Feyenoord Bloodbrothers

From left to right: Tonny Vilhena, Terence Kongolo, JP Boetius, Anass Achahbar

The Feyenoord youngsters keep on impressing. Last week, they beat PSV, this week the win over NEC prompted former Team Manager Bert van Marwijk to quip “Boetius is the best winger playing in Holland at the moment”… Asked if he was advising his successor he said “no no, of course not… but Feyenoord does make a strong impression. Great talents, good fighting spirit, fit… and they enjoy their football.”

Time to check out the youngsters.

“We are so used to winning titles. For us, it’s normal.” Not your average claim of a Feyenoord player. The last time the Rotterdam club snatched a title was in 1999. Bert van Marwijk managed to add a European trophy to the mix in 2002 but that was about it.

But the current up and comers at Feyenoord have the experience. Since Feyenoord scraped the bottom of the piggybank, the youth development team became creative. Cruyff adept Wim Jansen recruited his son in law Stanley Brard – another JC protege – and together they injected their views into the youth academy. This is now going on for more than 8 years and the results are finger lickin’ good… With Wijnaldum, Fer and Castaignos as examples generating healthy profits for Feyenoord, the supply line keeps on going.

This season, youngsters like Boetius, Vilhena and Achahbar have impressed while Kolongo (injured) and early exiters Rekik (Man City) and Ebecilio (Arsenal) are still with the gang in spirit.

Youth coach Erwin Pinas remembers it well. “The 1994 generation was sensational. Feyenoord always attracted top talents. These guys however play together since the early stages. And I assure you, they will all make it to the Dutch senior National Team.”

As per normal, the 4 Feyenoord lads are sitting together, talking loud and with their hands and feet as well. “We have been talking about football together for 10 years or so,” Terence Kolongo says.

All four Feyenoord players ( Boetius, Kolongo, Vilhena and Achahbar) were selected while very young. They started playing at 5 and were asked to play for Feyenoord when 6 years old. Tonny Vilhena: “I actually am a year younger then them but the coaches always wanted me to play with them.”

The four make it clear they consider themselves family. Achahbar: “I never had friends outside of football. My team mates were my mates. My team mates are family, really.” And Jean-Paul Boetius adds: “I hear stories of others and how they develop on the streets and learn stuff, you know. Well, we learned it at trainings camp, I suppose.”

Anass Achahbar: “I think we are all kept a bit shorter on the leash by Feyenoord and our parents. I am thankful to my parents for that now, but when I was younger I sometimes hated it. But kids like us, if we would be let loose, we could get deranged you know?”

The support they give each other goes further than just in gaining life experiences. Kongolo: “I made my debut when they weren’t in the squad. I was pretty nervous. There was no one for me to sit with. Whenever I play with one of them, I am never nervous.”

The lads are very positive about the Academy. Vilhena: “Anass is working with Roy Makaay now and with Gio van Bronckhorst. Obviously, you get better and better like that.” Achahbar adds: “I worked with John Lammers in the youth, the former NAC striker. He taught me much, to use my body properly, to keep an eye out for the third man…”

Boetius: “I think we are all boss over the ball. We can do most if not all with it. And that gives us confidence on the pitch. When I made my debut, it all went flowing. And I knew I was ready and my development had worked.”

Anass Achahbar remembers Cor Adriaanse in the B1 youth team. “He was fair but tough. I used to dribble too much. He would sub me and say I would never make it like this. “There is no time and space to dribble in the top” he’d say.” Kongolo adds: “He made us play on black shoes. All the other guys, the Ajax and PSV lads, played on colourful shoes. He wouldn’t allow us. “First you learn how to play, you have to earn these shoes” hahaha.”

About their debuts.

Achahbar: “When I heard that Kelvin Leerdam woulnd’t renew his deal with Feyenoord, I realised Tonny Vilhena would get a chance. Tonny is a special player. Mark my words…”

Vilhena: “For Anass, it’s always harder. A midfielder or defender can grow into the team. A striker needs to be there. Feyenoord expects strikers to score goals. Whenever you have Guidetti in front of you or now Pelle, you simply need to build patience. But you saw his goal against Prague? Anass will make it.”

Kolongo: “I think we all know now that a starting spot in the first team is an option. It’s possible. We have proven that.”

Boetius: “I think people will say that we have always been talented and that its normal for us to make it, but apart from our talent, we have all worked very hard. Always. We are winners, not just great talents. But once you are on the pitch, it doesn’t matter if you are a newbie or a veteran. It’s about your effectivity. I wasn’t nervous against Ajax, because I have played against these guys in the youth, you know? Why would I be nervous?”

About winning…

Kongolo: (Asking his mates) “What didnt’ we win? We won everything… Title, cup, Super Cup, European title… Winning is part of our DNA…”

Boetius: “It’s true, at Feyenoord winning becomes second nature. In the youth system, I mean. Whenever we lost, I was in tears. And we created a strong mentality.”

Vilhena: “Last year I was asked to come to trainings camp in winter. And I had a 50-50 tackle on El Ahmadi, who was one of the leaders of the team. But I couldn’t back down. So we were head to head, yelling at each other. But it was a ball to be won… So when I was asked to join the squad at the start of this season, and Karim was still with Feyenoord, I immediately looked him up and shook his hand. I do have respect for the older players, but not when we are opponents in a game.”

The big jump to a tougher competition…

Achahbar: “I think we all had the chance to leave at a specific time. But I was clear: I want to show my skills in a packed De Kuip, in Feyenoord 1.”

Boetius: “Kyle Ebecilio and Karim Rekik chose to go. Can you imagine, if they were still part of this squad? Feyenoord would have an almost all self-developed team…”

Kongolo: “There are more roads leading to Rome and they took the foreign route. We still talk everyday. Sms, or skype… I know Tonny Vilhena didnt want to go yet. He had the chance too. Like we all did. But it does feel like we lost family.”

Vilhena: “I didn’t want to go. My goal from when I was six was to play in this jersey in a full De Kuip. I wouldn’t leave before having realised a starting spot. But I do miss the lads.”

Achahbar: “I was pissed off at Karim when he told he’d go to City. We were together every day. Our fathers were mates… I think we will get the chance later. We will stay for that. Karim and Kyle felt they had to do it then. But, according to the scout reports, we will one day all play together in England, haha.”

Kyle Ebicilio in London…

Ebecilio was 16 years old in the summer of 2010… Oranje was going for gold in South Africa and Oranje under 17 would win gold in 2011.
Ebicilio: ” I have the photo books and look through them regularly. Gets a smile on my face. It was so cool to win a big trophy and see the faces of all your best mates on the pitch with you. I was voted best player of the tournament and Tonny Vilhena was joint top scorer with me… Very cool…

But the whole Ebecilio family bar his sister Sam, decided to move to England in that summer. “It was a tough decision. I didn’t just make that on a whim. I had sleepless nights. I had to tell my brothers… It was hard. But Arsenal had presented itself to me with such an enticing pitch… I had to go. And my mates, they understood.”

Kyle is really Anglicised, if that is the word. He drives on the left side of the road and his little brother can’t read Dutch anymore. He goes on: “The development I got at Feyenoord was amazing and I am really thankful, but I think Arsenal is giving me more now. Physically, I am stronger, smarter too. I think differently about football I guess. But I can see that things are going really well in Rotterdam. When I was there, I had to deal with Leo Beenhakker. There was a different philosophy. It wasn’t certain that I would get a look in. Now, with Van Geel and Koeman, Feyenoord is truly exciting again.”

Ebecilio played one game in Arsenal 1. A friendly against Southampton. “For me, it’s about the practice now. The games will come, I hope. Being on the same training pitch as Van Persie and Nasri… I played with Fabregas, Vermaelen, Alex Song, Emmanuel Eboue… Believe me, that has made me better. And Van Persie was always talking to me, about things. Same as Song and Vermaelen, they are all focused on you making yourself into a success. Arsene Wenger is not very talkative but he sees everything. He told me recently that I surprised him positively with my development. But not a lot of people see it, hehehe. But he does, and that is key.”

Ebecilio’s deal is ending soon, but Arsenal wants to renew. “I do too, I love it here, but I do want to make some minutes now. I need to play games now…”

Karim Rekik in Manchester then…

Karim and family rent a home from Man United defender Jonny Evans. His neighbour is a former Man United business manager. “This city breaths football. There is always some gathering. Recently I saw Karim El Ahmadi (Birmingham) and Oussaidi (Liverpool) who love to hang out in Manchester.” The Feyenoord defender had a smorgasbord of clubs wanting to sign him and when he knew he wanted to leave Feyenoord, he visited them all. “Atletico Madrid offered us a house with a pool, Chelsea mapped out this whole plan and at Juventus I felt like a movie star. President Agnelli even came to shake my hand at dinner.” But Juventus ended up number 2 on the list. Because Man City was able to impress the youngster most. “At City, they had this map they took out. With all my games of the last two seasons. They had followed me well, they knew my game, my strengths, my weaknesses… They told me exactly how they’d work with me. I was overwhelmed.”

Rekik was disappointed in Feyenoord. “When I was there, Beenhakker was in charge. He is old-school. I went in to talk to him about my future. And I never meant money, I meant my development, my chances. He basically gave me a new contract and said “take it or leave it.” I didn’t feel the love, you know? He also said “I can get you to practice with the first team but if that doesn’t work out, we’ll drop you into Excelsior.” That is not how I manage my own career…. So Man City it was.”

The Rekik family settled in well. Dad Mo works at the club and helps new foreign players settle in. Mum Judith is a volunteer at the club while 10 year old Omar is said to be a huge talent in the Under -12 of Man City.

The Rekiks have a strong bond with the Ebecilios in London. “Kyle is my brother, but so are the lads in Rotterdam. If you would ask me what I’d miss about Holland, it is basically them.”

Karim is the leader of the pack. The skipper of all the teams too. “I have been captain from when I can remember. Don’t know why or how that came about. Probably my position in the field and my extraverted personality. But I have been collecting a lot of trophies and did a lot of speeches, haha.

He recently got a pro contract at Man City. He is there for another five years. Assistant manager David Platt told him the plan. “I will go to another club on loan now, for half a year and next season I will fight for a starting spot.” Rekik can’t stop talking about training with the big boys. “I thoroughly enjoy that. The ball caressing Silva, the power of Tevez, the focus of Kompany… I take it all in.”

Balotelli’s name conjures a smile on his face. “I liked him. He was a nice guy, a very nice guy. I think he has a good heart, but he can lose the plot a little, hehehe.”

Rekik has the future. He knows it. “Mancini told me recently he would have played me against Man United if Clichy would still have been sick. He has all the faith in me. I know the guys in Rotterdam are playing as starters now, and that is fab, but my time will come too. And once that happens, we will start winning trophies together again too, hahaha.”

Because the lads all end their dreaming with Oranje.

Vilhena: “To play World Cup in orange together, is my dream.”
Boetius: “It will happen.”
Kongolo: “Make Holland World Champ.”
Achahbar: “We did it once before, why not at senior level?”
Rekik: “The six of us in Oranje, I know it will happen.”
Ebecilio: “And then we will win gold, because we are used to winning.”

380 comments

  1. WOW such a cool article.

    It funny, I hate arrogant people, but in football I love it. Go onto the field with swagger. They are young and confident and I would be happy if just a couple of them succeed.

    1. Because Ake came from ADO. I checked his Wiki and it stated he joined Feyenoord when he was 12, but I have seen people claim recently that he was actually 14 when he left ADO. He already left Feyenoord around the age of 16, so has only been with the club for a pretty short time especially in case his Wiki page has it wrong.

      The special thing about the other talents is that they all were together from a very young age on and are making it to the top together. That is a rare thing. 2 or 3 would already be weird, now it looks like it will be even more than that #Crazy generation.

      Talking about Ake, I rate him as the biggest talent of them all. I don’t know what it is, but every time I watch the kid play I get the same feeling as looking at the van der Vaart show when he started to play for Ajax. Ake runs the show, but defensively and oozes a certain class that is pretty rare. However many don’t really care as DM is not a sexy spot like an attacking midfielder, winger or even better: Striker. Vilhena and Boëtius play on positions that simply allow more advanterous football on top of playing first team football and so people are focused on them (and rightly so). In modern football the DM is clutch though and I am delighted one player is coming through with top potential (IMO).

      By the way, there is another talent from their age group maybe introduced pretty soon to Feyenoord 1: Sleegers. One slick player that could take over from Immers as he is a 10 and can actually play football.

      Cheers

  2. Cool article,i think the chemistry between these lads are so high..they cover the weakness of others and fight as a team,thats why they won a lot..its sad that they lost Reikik,kyle and Ake….

  3. “”Anass Achahbar remembers Cor Adriaanse in the B1 youth team. “He was fair but tough. I used to dribble too much. He would sub me and say I would never make it like this. “There is no time and space to dribble in the top” he’d say.” “”””””
    I dedicate this words to Afellay

  4. This makes Jan very happy and I like Feyenoord having Gio whom I think will make a good coach. “Boetius is the best winger playing in Holland”…well I wonder if LVG will give him a shot. Excluding Robben, no one has really lit it up as Dutch winger, only decent so far.

  5. I am an Ajax fan but I like very much this Feyenord team. I like it more because they are bringing great Dutch talents not like Ajax who is buying Danish or foreign players.

  6. Anyone else watching this Madrid-Man u game feeling outraged by the English commentators view of the nani Arbeloa incident? These are the same people who crucified de Jong for his accidental kick to the chest of Alonso but when it happens to an English team they can’t understand how that’s a red. I’m cheering for man u but come on, hide your enormous bias. When de Jong did it in the final they couldnt understand why he wasn’t sent off. Man u does it and they call it “the harshest red card they have ever seen, perplexing refereeing”. Shocking commentary

    1. SHut up man,
      Barcelona Chelsea (penalties)
      Barcelona Arsenal (van persie red card)
      Now
      Real Madrid MAn UTD (stupid red card)
      what u think? it should be red card? r we stupid u come here to say to us it was red card. we can all see the game, it was normal yellow card, i’m happy not spanish fans, i cannot believe Mafia in spanish, how can say about italia, when for last 4 years we see it in CL for spanish club, awesome thing, saldy true, it was a normal tackle but a redicolous red card angry all english fans. i think England have to do something with pllatini. maybe they need buy refree like madrid and barcelona too,

      1. I’m not here arguing the validity of the card, I fully agree its not a red. I’m saying how can these commentators say its a blatant red when de Jong does it, but when it happens to an English team it’s the worst call ever. U know that if Nigel received a red in the final they would have had no qualms about it. That’s my point. Obviously the game was ruined, but so too would have been the final. Be professional and keep your bias to yourself. It just made me extrmely angry how they can view two identical events so differently just because of the team it happened to.

        1. Because Nigel was looking straight at Alonso when he kicked him right in the sternum/stomach area. Nani wasn’t even looking at Arbeloa when he hit him in the side.

          Nani didn’t know he was there, De Jong did. Big difference.

          1. So your trying to tell me that Nigel knew he was there? Nigel had eyes for the ball until he saw Alonso and tried to pull out. Obviously his looked worse because he was facing Alonso but both were accidents, neither deserved red. My point is just how polarized the views are for two incidences that differ rather slightly in nature and result. I truly believe that had the roles been reversed and it was arbeloa kicking nani in the chest the commentators wouldnt have made an issue about arbeloa geting sent off. I dont think anyone can argue that. I know this is a moot point, but i just found their comments irritating and a bit hypocritical and wanted a place to vent. However, like everyone is saying, The real issue is that a game that could have been classic was ruined by a ref once again.
            On a sidenote I think its a little unfair the way faraz and company are labeling madrid. I am by no means a fan but they did nothing in this game but earn my respect. There was no play acting by the team, mourinho was respectful, Ronaldo even more so. When the red card incident happened none of the players swarmed the red ala Barcelona. They played hard with what they were handed and in the end got te two goals they needed. The anger should be directed to the ref, not Madrid.

