennenboom and Dave van den Bergh. Who?? So he received the 100 caps within ten years and played for Oranje on 5 major tournaments. And right before the Mexico match he summed it up: “I always had to convince others of my qualities. But I never had to convince myself….”. Kuyt was again the motor of the team. During the last drink break he clenched his fist. Holland was 1-0 down and he screamed “Come on! We can still turn this around!!”. And they did.

Dirk with kids

Lots of people would love to know his secret. How can a 34 year old be so fit and strong. Well, most of it is simply genes. Kuyt is born in a family of fishermen. Generation after generation. A tough job for sure. And before he left for Utrecht, Dirkie was also working on the trawlers. But he also deployed a team of medical experts around him. Not unlike Ron Vlaar by the way. When Dirk joined Utrecht, he had a bit of a beergut, believe it or not. He met Leo Echteld at Utrecht, who also worked with Seedorf, Davids and Kluivert. Echteld would remain Dirk’s physio. He also met magnetist Henk de Gier at Feyenoord, who is specialised in stress management. And we mean literally, taking tension out of the body and muscles. De Gier assists top athletes and artists and was key in Dirk’s processing of his dad’s death in 2007. “I call him always, wherever I am, before a match. Just checking in. It works for me,” says Kuyt. Thirdly, Dirk works with haptonome Peter van den Beld, who works with Kuyt’s body and lastly there is Hammerman Jan Jan. This orthomanual therapist works in Rotterdam and Dirk sees him three times a year for a check up. “He uses a hammer, hence the name, and he does a check up to verify if all is still balanced in the body, and capable of pulling the weight. I’ve learned that all is connected. I get a lot of knocks and when you walk differently because your ankle hurts, you can easily disrupt a thigh muscle in your other leg…” Being experienced helps too. He played the most minutes for Fener this season and was the first player from outside of Holland to join the squad. “I learned that by making mistakes. Back in 2006, I just played the Champions League finals with Liverpool and decided to take a break before coming to the squad sessions. The result was: Robin van Persie was fitter than me and Van Basten picked him over me, while I had played all qualification games. That was a big learning experience for me. I need to always be busy and active.”

Dirk with girlfriend

June 11, 2014June 17, 2014 by Jan

Memory Lane visit with Bert van Marwijk: World Cup 2010

Hi all, we made it to the World Cup!

Only 1 day to go…. WOOOHOOOOOO…. I remember how I felt in 1982, 1986, 2002…. I highly enjoyed ’82 and ’86. Hated the 2002 tournament.

But lads, this blog has made it (with you and the Oranje lads). Partly thanks to your donations and support.

A last request to anyone out there with some spare change left. I appreciate your support and I hope you appreciate my efforts in bringing you the cool insights.

I am planning to make this place even cooler (thanks to your suggestions) and will keep on asking you for more ideas in the weeks to come.

But. Now. Off. To. Brazil.

With our last World Cup Memory Lane Visit.

We will allow Bert van Marwijk the final say before we delve into the World Cup 2014 actualities…

“The World Cup was a success. The Euros2012 were a failure. But the irritation and internal strife was bigger in South Africa then in the Euros 2012.”

Bert van Marwijk was a talented but headstrong left winger. Feyenoord wanted him and he did play one game for Oranje but a serious injury impeded him. He started his coaching career in the amateur ranks, moved to Fortuna Sittard (where he met his future son in law Mark van Bommel) and made history with that club. When Feyenoord signed him, he was still a leftish, jumpsuit wearing roll-your-own smoking trainer. At Feyenoord, he transformed to a well-dressed non-smoking coach.

The last coach to win a European trophy with a Dutch club, he moved to Borussia Dortmund, where he started well and working under tough conditions, only to lose his job when things turned sour, partly as a result of poor financial means. It was clear that one day the somewhat conservative and loyal Van Marwijk would coach the National Team.

He inherited a fine squad from predecessor Van Basten, with a new 4-2-3-1 system engrained. He added Mark van Bommel (who refused to play under Van Basten post 2006) and worked diligently towards a fixed starting line up. The good news: if you were in, you had to really blow it to lose your spot. The bad news: if you weren’t ‘in’ you had to work really hard and be really good in order for Bert to pick you.

Van Marwijk has fine qualities as a coach, but one of the things I never liked was his tendency to play the best players as much as possible, even if it meant they had to play on spots they don’t really perform well… Rafael van der Vaart as left winger? Really?

Like Van Basten before him and Van Gaal after him, qualifying was not a problem. Bert broke record after record and mostly with attractive football. We won 8 out of 8 and had a broad list of goalscorers. Huntelaar played often and scored 3. The rest was scored by Van der Vaart (2), Van Bommel (2), Van Persie, Kuyt, De Jong, Robben, Ooijer, Elia, Mathijsen and Heitinga .

But for the World Cup 2010, there was quite some discussion in the nation: will Bert be ballsy enough to play the Big Four. Robben, Robin, Raf and Wes.

Bert decided to give it a go. The farewell match vs Hungary prior to the World Cup demonstrated that the Big Four enjoyed playing together. For 85 minutes, the sun was shining down upon Oranje. Until that moment when Robben got injured. The man of the moment ( with Sneijder) was out, at least for the group stages and Bert had to replace Robben. Elia would have been the logical choice. Depth. Speed. Trickery. Unpredictability.

