Euro 2008: Oranje Thread

[ruud]

Full list:

1. Edwin van der Sar
2. André Ooijer
3. John Heitinga
4. Joris Mathijsen
5. Giovanni van Bronckhorst
6 . Demy de Zeeuw
7. Robin van Persie
8. Orlando Engelaar
9. Ruud van Nistelrooij
10. Wesley Sneijder
11. Arjen Robben
12. Mario Melchiot
13. Henk Timmer
14. Wilfred Bouma
15. Tim de Cler
16. Maarten Stekelenburg
17. Nigel de Jong
18. Dirk Kuijt
19. Klaas-Jan Huntelaar
20. Ibrahim Afellay
21. Ryan Babel
22. Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink
23. Rafael van der Vaart

---------------

Seeing as we play 4-2-3-1 my team would be...

----------------van der Sar------------------
Heitinga--Ooijer--Bouma--van Bronckhorst
----De Zeeuw-------------Engelaar----------
van Persie-------Sneijder----------vdVaart-
-----------------van Nistelrooij--------------

Hup Holland!

[Lilly Whites]

would you bring klass huntelaar off the bench?

can he play the same position ruud does?

[ruud]

definitely

in that formation we have van persie or van der vaart coming up the sides and cutting through the middle forming a partnership with the striker

ruud and huntelaar can never dribble past any defenders, but with those 2 coming out to help, quick one twos open up space for them to finish off

[Piola]

attack and midfield quite strong as Dutch teams usually are but the defence is nothing special when you consider what they are up against

whats the opinion on Seedorf?? Truly snaked out the country

[# 9]

i hope the dutch lose, just for the sake of huntertwat (not the player)

[ruud]

attack and midfield quite strong as Dutch teams usually are but the defence is nothing special when you consider what they are up against

whats the opinion on Seedorf?? Truly snaked out the country

no big loss to be honest

he has always played good for his clubs, but has never performed for holland

we have sneijder, vdvaart, vpersie to replace him

[Missing Post Count]

And usually when a player has a dummy spit with the coach the player loses. Ask Roy Keane.
As for Seedorf, I don't think he's going to be missed.

[Madridista612]

Very good squad, entertaining players all round. A few questions though, doesn't Heitinga play centre back for Ajax?? Defensive midfield sometimes as well?? And where is Hedwiges Maduro??? I was always of the thought that he was Dutch and he's a class player when he was playing for Ajax. Seedorf would've been nice to have in the squad but it's no huge loss.

[ruud]

heitinga is a centre back and will probably play that way for holland aswell

however he can also play right back, i just didnt want to put melchiot there... not a big fan of him

-------

as for maduro, hes greatly overrated, ajax didnt want him anymore thats why we sold him, valencia bought him only because ronald koeman was there for a little while

i imagine he wont be getting much play time at valencia next season

[Missing Post Count]

Not quite relevant to this year, but BVN has a show on called Een Goed Stel, based on the 1988 Euroo championships

NOS Studio Sport zendt in opmaat naar het EK de vierdelige sportreeks Een Goed Stel uit. In 1988 deed de NOS verslag van een legendarisch toernooi met het prachtige resultaat voor Oranje. Vlak voordat Marco van Basten aan een nieuw EK begint, gaat NOS Studio Sport terug in de tijd. Zie ook: http://www.studiosport.nl/

[ruud]

FUCK!!!!

Babel injured his ankle at training and is going to be out for months

[Madridista612]

Babel is a quality player, Netherlands SHOULD have enough depth to cover his injury, Sneijder, Robben, van Persie, Kuyt and van der Vaart can all play on the wing. I wouldn't worry about it too much....on the other hand if Heitinga gets injured, no real world class substitutes for him, a few decent replacements but none that you would say can quite fill his shoes.

[# 9]

still, thats 1 less quality player they dont have in depth now. babel must feel like cabernet now, how would ya feel injuring yourself in training just before a major tournament.