        2. I agree with ATT23. The english-speaking media had turned Nigel and Oranje into villains for an indentical challenge to the one for which they are now victimizing Nani and Man Utd.

          Football is too subjective in this sense. Was there intent? Does it matter if there is intent? Yellow? Red? Offside? Penalty or diving?

          In a way it keeps the game interesting- everyone loves a healthy dose of controversy. It just sucks when it happens to your team.

  7. That player came from behind Nani, there is no possible way Nani could have seen arbeloa. Spanish teams should win the oscars year in and year out, but not the UCL. I am so pissed at this.

    1. :)) u r right, oscar :)) ;). Redicolous red card runis the game, but it always happened in important game between spanish and england clubs.

  8. No need to trash talk Faraz- even if you are pissed off. I was pointing out for everyone on this blog that “insanity is repeating the same thing and expecting a different outcome.” It has been established many times that RVP isn’t someone we can rely on in big games/tournaments. Some people were proposing we build the team around him! This game (and the previous one) proves such idea to be foolish. CR7 scored in both games, while RVP didn’t.

    1. @Overmars, I am guilty of “building around RVP” support, I regret it. I am not gonna rush and excuse him with terms such as “unlucky”, “he wasn’t that bad” etc. He CANNOT deliver on the big stage. I hate Ronaldo but I tip my hat to him, he shows up big time and never disappoints his fans.

      1. This is absurd. Absolutely rediculous. Van Persie scored the crucial 2-0 against france in 2008, the 2-1 against Germany last year (which essentially gave us a glimmer of hope still), he has scored countless important goals in big games in the Premier League (including a hattrick at Stamford bridge if I’m not mistaken).

        The problem is that people like Overmars are watching him like a vulture waiting for the moment he slips up, yet meanwhile completely disregarding everything that contradicts their argument.

        Name the last striker Hollands has had that brought us a major trophy.

  9. While RVP is very talented (arguably more than anyone else in Oranje at the time being), he is not made for the big games/tournaments. I hope LVG keeps this in mind as he builds the next Oranje.

    1. Who should we use then Overmars? Huntelaar? How many important goals has he scored for club and country? Many, yes, but against opponents of questionable quality.

      Luuk de Jong? Does he even play for BM? Let alone score goals…

      Ricky van Wolfswinkel? Bas Dost? I got it! Siem de Jong!
      because SDJ > RVP.

      Siem de Jong will lead us to world cup glory! You are a genius Overmars…..

      1. No need for your foolish comments Primo. Take a deep breath and read the comment I posted carefully. Given your intelligence level, probably you need to read it a few times to understand it fully. I didn’t mention any of the names you brought as better than RVP. I even said he is the most talented of all current Oranje players. I just want people to wake up from the dream they’re having. RVP is a great Premier League player. Period. Nothing more, nothing less. He has never consistently showed up at any big stage like true legends do. Hence, LVG shouldn’t build a team around him and we all should tune down our expectations from RVP. Build a solid team whose overall strength is greater than the sum of its individual players Suggestion: Before jumping to type another foolish response, probably you need to read the last post a few times for it to make sense in your slow brain.

  10. ok! we have buy CR7 for dutch team. thank u for u and all guys say RVP is not good enough in big games. u know, but still he would be our first choice, it is not important what u talk about him, Van gall choose him, because cannot ignore him. so contnue after the Arsenal Man UTD game come here copy and paste ur typing and go for after mancity game,

  11. who is good for big games? i cannot see any dutch player, robben failed, sneijder failed van persie failed, i know all dutch talented players would failed, it is not for RVP, it is for all player who played in 1974 and 1978 and 1998 and 2010. it is for all dutch player. just be patient if u like dutch soccer or choose another team who don’t fail;)

  12. MOURINHO REACTION

    Speaking to British broadcaster ITV immediately after the match, the Real Madrid boss admitted: “Independent of the red card, the best team lost.”

  13. Well, let’s try to get some perspective.

    Before the red card, Man U was not exactly dominant. They had a meager 35% ball possession, at home. You can even say they got complacent after the first goal: mission accomplished kind of thing.

    They did react well towards the end, but should have done that earlier.

    Not saying they deserved to lose or to get a red, but calling it a robbery might be going a bit far.

    Apart from that:

    – RVP: unlucky, but not so bad
    – Ryan Giggs: simply amazing. That guy is only slightly older than me, but, boy, he can still run and deliver amazing long passes…

  14. Anyone who thinks the football in big games is not fixed to some degree is just not paying attention.

    Hopefully this is the last hurrah for all these mega-clubs and financial fair play levels the playing field a bit. Its insane to think about the money tied up in professional sport when there are people all over the world starving.

    1. Spot on Jason. Especially when it comes to Real M. Florentino Perez is breaking the bank to get Real that CL cup, this is the year. I am 99% sure Real will win this CL. I’d cheer for any team to beat Madrid but there’s no chance.
      Nani didn’t even deserve a yellow to my opinion, he only clipped the shirt of the other guy without any intention. What bullshit.
      And Mourinho saying the better team lost is hypocrisy of the highest level. What a scumbag and a hateful character.

  15. If my memory is still correct:
    1. Ronaldo has not won CL since he left MU. Since he goes to a big club with many big players like Real, winning La Liga is expected. Barca cannot win every year. I agrees that he is a very good player.
    2. De Jong did not kick Alonso. De Jong simply tried to go for the ball, but perhaps he was a bit slow and Alonso just aimed for De Jong’s boot. This is my interpretation.

    One thing I learn, every soccer game’s result can be dictated. History showed us. CL (Lyon game, Marseille’s CL title…), Euro (Spain 12-1…) or World Cup (Argentine-Peru 6-0…).

    1. > De Jong did not kick Alonso

      Do you have a good Gif or video or photo from a certain angle that could convince a neutral? I always wondered if there was strong evidence that builds the case of Nigel not being aware of the situation.

      1. Having re-watched the De Jong/Alonso incident many times, it’s quite clear to me that De Jong is actually using his leg/foot like a shock absorber, to soften the impact between himself and Alonso. His action (and muscular movement) is one of dampening, not one of kicking or stamping.
        He was stupid to use his foot, and technically it could be construed as dangerous play, and could receive a red card. That’s the referee’s discretion. No harm was meant and the correct decision was made.

  16. I have the game on DVD so let me watch it again. This is what De Jong said (reported by espn):
    “Yes, I was concerned it might be worse than a yellow,” he said. “It looked worse, although to be honest I didn’t see the opponent coming in from the side.
    “I was really focused on the ball and I caught him on his chest. It was a bit curious but he gave the yellow card so for me it was a little bit of luck.”
    http://espnfc.com/world-cup/story/_/id/808401/ce/uk/&cc=5901?ver=us
    He sounded sincerely and honestly to me. He was careless but not intentional. He went for the ball and Alonso came in from his side.

  17. What bothers me more than the Nani incident itself is the surprising inconsistency in refereeing decisions — a shortcoming that has to be blamed on FIFA/UEFA.

    A similar example occurred in the Uruguay-Netherlands game where Demy de Zeeuw got kicked in the jaw by Ceceres when he knew that Demy was next to him. Red card? No. Yellow card? No. Free kick? As best I recall, it was deemed accidental so not even a free kick. How can you possibly reconcile that decision with the one today given to Nani? His foot was lower and he arguably didn’t realize the defender was coming. Perhaps the rule is this: If you are going to kick your opponent above the waist, it’s okay to put your boot 6 feet in the air so long as you don’t show your studs?

    By the way, if you look back at the replays of the incident it’s odd but it looks like Nani lashes out with his boot when Arbeloa passes by him, instead of trying to retract his foot. Granted there could be other explanations like he’s off balance, but I wonder whether that tipped the balance for the ref into thinking it was intentional? While I thought this was only a yellow at the time, after watching the replays I’m not going to lose sleep over it — but I do hope that FIFI/UEFA solve the inconsistency problem. Otherwise it’s easy to be cynical and assume some sort of corruption since the decisions vary so widely — from red card to no punishment at all.

  18. I watched a clip to see Nani incident again. He was watching the ball and did not see Arbeloa. Of course Nani was wrong but he did not deserve red card. Maybe yellow card. I agreed with VanX about inconsistency of referee’s quality. Unfortunately human error is part of the game and this is where FIFA/UEFA keep emphasizing. I think finally they agree to test goal line technology but decision like this (or in case of Heitinga’s red card) can influence the outcome of the game, not necessarily approve/reject a goal. This is the part where FIFA/UEFA did not care about. Perhaps 2 main referees may be the answer if you accept some delay (allowing the 2 main referees to discuss in addition to discuss with linesmen). Sometimes main referee cannot keep up (run up and down the field) so we hope 2 will provide better coverage?

  19. RVP might not be the only one to blame but Ferguson. I see RVP dropping every game to get the ball back bou tonight he was stuck up there waiting and waiting to get the ball, maybe Ferguson told him to stay up there and wait for a ball to come his way.

    1. I got the same feeling about weird tactics Ferguson has chosen for the game. He definitely wanted to strengthen the game in the second half by keeping likes of Roonie, Kagawa, Valencia on the bench, but got caught (and shocked) by the unexpected red card.

  20. I don’t understand where all this criticism to Rvp come from!! The guy was isolated all time and then when received the ball upfront he passed it very well, he set welbeck on a one on one with the keeper after he controlled the ball with a sweet touch! If he had “Alonso, ozil and de Maria ” or “xavi iniesta and fabregas” behind him he would’ve been scoring 50 goals just like Ronaldo and messi! Please don’t compare the players he has in Man U or the ones he had in arsenal to the ones Ronaldo and messi have!!! Messi in a different team than barca his numbers would go down significantly, Ronaldo at Man U was very good but was not a super Ronaldo like he is with real, all thanks to the group of stars they have with them!!

  21. I don’t know if anyone has said it yet, but NOW I want to know what Webb has to say.

    I wasn’t very interested in his commentary after the WC-final, but now I want him questioned on this and the media going berserk over his answers as they did after the WC-final.

    Won’t happen though, you won’t hear a peep.

    All that’s going to happen now is Real Madrid getting knocked out to make room for a team like Juventus or Borussia Dortmund and everyone who isn’t a Madrid fan will be happy about the injustice being undone (not realizing that the real fix is not in favor of Madrid but in favor of the other 2 teams I mentioned for example but it’s being made more acceptable for the viewer, it’s the same with that French club that suspiciously went through at the cost of Ajax after that suspicious wink in Zagreb, in their case they had to make way for Apoel Nicosia = football emerging market promotion attempt).

    Not to mention, it eases the mind for Madrid fans if they get some favoritism against MU and then get screwed by the ref in the next match (again, just like Lyon vs Apoel). I’ve seen this pattern repeat itself a couple of times now and therefore I’m curious if it will happen again. I will definitely be paying attention to Madrid’s next game in the CL. My money would probably be on Borussia Dortmund because it’s been a while since a german team won it, and for some reason I feel against Bayern you don’t require the usual referee-excuse/explanation/fan’s scapegoat for losing.

    Did anyone else notice the Ajax players not really being all that upset in their game against Madrid last year when they scored twice I think and got screwed twice by the ref disallowing the goal (not counting them)?

    I would have been so much more upset if I were playing, well, unless I knew what was going to happen of course…

    Then again, it doesn’t seem Ajax has the same level of pride or expectation anymore from CL-games anyway, so that might have something to do with not really getting all worked up about getting knocked out anyway (especially when playing against Madrid who usually just demolishes your team).

  22. You know that red card is even more ironic when you think about de Zeeuw’s career never returning to it’s previous ‘glory’ after his jaw was broken in the WC by an Uruguayan player attempting a really ridiculous bycicle kick (in the sense that there was no chance of success in hitting the ball and the situation did not call for a bycicle kick and should have been ruled off for dangerous play the moment he even initiated that move, referee completely ignored it, no yellow, no red, no foul).

    Spanish player gets a little footimprint on his chest (shouldn’t hurt too much, certainly won’t ruin your career) and all hell breaks loose. Accidents happen and if that was supposed to be intentional it was very well acted by Nani and de Jong.

    1. almost broken ( I thought they found out in the hospital a couple of months later that there WAS something wrong with his jaw or teeth, whereas I read now that he didn’t break his jaw in the description of that video I posted, but that was the initial conclusion I thought, like I said, they found out later after he had played bad for Ajax for a couple of months, I may have even read that here).

  23. There is no way that Nani should have been red carded for such a small incident, however if you focus on the game ManU were there own worst enemy. They chose to sit back and try to defend the one goal lead, this was never going to work and eventually they were exposed by firstly individual brilliance by Modric, and then by a great team move with Ronnie on the end of it. I hate it when teams stop playing football and just get every player behind the ball, it’s suicide.
    Further the Manu passing game was ordinary at best in the second half, they could not keep the ball at all and resorted to just bashing it up the park and hoping RVP could beat the 3 defenders that were all over him. On any other day he scores at least 2 goals , you must give credit to the RM keeper, what a game he had particularly when RVP was shooting. Rooney missed from 6 yards out , that was a howler!
    Anyhow that’s football and the Ref will be long remembered for ruining a good match.

  24. What a great article!! One of my favourites. I love how positive these guys are they have a great mentality, there comradery is awesome and lets hope that winning mentality they have filters through to Oranje once they make it in to the first team. Thanks Jan!

    An interview I read with Graziano Pelle… When asked the greatest coach his played under. This is what he said

    GP: I consider myself lucky, because in my career I have never had any problems with any coach. Louis van Gaal was the best, in my opinion he is the Lionel Messi of coaches. I remember the first training sessions with him, when I got home I couldn’t stand on my feet. He always speaks his mind – that’s his great virtue. If a player follows what Van Gaal says then he can really improve a lot.

  25. DRB300, i looked at the game. Unfortunately all the angles are bad for Nigel. If you look at the first replay of the incident (right after the ref gave the yellow card), Nigel was watching the ball up high, his leg was in motion, Alonso jumped high. Nigel is half a second late.

    1. Thanks hien. I still have trouble reading the eye movement of Nigel in all clips I have seen from the incident so far. It has become a Kodak moment people from other country’s like to pull out of their pocket talking about Dutch behavior at the WC and taking the moral high ground.

  26. Doel: Maarten Stekelenburg (AS Roma), Kenneth Vermeer (Ajax), Michel Vorm (Swansea City).

    Verdediging: Daley Blind (Ajax), Mike van der Hoorn (FC Utrecht), Daryl Janmaat (Feyenoord), Joris Mathijsen (Feyenoord), Ricardo van Rhijn (Ajax), Stefan de Vrij (Feyenoord), Jetro Willems (PSV).

    Middenveld: Jordy Clasie (Feyenoord), Jonathan De Guzman (Swansea City), Siem de Jong (Ajax), Adam Maher (AZ), Wesley Sneijder (Galatasaray), Kevin Strootman (PSV), Rafael van der Vaart (Hamburger SV), Tonny Vilhena (Feyenoord).

    Aanval: Jean-Paul Boëtius (Feyenoord), Bas Dost (VfL Wolfsburg), Klaas Jan Huntelaar (Schalke 04), Ola John (Benfica), Dirk Kuijt (Fenerbahҫe), Robin van Persie (Manchester United), Arjen Robben (Bayern München), Ruben Schaken (Feyenoord).

    BMI is injured, is Vlaar also ? Van der Hoorn called instead of Douglas/Viergever, quite strange.

    Don’t really agree with Vilhena, he is still too young, just played once with -21, why to mention his name as early ? Let him one year or two…Fer is paying for his bad form, but I would still prefer to see him rather than S.De Jong.

    Where is Lens ?

    Kuyt and Schaken are no dutch material, he should stop with them.

    1. Lens made an ass of himself last week. So he has to sit. (Mathijsen, too, I guess.)

      Biggest surprise for me on the list is Mike van der Hoorn.

      Kuyt and Schaken have their places because they do some things the others don’t, I think, esp. defensively.