But Bert didn’t dare to pick him and used Van der Vaart as left winger, with De Jong and Van Bommel as holding mids against the group opponents Denmark, Japan and Cameroon.

This is where I believe Bert got it wrong. There was hardly any penetration and no surprise factor. The first game vs Denmark was played in a slow pace, the lack of depth gave Denmark the possibility to contain Holland and the flow of the qualification games was gone. Couldn’t we have played with Elia on the left flank from the start? And Rafael as one of the holding mids? This worked well later in the tournament… Sand in the machine. Holland won the group games but without ever sparkling. When Robben was brought back into the team, Sneijder focused all his passing on the Boy from Bedum, leaving Van Persie underused.

The Dutch game became predictable. Van Bommel and De Jong and Co repossess the ball. Sneijder gets the ball played in and movement of Robben and Van Persie would then invite the killer pass.

It took until the second half in the quarter finals against Brazil. That is when the Dutch team woke up. And it was most likely one of the players (Sneijder?) who took the word in the break and said “we are either going to go home like sissies and be ashamed for the rest of our lives or we go back onto the pitch and take the game!”. Van Marwijk didn’t change a thing and allowed the same eleven of the first half fix the problem.

The Uruguay game was almost the reverse. We started really well with a tremendous goal by Gio but somehow lost grip on the game in the second half. But the finals were reached and Holland was quite confident. We were playing like true champions while Spain was a tad lucky against Paraguay and Portugal.

The Spanish side didn’t play the superior total football game we expected, just like Holland wasn’t able to set the stadiums on fire.

The finals were a disappointment of course. We started agitated. Too much testosterone. Van Persie with a sneaky kick, Van Bommel with too aggressive play. The game plan was clear. Don’t let Spain settle on the ball. Immediate pressure. But Holland overdid it and Spain made a table full of tapas of it.

Ref Howard Webb was impressed with the dynamics and “forgot” to give De Jong a red card for a bad timed and ill-planned high kick for the ball. He missed the ball. But Xabi Alonso still has the studs in his skin, most likely. If Webb would have given red, the game might have developed fairly normally. But Webb didn’t and somehow tried to fix the mistake the whole game long.

He protect the Spanish players as if they were made of churros and forgot to red card Puyol for a tackle from behind on Robben. He also missed the fact that Sneijder deserved a corner kick after a free kick and instead allowed Spain to progress the game which in the end resulted in Iniesta’s goal. By then, Heitinga was redcarded for a run of the mill foul….

Despite the loss, the whole World Cup was a good news show. The vibe in the group was good, the wives and kids were present, the team was winning. Van Marwijk even allowed Michel Vorm to fly home during the World Cup campaign to witness his baby being born. Two days later, Vorm was back.

In 2010, that was seen as “normal”. But when Van Persie made a phone call after a lost game at the Euros 2012, it became a whole “thing”. Van Marwijk grins… “People don’t realise that the vibe wasn’t much better in 2010. It was worse, actually. But it all stands with the results. If you win a first game in a tournament, the chest goes out. The smile comes on the faces and players can accept more. No matter what the issues are, or what is going on…the result determines most.”

“In 2010, we had to deal with that twitter thing with Elia. We had a substitution of Van Persie who was having a go at me and Sneijder… The media even had lipreaders to check what we said. But the criticism dies down when you are winning. And I don’t mean from the media only, also from the squad

. In 2010, we played Denmark and had a tough first half. We didn’t create half a chance, but through an own goal we get the advantage. In 2012, same opponent, we create 8 big chances and should have had two penalties. But we lose. That is the difference. In 2010, we knew we had the next round in our own hands, in 2012 we had to beat Germany and Portugal. That was a bit overwhelming.”

“In 2010, we did play a bit more business like. We could create two or three great moments and that got us that first victory. I see the grit of the 2010 team back in Atletico Madrid. The will to win. Our opponents said it to us after the games: “We never had the feeling we could actually beat you”. And don’t forget: Louis is getting pressure because his defence is vulnerable. In 2010, they said the exact same thing about my defence. Heitinga, Mathijsen, Ooijer… They weren’t good enough. But they managed to reach and almost win the finals.”

“What we did well in South Africa, and I hope Louis will follow suit, is create enough entertainment and distraction. These are 23 winners, big egos. Leaders most if not all of them. Used to getting their way. Used to being the big boys. You need to offer them something. But not in a forced way. Players are shrewd, they see through things. This is where I failed at the Euros 2012.”

How is the culture a factor? For instance, Spain can lose a first game at the World Cup 2010 and still win it. Italy in 1982 plays three boring draws but wins the World Cup in style. Van Marwijk: “I am sure there is a difference in that aspect. You can lock 23 South Koreans up for 9 weeks and they’ll come out looking as fresh and crisp as Humberto Tan (Dutch tv personality). Do this to Dutch people and within 3 days you have a revolt.”

“Spain in 2010 is a different story though. They had Howard Webb as ref in that first game against Switzerland. And the Spanish media and team were livid after that game. When Webb was given the finals, the media put pressure on and so did Del Bosque and the players. Every decision he made was debated and criticised. Webb was under a lot of pressure from the first minute. Late in the game, 120,000 people see we deserve to get a corner kick. Webb misses it. In the ensuing phase, Elia gets the ball and is fouled and from that situation, they score. If we would have gone to penalties, we would have won it. I am certain. Stekelenburg was the best goalie of the tournament and we were ready for it.”