[ruud]

Babel is a quality player, Netherlands SHOULD have enough depth to cover his injury, Sneijder, Robben, van Persie, Kuyt and van der Vaart can all play on the wing. I wouldn't worry about it too much....on the other hand if Heitinga gets injured, no real world class substitutes for him, a few decent replacements but none that you would say can quite fill his shoes.

i think van basten should bring in boularouhz as an extra defender now...

people will laugh but he didnt play well for chelsea cause they played him out of position the whole time...

he is a quality player

[ruud]

just checked dutch football news

boularouhz has replaced babel in the squad

good move in my opinion, we need more defenders

[# 9]

Babel is a quality player, Netherlands SHOULD have enough depth to cover his injury, Sneijder, Robben, van Persie, Kuyt and van der Vaart can all play on the wing. I wouldn't worry about it too much....on the other hand if Heitinga gets injured, no real world class substitutes for him, a few decent replacements but none that you would say can quite fill his shoes.

i think van basten should bring in boularouhz as an extra defender now...

people will laugh but he didnt play well for chelsea cause they played him out of position the whole time...

he is a quality player

im not laughing, boularouhz is a quality player, i think you right about chelsea playing him in a the wrong spots

[ruud]

new sig for euro

[delfino_1936]

babel big loss imo

[Lilly Whites]

babel is a sensational player.
but the dutch have cover.

they will make a real run for it this year, not so strong defensivley but attacking wise,
imo,
the best attack in the competition this year.

[Piola]

attention: huntelaar

please fill us in on the Dutch, how they play, weak points (ie backline??)

players who we dont hear much about, in particular the following

- De Zeeuw
- Engelaar
- Afellay

I like to know a bit about the teams we play first, cbf doing my own research, prefer to hear it from someone who know what theyre on about

[avenell_road]

Their defense and defensive midfield are major weaknesses and I predict a group stage exit.

[ruud]

attention: huntelaar

please fill us in on the Dutch, how they play, weak points (ie backline??)

players who we dont hear much about, in particular the following

- De Zeeuw
- Engelaar
- Afellay

I like to know a bit about the teams we play first, cbf doing my own research, prefer to hear it from someone who know what theyre on about

De Zeeuw is a very good midfielder.Hes had a somewhat strange career.

He was playing division 1 football about 2/3 years ago. Then Overmars tipped him to Louis van Gaal at AZ Alkmaar and he earned himself a place in the starting 11 and has never looked back. I believe he is now the AZ captain aswell. I certainly wouldnt mind having him at Ajax, it would be great.

The only problem is AZ had an abysmal year this season, which means he hasnt played great football this year. He plays very differently for holland, but still its a bit worrying if he can keep a high level of football at 90mins against world class teams this tournament.

-----------------

Engelaar is 28 and has played mainly in sub-top teams in holland. This year he played for FC Twente who had an absolutely great year (beating ajax to the Champions League...). The dutch league is starting to change with the subtop teams becoming a lot stronger [Heerenveen, FC Twente, Groningen and AZ], so he is definitely not in a bad team.

After his great season at Twente van basten called him up to the dutch squad. He has started in about 4 games for holland and has always looked solid. However he hasnt been tested against great opposition so we will have to see how it packs out.

----------------

Affelay... he plays for PSV but dont expect to see much from him. We have sneijder, van der vaart, robben and vpersie to play in his position. Hes an up and coming attacking midfielder and will be useful when one of these players gets injured.

[ruud]

Our defense:

Ooijer--Heitinga--Bouma--van Bronckhorst

subs (Bouhlarouz, Melchiot, Mathijsen)

-------------

Our defense is definitely our weak point. As holland is a very attacking team, less and less defenders are making it through the ranks.

Everyone in holland is critical of our defense. HOWEVER, during qualifying we only conceded 4 goals (2 of that was in 1 game after we already qualified). So maybe it isnt that bad...

Just so you know, if mathijsen plays instead of Bouhlarouz or Bouma I am going to scream. Mathijsen is absolutely TERRIBLE. Anyone can get past him, he is not world class quality and i dont know why van basten keeps starting him...

[Piola]

cheers for that

so you guys may struggle with the likes of Di Natale then...

seems that the 3 attacking midfielders are the key to the Dutch team. With Gattuso and De Rossi, we have a good chance of stopping them. I worry about RVN, he only needs half a chance to score and then.....

we cannot afford to start slowly this time, and to be honest I dont think we will, we have never gone into a group as tough as this and never gone in as world champions.

[ruud]

FUCKSAKE

robben just got injured @ training, hes not playing against italy...

i guess ull see affelay afterall...

shiraz robben pisses me off with his injuries

[Piola]

FUCKSAKE

robben just got injured @ training, hes not playing against italy...

i guess ull see affelay afterall...

shiraz robben pisses me off with his injuries

good news for us I guess

at least you're not missing your inspirational captain though..

Panucci has also been in doubt after picking up an injury

[BillShankly]

friesian thread