      1. Lens mistake cost him three eredivisie games, but he should be here. If there really is a problem between him and Mathijsen, the second one has to get off, Lens isn’t a player known for making problems, Mathijsen is arguing every game.

        1. No, Lens shouldn’t be here. He made an ass of himself — and all of PSV — with a fight in the tunnel.

          Anyone with a sense of team discipline would have him sit this one out.

  27. @Laurent…No matter how we say and how much we say.there is way to loose in every tournament for dutch.Unless they select right 23 players no team would win a WC/EC.
    i think van gaal is giving chances to all,its cool and good so far.but time is running out he has now 6 months for that..Afetr that he will narrow down the selection.but if u see kuyt,schaken,Afellay,Huntlaar,Joris,Johny and(IF) unfit Vaart and wesly in 23 man squad.it would be wise to switch off the TV.

    1. Seriously?
      You felt the need to say that SAME crap again?

      You know, posting once is enough – that’s what normal people might do with a thought.

      Twice is acceptable. Not many people here will repeat themselves. Do you notice that? Do you see how normal, reasonable, intelligent people interact like that?

      YOU post the same ridiculous insulting bullshit in EVERY FUCKING ARTICLE ON THIS WEBSITE, you dumb fucking cunt.

      Worse still, you then post the exact same idiotic crap SEVERAL FUCKING TIMES in these very same articles.

      ALL DAY.

      EVERY FUCKING DAY.

      THE EXACT SAME SHIT.

      What the fuck is wrong with you?

      At what stage exactly do you intend to finish this?

      How much longer must we wade through your hopeless and incessant fucking childspeak?
      When are you going to understand that we didn’t agree with your amateur-hour assessments years ago.
      We don’t agree with your crackpot bullshit theories now.
      We will NEVER agree with your illogical, moronic, ignorant and insulting views in the future.

      Your attitude is not playful. It is insulting. It is BORING.
      We are sick of hearing your same fucking crap over and over and over and over and over and over and over again, you dumb fucking clown.
      Just stop!
      We get that you don’t like some players. You stated that opinion years ago, fool. IS THAT ALL YOU FUCKING HAVE TO OFFER?
      That’s it? You have one fucking theory and you are going to repeat it every couple of hours, in every fucking article, no matter what the ACTUAL SUBJECT MATTER OF THE THREAD??

      How the fuck do you get through life?

      Grow the fuck up.

      A million fucking sperm and YOU were the fastest?

      Sorry, this had to be done. Something had to be said to this fucking retard.

      1. Obviously a bit harshly stated, but there’s a lot of truth here. It drives me crazy to have to sort through the same exact posts by Tiju every single article regardless of the topic… Dutch will always lose (odd to continually post this on a Dutch NT fan site), Sneijder/VdV are fat and old, Affellay is somehow stupid and dribbles too much, etc. You should put these things on a notepad next to your computer and when you find yourself typing them (again) remember that we’ve already heard them countless times and really don’t want to have to scroll past them one (or a hundred) more times.

      2. A u fucking retard Clog………cunt…u call that ur father….and keep sucking….as ur dutch players does…select those old farts and keep suck….u are born for it………..

        1. HAHAHAHA!!
          Tiju, you just got properly owned.
          Now shut the fuck up and crawl back under that rock, you ignorant little worm. No one likes you here. No one wants you here. Wake up.

  28. Tim Krul, Bruno Martins Indi and Ron Vlaar all miss out due to injury, while Jeremain Lens was left out for disciplinary reasons after he was recently involved in a post-match brawl after PSV’s Eredivisie loss against Feyenoord.

  29. Laurent, I agree and disagree with you at the same time. I agree with everything you say about Mathijsen who is totally useless and should be dumped but disagree about Fer/Siem. Fer is really bad. Please watch him play every week and you will see for your self. He used to be a promising player but no more. Siem is performing every week. Yes he could score more but frankly I blame Frank for that. He never knows where he will play; one week midfield, another center forward. It would be better for Siem if it was more regular. But regardless he is way above Fer at this stage.

    1. Fer is following the bad form of Twente. Yes, on the last games he was really bad, I mentionned it. But it’s still a really interesting player, with a real power to go forward, he scores quite often, can defend etc. he is a kind of Diaby who is really a good player when he isn’t injured. Tadic is also doing it bad with Twente, but no doubt he is a super player. I hope the team will get better, and no doubt Fer will also, the game against Feyenoord one or two months ago, Fer was excellent.

      I really don’t like S.De Jong, he got good controls and quite good finish, score with head but the rest…Very slow player, not on his ease technically, and has absolutly no influence on the game, poor activity,poor short pass and vision for a “number ten” type. It’s the weak version of Toivonen for me.

      Though, like Kuyt, I have to recognize he can score crucial goals, did it against City and many times with Ajax. But on a whole season, it’s really a boring player to watch.

  30. So what would be our XI starting?

    Steks
    Janmaat / de Vrij / mathjisen :(( / Blind (read Willems (DRB 300)
    Clasie-Maher-Strootman
    Robben-Van Perisie-John

  31. Guys …listen we are goin to play against Estonia and Romania…They are not Spain,arjentina,Brazil,Germany or not even italy,portugal.
    A team with Guys like kuyt,joris,unfit vaart/Wes,huntlaar can beat these kind of teams…they have proved it for a time.But they would choke in font of real teams…
    I am bit worried about Douglas,Bruma,Van anholt,Fer,,Ginkel and Ricky wolf.Both Bruma and Douglas are beast and they are our best against 1 VS 1 situation.i really wish that kuyt,huntlaar,Afellay(injured),Joris,schaken dropped for ever and if unfit vaart and Wesly can join them..

  32. At the moment our 23 should be
    ————————————–
    Stekeleburg
    Vermeer
    Vorm
    —————————————-
    Van Rhijn
    Janmaat
    Devrij
    Douglas
    Bruma(doin ok with HSV)
    Van annholt(better than williams)
    Blind
    —————————————-
    Kevin strootman
    De guzman
    Jordy clasie
    Tony vilehna
    seim de jong
    Wesly
    Adam Maher
    —————————————-
    Arjen Roben
    Jean paul Boetius
    Ola john
    Jermain lenz
    —————————————–
    Robin Van persie
    Bas Dost
    ——————————————

    1. And to think only about a year ago Feyenoord just had one player in the Netherlands squad, and on the fringes at that (Vlaar).

      I’m so excited with the (potential) influence this Feyenoord generation is going to have on the national team these next few years.

  33. Who is Mike van der Hoorn? Perhaps it is a bit early for Vilhena but it can be a good motivation for him to perform and get better. LVG is trying to re-emphasize the message that the door is always open, no matter how young you are. I still do not understand why Mathijsen is still called up. I am sorry that I am biased against him but his prime is way past (2010) so it is time to let other players try. Are you telling me that Mathijsen is still Netherlands’s top 4 central defenders right now? I don’t believe it. How is Kuyt doing?

    1. Mathijsen will probably start in the next game for Oranje because of his partnerhip with De Vrij at Feyenoord. That is why he is called,for Van Gaal it is all about teamwork and understanding of each other. But Martins Indi is maybe over his injury so there is a possibility that he will be called additionally. In that case we will see De Vrij and Indi as CBs again.

    2. Mathijsen and Kuyt are on their way out, I can’t imagine either of them seeing the field (bar the last 10 minutes) at the World Cup.

      Van der Hoorn is a defender at Utrecht. Young and promising but has never really had to deal with any kind of pressure. It’s too early for him I think, but he will be one of the first, if not the first axed.

  34. I am curious as to what the situation will be 1 year from now.

    Will Sneijder still be in Turkey?
    Will Robben still be in Munchen?
    Will a Dutch team have done decently in CL?
    Will Strootman be playing (and actually playing) at a “big” club?

    Let’s face it- we’re going to the World Cup. We have beaten 2 and 3 away (convincingly). Turkey will have nothing to play for. No one is sure of a starting spot under Van Gaal, and I think because of this we will probably win every single one of our qualifying games.

    1. Primo. Don’t fart questions out of your stupid brain like a fucking child. Who the fuck knows the future. If you have nothing intelligent to say, just shut the fuck up. You can shove your curiosity where you can shove your stupid opinions. Your ass that is.

          1. Two different people.
            The first Clog has an apparent and obvious command of the English language.
            The second Clog does not.
            Obvious name-troll is obvious.

      1. Please, guys. This is no schoolyard, we are all adults. Try behaving like one. It’s not because you are hidden behind your keyboard that you can say things you would not say in real life.

        In summary: no insults, no name calling. Both of you.

          1. Keep it civil. No one’s going to insult you for missing an “r” on the word “your”.

  35. Primo:
    My guesses:
    Will Sneijder still be in Turkey? Yes
    Will Robben still be in Munchen? Yes
    Will a Dutch team have done decently in CL? No, not yet. 1 years is not enough.
    Will Strootman be playing (and actually playing) at a “big” club? Yes, I hope it would be ManU.

  36. I wonder if Douglas didn’t ask Van Gaal not to select him and to let him time to think.

    He knows he will join a good club this summer, probably Inter, and as Brazil doesn’t have a second really good central next to Thiago Silva, he can still hope to be selected with them.

    I remember Van Gaal saying in october that he prefers Heitinga type rather than Douglas to explain why he wasn’t called, but now, what to say ? He took Van der Hoorn instead…

    1. man i have been wondering the same thing. it is odd that there was so much buzz about douglas’ switching allegiances to Oranje yet he could still U-turn and head to this homeland… if he does this i blame LVG, what are your thoughts?

  37. I have a dream… That oranje can win a world cup playing total voetbal! That dream has cruyff as head coach
    ————-stekelenburg————-
    —–de vrij———–strootman—–
    Janmaat————————-emanuelson
    ————–van der vaart————-
    ——-clasie———–sneijder—-
    Van persie————————–robben
    ————-huntelaar————–

    1. Onzie..everybody have their own fantasy.none of us are goin to slect the players for dutch NT.we just express our fantasy here….like the idea of stroot as LCB.how good he is in air???if u put,Vaart,Roben,Huntlaar,Persie and Roben then you will have a very very static play.huntlaar is static,Wesly/Vaart doesnt run like 22 year olds.and roben and persie might do some hardwork,but still that wont be enough to play against any quality team..energy is needed for better game these old players doesnt give that……

      1. nobody noticed but the fantasy actually was trying to understand what cruyff would have picked, for the euros cruyff wrote that his formation was going to be

        —————-stekelenburg——————
        ———heitinga———-van bommel———-
        van der wiel————————-emanuelson
        ——————van der vaart—————–
        —–affellay———————sneijder——
        van persie——————————-robben
        ——————huntelaar———————

        so using that idea i tried to think about what would cruyff do for the team, and judging by how i’ve seen van der vaart play great again, what would cruyff as head coach do for the team

      2. nobody noticed but the fantasy actually was trying to understand what cruyff would have picked, for the euros cruyff wrote that his formation was going to be

        —————-stekelenburg——————
        ———heitinga———-van bommel———-
        van der wiel————————-emanuelson
        ——————van der vaart—————–
        —–affellay———————sneijder——
        van persie——————————-robben
        ——————huntelaar———————

        so using that idea i tried to think about what would cruyff do for the team, and judging by how i’ve seen van der vaart play great again, what would cruyff as head coach do for the team

      3. ‘we just express our fantasy here…’

        NO, TIJU!

        That is not what you do here.
        You spread your hate and vitriol. You spout bullshit.
        You post nonsense comments in threads of entirely unrelated subject matters.

        You repeatedly clutter this wonderful site with illogical and ignorant comments.

        You constantly and consistently abuse the good names of our heroes.
        You do it again and again and again, and without any good reason. Just purely to extract a reaction.

        You are without any shadow of doubt the dumbest, most childish and poisonous little fool ever to embarrass themselves on the internet.

        I hope you die without children – this world will be better off without your deficient genes holding back the human race. Idiot.

      1. that wasn’t actually my formation it was what i thought cruyff would play as his ideal formation

        with the current players we have selected my ideal formation would be

        —————vorm—————–
        ——-de vrij——-strootman——
        Janmaat————————Blind
        ————–clasie—————-
        ——-maher———–sneijder—–
        John—————————Robben
        ————-van Persie————–

    1. Jeje that´s true

      But the fact is that after what Ajax did in EU I think they don´t deserve to win the eredivisie. They deserve a punishing!

      Add to that fact that they are comfortably singing Danish young players, but don´t want to pay any money for any Dutch player, and they are very happy with the money they did selling Verthonghen (12mm), Anita (8mm), Suarez (22mm), etc., but don´t invest it on Dutch talent.

      One example is that Ajax didn´t want to pay more than 2mm for Narshing, and now they bring a mediocre Spanish player for Barcelona to play right wing instead Boerrigther or Lukoki. And at the beginning of the season Ajax buy Sana to play there and now he is not playing anymore.

      I respect a lot the long time work Frank de Boer is doing, but come on… spend some money to make a good team!…. and a Dutch one please!

      I really hope Ajax sing Maher if they sell Eriksen!

      Besides that, Feyenoord are doing an excellent work with the Academy and they deserve a consideration.

      I know I am exaggerating, but on my book, Ajax triumph is very good for Denmark, but Feyenoord triumph is better for Netherlands!! Jajajajajaj

  38. Nice article Jan!

    Observation about Man U – RM
    Morinho: “Best team lost”, I would say “Best coach (=the one with the coolest head) won”.
    SAF might have an incredible track record, but if you see how he lost his cool and got distracted, while the sly old fox JM immediately reacted to the changed situation, it is obvious that in team sports cooler heads prevail too.

  39. from 26 provisional, my guess, LvG will take 3gKs and 7defenders
    2-3 midfield and 2- 3 forwards might go home

    Since strootman and sneijder have come back, we can afford to let go the second vice captain so
    Dirk Kuijt (Fenerbahҫe)
    Ruben Schaken (Feyenoord
    Siem de Jong (Ajax)

    But hopefully he take 3more players even sitting pn the bench.
    Adam Maher (AZ
    Tonny Vilhena (Feyenoord).
    Jean-Paul Boëtius (Feyenoord)

  40. Sorry to disappoint you but total football was born with Ajax and the national team will always be linked to Ajax. I don’t care one bit that for the first time ever there are more Feyenoord- than Ajax-based players on the national team. I still support Ajax as my club team. We play by far the most attractive football in Holland. Everyone agrees with that. That Feyenoord team (although more talented I admit) reminds me of the Ajax of Co Adrianse in the very beginning of 2000 when he suddenly produced VD Vaart, VD Meyde, Bobson, Van Der Gun and so many others. It remains to be seen how many of these Feyenoord players are really top class. I think that Vilhena, Boetius and Clasie are probably the best. But Shacken, Janmaat, even de Vrij, i am not so sure.

    1. Schacken- too old for the national team I guess..
      Janmaat- Van Rhijn is a much better choice in my opinion

      De Vrij- I’m sure he’s top class..
      🙂

      1. Abhirup De vrij is bit slow.once the opponent pass him he is not much effective.But he is my NO1 choice for RCB.no2 is Douglas…
        Though Van der weil crosses are crap ,defensivly he looks better than Janmaat.but Jan maat is not a bad choice..

  41. What if BVM continued with feynoord from 2007??i still remmebr buying of Hofland,makaay,gio and many old ones for huge money…feynoord would have lost al these new talents and they would be in bankruptcy. ha ha cannt even think about that…
    @Jeff i am a fan of Ajax coz of the past.Ajax admin is so corroupted what are they doing for dutch football(i mean interms of developing dutch talents?)
    Koeman key jay…

    1. Oh Tiju, you stupid little boy.

      I am going to show you exactly why you truly are the dumbest waste of skin and oxygen on this spinning spacerock.

      Here is an example of your hilariously awful thought process:

      Maher is shit. He is old and useless.

      ^ That is your typical Tiju-like statement.
      There is no evidence to back it up. No stats. There is no reference. There is no reason. No charm. There is no humour. It is just a bare bones insult – a poor one. A repeated one. It makes no logical sense, because it is illogical.