Van Marwijk is realistic. It’s not looking for excuses, but it is explaining circumstances. “I know how it works. When I was in Hamburg, people congratulated me with being Vice Weltmeister. It means something there. But at the same time, I am also that loser from the 2012 Euros. That is football, explained in a simple contrast. You win, you lose. When you win, you are not really God’s gift to football and when you lose it’s not like you suddenly are an idiot.”

June 9, 2014 by Jan

Memories of 2006 – Van Basten: "Oranje misbehaved!"

Only 2 days to go, gringos!!!

It is really taking me by surprise, this World Cup. I thought it always started in a weekend… Hahahaha!

Two more memory lane posts to make, my friends.

Here is 2006. What to say. It still makes me mad.

What a World Cup it was. Dick Advocaat and Willem van Hanegem were the duo coaches in 2004. The two buddies had a massive fall out over the Robben substitution agains the Czechs and Van Hanegem famously said “If he would ever try and sub our best player again, I will simply knock him out”….

We needed new blood. This is what JC thought and the KNVB followed his advice. Rijkaard did very well in 2000. Now it’s time for San Marco. JC sort of forgot to mention that until then, Marco had only coached Ajax 2 and was still to prove himself to be a good jockey (courtesy of Adriaanse). Mistake number 2 of the KNVB was to allow San Marco to assemble his own staff. Marco picked coach colleague of Ajax 2 John van ‘t Schip, Stanley Menzo and Rob Witschge. Rumour was, so they could play klaverjassen when the players rested…

Make no mistake, San Marco picked the right players alright. Some of them were still young(-ish) but not much different from the current squad. The names will make you drool now: Van der Sar. Gio van Bronckhorst. Tim de Cler. Joris Mathijsen. Mark van Bommel. Phillip Cocu. Wes Sneijder. Raf van der Vaart. Dirk Kuyt. Ruud van Nistelroo. Arjen Robben. Robin van Persie. Hmmmmmm……

Not that bad.

And this is a squad that could have had Clarence Seedorf and Roy Makaay as well, but Marco didn’t need them, he felt. Other notable players to be left out were Edgar Davids (Spurs), KLaas Jan Huntelaar (Ajax) Emmanuelson (Ajax) and Nigel de Jong (HSV).

Schaars and De Jong will travel to Germany as back ups, as Vqn Basten was left with five serious injuries after the Farewell Game against Hiddink’s Australia. The Socceroos were a bit too enthusiastic and Cocu, Van Bronckhorst, Sneijder, Van der Vaart and Jaliens all went to the World Cup not 100% fit. Schaars and De Jong weren’t needed though and were sent home.

The inexperienced Van Basten has a good eye for football. But was a bit weak in people management. He himself was a tad insecure and he foolishly didn’t bring a more experienced coach along. Gerard van der Lem? Wim Jansen? The options were all there. But Marco went it alone with his happy band of brothers and clashed with experiences and extraverted players like Van Bommel and Van Nistelrooy. PSV players… (JC and Van der Kuylen/Van Beveren comes to mind, in 1974).

The qualifications went very well. Marco played 4-3-3 and won 10 out of 12 games with his team.

Holland was in a strong group, with Argentina, Serbia/Montenegro and Ivory Coast. The Argentines had names like Crespo, Riquelme, Masscherano, Tevez and Messi while Ivory Coast had Drogba and Kalou.

Winning the first game (Serbia) was key, and Holland did. Thanks to a wonderful Robben goal on a Van Persie assist ( in case you forgot: a counter goal). Serbia maybe deserved a tad more but was unlucky. Van Persie played right winger and at times it looked like we played 4-5-1. Van Bommel was subbed for the more tactically astute and conservative Landzaat. Van Nistelrooy was also subbed early. Signs of things to come. Holland did play the dominant game, had 60% possession but Serbia had more corner kicks, more shots on goal and less fouls….

In our second game against Ivory Coast, Holland ruled in the first half, with a rocket goal by Robin van Persie and a quick second by Ruud van Gol. Ivory Coast fought themselves back into it, via Kone, but lacked the luck to get a draw: 2-1.

This time, Sneijder was subbed early in the game for Van Der Vaart and Ruud van Gol was taken out early yet again. Possession was 50-50 and Ivory Coast like Serbia had more corner kicks, more shots on target and less fouls than Oranje.

The last game was not that key anymore and dreaded Argentina was played with a number of yellow carded players being rested: 0-0.

Kuyt came for Robben as left winger, Sneijder and Van der Vaart both played and Van Basten fielded Jaliens, Boulahrouz and De Cler in defence. Babel, Landzaat and Maduro would get minutes in this game as well. In this game, we had a tad more possession and the most corner kicks, shots on targets and the most fouls…

Sadly, we didnt’ win it. As we would have not drawn Portugal as a result. Portugal beat us earlier in 2004 at the Euros and was too strong for Van Gaal’s Oranje in the 2002 qualifications.

