Holland going home?? No way! We will beat the Germans and Thursday, life will be different. Eleven reasons why…
Second Game Syndrome
Germany only won the second game once in the last seven major tournaments. In 2008 and 2012 they lost the second group game. The Dutch were the strongest in their second group games in 2008 and 2012.
Fans
Holland will have 25,000 fans in Charkov (not all with tickets) while Germany can only field 3,000 fans. The Dutch are loud and orange, while the Germans are polite and shy. We will overpower them with chanting, singing and partying.
Dutch Open Communication
The Dutch are known for their debating and constant talking. As Cruyff said: “In Spain you give instructions and they say “Yes Sir”. In Holland you give instructions, they say “Yes, but””.
Raf van der Vaart was the first to voice his agitation. Nigel de Jong conducted it in his behavior, and so did Robin van Persie and Klaas Jan Huntelaar. In Holland, that is a good thing. You let the air out. It releases tension. As in exhaling. It’s said and it’s all good. Our venom might well get us past the Germans.
Louis van Gaal
Former team manager (and semi German) Louis van Gaal always seems jealous that other coaches have success where he failed. He was supposed to be part of the Analysis Team on telly but he had to cancel due to health reasons. That is one negative component out of the way.
Joking Germans
The Germans are not known for their humor. They start making jokes about us in their newspapers. Seriously!!? They first copy our playing style, then they want our players, then they ridicule on of our best and now they are the ones making jokes about us???? That is the world upside down! We need to put them in their place. The balance of the universe depends on this. Remember, you want a world in which the English are the comics, the Germans the mechanics, the French the cooks and the Italians the lovers, right? Not the English are the lovers, the Germans are the comics, the French are the mechanics and the Italians the cooks…
32 Years
We have beaten the Germans more than lost against them at Euros. We haven’t lost against them in 32 years when a lucky West-Germany won at the 1980 Euros with 3-2. Our goals were made by Rep and Willy van de Kerkhof. And in all honesty…the West-Germans weren’t lucky. They were better….
Charkov supports Oranje
The Ukrainians support Holland. The Germans are not too popular here. Has something to do with some big battles in the second world war… The Battle of Charkov. 100,000s of people got killed…
Not sure, but I believe this helmet was made for the WC2006 but taken out of the shops as it was too painful for WWII survivors…
Cartoon
Arjen Robben was telling the media about mental power when discussing the Germany game. Cartoon king Toon made the following cartoon about this. It does make you smile…
And I dedicate this one to Beckenbauer
And this one to Bildzeitung!
Never lost twice
We never lost twice in the group stages of a Euro Tournament. The worst performance was in 1980, when we won against Greece, lost against Germany and then drew against the Czechs. This result got us out of the tournament. We won’t do this this time around…
Most predicted result: 2-1
The betting and gambling odds are slightly in our favour. The most used prediction for the game result is 2-1.
German license plate
The end result is set. We saw this German license plate. What can you say? 3-0, with goals by Van Persie, Huntelaar and Robben. Some truthsayer does see a red card for Van Persie, which means Klaas Jan will have to do the job against Portugal :-).
This clip shows a nice panna by Sneijder on Willems.
Check how relaxed all the lads are together. Smiles, hands over shoulders… Star Sneijder consoling debutant Willems and Van Persie with a big smile…