      And it gets worse.

      You, Tiju, will now repeat this same sentence…
      …several times in the comments section…
      …..of EVERY SINGLE FUCKING ARTICLE FOR THE NEXT TEN YEARS!!!

      At some point in the future, Maher will indeed become old.
      At some point, his skills will indeed begin to desert him.

      And all the time, Tiju, you have been saying this to be true.
      So after FIFTEEN YEARS you actually (remarkably and astonishingly) think that you have been CORRECT for FIFTEEN YEARS.
      You genuinely believe that ONLY YOU have been seeing this all along.
      It is a staggering level of ineptitude, ignorance and inflated ego.

      Do you see?

      ANYONE can make a prediction that a player is old and his skills are failing.
      And if they wait long enough, their prediction WILL come true.
      Because it’s not a prediction. It’s a natural order of things.

      The problem you have, little boy, is that this is not a measure of analytical intelligence.
      It’s a measure of you being SO FUCKING PAINFULLY AND MEDICALLY RETARDED that you cannot actually produce a rational comment about football.
      Your self-fulfilling prophecies are not even football related – they are predictions that ANY wheelchair idiot will make, because they KNOW that one day they will come to pass.
      Do you understand? You bring nothing to this conversation. NOTHING.
      Substitute Maher for Kuyt, or Van Bommel, or any of the other heroes you so pathetically wish to ridicule.
      Rewind the last 5 years. Away you go.

      Your football knowledge is atrocious. It is laughable.
      Your lack of football understanding means the only predictions you can make are ones that are guaranteed to eventually come to pass – those regarding the NATURAL aging process of the players.

      That you choose to then insult, ridicule and disrespect these same players makes your comments entirely unpalatable.
      You are a vile little shit.
      An odious and pitiful worm.
      You are a vapid, ignorant, clueless and brainless pinhead.
      I am sick of reading your hate.
      I am now turning this disrespect back on to you. I am going to shine this vile light on you and every single hate-filled comment you make from now on until you learn how to conduct yourself.

      You should have taken the advice given to you above, or last week, or the week before, or the month before that, or the month before that, or the year before, and the year before that……….
      Pathetic.

      Your parents must be SO PROUD!

  42. From given choice
    ————-Stekelenburg—————–
    ————-Devrij—-Joris————–
    Vanrhijn———————–Blind
    ————–De guzman——————
    ——–clasie————Strootman——–
    Boetius————————-Roben
    ————-Persie————————-
    4 experienced guys with 7 less experinced guys.
    Subs
    vilhena
    Wesly
    Dost

  43. I would say that LVG has figured out 90% of back 4 defenders for WC14, van Rhijn-Janmaat, Blind-willems, d vrij-BMI, and two spots are currently open for Vlaar or Mathijsen and maybe one new young defender. I would also expect van der wiel to join competition and gain a spot, possibly shift van rhijn to back up CB when necessary. I don’t think we’ll see douglass under LVG, he never has a good relationship with Brazilian in the past. We are now half way to the final, I’m trying to understand why LVG still maintain mathijsen for the remaining less decisive matches. If in the next month he get called again, certainly he will be there next year. As if LVG’s left with no choice as he is the only with experience and regular playing time at this moment.

  44. If it was bert van marwijk
    ——————————-
    Stekelenburg
    vorm
    Krul
    ——————————-
    Bulahruz
    Van derweil
    Heitinga
    Joris
    Vlaar
    williams
    Peiters
    ——————————–
    Van bommel
    Strootman
    De jong
    Clasie…
    ——————————–
    Wesly
    Vaart
    Roben
    Afellay
    kuyt
    Lenz
    ——————————–
    huntlaar
    Luuk dejong
    Van persie
    ———————————
    total score of this team would be 5/23…..

      1. Score for what?
        Do you see what a fucking moron you are?
        You can’t even insult BVM properly.
        Why do you bother?

        Go play with traffic. Do us all a favour.

  45. iffy on doing the times because it’s daylight savings time in america where we lose an hour, so -5:00 gmt times or new york eastern

    Thursday March 7th

    3:05
    Benfica vs Bordeaux (ola john)

    Friday March 8th

    1pm or 13:00
    Galatasaray vs Gencleriblie (sneijder)

    Saturday March 9th

    9:30am

    Bayern munich vs Fortuna dusseldorf (robben)
    Freiburg vs Wolfsburg (bas dost)
    Schalke 04 vs Borussia dortmund (huntelaar)

    10:00am

    West Bromwich Albion vs Swansea city (vorm, de guzman)

    11:00am
    psg vs as nancy (van der wiel)

    12:30
    Borusia monchenglendbach vs Werder Bremen (elia, luuk de jong, roel brouwers)

    2:45pm or 14:45

    Udinese vs As Roma (stekelenburg)

    3:15 or 15:15

    Academica vs Sporting Lisbon (van wolfswinkel, boulahrouz)

    Sunday March 10th

    7:30
    Roda vs Feyenoord

    9:30
    ajax vs pec zwolle

    11:00am

    Newcastle vs stoke city (anita Krul injured)

    11:30am
    twente vs vitesse
    12:30
    Stuttgart vs Hamburg (van der vaart, bruma)

    4:15 or 16:15
    Benfica vs Gil vicente (ola john)

    Monday March 11

    no games

    tuesday march 12

    Schalke 04 vs galatasaray (huntelaar vs sneijder)

    wednesday march 13

    Bayern munich vs arsenal (robben)

      1. my bad, haven’t been focused on watching football, i stay up late to watch dutch baseball, my cousin from aruba friend xander bogaerts is playing 3rd base and they beat cuba and korea so it’s kind of a big deal for curacao and aruba to contribute to baseball or honkball

  46. @Jeff “How can you call yourself an Ajax fan and support Feyenoord?”

    Jeje that´s true

    But the fact is that after what Ajax did in EU I think they don´t deserve to win the eredivisie. They deserve a punishing!

    Add to that fact that they are comfortably singing Danish young players, but don´t want to pay any money for any Dutch player, and they are very happy with the money they did selling Verthonghen (12mm), Anita (8mm), Suarez (22mm), etc., but don´t invest it on Dutch talent.

    One example is that Ajax didn´t want to pay more than 2mm for Narshing, and now they bring a mediocre Spanish player for Barcelona to play right wing instead Boerrigther or Lukoki. And at the beginning of the season Ajax buy Sana to play there and now he is not playing anymore.

    I respect a lot the long time work Frank de Boer is doing, but come on… spend some money to make a good team!…. and a Dutch one please!

    I really hope Ajax sing Maher if they sell Eriksen!

    Besides that, Feyenoord are doing an excellent work with the Academy and they deserve a consideration.

    I know I am exaggerating, but on my book, Ajax triumph is very good for Denmark, but Feyenoord triumph is better for Netherlands!! Jajajajajaj

  47. The officiating in football is outrageously bad. It’s a tough game to call–with one guy–but officials and linesmen make terrible calls all the time. The red card against NANI was a JOKE. UEFA is incompetent and probably corrupt. You don’t hire officials to call big WC or CL games who have a reputation for give out a lot of cards–especially a lot of red cards! In big games you let the players decide the outcome–that is axiomatic in sports–not some dopey official. The guy RUINED the game.

    You only give a red card in an important game when a foul is absolutely egregious–and this one wasn’t even close. Nani didn’t even see the guy–and he foot hit his arm. Just a stupid, stupid, call. De Jong’s boot in the chest of the Spaniard in the WC final was worse–and he did not get a red card. Stop ruining games, UEFA.

    1. I watched John, Benfica played quite bad but he was more than correct. Nothing too special, but some interesting crosses, as always, and he defended more than usual also.

      Also Anita played with Newcastle.

  48. Here is how I see vGaals first line up
    Steks
    Janmaat deVrij Mathijssen Blind
    Clasie Strootman
    Sneijder
    John vP Robben

    But he could throw in Boeitus as the surprise – if He makes the final 18. Maher replaces Sneijder after 75min.

  49. Douglas is out of the FC Twente team for the game this weekend as a result of a disciplinary measure.

    The new (interim) coach Schreuder thought Douglas was not focused enough on the next match against Vitesse. Douglas does not act like a good professional.

    Unbelievable. That a guy who wants to play for the Dutch NT throws his hat to his profession, team, club and fans. This is not getting into a post match “fight” like Lens (which at least shows that the player cares, though channels his anger in a wrong and vulgar way), but this is just showing unprofessional behavior.

    FC Twente are in tough weather, they depend on Douglas at the back and have a highly inexperienced new coach. Before somebody in such a situation and position goes this far, right before facing off rivals Vitesse is a big red flag towards Douglas IMO.

    I think van Gaal was right all along. When a team consists of bad footballers at the back, you are treated like a wounded animal. Wounded animals are chased and hunted down and that also happens in the game of football. You get pressured early and have to reside to hoof football. Then it becomes a game of winning the header duels and the second balls. Have people seen Krul’s distribution by any chance ….? Build up is out of the window, initiative is out of the window, control is out of the window and you get to play the game on the opponents terms.

    Now we learn that Douglas has been identified as a problem by the new coach Schreuder (and his technical staff). People who know Douglas already for years. Worse than bad quality is rotten apples messing around with team moral and discipline. 2002 qualification comes to mind. Last season FC Twente completely lost it at the end of the season, this season they look like doing it again. To prevent this from happening Schreuder rather plays without Douglas against Vitesse then with him.

    I think this is a clear warning for people who call for Douglas in the Dutch NT.

      1. It’s so bad that even Newcastle fans complain about it, people used to hoof football.

        Krul could have been a Dutch keeper with excellent distribution but went abroad on a young age ending up with the distribution he has now. He was already in the Dutch youth teams, so the talent and development was already there. I recently saw an English youth coach claim that his colleague’s deemed van der Sar the most technical keeper in football history. City fans were among them. Krul things he it was wiser to learn the profession abroad in a country that never has problems with lining up a keeper for the national team ……

        Anyway, we had discussions on this forum whether Strootman, de Vrij or “Krul the shot stopper” was at fault for the goal of Verratti. 50% of the blame was on “Krul the distributor” with his long balls in the last 10 minutes landing in Italian feet or no men’s land at best, building pressure on our defense.

    1. Well, everyone who sees Twente games know that Douglas doesn’t seem to be the cleverest defender. Really agressive, gives a lot of dangerous passes etc. I can believe his behaviour out the field isn’t professionnal.

      But as a defender, he is the only one who can defend with agressivness, show authority in 1vs1 etc. compared to most of dutch defenders. Even De Vrij, whom I really like, seems to be a little bit scared sometimes, not really involved, not a leader spirit. Douglas plays with passion on the field.

      1. @laurent…Bruma is a beast,he can be better than douglas.lets pray for it.i hope maher doesnt make a mistake by goin to manshitty..
        Plenty of dutch talent is wasted in england
        Jefrry bruma
        Patrick van annholt
        Karim reikik
        Nathan ake
        kyle Ebilcilio
        Ozykhup
        i know that there is still time for these guys but i feel their groth IS RETARDED BY these F@##$%king selifish forgin managers…

        1. Why use a term like ‘Manshitty’?
          Why would you disrespect a team like that? Do you think it’s funny? Or even mature?
          When you get called names here (with good reason) you respond by crying like a little baby, and THEN in the next post you start calling other people, players and clubs names.
          Do you see why no-one here responds to you? No-one jumps to your defence. No-one likes a hypocritical little faggot with a chip on his shoulder.

          Stop the name calling, little boy. It doesn’t feel nice, does it? So stop…..

          Also, would you care to explain why you believe that ‘Plenty of dutch talent is wasted in england’?
          I would like to see some evidence or reasoning behind such a dramatic statement.
          Surely you have thought this through, correct?

          Surely you have some logical and rational explanation why England would be such a bad place to apply a trade.

          Surely you can tell us why you made that statement without considering all the dutch talent that HAS FLOURISHED in the english league over the years – the bergkamps, van persies, stams, de jongs of this world. Are you just ignoring them because they do not fit your theory of the week?

          Explain yourself.
          In fact, don’t.
          Just fuck off and never come back.

          1. @Donkey scolopendra….
            U F##$%king moron….what i said is fact…shitty club is shitty like u……Jus F##$%%k off

          2. Berkamp,stam.persie,dejong all went england at the age of 15 or may be at .5…u idiot u hav no clue what i am saying…ha aha hilarious comparing thesucess of these lengs had in eredivise before goin to EPL..u r a moron…

  50. Thank you Laurent for your feedback on Ola John.
    I was about to comment the same thing that Bart already discussed. ManCity is trying to get Maher. I was hoping he can go to Ajax. Goal.com also discussed RVP current form and also mentioned his lack of contribution to the Dutch national team.

  51. I admitted I was one of those who would like to see Douglas to be called as I think our CB were not good enough. This is sad to hear! I do not have a chance to watch much these days. Are Van Aanholt, Van Ginkel, Anita not good enough these days such that LVG did not call them up?

    1. Hien…..like others said,douglas might have attitude problems ,plus some additional issues.If Van gaal, could mange that he and douglas will be benefitted and so as we….but Van anholt is not lesser to Williams and Buttner.Anita is bit unlukcy he has to fight with
      Leory fer,strootman,clasie,De guzman and even Ginkel and when de jong comes back it gets more worse .anita is bit unlucky i feel…

      1. ‘ and douglas will be benefitted and so as we….but Van anholt is not ‘

        We?

        Stick to the singular. You will NEVER be part of ‘we’.

        Hou je bek man.

  52. @the trolls here Donkey Scolopendra,”Donkey” Boss,and idiotic Sin.i know that u r doing it ur home to ur MOM.FYI i never taught F%%^^king small statitics and hairline tactics to any coach..What ever i said was fact and truth.it was a very little thing.i said it repeatedly to avoid sucking but they didnt ,you wont and u r destined to suck.At times fans boos their teams to perform well.its the right of a FAN.THEY EXSISTS Beacuse of foolishly interested fans.How many Wcs dutch have?none.still u want keep sucking???I repeatedly said certain players are not goin to win it.They cannot…i had to say that.i cannot be diplomatic about future.Whatever i say it will happen.i know that u all r a nut by all means..U father desevres to hear all ur small language and you all too ..i am just stopping here.You better stay away from me..you will not beat me in any thing….

    1. Tiju, may I step in here for a second, mate? I never post here, but enough is enough now.

      You’ve just been burned, badly!
      There is no real way to fight back here, so don’t bother.
      These guys have called you out for being insulting, for being disrespectful and for repeating the same rubbish over and over again, and your reaction is …to insult, to be disrespectful and to repeat the same rubbish… again!!
      Do you see what happened?
      You got played. Big time!
      The ONLY thing that happened here was that you just proved every single one of their points.

      PLEASE understand, I am not trying to have a pop at you (although I think you deserve most of what you get here), but I am trying to show you that you bring all this on yourself!

      It is truly painful to watch.
      Smile. You’ll live longer 😉

      I haven’t read your posts in over a year. I found your comments insulting and dull, and consistently lacking in evidence and logic. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t post here though.
      I believe everyone should be entitled to express their opinions – including those who express their opinions about your opinions. But we should do all this as adults. Your language, your tone, your derisory attitude, your closed mindedness, your repetition of nonsense – these are things I would expect to find in a schoolyard. Come on! You can do better, right?

      Sadly, the real problem here lies in intelligence.
      It is quite clear from all this toing and froing that you aren’t exactly blessed in the brain department.
      That’s ok. I’m not insulting you. It is an observation based on scientific evidence provided by yourself in the comments you have made thus far.
      It’s also not something to be upset about.
      The thing about intelligence is that someone with an operating IQ of (say) 100 can NEVER KNOW what it is like to operate with an IQ of (say) 140. It is simply beyond their capability. They might guess, but they CANNOT know. That’s just how it works.
      What’s happening here is that you are struggling to comprehend a level of football discussion which is (unfortunately) just beyond your intellectual grasp. You CANNOT know that – but to many of us here it is obvious.
      It must feel very distressing at times, sure, but it doesn’t mean you should reply to people with insults, or respond to opinions with nonsensical repetition and mocking disdain.