Marco psyched the team out as much as possible to give it all that they could but in the run up to the game, it was a rift between Van Nistelrooy and Van Basten that would start a dramatic series of events. Marco told some reporter he was unhappy with Ruud’s positioning. Ruud confronted Marco with this lack of discretion (“Tell me first, next time!”). And Marco didn’t accept this insubordination and benched Ruud. This made other players in the squad (mostly Van Bommel) irrate and this whole event, one day before the knock out game vs Portugal, made the mood in the Oranje camp very edgy.

The psychology behind this, by the way, is interesting. Both Mark van Bommel and Ruud van Nistelrooy adored Marco as a player. Both had posters in their bedroom of the Ajax star and both were keen to work with him. They idolised him but they soon found out Marco is a man of flesh and blood, with his own character flaws. This didn’t go down too well. When they found out that Bassie was biased and emotional in his decision making (unfathomable like he was as a striker) they couldn’t cope with the situation and spat the dummy.

Ruud famously introduced a new characteristic in football. The “I like you factor”. Marco selects players on that basis (Landzaat over Seedorf, Maduro, Babel, Heitinga over Makaay, Davids and Bouma). If you are happy to be one of Marco’s disciples he is happy to work with you. If you have your own opinion, you are out.

Ruud would later add: “I had a clash with Marco, that is right, but we fixed it and he would become one of my fave coaches. The 2006 World Cup was a failure but we worked really well later on in 2008 and I still think he was one of the best and most entertaining trainer I practiced with.”

So, Marco battled with some players before the Portugal game and made an emotional decision: Ruud would not play. Dirk Kuyt would be the striker in his place. Portugal certainly did not have a shabby team with the likes of Figo, Deco, Coutinho, Maniche and C Ronaldo.

The game would infamously be known as the Battle of Nuremberg and since 2006, I haven’t seen it or the “highlights” since. Too hard. But I will see the highlights soon again, I suppose. Holland had 60% of the ball. We had 20 goal attempts vs 10 for Portugal. We have twice as much corner kicks. In terms of stats, we had two reds, like Portugal and 9 yellow cards. Portugal lost that battle as they only got 7 yellows.

Robben was tackled in the box and yellow carded for diving. This time, unjustly so. Cocu hit the post after a terrific attack. Kuyt choked alone in front of goal. Van Persie had a sitter and missed as he attempted an outside of the boot shot. But all in all, despite the antics of the Portuguese and the aggression of Holland, it was Mr Ivanov the Russian ref who really made it into a mess. He allowed the lunatics to take over the asylum and allowed this game to spin out of control. He took over the record of Spanish ref Nieto who only used 16 cards in 2002 versus 20 for Mr Ivanov. Mr Blatter later stated that Ivanov deserved a red card himself as well.

It was a disgraceful performance and Holland did not deserve to lose this game. But we did.

A later analysis of the game showed that the teams only played 52 minutes of actual football. Matchwinner Maniche: “I think most of the cards were over the top. It was a tough game, as one expects between two top nations in world football, but I don’t think it was ever really mean. The ref added oil to the fire with all these cards.”

Maniche is right. A further analyses says that the Portugal – Holland game had the least (!!!) fouls of all knock out games that World Cup. Only 25 fouls and apparently 16 yellow card type of fouls? Whereas in some of the other games there were up to 51 fouls counted and only six yellow cards…

It was one of those would’ve/could’ve games… What if we had a different ref. What if Marco wouldn’t have had that argument with Ruud and the man from ManU was our striker. What if Cocu or Robin would have scored? What if the ref would have spotted that foul on Robben in the box?

We started well. We had some good attacking moves on the flanks and Van Bommel has a distance strike that just missed the target. But in the 20st minute, we go wrong. Sneijder loses possession to C Ronaldo. Deco gets the ball, unmarked. He crosses to striker Pauleta and the striker bounces the ball back to incoming midfielder Maniche. Ooijer can’t stop him and Sar doesn’t have a chance. C Ronaldo would have to make way for Simao and since that goal Portugal controlled the game. In the second half, Holland has a man more due to a silly second yellow for Costinha. Cocu hits the bar and Portugal decides to stop Oranje from attacking. Until we lose Boulahrouz as a result of some Figo theatrics. Ten against ten and from the 70st miunute onwards, it becomes a battle.

Enjoy 🙁

June 2, 2014 by Jan

Cruyff and Van Hanegem speak, and so does Louis!

Only nine days to go people!!! It is getting scary. I have to make the Fantasy World Cup League for us and have two more World Cups to cover here, for our Memory Lane trip…. But the news is coming fast and furious!

Everytime it’s the same story. A couple of weeks before the big tournament starts, Van Hanegem and Cruyff are asked about their opinion. And the two Oracles of Dutch football always have great soundbites… So Van Gaal will have to now allow these two (Waldorf and Statler) looking over his shoulder and commenting on all his moves. As if I wasn’t enough :-).

We’ll see what they have to say in a bit. First: jersey numbers. They’re out. And it’s official: Blind will play with 5 (and therefor take the left back spot, is my wild guess) and De Guzman will be the starter in midfield with 6. Robin wears 9, Robben 11 and Sneijder 10.

Now, back to JC and De Kromme.

Cruyff: “I miss a player like Davy Klaassen. If you want to play 5-3-2 and move up to 3-5-2, it means you need smart players with a brain for timing and positioning. Klaassen has that in spades.”

Van Hanegem: “It is good to see Sneijder is back in top shape. But I am annoyed with that baseball cap. You can’t see his eyes when he’s being interviewed and that is wrong. Someone needs to tell him to lose the cap!”

Which teams will end in the top 4.

Cruyff: “Argentina. Never did a European nation win in South America. With players who can play really good football but also players who can numb their mind and tirelessly focus on that one element: win and bring out the best of yourself.”
Van Hanegem: “Argentina will be very keen to perform and with Messi and Di Maria they have two very good players. I won’t say Messi saved himself for the World Cup but I’m sure it has crossed his mind a number of times this season.
The Argentine defence is solid and if Messi can bring his top form, he might be forever heralded as the greatest ever, what winning the World Cup in Brazil!”
Cruyff: “But Brazil has so many great players…”
Van Hanegem: “Brazil… I did have my doubts until I saw that crush Spain in the Confederations Cup…”
Cruyff: “So aggressive….”
Van Hanegem: “But in a good way! Driven. Hungry. With that “don’t fuck with us!” mentality. That was what they resonated. And they didn’t seem to be worried with pressure. Everywhere they play, they feel pressure…”
Cruyff: “They know how to deal with that pressure…”
Van Hanegem: “I sometimes feel they played with the brakes on a bit, the Brazilian players in their club competitions…. Because they know they have to win this. They are the stone cold favorites.”
Cruyff: “Spain?”
Van Hanegem: “I doubt them. I normally would say yes, Spain, but they haven’t been to dominant. I think they are losing it.”
Cruyff: “But they have great players, still. Midfielders mainly. This is the problem they have in England too. They all have foreigners as strikers. Benzema, C Ronaldo, Bale and in Barcelona it’s Neymar, Messi and Sanchez… They quickly grabbed Diego Costa. Smart.”
Van Hanegem: “I think that is a top player. But Llorente of Juventus is no slouch either. And they do have some other physically strong players…yes, Spain is on my list.”
Cruyff: “And again Germany, of course.”
Van Hanegem: “If you see their squad with quality… Gotze, Reus, Muller, Schweinsteiger, Kroos, Neuer….”
Cruyff: “Germans are always a threat. And with the introduction of more foreign coaches like Van Gaal and Guardiola, they will only get better.”
Van Hanegem: “You just know that Germany will be up there again.”
Cruyff: “Outsiders… I don’t see Holland as such, we are a bit too young. We have quality but lack experience. And that draw….”
Van Hanegem: “I would mention Belgium before Oranje. They have so many great players. France too by the way. I think we should cheer them if they survive the group.”
Cruyff: “It will be extremely tough.”
Van Hanegem: “The first game is versus Spain. The first game of the world champions, is always a tough one. The pressure is extra big. So yeah, we might be able to get something against them.”

Oranje might get passed the group stages but is not planning on winning the beauty prize. Results first. Van Persie: “It wasn’t sparkling. We need to find the balance still.” The times of the beautiful game seem behind us. Van Gaal decides to play a less attractive and more realistic game. Which is: stop as much as possible and play all balls on the three upfront! Van Persie: “Our goal versus Ghana was a good example of this. We created three good chances in this way, but we missed the opportunity to pick the right moment as we could have broken more. It is still a bit too sloppy.”

The players realise that it will be a tough battle for our team and the rock in midfield Nigel de Jong is quite useful in those games: “I think we did well. We could have been 2-0 or 3-0 up by half time. If we did score, I don’t think anyone would have complained. This team needs a bit more time, but the potential is certainly there.”

We just had the Oranje press conference and here are some soundbites:

“Jon De Guzman had to leave the training this morning. He felt something in his left hamstring. I won’t take chances. Against Wales, we have sufficient replacements at the moment. I won’t make any rash decisions and we’ll see tomorrow what happens.”

“I might use a 4-4-2 against Wales.If Wales comes at us with one striker, it is useless to play 3 defenders. I will move one player up (Daley Blind). This is easy. He played in midfield for Ajax and Bruno played left back for Feyenoord. This is how I defined my squad.”

Louis gets bit antsy when the media complain about the narrow win against Ghana. “Oh dear, we only won 1-0?? Did you see how the other big countries done? We won 1-0 but it could have been 3-0. Germany plays 2-2 against Cameroon. Italy can’t win. And Spain wins against the number 8 of South America.”

“I am not sure if we are ready in time. We are making great progress but time will tell if we are ready for Spain and Chile and Australia. I do hope so. But like I said, we do pretty good if you take the friendly results as a benchmark. Wesley Sneijder played well today on training. He is playing really in midfield now.”

Mark van Bommel will be celebrated before the Wales game. He played 79 times for Oranje and Van Gaal (the coach who drove him out of Munich) was the coach back in 2000 to give Van Bommel his first cap.

Van Gaal talks about the number 10 position: “I can play Robben as 10, but I want his depth and speed upfront and Sneijder is a better passer of the game. But I have to look at fitness and how well a player plays within the system. I need to make sure Robin doesn’t need to work too hard. I saw him chasing the left and right defender against Ghana. He was doing too much. The wide defenders of our team need to manage those two.”

Van Gaal also claims that four players in the squad have not reached their full fitness yet. “I won’t mention names but we have four players who need to make a step up. The medical tests show this. Full fitness is needed if you want to play like I want to play. The games against Romania and Hungary were good examples.”