      Sadly for you, no-one here is ever going to agree with you. Get over that. Most people don’t agree with others. That’s life.
      There is, however, a level of mutual interaction that allows people to ‘discuss’ things in a civilised and respectful manner.
      That is the standard we all aspire to – all of us, except you it seems.

      When you mockingly say things like ‘how many world cups have the Dutch won?’ (I corrected your spelling/grammar) it tells us numerous things:
      a) You are not Dutch, nor do you really care for the feelings of those who are – you may be welcome here, but you are not going to make any friends with that attitude, are you? This makes us question, if you are not going to be friendly, why you might be here at all. Please show some respect to the Dutch people here supporting their fellow blood brothers. That is all we ask. No one is ‘useless’ or ‘shit’. Grow up.
      b) You are a vile, sad, lonely little boy – you take delight in mocking others, and yet you are the first to cry like a baby bitch when others mock you. Sorry to be so blunt, but you really need to take care of this. It is unbecoming. It is unpleasant.
      c) You are frustrated, and you are lashing out with patronism – as this is probably the way you have been treated by others in the real world. Again. let it go. There are better ways to communicate, aren’t there?
      I could go on, but you get the point. Less IS more. You say so little, and yet you tell us SO MUCH.

      ‘you will not beat me in any thing…’
      Tiju, you have not just been beaten, you’ve been soundly thrashed, buddy. It was a whipping. A systematic dismantling. An assassination. You have been schooled. Just walk away.
      All this posturing of yours is incredibly embarrassing to watch. It’s awful.
      It’s like the typical child who slams his fingers in the door and then (through gritted teeth and watery eyes) implores that he is not feeling any pain.
      It’s ok to be hurt.
      We’ve ALL seen the extreme kicking you’ve taken. Your bravado and bluff will not cover this up. We don’t need to ‘beat’ you when you beat yourself.

      I’m not going to defend you – you deserved it.
      Now take it on the chin, be a man (for once), grow up a bit and move on. You might even WIN friends and admiration with this advice, as opposed to alienating yourself as usual. There is no reason to fight here. You lack the processing ability to succeed in debate, so chill out, take a back seat, enjoy the ride and lets all be happy fans.

      ‘Whatever i say it will happen.’
      This is the sort of attitude/tone I am referring to.
      You are not a football pundit. You don’t have the intelligence or education to express your thoughts in a coherent manner, and you NEVER provide a single scrap of evidence to support any of your outlandish claims.
      Whatever you say, no-one reads it <— Now THAT is what happens.

      I'm sure in time you will develop some actual football knowledge. If you step away from YouTube highlights and watch a few real games (I mean ATTEND them, not just watch them on TV), maybe you might even come close to formulating a reasonable theory in some direction or another. I look forward to it. I genuinely do.
      But this is not the time for you.
      Not here, not now, and certainly not like this.
      Ok?

      'You better stay away from me..'
      Or what?
      Do you imagine that people here are scared of you? Haha!
      Do you really think we fear your mighty intellect? Don't be silly. We don't. We pity you. We look down upon you.
      No one is going to 'stay away' from you when you continue to insult others and repeatedly force your crackpot ideas on everyone else, at all hours of the day, every day, in every article, regardless of subject matter.
      We will press you into a corner and watch you defeat yourself – as I explained earlier, when your over-zealous reaction employs the very same traits of which you were first accused.

      'i am just stopping here.'
      If only this was actually correct.

      Of course, all this is meant to help.
      You will probably now just insult me with bad English, disrespect my nation and my brothers, repeatedly state that 'Znyder is useless old' (whoever the fuck he is), and they cry like a bitch baby girl in the hope that someone will notice you.
      It's not really best way forward is it?
      Try and be nice for once. You will be treated in the same way, and you might actually learn something.
      All the best, buddy.

      1. @Patrick Janus…you are a diplomatic HYPOCRITE.I know that u know truth.ur double stanard was very visible.So plz be a man.if cannot dont worry there are guys like u..You think my BP is high after reading ur comment or other trolls comment??.the reason is i am replying coz i dont want to loose against some racist trolls.i dont need ur support and i cannot please u.by saying nicethings to u and trolls.you and ur dutch team are schooled in 2006/2008/2010/ and completely in 2012.You will be schooled infront of the whole world again if keep this arrogance.You r very lucky to get LVG,coz of his honesty u will win some matches and still u will end up as looser as usaual.Be straight and dont be diplomatic.FYI I have never did character assaination to any players except some trolls who tried to jump over me.The whole world fans does it coz its their right thats what i belive.these players exists because of fans.All i said was dutch team had a standard earlier when i started to watch football and it got detoriated and some players were not able to wear the jersy of their predecesors.You will never speak a word in malayalam but at least i will speak a word in dutch.I look down ward to arrogant people,they have no idea what they are goin to face.So wait for another tragedy and cry then u will have next 2016 and 2018 ..so go on like that..

        1. ‘ur double stanard was very visible’
          Could you provide us with some evidence to support this claim?

          ‘the reason is i am replying coz i dont want to loose against some racist trolls’
          Who is racist? Do you understand the meaning of the word ‘race’?
          Again, could you please provide us with some evidence to support this claim? We all know you lost (you got your scrawny ass kicked), but where is the racism here?

          ‘ur dutch team are schooled in 2006/2008/2010/ and completely in 2012.You will be schooled infront of the whole world again ‘
          So, by placing yourself apart from us, and by using such vitriolic and offensive diction, you are demonstrating that you are merely here to troll the Dutch?
          This is how it appeared to be, but it is nice of you to finally confirm this!
          Also, your words make no sense – on one hand you say we are ‘lucky’ to have LVG, on the other hand we are going to get ‘schooled’.
          Haha! which is it? Make your mind up, silly girl.

          ‘u will end up as looser as usaual’
          Why? A sentence like this requires an explanation, otherwise it is meaningless and trite.

          ‘You will never speak a word in malayalam’
          This website is not in Malayalam though is it? Why on earth would I need to speak Malayalam? This website is in English, which is my second language, and so I use English accordingly. Why do you spell names incorrectly? They are the SAME no matter which language you use, right?
          Ooops. You should really think before you type.

          ‘they have no idea what they are goin to face’
          Please enlighten us.
          I see lots of words, but no meaning here.

          ‘All i said was dutch team had a standard earlier when i started to watch football and it got detoriated and some players were not able to wear the jersy of their predecesors.’
          This is NOT ‘all’ you said though, is it?
          You called our players ‘idiots’, ‘useless’, ‘fools’, etc….
          Do you see what happened here? I have used your own words as EVIDENCE against you.
          I have caught you in a lie from which you cannot back-track. Your words are all over this website for everyone to see – even a child couldn’t be that stupid.

          I tried my best to help you understand why people here despise you.
          I offered you an olive branch of sorts, a way to settle the waters, but you have chosen to display the exact same traits of which you were originally accused. You’ve made your own position untenable. Do you see this?

          I strongly suspect therefore that you are incapable of rational thought and logical discourse.
          You are here (as we can see) to pick fights, to insult the Dutch, to repeat your nonsense theories, to laugh when we lose, to ridicule our heroes…. and so on.
          Do you really expect anyone here to agree with this?
          Do you expect people to stay silent while you rudely and ignorantly troll your little baby girl comments around this wonderful website?
          Sadly, yes. You ARE that stupid.

          And yes, I do think your BP (blood pressure I am guessing) is high. I know it is.

          Thank you for confirming everything we already suspected.
          Now be a good little girl and trot along to another website. You bring nothing positive to our discussion, you wish only to cause trouble and you are clearly not welcome here.

          You life must be very lonely and empty.
          For that you have my pity, and that’s all you’ll have.

          1. I dont want to copy paste ur comments again.which i really dont deserve…U just read what to write before u post it.i called idiot and fools when i face some idots like u here.all used was uselss and headles chicken when i came to players.coz they proved in 4 tournamnets ..so i did…Ur words were complete double standard..You sucked a lot and coz of arrogant idiots poor talented dutch players also suffering..keep this arrogance and keep sucking……….

  53. van p outta form and huntelaar scores….into form….
    interesting times….
    does anyone actually still appreciate tiju’s incoherent muttering?

    1. It was an easy goal,he was unmarked and he got enough time,shocking defense by BVB idiot.how many goals he scored in tight matches?was he a sucees at madrid?A top class club?
      Or in milan?
      he is pretty static and orange needs a better striker than him…

  54. yes robben’s absence is shocking!

    on the other hand Vorm the penalty killer is back!
    Epic save from man of the match Romelu Lukaku
    He has already saved 3 out of 7 penalties this season from the following players

    Ben Watson – Wigan
    Clint Dempsey – Fulham
    Romelu Lukaku – West Brom

  55. de Guzman with an unfortunate own goal of a corner just moments later….guys tune into swansea city vs west brom albion…brilliant game!

  56. I couldn’t watch any games today but I checked scores on eurport.com . Dost on the bench the whole game in Wolfsburg’s 5-2 away win, Robben not even a reserve, Huntelaar fianlly scores in a meaningful game, de Guzman own goal, Vorm saves a penalty. RVP in a worrying dry spell. Not sure how the other NT players are doing as I can’t watch any Eredivisie games but hopefully they will pull together and win the rest of the qualifiers. In my opinion Vorm is very impressive and should be first choice but I have to admit I haven’t seen much of Stekelenburg recently as italian seria A gives me allergy.

  57. Huntelaar is injured.

    I watched a bit of PSV, heard speakers saying that Wijnaldum was invisible and useless again, scored quite much this season but was too often discrete, has no influence on the play whatever the position he plays, really pity, he was a big dutch hope, seems like he’ll go to QPR or Sunderland, not higher.

    1. That and has a very bad chance conversion rate. I am aware of the number of goals he scored, but I have also seen how many chances he missed, but more importantly, the easiness to convert them.

  58. I really thought it would be his year.

    Toivonen and Narsingh injured, he had too many chances to become the PSV star, played at different positions, but nothing to do, he just doesn’t work.

    1. Willems is good though. Best player at the PSV side this game and since he came back from injury has played pretty well. His cross and distance shot still stink though. Not sure how those can be so bad compared to his other quality’s.

  59. @DRB300
    wijnaldum is just another frustration for the fans, we wait and we have hopes in these players and then they turn out to be mediocre, how many i can name now that are ending up in mediocre teams in europe and to make it worse they are not even starters in their teams, bruma-elia-afellay-heitinga-anita-maduro and the list is much longer, u look at the 23 of the national team these days and clubs u see : schalke-everton-swansea-new castle just average european teams! i was looking at the 1998 team list, man that seems like a different planet the dutch team lived on compared to the current team

    GK
    Edwin van der Sar
    25 Ajax

    DF
    Michael Reiziger
    26 Barcelona

    DF
    Jaap Stam
    14 PSV

    DF
    Frank de Boer (c)
    55 Ajax

    DF
    Arthur Numan
    29 PSV

    MF
    Wim Jonk
    42 PSV

    MF
    Ronald de Boer
    41 Ajax

    FW
    Dennis Bergkamp
    57 Arsenal

    FW
    Patrick Kluivert
    19 Milan

    MF
    Clarence Seedorf
    31 Real Madrid

    MF
    Phillip Cocu
    20 PSV

    MF
    Boudewijn Zenden
    6 PSV

    DF
    André Ooijer
    0 PSV

    MF
    Marc Overmars
    40 Arsenal

    DF
    Winston Bogarde
    14 Barcelona

    MF
    Edgar Davids
    12 Juventus

    FW
    Pierre van Hooijdonk
    12 Nottingham Forest

    GK
    Ed de Goeij
    31 Chelsea

    MF
    Giovanni van Bronckhorst
    8 Feyenoord

    MF
    Aron Winter
    72 Internazionale

    FW
    Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink
    3 Leeds United

    GK
    Ruud Hesp
    0 Barcelona

    other than the usual dutch teams, all u see is barcelona-real madrid-juve-inter-arsenal-chelsea!! different quality of players

    1. “”bruma-elia-afellay-heitinga-anita-maduro and the list is much longer””
      Alaa it is not the complete fault of the forgin clubs..i think Heitinga did well.Bruma went at the age of 16 thats was so bad..The previous generation guys left at 23 plus ages ,Jaap was at 27 when he signed for Manu..More over it has heeb seen that many dutch fans overate some mediocre players as super talents like Elia,Afellay,etc..even afelaay was signeed by barca and he failed to cop with the brilliance of genius players like Andre,Xavi,Villa etc .so he got relegated to benceh and then to schalke..thats how th world is.Everytime i watch Elia,i have a feeling he is goin to loose the ball or he is wasting time.lack of footballing intelligence..But there are real talents coming up those are
      Vilehna
      Clasie
      Maher
      Ginkel
      BMI
      De vrij
      etc these guys wont let down u…

  60. Tiju I don’t get what you have against Afellay. Seems like you’re really not objective with him. How can you say Heitinga did well and Afellay not ? Total nosense.

    Heitinga was hated by almost of the fans of Atletico, in Everton he played six good months, that’s all, now he is again doing bullshit things. And I don’t even talk about how many mistakes he made with the dutch selection.

    Afellay is no Bergkamp, but he did it well with the dutch selection, how many bad games of him can you enumerate ? In 2011 he was always the best dutch player during qualify, brought the tika taka from Barcelona, finished often games with higher rate of good passes, what’s your problem with him ? It’s like you talk about him like you would talk about Schaken or a guy who just runs.

    In Barcelona it’s a total different football, even Zlatan,Hleb and some others good and reputated players failed there. He was not that bad, scored few goals, did some good things, but the concurrence and level was just too high, like he would also be for all dutch players. Would Van Persie or Robben do better in Barcelona ? I’m not sure at all.

    1. @laurent i should have explained it well..anyways..what i meant was according to heitinga’s potential he did well.he was not bad .Now he is bit aged and his defensive worries are due to his age i belive.But in spain coach was not supportive of him in athletico…he was never considerd to be stam or Deboer.so he did well according to his talent.
      But Afalley case was different this has got speed and trickeris for a class player.But like u said he was direct and predictive.i think it has something to do with intelligence.i know that andre,Xavi,villa,busquets,Macherano,Puyol are hell of intelligent players..even Pedro too.So he failed to cop with their intelligence in barca.but he doin ok with less intelligent players in schalke.this is what my point about these 2.

      1. Believe me, Van der Vaart would be maximum a turnover player, not more. The technical requirement is lower in Real, and he was a turnover player there, he would never be a Barcelona top player. Van Persie neither.

        About Kuyt being clever, bullshit. Running a lot doesn’t mean being clever, Kuyt is the first one to send silly and useless balls into the box whereas he doesn’t even have a good cross quality. Have you ever seen Kuyt giving a ball through an interval or something? Afellay plays x5 cleverer than Kuyt with the ball, his main problem as I said is that he isn’t clever in his movements without the ball.

        Anyway, the goal is not to be a barcelona player or something, but the fact is that I’m sure Afellay would be a very good player in every league, and even in Spain if he was playing for Valencia or Atletico. Give him to Milan AC or Inter at this time, he would be titular for sure. He is no world top player, but one of the best dutch ones nowadays so I don’t understand your fury against him.

        1. Laurent to play 1 touch pass game it requires intelligence.beleive me kuyt is good at it.kuyt passess are intelligent though he seldom does.The problem was he cannt dribble a kid and his touch with ball was poor and i have never seen such a less skilled player playing in a top club in attack/forward/winger.i have never been a fan of kuyt coz he lacked the skills to be top footballer except game brilliance and hardwork. but i understood that kuyt survived coz of intellignce and hardwork.like evryone i was also fooled that players like Elia,Afalley,drenthe, would make in to class level,but it some time to understand that they lack intelligence of class players..

          1. That’s the point I totally disagree with you. How can you put Afellay next to Elia and Drenthe ? It’s like you consider Afellay only being a winger who runs, dribbles and shot,with no vision. Don’t you know that he played one year as controler midfielder with PSV ?