Sneijder is probably not one of those players. Chest out, chin up, the Galatasaray midfielder has managed to get to full fitness thanks to the help of K1 fighter Saki. The kickbox start trained for months with Wesley. “I contacted him. I met him once and he was a nice guy and very fit. I started working out with him. I also played and trained for Gala of course which also helped. But Saki is a Gala supporter and I needed some improvement in explosivity and footwork. I need to be faster and lighter. We did two to three sessions per week, in the evening. And I worked on a special program for the KNVB as well. My body mass index is now better than it was in 2010!”

Yolanthe explained his routine. “Gets up early. Takes his healthy breakfast and trains and trains. And he sleeps two hours in the afternoon. He started this as a kid and still does it. And I cook healthy and light. Lots of beef, fish and raw vegetables. And when take cream on my strawberries or chips on the sofa, he refuses. He is very serious.”

Sneijder was not too happy with the performance vs Ghana but is hopeful: “It was still a bit new and we needed to check too much…. and suddenly it clicked but then other things went wrong. Little things. We need to iron those out and we will. Once we do that, you’ll see it will look much better suddenly.”

February 14, 2013 by Jan

Oranje: a family affair…

World Cup 2010 was a high for most fans, but at the same time a bit bittersweet. We reached the finals and if it wasn’t for Casilla’s toe, we would have won it.

But we didn’t play great football. We didn’t dazzle. And even JC started to detach himself! We expected to improve but the next big tournament was a disaster!

While in 2008, we showed so much promise with this squad.

Still, in 2008 and 2010, we impressed also with the fact that Oranje was such a family oriented group. The lads all had little kids and it’s no secret that Raf van der Vaart’s son Damien has garnered interest from different clubs while little Van Persie almost was snatched up by Chelsea!

I’m pretty sure Van Bommel has a couple of little brats, so does Gio van Bronckhorst… Van Nistelrooy…

With Daley Blind, we have the eigth international making his debut, just like his dad did before him. The 22 year old Ajax defender started against Italy last week. His dad, Danny Blind, is assistant team manager and has 42 caps behind his name. If he hadn’t been in the same generation as Ronald Koeman, he would have played at least a 100 internationals.

Martin Koeman, Ronald’s dad, played only one international but he can boast to have two sons in the orange jersey. Ronald played 78 caps and Erwin played 31. The older Koeman was brought into Oranje at the Euros 1988 and helped Oranje win it.

Johan Cruyff, the most famous Dutch player (and one of the best if not The Best in the world ever) only played 48 international games. His son Jordi was a good player but lacked his dad magic. Still played 9 internationals and excelled at the Euros1996 in England under Hiddink.

Other father/son combinations are Wim van der Gijp and Rene van der Gijp. The Sparta/PSV winger didn’t play that many internationals. A bit more serious living would have increased this number. Jan Mulder, striker of Anderlecht and Ajax reached the Dutch team, like his son striker Youri (Twente, Schalke 04). Jan Everse senior and junior both played for Oranje (and Feyenoord) and Jerry de Jong (PSV) and Nigel de Jong ( Ajax, Hamburg, Man City, AC Milan) wore the jersey.

Then there is the brother connection. We have had 18 pairs of brothers in Oranje, in the past 110 years. Ola John was the last, as his bro’ Collins made his debut in 2004 under Marco van Basten. He played two games in orange. The first brothers were Tonny and De Kessler. The most famous ones were most likely the Van de Kerkhof (Rene and Willy in the 1970s), Ronald and Erwin Koeman (in the 1980s) and Frank and Ronald de Boer (in the 90s/00s).

There there is the Witsgche brothers (Richard and Rob), the Muhrens, the Van der Gijps and most recently, Siem and Luuk de Jong.

Feel free to add to the list in the comments below :-).

Ola John is also the eleventh international to be born outside of Holland. Siem and Luuk de Jong are in that group too (Switzerland).

Jonathan de Guzman was born in Canada. His brother Julian still plays for Canada. But De Guzman is not the first Canada-born player wearing the Oranje jersey.

Pop Quiz: Which Dutch forward was the first Canada born player to grace the Dutch National Team?

November 25, 2012 by Jan

Year of Truth for PSV

PSV seemed to join the ranks of Dutch behemoths Ajax and Feyenoord over the last 15 years with a huge string of titles. The last years, however, PSV had to allow two non-Top-Three clubs (Twente and AZ) to snatch the title while Ajax won it twice in a row now.

Fred Rutten had to make way, just like 95% of the squad was renewed over the last two years. The designer behind this renovation is Marcel Brands. With Martin van Geel (ex Willem II, ex AZ, ex Ajax and currently Feyenoord) the most “visible” of technical managers in the Dutch Eredivisie. And like Van Geel, he has a history as a player in the Feyenoord jersey (Van Geel also played for Ajax).

Brands succeeded Van Geel when the latter left AZ for Ajax and PSV was happy to snatch the former Feyenoord and RKC midfielder to reconstruct the PSV squad.

You used to be able to find cheap players with a lot of potential, but at PSV it is as if you are throwing big money to young and coming talent?

Marcel Brands: “That has to do with the club where you work. At AZ, we had less means. We had to buy smart. PSV has a higher yard stick. We want to win titles and play along in the CL. This means you have the buy quality. And quality costs more money. At PSV, we need players who can immediately settle in. We used to get players for the future, like Stef Nijland, but that doesn’t work here. Jetro Willems is an exception. He was signed for the C team and immediately made his way in. But players like Narsignh and Wijnaldum are players who are expected to deliver immediately.”

Narsingh was also on Ajax’ hit list. Did you outbid them?

MB: “No. He could make more in Amsterdam. He simply wanted to play for PSV. That is a strong factor, which is often overlooked. We wanted to sign Sighthorsson as well, last year but he picked Ajax. Not because we didn’t offer enough. But because he always dreamed of playing for Ajax. You can’t fight that.”

Don’t you fear that clubs will make use of the fact that PSV is willing to pay top dollar?

MB: “But we aren’t. We set the norm for players. If a club doesn’t want to negotiate, we walk away. We wanted Moisander from AZ, last year. They over-asked and we walked. Same with Jorgensen from Kopenhagen. We are prudent, even though out budget is bigger than other clubs.”

Proof that Brands played for Feyenoord ( standing in the mid row, next to Martin van Geel)

So you changed the squad and technical staff over two seasons. Is this the Year of Reckoning for PSV?

MB: “You can name it what you want, haha. The point is that we have certain expectations. And sometimes, the media share this opinion and then they proclaim us to be the title favorites. But you can only know if this is reasonable when you’re a couple of weeks into the new season. Players need to settle, tactics need to fit, etc. Once it’s August 31, the market closes and it’s up to the coach to work with the material.”

The current squad has three PSV talents (Depay, Locadia and van Ooijen) in it. Is that satisfactory?

MB: “We are starting to see talents. I am satisfied about the progression. We can also see it in the Oranje youth teams. We didn’t have starters in those youth teams. We have more and more starters now. We have some huge talents in Eindhoven.”

Were you shocked by the level of the PSV Academy when you came here in 2010?

MB: “The density of talents in Eindhoven is less than Amsterdam or Rotterdam. That is fact. Plus, our competitors spend much more than we do on their Academy. Viktor Fischer of Ajax, has cost them 1,4 Mio euros! We have never paid a fee like that for a youth player! We only invested 700k euros per year on the whole academy! So, the low return is not that strange, considering those facts.”

PSV had a tremendous number of Belgian talents in the youth academy. None of them ever made it through?

MB: “I know. Belgium is part of our service area. It’s only 30 car minutes and you’re in Belgium. But we have now deployed the rule that the further a talent lives, the better he needs to be. We have three quality levels (A, B, C) and players who live further away, like in Belgium, need to be A-level players. We now have a Belgium player in our midst, 16 year old Bakkali, who is definitely A-team quality.”

It was quite a battle to keep him in Eindhoven, right?

MB: “Yes it was. That is today’s football world. Someone from Anderlecht simply stood at the door of Bakkali, to try and get him to sign. And one day before we would sign our contract with him, some unlicensed agent invited him to come and see a Manchester City match. Man City!! The lad is only just 16. Luckily he was strong enough to ignore these people. But there is only so much you can do. We hope to be able to keep a good relationship with the kids’ parents. They are the ones that can be counted on, to take the wellbeing of the kid into account. But, we lost Perreira, who went to Man United. He was 16 years old and it was his dad who forced this move…so…”

Jetro Willems

And now, PSV sold two players to the two Sevilla clubs and is owed 5 Mio euros. Which are not forthcoming…

MB: “this happened before my time. I don’t know all the facts. It’s the Spanish federation that is at fault. In Holland, Germany or England this would never happen. When at AZ, I sold Medunjanin to Valladolid. For 450k. We’d get half in cash at signing and half a year later. That second half was never paid, but Valladolid sold him on to Tel Aviv for 600k and still AZ didn’t get paid. That is just crazy… Only in Spain.”

Remarkable, Dick Advocaat had allowed you to cut away a full time equivalent in his staff? He only works for Ernest Faber and sometimes Cocu as assistant?

MB: “That is result of Dick’s philosophy. He doesn’t want to work with line-coaches. One for attack, one for midfield and one for defence. He rather has one assistant for the whole week, than 3 assistants for 2 days in the week. We also want to invest more in youth academy coaches.”

When is PSV able to invest in a serious way in youth?

MB: “That has to do with our CL qualifications. Once we get acces to the CL, the income stream will increase and we can make some delayed investments. We are still making investments. Narsingh is one example. But we also invested in a heated practice pitch, we renovated the the first floor of the main stands…we do what we can.”

Dickie, always happy to save PSV some money…

PSV also wanted to decrease wages cost in the A-squad. Did that happen?

MB: “Yes, we have a salary cap. 1 million euros gross and no one is paid beyond. When I started here, we had 7 players above that level.”

And suddenly we here in Eindhoven that the title must be won. Must?

MB: “Yes, that is Dick Advocaat for ya. He is the one articulating the objectives loud and clear. THis is also the difference between Rutten and Advocaat. Advocaat is not happy when he doesn’t win anything. Our squad is ready, we have experience and talent in all lines. We are ready.

In the first weeks of the Dutch competition, the hand of Advocaat is not yet too visible.

He has had his run ins with big name players such as Mertens and Wijnaldum and he has also put Matavz and Narsingh on the shame bench. Matavz was too heavy and Narsingh didn’t deliver enough.

Advocaat means business, but he still needs to rule out the lack of consistency of his team.