            He sees the game and spaces too much better than Kuyt does.

            Main problems with Afellay :
            -His moves without the ball, and the fact he doesn’t defend
            -Always seems to be stressed and scared with the ball, he is really quick, got skills, but it’s like he always play with 50% of energy and motivation.

        2. I have no furry against Afalley or any player i want dutch to have very best 23 for every tournament but often it doesnt happen like that..Afallay is there with us from 2008/10/12 if he cannt contribute a significant role to win a WC/Ec for the team.then its high time to get rid of him.IT applies to everyone not only to Afallay,unless they are most important for their club.
          .Like every one i also thought Afalley is a big deal..but when i started carefully following him i understood that..he is far from a champion team player..it took 5 years to understand that..

          1. ‘i want dutch to have very best 23 for every tournament’

            ANOTHER LIE!

            Last year Tiju posted that he ‘will be happy that kuyt plays when dutch loose all games in EC’ – DIRECT QUOTE.

            See how easy this is, Tiju?

            Your lack of intelligence is your downfall.
            Clinical moron.

      2. its hilarious to see a person with an IQ of a chicken talk about the intelligence …its time for u to pick up ur mallu ass and jerk of to shakeela porn so that this website can get rid of its trash and become classy like it deserves

        1. hey Prickjoy/Nutjoy i know ur intelligence level,u better go to denmark website.u r the most pathetic person on this blog,totally clueless..but i always enjoyed these kind of talk from u..

          1. HAHAHAHAHAHA!!

            Tiju, are you not embarrassed that everyone here laughs in your little bitch face?

            Does it not bother you that we so easily dismantle your childish and ridiculous theories?

            Why are you even here? Why do you hang around with people that do not want you?

            If I were you, I’d leave and never come back.

            Your parents must be SO PROUD!

            “ahhhhh there’s our little baby Tiju, getting her pussy raped on the internet again…… bless”

            Just go.
            You and your attitude are not wanted. Save yourself the pain and the pity. It’s over for you here now. There is no way back.
            Just disappear. You will not be missed. I PROMISE YOU.
            haha! 🙂

    2. Roben,Persie,Vaart,Wesly,kuyt,bommel(never been fan of both),Joris,Johny were the most intelligent players we had in last genreation.But i thinkn IMO only persie and vaart would suceed in barca.To play for barca u need.
      1.Very good skill with ball
      2.footablling intelligence
      3.hardwork till death..
      4.Team player
      how many forementioned dutch players fullfill these three area,those dutch players will suceed there…

  61. Other point, the problem with Afellay in Barcelona was that his play was too direct. As winger,he was used to try to accelerate, ,crosses as early as possible, it’s not their way of playing. Many times I remember him crossing while no one was in the box (as they play without any box striker) and Guardiola being angry. It would probably be twice worst with Robben, Bale…As midfielder he was quite good technically, clever in his passes, but his ways of moving, defending etc. are bad, Afellay is not a good player without the ball, it’s his problem.

    Though, he showed in few months that he can easily be one of the best players in the bundesliga.

  62. Laurent, direct is what LVG said he wanted Dutch team to play, not Barcelona. Perhaps Afellay fit well right into LVG’s philosophy. I like Barca, but I don’t like their too many passing (and some other stuff like acting,diving…) and I prefer a more direct approach, hopefully same as LVG’s. It is like a cross between Barca and Germany, passing with a more direct approach to score goals. Like the rest of the team after 2010, they did well during qualification but failed at the big stage. Let’s hope this time they can go far and all the way. I hope they are very hungry to win.

  63. Perhaps I am generalizing but sometimes I wonder why Dutch players are injured so often. RVP, Sneijder, VDV, Afellay, Hunter, Narsingh, BMI and especially Robben. To win the WC we need a full healthy team. Is it the style of play, fitness/conditioning, physique…? I don’t understand.

    1. I think those are just generally the types of players that succeed in the Eredivisie. Physical strength isn’t valued as much as technical ability, and as a result you get players that are delightful to watch, but extremely delicate.

    1. That’s a little premature Faraz. If Ajax loses to AZ, and then to PSV (which is a definite possibility), people will think Ajax is out of contention, and it’s between PSV and Feyenoord. Then Feyenoord might lose to Vitesse (Vitesse has won every single away game against the top 5), and suddenly its between Vitesse and PSV. Then PSV might slip up again and suddenly it’s between Vitesse and someone else. Only time will tell.

    2. I always thought Tiju posted the most stupid comments on this blog. This particular comment proved that there could be more stupid comments out there.

  64. Mike van der Hoorn (FC Utrecht)
    will it be interesting if someone can have short article about him?
    introduction before we see him in our next games?
    I’m quite surprise with his selection ahead of usual U21 or U17.

        1. I’ll name names. No worries!

          Tiju.

          I would very much like an ‘ignore user’ button so that I can peruse this wonderful website without stumbling through that same idiotic bullshit from that same spiteful maggotdick every 30 fucking seconds.

          He clearly has some major psychological problems – intense stupidity being one of them, attention seeking being another….

          What Tiju SHOULD have said ONCE:
          “Hey guys and girls, does anyone think that maybe our team might be improved by adding some fresh blood in key positions? Just a suggestion.”

          What Tiju ACTUALLY said over TWO HUNDRED times (and counting) in the last 6 months alone:
          “affeley is shit dribbler useless, wes is old man and slow, kuyt is destroy team, joris must not picked, bommel is BVM family, etc etc”

          No evidence. Just insults.

          No conversation. Just commands.

          No intelligence. Just childish hate.

          Should I compile a list of the OFFENSIVE things he has called fellow posters here, or do you get the point already??

          I would very much like an IGNORE BUTTON. Yes please.
          It is LONG overdue.
          We’ve had to suffer with this absolute clown for enough time now.
          He’s now getting nasty (and religious – which is even MORE hilariously dumb)
          Jan, please either ban him permanently or give us the ability to ignore his repeated ignorance and disgraceful attitude.
          Thank you.

          1. Patrcik Janus u idiot am not a religious man.i stand opposite to any religion.I am not here for religion.I was showing u a red signal before u got sucked.I could nt do it completely and people like u sucked in big time.You are one of the bigest fool i have ever met in internet.Come out of ur dream world,accept the facts.you dont have to have genius brain to understand that kuyt/bommel/Brapheid/Elia/ like players will be schooled against Cr7s,xavis,ineastas,Tevzs,Klose etc.its fact.My fault was i said it repeatedly.i admit it.i dont do that any more.First u select right players for right spots and then u apply all ur F##$%king tactics…that was i said all the years…
            You moron u understand one thing you wont even passed even second round in Wc2010 if NT faced Germany,Arjentina,Spain and portugal.thats how fact is…
            you are dumeA@#$$
            You are an idiot
            You are Douchbag
            You are P@@##$sy
            that all now..

  65. —————–Stekelenburg———————–

    —-Janmaat—De Vrij—-Blind———Willems——

    ——–Sneijder—-Strootman—-Clasie————-

    ——–O.John——Persie——Robben————–

  66. Adam Maher is linked to many EPL clubs like Manshitty,Spurs and Arsenal.I am not sure how long wenger would stay with Arsenal,if wenger is there it might be good for him to move to Arsenal.but i just hope that he stays in eredivsie like suarez and erickson untill he turns 22.
    Jordy clasie is linked to many clubs in italy and England,i hope he stays with feynoor Another year.
    Most shockingly Juventus is behind tony vilhena..he must fine tunne him with feynoord for another three years..
    these are all the bad nes i heard…

      1. I do not agree with most he says, but it certainly does not and would never bother me as much as it does some of you. LET IT GO AND IGNORE HIM! The more you respond to him, the more he wins. BTW, over the last 6 months I have read people insult Tiju’s comments with nasty sayings and the only time Tiju would get nasty is in response to others premature nastiness.

      2. You Patrick Janus u r the twat.u r the little girl..Ur arrogance will cause the down fall of ur team,if u love the dutch team dont do it.B/w i have said not only against kuyt and to few other players too.Kuyt is just one of them and he played hell lot of matches for NT that is why he got more.Before euro12 i had to confront with many in this blog,well i never got affectd by any of the nuts in the blog but i went hiatus coz i dont want to pollute/spoil this blog coz of me.I saw it coming dutch goin to get humiliated in EC,thats was the arrogance i felt from many nut,blind,idiotic fans like u.but i do thought that we (Not included u) will get a draw against even denmark.But god had another plan,MY father owns this world and HE WILL NEVER LET ME DOWN,unless i show arrogance.but this doesnt mean i would tolerate devils like u. God is God of justice,like everyone i thought there is no justice in football but i was wrong, God’s justice we cannot measure and our justice is a dirty rags infront of mighty God.I admit that i wished at some times that only humiliation will teach the arrogant people like u a lesson but the good news is ultimatly it would open another new chapter for the coming good.
        So be humble,open to ideas and God has given different talent to different people.its like size of fingres ,it different,Some of the dutch players are class and some are not.if they want to win a wc they should be mentally strong and should be determined.On top of it one should play for the service of the others.there is no one man heriosm.unity is strength not one man heroism.LVG has done 90% cleaning but there only 10% left to be clean.So Dont spoil the work of LVG.My tongue holds the power not urs there is reason behind my saying So eek urself that truth.it will make u great dont waste ur potential aginst me.do something productive.

        1. I went against my own advice and actually read this. It’s like trying to not look when you drive by a car wreck.

          I can’t quite figure out how the God talk goes with all the ‘u suck’, ‘u cunt’, ‘ur suck’, etc, nor how the relentless ‘u will lose’ talk goes with spending an inordinate amount of time on this blog, which is really for people who have interest in the Dutch team winning.

          I’m going to try and go back to ignoring.

          Hup Holland

          1. U suck for devils..i dont have to spare anyones shit.they called me many name as per their knowledge and standard..i dont have to spare any one and foolishnes and arrogance of anyone..their comments,there are illogiocal and they in dream.Seriously if want to win humble ur slef first..i have never thrown first stone.u check it.

          2. “and after the first stone was cast, Jesus said unto them, ‘you are dumeA@#$$, You are an idiot, You are Douchbag, You are P@@##$sy. that all now..”

            Got it.

          3. I am realy sorry i couldnt keep the standard of Jesus ,i went to lower stanards i mean ur standard,scolopendra,Boss,sin,You,Clog etc…

          4. Tiju,

            You have been comprehensively strung out.
            There’s no way back, silly boy.
            You were a twat, you lied and you were called on it. End of story.

            Your incompetence as a football ‘pundit’ is matched only by your ignorance as a human being.
            Understand, with every post you make, we ALL laugh that little bit harder at you.

            Why do you put yourself through all this?
            You clearly have trouble communicating, which I must imagine stems from an unhappy and unpopular childhood. You crave attention and acceptance, but you are looking for it in the wrong place and by the wrong means.

            And with all honesty, I have never read such backwards nonsense in my life. It’s hilarious. How old are you?
            For someone who claims not to ‘care’, you display the exact opposite emotions. Are you even capable of seeing that? A person that REALLY didn’t care would not even reply… Think about it. Take your time, little boy.

            You are the butt of all jokes here. That must be truly awful for you, for someone who wishes to be accepted and respected as you do.
            Perhaps it is time to rethink your strategy, hey?
            Then again, I KNOW you lust for attention in any form, positive or negative, and you will continue to abuse others and repeat your nonsensical theories in a simplistic effort to maintain this basic level of communication, because quite simply it’s all you’ve got and you are incapable of knowing any better.

            You haven’t the faintest clue what you are talking about, but PLEASE refrain from using this site as a means to rage against a world that doesn’t accept you.

            I look forward to your inevitably insulting and misspelled response.

  67. Final selection for the U17 Elite Round in order to qualify for the next Euro:

    Ajax (6):
    Indy Groothuizen, Damon Mirani, Damian van Bruggen, Jairo Riedewald, Leroy Owusu, Melvin Vissers

    Feyenoord/Excelsior (5):
    Tim van der Linden , Stef Gronsveld, Bart Nieuwkoop, Marlon Slabbekoorn, Oussama Idrissi

    PSV (2):
    Augustine Loof, Kenneth Paal

    Heerenveen/Emmen (2):
    Rewan Amin, Pelle van Amersfoort

    Sparta Rotterdam (1):
    Yesin Ben Mohamadi

    AZ (1):
    Dabney dos Santos Souza

    Willem II/RKC (1):
    Justin Mathieu

    We see that Slabbekoorn has made the same step as Paal and has advanced to U17. Nouri remains at U16 for now. Is also build totally differently. Hope we qualify as we are the double defending champs in this age group. Games played between 21 and 26th of March.

  68. U 19 plays 2 friendly’s against the Czech and Croatia to prepare for the Elite Round that will be held in the summer. The Elite Round is a qualification round for the final Euro tournament.

    Feyenoord (5):
    Anass Achahbar, Sven van Beek, Boy de Jong, Terence Kongolo, Lucas Woudenberg

    PSV (2):
    Memphis Depay, Menno Koch

    Ajax (2):
    Mickey van der Hart, Nick de Bondt

    Chelsea (1):
    Nathan Aké,

    Utrecht (1):
    Yassine Ayoub,

    N.E.C. (1):
    Daan Disveld

    AZ (1):
    Thom Haye,

    Sparta (1):
    Mimoun Mahi

    Blackburn Rovers (1):
    Karim Rekik

    Arsenal (1):
    Kyle Ebecilio

    Heerenveen/Emmen (1):
    Michael Chacon

    FC Groningen/Cambuur (1):
    Arjen Hagenauw

    I am a big fan of Ake. I think he is one of the biggest talents we have across all youth teams, but it’s hard to predict the damage his choice for Chelsea will do to his development. Menno Koch is overrated. Not even sure he will make PSV (consistently). Thom Haye I expected to make AZ first team quicker. Still a major talent with both defensive and offensive weapons in his arsenal. Rekik was left out this weekend from the match as expected. Depay is out of favor by Advocaad. Normally I don’t know much about talents from the smaller clubs, but Yassine Ayoub is also a nice talent playing at Utrecht. Midfielder, rather more defensive. Already played 1 game for the senior squad.

    With Ake, Haye and Ayoub in midfield we do have a power block at U19, but not sure it is that creative and imaginative. Still curious how it will look like. Also Ebecilio could play in midfield of course and that would provide more forward thread with his surging runs forward.

  69. Hi There

    I work for a small independent UK based company which is working on a football-themed mobile phone app on behalf of the producers of the world’s longest running weekly international television sports programme, Trans World Sport.

    The Football 24 app is set to go live in the coming weeks and will feature video highlights and features from the world of football. The Football 24 app will include both domestic and international football, press conferences from the Premier League and Champions League and will also feature football related coverage from the Trans World Sport archive.

    In addition to the video content we will also be producing our own up-to-date football news and bringing together some of the best football writing from around the globe. The Trans World Sport mantra is that there is no hierarchy in sport. What happens in La Liga has always been as important to us as what happens at the Sepak Takraw World Championships.

    With that in mind I was wondering whether you would like your excellent Bleed Orange blog to feature in the Football 24 app alongside our news and videos? We aim to connect with as many of football’s top bloggers as possible, providing them with an extended audience and platform for their work. If you would like to be a part of the Football 24 project then simply let us know by replying to this email. At this moment in time we cannot pay for your work, however we will give your blog increased exposure and include links to your blog and twitter, and will promote anything else you wish to gain exposure for.

    Please let me know if you are interested by replying via email.

    Kind Regards,

    Sean Mullan
    Junior Content Editor
    Moshen Limited
    sean.mullan@moshen.com

  70. Watching a little bit of Schalke vs Gala. Sneijder has been a non factor. He missed a very good chance and that’s all. What a transformation compared to 2010.

  71. Barcelona kill italian football again, i think SeriA is not in top league anyway, they go nowhere and going to Seria would be sucks for dutch players,, just look at Milan and Inter, how can a player choose these teams to play?