Dickie: “So I said to De Kromme… I have ball this big! I will demonstrate it to you. In the second half, I’ll sub Robben!”

August 8, 2012 by Jan

Football, here we come….

Above: PSV skipper Mark van Bommel celebrates with Mr PSV, Willy van der Kuylen

The Olympics are on the last stretch, towards the finish. As ever, I highly enjoyed all that sports on telly. My goodness…. After the disappointment that was the Euros and the Tour I got tears in my eyes watching Marianne Vos win gold, seeing Ranomi slicing through the pool, Dorian humiliating his competition and Epke Zonderland win the first gymnastics gold for Holland ever!!

Wonderful sports… And the hockey boys and girls are in it too, still….

But….I am ready for the football to begin!

And with the JC Plate game of last Sunday and Feyenoord’s CL qualification game yesterday, it does feel that we are back in business. So expect the frequency of posts to go up soon :-).

So lets start with Feyenoord. My team. But my oh my, how they fumbled it. They played well. Good enough, at least. Creating massive opportunities. A ball on the post, a free header (should have been a goal) and most shockingly, two players (Cisse and Guyon) going towards goal after a dramatic throw in… If Feyenoord was ever going to beat Kiev it was yesterday. With the 2-1 from the away game, 1-0 at home would be enough. But Feyenoord simply didn’t score. Immers had a close range effort, straight to the goalie in the second half. And of course, Dynamo would chuck salt in Feyenoord’s wound by scoring a late goal themselves.

And having witnessed Koeman’s young team play, one has to say that the CL is probably a couple of levels too high. Sure, the money is great but the team will be butchered by any conceivable opponent and maybe, just maybe, it’s better for the talented youngsters to play Europa League.

Ajax and PSV played their JC plate game, last weekend. The first prize of the season. And taken seriously, at least by PSV. With Dick Advocaat at the reigns and Mark van Bommel back in the jersey, it seems PSV wanted to show Ajax that it means business this season. 2-0 up after 12 minutes, against an Ajax not ready to compete. PSV seems to be eager to start, having signed all the key players they wanted ( Narsingh, Van Bommel) while Frank de Boer of Ajax is still uncertain what will happen with Van der Wiel, Anita and Theo Janssen. The latter is flirting heavily with Vitesse and expects De Boer to really want him to stay, while the EPL is chasing Anita and Van der Wiel. Christian Eriksen was not fit yet so he missed the JC Plate game (and it showed) but all in all, Ajax simply didn’t want it that badly.

It will turn into a massive battle this season, between Frank de Boer’s youngsters and PSV. Dico Kopper, Van Rhijn, Fischer, Eriksen, Blind, Ozbilic… It might take a while, but I love to see them play.

Obviously, PSV is interesting too with Willems (played well!), Wijnaldum, Narsingh and Strootman. And Mark van Bommel of course…

The Eredivisie can start as far as I am concerned.

I will give you my predictions for the Title:

I see PSV win it this time. I think Ajax will lose some players before August 31 and Frank will have to struggle a bit to make it all work, the national competition and the CL.

I do see Ajax finish second and do well in the CL this season.

Feyenoord finishes 5th, as they can’t replace Guidetti and Vlaar and have a decent but not spectacular season.

AZ and Twente occupy 3 and 4 and Heerenveen is knocking on the door still, to enter the top 6.

I think the season will be key for Feyenoord’s future. Do they pay off more debt and get more cash in from sponsors, so they can build on the current talent pool… Or will they have to sell the next lot of talent (Clasie, De Vrij, Leerdam, Martins Indi) to make ends meet?

Share your thoughts with me, good people and let’s prepare for an amazing new season…

August 2, 2012 by Jan

Louis van Gaal won't change much….

This week, new Oranje coach Louis van Gaal got presented to the press. His first working day got squashed in between much more important news: Olympic news from London and the first preliminary squad for Oranje.

Van Gaal will make the definite selection known on August 10.

The former Ajax and Barca coach decided to not rock the boat too much.

“I think Bert van Marwijk can not be faulted for his team selection choices. He clearly picked the best players at his disposal so I can not really make too many big changes, nor do I want to.

Mathijsen and Kuijt are still part of the squad, as are so-called rebels Huntelaar and Van der Vaart. They only players not longer in are Wilfred Bouma and Mark van Bommel.

Van Gaal did give the same signal as Van Marwijk before him towards the youngsters in the Eredivisie: Clasie and De Vrij of Feyenoord and Adam Maher of AZ are called back into the frame, as are Bas Dost (Wolfsburg) and Ola John (Benfica).

I personally believe Louis is taking the wishes of the people into account, but Bas Dost will not make it to the final squad, with Van Persie, Huntelaar and Luuk de Jong all present as well.

Erik Pieters is not part of the selection as he is still injured. Ricardo van Rhijn’s inclusion is pretty remarkable as he hasn’t played too much since Van der Wiel is back at Ajax, but with Vertonghen in London, chances are that the talented defender will see much more action.

As mentioned on this blog, Van Gaal loves defenders with build-up skills and both Van Rhijn and De Vrij fall into that category.

Jeffrey Bruma ( Hamburg) and Douglas (Twente) will both be on Louis’ radar as well.

PS Louis visited the Dutch hockey women at the Games, hence this pic 🙂