  72. Milan played with fear it was amazing to see their horrible tactics. They were trying to defend the whole game? it was simply stupid. Barcelona played great of course.

    Milan had a 2 goal advantage they only needed to score 1 and then Barca had to score 4!!!. If I were their coach I’d tell them to attack, to press Barca’s defenders just like they did in the 1st leg.

    1. I think the key factor of Milan loss is their mentality. Current Milan roster/starting lineup are full of youngsters/newcomers. It’s a big tournament. Barcelona made it to top 4 in last 5 years (cmiiw), no wonder they don’t panicked easily.
      It’s not wrong at all to play a defensive tactic when you’re leading 2-0 on aggregate, but they played the tactic badly. Simple as that.

      Although it’s very interesting to see this Milan team on years to come. 🙂

  73. I’ve always enjoyed this site and the many respectful and intelligent participants who post comments here – I was also an avid follower of Jan and the worldcupblog version – but I’ve been unable to participate much lately and now I cannot believe what I’m reading here.

    Jan – something needs to be done – the level of discourse is careening from ridiculous and crass, to childish, crude and vulgar – some here clearly shouldn’t be.

    Surely some moderation is required.

    OJF

    1. It wasn’t perfect in the days of the WCB either. Sure there are much more people spewing nonsense, but there are also more people providing meaningful insight.

    2. Well, as stated above, an IGNORE BUTTON would go a long way to resolving this.

      Long-time reader, I’ve never actually posted here before today, but this is getting silly now.

      What is that Tiju guy’s problem?
      He disrespects the Dutch nation, the Dutch players, the Dutch fans, the people who post here etc…
      He repeats the same crap (and it IS crap, UTTER CRAP) all day every day, always in a patronising tone, and then he claims that he is the one who gets offended!! HAHAHA!

      He’s too stupid to leave permanently, so until Jan either bans him or gives us the option to ignore him, we are all stuck with this RETARD and the site suffers as a result. I barely come here anymore because of him. I’m certain I’m not alone.

      Does anyone remember the time (about a year ago) that Tiju idiot disappeared for a few months?
      He took an righteous ass-pounding from a few posters and crawled back under his rock to lick his wounds.
      Months of fantastic discussions.
      Months without childish insults.
      Months of everyone getting along splendidly.
      THOSE WERE GOOD TIMES!! Ahhhhh the memories…

      1. @Sketch the idiot even if u come as satan i will understand u. patrick janus and co…why are u coming in the same time evryday.I have never insulted any dutch citizen but i have insulted who tried to insult me..but i do made some harsh statement on some players(facts)i think its right of a fan who come from other country who loves orange.U idiot u will never love my india as the same way i love orange.u arrogant,dumb,prick like u said u are alone,and u r living a psychotic life…u reveal ur name first……………i dont want to spoil Jans blog by fighting with u…so i wont comment back to ur idiotic comments anymore,dont take it as am goin hiatus u moron,dog…..I f##$$k ur A@#$$4 u moron…

  74. wow, great display of the art of trash talk this time. I guess some people even enjoy themselves tremendously when reading these grave insulting comments but I don’t. I have followed this Site (and the WC blog before) as a reader with interest for all these superb comments on dutch football and in great respect for the writers of these comments and Jan, the host. Today, for a minute I considered to leave and not come back here. It was obviously a hasty reaction and I don’t really want let go because this site has so much positiv things to offer and it has also become a habit to me; to just check up the comments here before and after a game of orange.
    However, with this post I just wanted to express my discomfort today and I guess I’m not the only one.

    Some people might think they don’t care what I write. Think that I don’t have the right to express what I did and I should better shut the fuck up as I don’t participate actively in comment writing or so. Some might even think, there is something strange in my english, therefore must be arabic, asian or something worse. Well, it wouldn’t surprise me after what I read…

    1. Yes, it is shame when one person ruins it for all others.

      I love this site, but Tiju poster forced me to find other place to share my love Oranje. I not stay here and read his hate and lies. Goodbye all. Thankyou for the years.

      1. Well wells trolls go back…why are u coming in another names everyday…ru fool ????its all one person at same time of every day…u r nut and u playing..yes me too. but it clearly creates problem for others…UR FEELINGS WERE CONTROLLED BY ME.keep up keep up.u little fagot.
        FYI i am posting a comment of a decent blogger.you watch this
        “””DutchSoccerSite @AndrewOrsatti can you please ask Janus to talk less. He is soooo long winded. I actually can’t focus on it and only hear mrummrummrummrum
        28 days ago · reply · retweet · favorite “””””””””

        @krisp i am not the one ruins the site,its partick janus,Sin,Boss,etc trolls are doing it.not me…

        1. Please just stop writing this stuff. This can’t possibly be enjoyable for you, and clearly there’s a huge number of regular readers who have had enough.

  75. Last time I checked Robben is not injured. Let’s hope we will see him in the lineup today.
    Goal.com assessment on Sneijder’s performance yesterday (3 out 5 stars):
    Save a couple of great shots, the Dutchman drifted in and out of the game and was logically sacrificed when Schalke were on top as Gala needed extra width.

  76. The predicted starting lineup for Bayern (4-2-3-1):
    Neuer-Lahm, V.Buyten, Dante, Alaba-J.Martinez, L.Gustavo-Robben, Kroos, Muller-M.Gomez.
    It looks like Robben will start in place of injured Ribery, with Schweisteiger and Boateg sit out due to cards. I don’t see why Robben will not start today.

    1. That would be great. I saw that he missed the match on the weekend with a calf injury and he wasn’t listed in one of the pre-match lineups that I saw earlier (not sure where that was posted and now I can’t find it).

      Hope he plays and tears it up today.

  77. If everyone unanimously finds tiju annoying, we can just ignore him, if you dont respond to his comments nothing will come of them, just scroll on if you see the skid mark tiju on your screen

    Sincerely
    Satan ( suk ur dad n shit) I translated for tiju

    1. Shut up Doggyman, Tiju is part of us, i just want to know what u want from ur life, war with another guy? no problem if it is ur whole life, hang it on, but me, Tiju and other guys don’t respond u;). i hope one day u can be one of us, feel peace and talk with kind.
      hope u can be better person

  78. It is ironic that this blog has degraded over the last couple of years just like our beloved Oranje. I hope both will rise from the ashes soon. Until then, I’ll refrain from visiting this blog.

    1. Overmars, don’t let the Tiju fiasco get to you. The blog still kicks ass!

      I love reading Onzie, DRB300 et others posts which i why i keep loggin into this site everyday. Keep it coming boys!

      and don’t forget what Jan brings to the table!

  79. robben was playing decent but has lost his explosive edge especially his abiltiy to beat players and that sudden burst of acceleration…he still has a decent top speed though in full string but has slower acceleration than walcott, kieran gibbs etc

    1. wow tiju, those player are more young and less propensive to injury, it is normal that they have more speed than Robben by now, but Robben have more intelligent than all the player that you said combined.
      Cheers
      Pd: For speed we have know Boettius, damm he is fast!!

    1. Yes, thanks, Ferenc.

      Watched this video a couple of times, and finally understand a bit of what Cruyff was suggesting with his EC12 lineup (the one Onzie posted above; ta, Onz!).

      Cruyff has a challenge in communicating his vision to mere mortals. 😉

      1. Cruyff is expressing many things in the short video. It’s sort of like krav maga attack and defend at the same time. The issue with fans is that when they see the game, they are looking at the camera angles of the field, and focusing on the ball and view defending and attack as two separate acts. But in total football they are the same. Crowding the midfield and pressing high up the pitch is both a defensive and offensive act. Which is why cruyff has a penchant for attacking minded defenders who might not actually be defenders. It makes the striker useless if he has to track back. Which is why I put strootman as a defender, and why cruyff put van bommel in his formation.

  80. Fellow bloggers,

    I am big fan of this blog ever since its inception!
    Its sad to read all those nasty comments and it does hurt me as a dutch fan!

    Requesting Tiju and co. to stop this rant at once!
    Let us engage in healthy discussions and respect each others opinion.

    Have a nice day fellas!

    1. Thats so fair, I apologise. But in the future if you are aware that your mannerisms annoy people, please can you refrain from posting anything which will irritate others. I doubt there are any other blogs as good as this, lets not lower our own pride and joy

  81. in my opinion bayern are not good enough for a cl win. they try to win it with the barca style,bu bar barcelona it’s impossible for any other team. you cannot copy it,but first of all: you need players capable of realizing it. bayern don’t have this kind of players. on the other hand i can see teams like juventus or real madrid winning the cl,they have more chance than bayern.

    1. It’s not quite Barca style because Barcelona doesn’t have the speed on the wings that Bayern has. I think it’s more classic Oranje really.

  82. New York Eastern time

    Thursday March 14h

    4:05 pm or 16:05

    Bordeaux vs Benfica (ola john)
    Fenerbahce vs Viktoria Plezen (kuyt)
    Newcastle vs Anzhi (anita) krul injured

    Friday March 15th

    3:30 or 15:30
    Wolfsburg vs Fortuna Dusseldorf (bas dost)

    Saturday March 16th

    8:45 am

    Everton vs Manchester City (heitinga)

    10:30 am

    Hamburg vs Ausburg (van der vaart, Bruma)
    Werder Bremen vs Svgg Feurth (elia)

    11:00am

    Swansea city vs Arsenal (vorm, de guzman)

    1:00pm or 13:00
    Kayenspor vs Galatasaray (sneijder)

    1:30pm or 13:30

    Manchester United Vs Reading (van Persie)
    Bayer Leverkusen vs Bayern Munich (robben)

    3:15pm or 15:15

    Sporting Lisbon vs Victoria Sebutal (van wolfswinkel, boulahrouz and now schaars back from injury)

    Sunday March 17th

    8:30am
    Blackburn rovers vs Burnley (rekik)

    9:30am
    Az alkmaar vs Ajax
    *feynoord vs Utrecht (interested in seeing van der hoorn and toornstra play against the talanted feynoord)

    11:00am
    Tottenham vs Fulham (emanuelson)

    12:00pm
    Wigan vs Newcastle (ronnie stam, anita, krul injured)

    12:30 pm
    Borussia monchengledabach vs Hannover (roel brouwers luuk de jong)

    3:45 or 15:45
    As Roma vs Parma (stekelenburg)

    4:00 or 16:00
    st etienne vs psg (van der wiel)

    4:30 or 16:30
    Guimares vs Benfica (ola john)

    Monday March 18th thru thursday march 21st no games

    Friday 22nd of March

    3:30 or 15:30

    Netherlands vs Estonia

    Tuesday march 26th

    Netherlands vs Romania 3:30 or 15:30

  83. “There is something at the bottom of every new human thought, every thought of genius, or even every earnest thought that springs up in any brain, which can never be communicated to others, even if one were to write volumes about it and were explaining one’s idea for thirty-five years; there’s something left which cannot be induced to emerge from your brain, and remains with you forever; and with it you will die, without communicating to anyone perhaps the most important of your ideas.”

    In every idea of genius or in every new human idea, or, more simply still, in every serious human idea born in anyone’s brain, there is something that cannot possibly be conveyed to others.”

    Fyodor Dostoyevsky

    i just felt that this came across my way from one of my favorite books the idiot and felt it needed to be said for how we conduct ourselves on this forum

    1. Yes, and John is the worst player on the field I think, misses almost everything. Though, he gave the assist on the goal, thanks to a corner kick.

  84. I’m so pissed at the German fans…. Bayern Munich Supporters… seriously, they lost the game against Arsenal because of Kroos and their defense… it had nothing to do with Robben – he had the only two ligitimate chances for them and he was pretty closely marked. They think Ribery is superb but I see him no more than a bull. Let me see them beat a high caliber team without Robben. We saw them against Dortmund. Kroos missed a wide open net and Robben scored from half a chance. Mattias Summaer is a prick and so is their board. Jupp Henckeys is a toy.

    I hope Robben gets out of there and joins some good team. Hopefully Man Utd but I can also see him back at Chelsea or Maybe Tottenham! They already have people just like him, fast runners and hardworkers such as Bale, Lennon and Defoe.

    1. The Munich supporters are pathetic and equally disgraceful. Without Robben, they wouldn’t be playing 2 CL finals in 3 years..I think he’s being targeted by the supporters for being Dutch. Kroos’s profligacy in front of goal is easily forgiven(owing to the fact he’s German), but when Robben misses a half-chance, these so called supporters appear out of nowhere and start taking digs at him for being selfish, for not passing the ball to his teammates and what not. Deep inside,Jupp Heynckes knows that Robben is the best player in his squad. Here’s what he had to say after the game agaisnt Arsenal:

      “I was very happy with Arjen Robben’s performance. He showed a very determined attitude. I don’t have a specific wish regarding which team we get in the next round. It’s always difficult to play against the best teams in Europe. I would like to avoid Dortmund, however.”

      Here’s the link:
      http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/season=2013/matches/round=2000348/match=2009598/postmatch/quotes/?autoplay=true

  85. @SamNY: I totally agree with you. Robben should get out of there because they’ve been treating him very badly.

    I even think Robben has a low self-esteem due to all his critics who say he is selfish and that he should pass the ball more often. In 2010 when he had all the support from the fans, board and teammates he was dazzling but now with all thos fu***ng critics he seems to think twice before finishing his plays.

  86. Robben’s case is so peculiar, on one hand he “could have been” one of the best footballers in the world. And on the other side he gets tangled (intentionally or unintentionally) into so many off-the-field issues.
    First it was all about his non-stop injuries, then it was about his big ego (that got him into trouble with teammates at Bayern dan Holland respectively), lately it is about whether is should be on the right or on the left and the list goes on and on.
    I agree that he should lower his profile a bit and move away from the spotlight, therefore he can just focus on playing. Attitude is a different thing to change, but considering his age he should pick between adjusting to the environment at Bayern or transfer to a club where he is the so called “messi” and all focus is on him. Because I don’t thing Bayer, especially with Pep just around the corner will ever change for a Robben…

    1. @ Gio –

      I don’t necessarily agree. It’s not like Robben’s case is a case of Mario Balotelli or Frank Ribery for that matter. I honestly think he’s on a different level than Bayern Munich players. Probably Schweinstiger is the only one close to him. Kroos always delays the play before passing to Robben. Muller has been getting better. I particularly dislike Kroos.

      But you can’t really blame him for getting injured, can you? The thing is his incident with Muller was his fault. With Ribery it wasn’t. There were rumors he broke glass inside the dressing rooms after he warmed up during the game and then last minute, wasn’t substituted ( I can’t confirm this). Needless to say, he’s DUTCH. He voices his opinion and you can easily tell he enjoys the game.

  87. UCL and EL quarter-final drawing:

    Malaga – Dortmund
    R. Madrid – Galatasaray (Sneijder)
    PSG (Van der Wiel) – Barcelona
    Bayern (Robben) – Juventus

    Chelsea (Ake) – Rubin Kazan
    Tottenham – Basel
    Fenerbache (Kuyt) – Lazio
    Benfica (Ola John) – Newcastle (Krul, Anita)

      1. wish that Gala will bring some surprises for Madrid 😀

        Malaga wins
        Madrid wins
        PSG wins
        Juve wins

        Chelsea wins
        Spurs wins
        Lazio wins
        this one’s a difficult choice… if Ola John is on fire, Benfica wins 🙂

        1. dortmund,madrid,barca,juve (if the draw will be favourable for both: barca-juve final)

          chelsea,spurs,lazio,benfica (probably chelsea-spurs final)

  88. Name Club
    Goalkeepers:
    Kenneth Vermeer Ajax
    Michel Vorm Swansea
    Maarten Stekelenburg Roma
    Defenders:
    Daley Blind Ajax
    Ron Vlaar Aston Villa
    Daryl Janmaat Feyenoord
    Bruno Martins Indi Feyenoord
    Joris Mathijsen Feyenoord
    Ricardo van Rhijn Ajax
    Stefan de Vrij Feyenoord
    Midfielders
    Jordy Clasie Feyenoord
    Wesley Sneijder Galatasaray
    Jonathan de Guzman Swansea
    Kevin Strootman PSV
    Rafael van der Vaart Hamburg
    Siem de Jong Ajax
    Tonny Vilhena Feyenoord
    Attackers:
    Jeremain Lens PSV
    Dirk Kuyt Fenerbahce
    Ola John Benfica
    Robin van Persie Manchester United
    Arjen Robben Bayern Munich
    Ruben Schaken Feyenoord

    1. Maarten Stekelenburg
      Daryl Janmaat/ Stefan de Vrij /Martins Indi/Daley Blind
      Jordy Clasie
      Kevin Strootman / Wesley Sneijder
      Jeremain Lens / Robin van Persie/Arjen Robben

      Anyone with me?

      also i hope to see Maher insist Sneijder in our next competitions.

      1. against Estonia:

        Vorm
        Janmaat/de Vrij/Martins Indi/Blind
        Sneijder/Strootman/van der Vaart
        Lens/van Persie/John

        against Romania:

        Stekelenburg
        van Rhijn/de Vrij/Mathijsen/Martins Indi
        Sneijder/Strootman/Clasie
        Lens/van Persie/Robben

        not my preference, but just an insight of what LvG will do.

  89. ‘Bayern Munich president Uli Hoeness has hit out at former coach Louis van Gaal and believes the Dutchman’s ego has made him lose all sense of reality….

    “Van Gaal’s problem is not that he’s god, but he’s god’s very own father. Louis was already there before the world even existed.

    “If you look at the world from that perspective, like Van Gaal does, it’s hard to see what the world really looks like.

    “Van Gaal is a good coach who cleaned up Jurgen Klinsmann’s inheritance. That’s his role in Bayern’s recent development. But that’s all he has contributed to the club’s success. And he didn’t play a role in Guardiola’s appointment either.”‘

    http://sports.yahoo.com/news/van-gaal-believes-gods-father-080000092–sow.html

  90. A football writer at the Guardian wrote an article recently that was highly critical of Sneijder. It basically said that he only wants to play “old fashioned” no. 10 now. The writer says he is still skilled, still capable of making the great pass–but plays like an old man; doesn’t run anymore; lacks mobility. Describes Sneijder as “like a marine suddenly deciding he wanted to be a hussar and turning up to battle riding a horse and wearing a fluffy hat.”

    “His vision and technique remain as sharp as ever but he seemed to be playing at a pace much slower than anything else on the pitch.”

    Makes me NOT want to see Sneijder on that NT anymore! Too lazy. Can’t win a WC with a lazy player in key position.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2013/feb/21/wesley-sneijder-galatasaray-didier-drogba?INTCMP=SRCH

    1. It was quite a drubbing, and not all of it deserved. However, it makes a point about Sneijder’s idee fixe, reflected in his tattoo, that’s he’s Number 10. The ink telegraphs a lot about his insecurity (one reason why I love picture Jan posted of Van Gaal examining Sneijder’s forearm).

      He’s perfectly brilliant. But so far he’s a little out of sorts at Galatasaray where he’s ironically not the center of play, even if he is the center of attention. (My view is spotty though, since I’ve seen mostly dodgy streams of Turkish TV.)

      I don’t think he’s lazy. He does seem to be staking out his space and waiting for the ball on offense — but plays box-to-box more in his new position. It’s a new role for him, but he looks fit.

      Has he ever been a man of constant motion? He’s “10.” 😉

      1. The dishonesty in the piece is making a not completely wrong analyses of the situation, but rather going after the coach and his choices, he puts stuff on Sneijder for not being able to do things he is not build for. Sneijder and VdV where difficult to combine already at Ajax. Ask Koeman. He wants to paint a downward trend, while his starting description is wrong. Sneijder was never a player able to really control midfield with his passes. Sneijder is the most dangerous counter midfielder in the world who needs speed in front of him. To make use of that he needs at least 3 fast players in front of him. Bench RVP for Lens and you get better results out of Sneijder. Sneijder has nothing to work with at Gala and the irony is that he is subbed off for a fast winger he could make use off in an excellent way. Double irony is that he is subbed off for a PSV reject. Sneijder should never be subbed off for these clowns in the first place.

        Sneijder brought this stupid situation on himself, but that does not mean I don’t feel bad for him at times.

        1. “””To make use of that he needs at least 3 fast players in front of him. Bench RVP for Lens and you get better results out of Sneijder. “”””””
          Accurate evaluation of wesly i have ever seen.i would be bit worried about RVP but if NT benefits more from that we must go for it,though i am not impressed with wesly ‘s work rate..

          1. To be clear, I am not in favor of that (Lens for RVP). But it drives the point home of what Sneijder needs to function optimal as every player has needs to function optimal.

            Cheers

        2. Spot on DRB300 – I’ve noticed the same when watching Gala in UCL. He gets the ball in DM and looks to pass it for someone in full sprint and he never finds anyone. He constantly had to pass backwards.

    2. There is some truth in that story, but there is also a chunk of jealousy in that piece. EPL fan boys would love to see a player like Sneijder in their league and as he has chosen Galatasaray over Liverpool or some other EPL team, they put the spot lights on his flaws to deviate the attention of his preference at the cost of EPL. How many EPL teams are in the CL anymore? How many EPL players were in the FIFA team of the year? EPL is a winner of global football, but that does not mean they are the only big player, or that there are no emerging competitions. Russia, Ukraine, Turkey in the east. China in the far east. Brazil rises and the best Brazilians will start to become too costly soon. Germany is getting stronger. Spanish football is technically miles ahead of EPL and soon there will only be more Spanish players in EPL, not the other way around. The more I interact with EPL fan boys, the more it appears to me they can’t accept not being the center of the world. They will interpret everything in such a way that makes EPL the norm or the main circus. They don’t care that two Eredivisie “products” are the tops scorers of their league. They will keep banging on about Alves and Kezman failing in their league and becoming top scorers in Eredivisie as that accentuates the strength of EPL. Sneijder made another choice and they have a very hard time accepting it. Now the Guardian has to big up …. start the drums…. Drogba (former EPL player) doing such a good job, without being his best of course. Anybody with half a brain can draw better conclusions from an analyses than this clown from the Guardian with his vulgar hit job on my boy Sneijder, to suit his own agenda.

      Sneijder has turned up for us in 2008, 2010 and 2012. Many players are not even able to turn up once. It’s very special to have such a player in your team. Be careful for what you wish for. A Sneijder kind of player is a once in a generation player. He is also a player that performs at times even better for country than for club. It’s beyond risky to put your money on players that have never shown they will turn up. Let alone putting your money on players that have shown in the past they simply won’t turn up for you.

      1. “The more I interact with EPL fan boys, the more it appears to me they can’t accept not being the center of the world.”

        But but but… they invented football! 😉

      2. Well, if Sneijder had been playing well, he’d still be with Inter or somebody big and not toiling in the Turkish league. And he’s been getting yanked at halftime by his Turkish team coach. So more than one coach has not been pleased with Sneijder.

        1. Well with Inter there was also his big salary into play and the fact that Inter had to cut costs. He played 69 minutes against Schalke in the last game and the prime reason for him being subbed off is the fact that he has to come back to good fitness. The coach can maybe not be pleased with Sneijder, but that has also to do with how Sneijder is forced to play. The main thing a coach has to do is maximize the players quality’s on the pitch by using the right tactics. When Sneijder is played in a good way and still does not perform well, then it’s time to be critical. At this moment I even see many Gala fans being angry with the coaches tactics.

  91. He guys I made this overview of the Dutch NT:

    http://i.imgur.com/aXosYLu.png

    If I made some errors let me know as I made it quickly. One thing to keep in mind is that some players are named twice or even more as they are able to play on more positions in a good manner.

    I used van Gaal’s own terminology. I think it is most useful to think into DM, BtoB and CAM labels after reading the van Gaal interview on this blog.

    First thing to point to is that the Dutch media is wrong, or at least some are. Maher is not dropped for Vilhena. Maher is dropped for Sneijder, VdV and maybe de Jong from Ajax. Mentioning de Jong, he is the only player I have no clue off where van Gaal sees him operating primarily in the Dutch NT. As the BtoB player or as the CAM. That’s why he is the only player (with BMI) marked twice with dark Orange. The rest are only marked once, even de Guzman (a player that could easily play on 2 other positions)

    For me the exclusion of Willems was an interesting one. I think he did pretty well lately. Another interesting point will be the CB pairing. Will van Gaal use the de Vrij-BMI center or will Vlaar play at LCB. I look forward towards that decision. Then the choice Blind vs BMI. Again another choice I look forward to. In the Italy game both de Guzman and Clasie did well…. . Clasie still has a small engine and struggles with minor injuries. Could easily see that becoming a 60min/30min-pairing. Lens was added because of Huntelaars injury.

    Vilhena has won the competition from van Ginkel and Fer this round and can really show his ability to van Gaal. Clearly a try out from the NT coach. Wants to see him up close. Fer has gotten his chance against Turkey. Van Ginkel against Germany. Now it’s Vilhena’s turn.

    Exclusion of Boëtius surprises me. I think he could be much better than Schaken on the right side, but I guess his club position is working against him. Ola John was the worst Dutch NT player against Italy and gets another chance at the cost of Boëtius. That tells me van Gaal sees something in him and I can understand that. We will play 2 weaker side’s and the offensive weapons are more valuable than defensive work ethic in those. Ola does have the killer assist in his repertoire to open things up (Estonia) or be deadly on the counter (Romania). Also as Robben will be first choice, he will come in to force something.

    Last words for Blind. Have to give him props. The hate this guy has received from Ajax fans and yet has developed himself into a stable force at the left back position for club and now aiming to do just that at the Dutch NT is something admirable. The guy has the least natural build for the position than any of the other candidates, yet is chosen over them. I think Blind is much better as a left center back or DM and maybe next season he will be moved to one of those positions at Ajax if Boilesen comes back. However for now he is the nr 1 or nr 2 left back of the Dutch NT. Congrats.

    Cheers Guys

      1. That’s the little brother of Terence Kongolo, the center defender from Feyenoord who has already made quite some first team appearances, but was held back last months by a severe injury. IIRC (I have never seen him playing) he is a box to box midfielder. I also believe that I have read there is even a third Kongolo who plays at Feyenoord. Very talented family apparently. His naming is buzzing on the internet as foreign clubs are pushing him to sign a youth contract with them. As he has to become 16 yet, Dutch teams are not allowed to give him a contract. His brother has received quite some offers as well and stayed with Feyenoord mind you. His brother has also been given first team chances at a young age (no frustration as far as I can see). I think foreign clubs will have to come up with a lot of good arguments to make him move away. These days parents are also moved with the kid, but how does that have to happen with 2 other kids at Feyenoord? His oldest brother even pushing for a first team spot…. . Would amaze me if this kid with these parents (who already have proven to reject foreign clubs concerning their oldest kid) would go for the money all of the sudden.

        Cheers

        1. thanks DRB. It seems the Kongolo family had produced lots of talent, and they are very clever by rejecting the money know. We will see if all the kids becomes pro.
          Cheers

  92. Thanks, DRB.

    Yes, the exclusions of Willems and Boetius are the moves to ponder, but it’s a tight roster (except, perhaps, at striker?). You’re most likely correct about club position working against Boetius (Willems can thank Daley Blind), but I don’t understand the appeal of Schaken in these matches, when such a specialist in grooming young players as Van Gaal has the opportunity to use these qualifiers to build even more. Further, with Huntelaar dealing with such a serious injury, wouldn’t we like to start working out some young strikers (not counting Siem de Jong)?

  93. Siem de Jong is probably called as forward. I prefer him at this position rather than midfielder, though I still prefer Lens rather than him as forward if Van Persie gets any problem.

    Would have definitly prefered Willems instead of Blind and Boetius instead of Schaken or Kuyt.

    1. I’m pretty much with you, though I’m on the fence with Willems vs Blind.

      Kuyt, Schaken, and S deJong seem the three weakest picks in this team. I’ve always liked the grit and hustle of Kuyt, but it’s hard for me to see how he could play a major role in 2014, so he should probably make way for younger, quicker, trickier wingers. Of course, he’s proven me wrong before.

  94. I was hoping to see Boetius making debut against Estonia. Now I just wait to see if Tonny Vilhena can crack the line up so we can see how he plays. I think LVG does not want to introduce too many young players at a time, 1 or 2 at most. He is still a bit cautious.

    I still hope Sneijder and his teammates can pull some magic and upset Real. From what I see so far I am not sure now if Sneijder can fit in Galatasary’s style of play. Perhaps he and Robben needs to join another club together next year.

  95. ——————-Stekelenburg————–

    ——Janmaat—De Vrij—-BMI—Blind——-

    ———Sneijder—Strootman—Clasie——-

    ————Lens——-RVP——-Robben——

  96. Whats really LvGs plan with kuyt in his team? He has limited 4 spots for wings, and I assume he preffered a speedy provider winger in his game plan, with robben, john, elia in the left and narsingh, lens, schaken even injured affelay in the right. Plus boetius, LVG has plenty of options to consider, rather than kuyt. I dont see kuyt fits his bill. Under bvm’s plan he was essential, but it doesnt seem to be under LvG.
    If NT coach has to work like normal club, would he buy kuyt instead of boetius or depay?

  97. I like the fact LVG is calling many many youngsters and not just a few. By not calling the same youngsters every time they will not feel like they are the stars and therefore we won’t have many egos.

  98. Vs estonia
    with / as subs
    —————vorm—————–
    ——-de vrij——BMI——
    Van rhijn————————Blind
    ————–clasie/ de guzman—————-
    ——strootman———–vdv/ vilhena—–
    John—————————Robben
    ————-van Persie/ de jong————–

    Half team will be different vs romania
    with / as subs
    ——————-Stekelenburg————–
    ——Janmaat—De Vrij—-BMI—Blind——-
    ——De guzman——Strootman—Sneijder——-
    ————Lens——-RVP——-Robben——

  99. @Miguel Rosado
    Its true
    And LvG want to have portfolio of >50 players to accomodate injury, bad forms and tactical changes. Its like 4 layers of players in each positions.

    1. And no one gets a guaranteed spot this way. They need to fight, stay fit, and stay on good form to get a call up. I think this is a great change from the BVM method.

  100. LVG’s Pool of 50 playres or arround 50 players would help to get an optimal 23 eleven for a WC.its a nice idea at primary look.I remmber Maradona had tested/tried arround 44 or above number of players for 2010WC.while BVM used only 25.BVM reached final and Maradona schooled by German intelligence.I think testing 45 or above players is bit high.but it would be more wise that if he sticks with 40.

  101. I expect that LVG will feild
    —————Vermeer—————-
    ———-De Vrij—-Bruno————-
    Janmaat———————–Blind—–

    ——–Deguzman—–Strootman————
    Lenz————Wesly———-Roben——
    —————-Pesrie———————–

    1. I don’t think LVG will go for such a defensive formation against Estonia and Romania..
      Most likely, we’ll play with an attacking 4-3-3 formation

      —————Steks—————–
      Janmaat—De Vrij——BMI——-Blind
      ————Clasie/De Guzman—————————
      ——-Strootman———–Sneijder———
      Lens————–RVP——————–Robben

      1. Van Gaal will always play 4-3-3. Abhirup’s line up looks pretty much bang on. If past games are anything to go by, I think Clasie will get the nod over de Guzman

      2. @ Difference between our team is vermeer and doubtful clasie.
        Team with deguzman/clasie/wes/stroot/persie,lenz.and roben is not at all defensive and they can never be…

        1. Yes..but the formation is 🙂
          It doesn’t make sense to opt for two holding midfielders against Estonia and Romania..that’s just my opinion..
          Your line up is perfect but the formation isn’t buddy.. 🙂

  102. On another note, Heitinga played a strong game apparently against City today. I was happy enough he played, but apparently he was one of the best on the pitch on top of that.

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