Heitinga was playing extremely well at the time and I think the following season was picked as Everton's top player. Mathijsen was still decent and don't overlook the fact that van Marwijk played with a defensive approach in terms of tactics with van Bommell and de Jong (who despite the karate kick had a great tournament). It really wasn't that much of a surprise and had Robben and van Persie been 100% fit, the NT might very well have won the tournament.
Centre backs are a problem this year. Vlaar seems to have a certain place.Van Gaal tried Indi with him but without success. Personally I would go with Vlaar - de Vrij actually, then there is Veltman that is in charge for a place. Heitinga is playing well for Fulham but i don't know if he should get the call.
Slovakia, not Slovenia. We also beat Brazil dont forget. Granted that was a weak side, but at the end of the day its still Brazil
can any of you guys please confirm this from ad or where ever, i feel like my uncle is playing a prank on me saying this is the preliminary squad for the game vs ecuador. GK: Tim Krul (Newcastle) Michel Vorm (Swansea City) Jasper Cillessen (AFC Ajax) Defenders: Gregory van der Wiel (Paris Saint-Germain) Ron Vlaar (Aston Villa) Erik Pieters (Stoke City) Daryl Janmaat (Feyenoord) Stefan De Vrij (Feyenoord) Daley Blind (AFC Ajax) Joel Veltman (AFC Ajax) Paul Verhaegh (FC Augsburg) Jeffrey Gouweleeuw (AZ Alkmaar) Midfielders: Rafael van der Vaart (Hamburg) Wesley Sneijder (Galatasaray) Arjen Robben (FC Bayern Munich) Nigel de Jong (AC Milan) Stijn Schaars (PSV Eindhoven) Jordy Clasie (Feyenoord) Memphis Depay (PSV Eindhoven) Jean-Paul Boetius (Feyenoord) Davy Klaassen (AFC Ajax) Forwards: Dirk Kuyt (Fenerbahce) Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (Schalke 04) Jeremain Lens (Dynamo Kiev)
Seems unlikely ... guessing LVG will at least wait until May 3rd ... then he'll know if PSV has overtaken Vitesse (if they haven't, PSV ends up in the post-season competition). End of the play-offs = 18 May ... while start WC prep. = 7 May.
Selections are often made known on a Friday. Anyway nothing has been released yet so this must be a prank.
Rinus Israël on the state of Oranje: http://www.telegraaf.nl/telesport/voetbal/oranje/22521191/___Zorgen_om_Oranje_van_Van_Gaal___.html I'm still in shock we qualified so easily. You can say our group was easy, but it was exactly teams like that that used to give us problems
True. Worst Brazil since the beginning of time. But that game we played with Ooijer. Perhaps even more amazing.
Heitinga just got subbed in Spurs game. He didnt play well at all. Looked very suspect on those Eriksen set-pieces. I might have to change my mind about bringing him to Brazil
Apparently Van Gaal is leading the odds taking over at M.U after news broke out that Moyes is set to be sacked. I told ya so...
Problem like I said when players like Leroy Fer (who was great against Liverpool last night) are playing at Norwich and RVW they need to move asap
I doubt Moyes will be sacked, he has a multi-year contract. He really inherited a very poor team with aging players who need to be cleared out and replaced. ManU's performance this season is not surprising and I don't think Sir Alex or Pep Guardiola would have any better results.
While that is true, SAF would have still finished 1st or 2nd with this cast of guys. Moyes is not good enough to be a top manager. Its as simple as that
^I think SAF would have had pretty much the same results. The team is just not very good and defensively they leak goals.
He has been sacked today ... if LVG is his successor, he'll have his work cut out for him ... I agree that the new manager needs to get rid of a lot of deadwood and has to attract the right players to rebuild the squad ... possibly Man Utd is involved in negotiations (LVG most likely features highly on their shortlist) ... seeing they sacked Moyes now, I assume they have advanced to a point where they feel comfortable that the new manager can start work asap ... LVG will focus solely on Oranje ... still the World Cup also provides an irresistible opportunity by bringing together many major players of the football world, both on & off the pitch.
^of course there are the several pictures of LVG and van Persie together watch Eredivisie matches over the past several weeks!
If Louis van Gaal goes to United, I wonder if he is crazy enough to kick out Bobby Charlton from traveling with the team. At Ajax he also kicked everybody out IIRC. Would be a nice way to burn his starting goodwill with the club as fast as possible, which exactly sounds like a thing he will be doing then. Does Ferguson have any special rights, like coming into the dressing room or players home? Could be a serious problem. My main problem with van Gaal at Bayern was that he did not develop play. Everybody is telling how he laid the foundation there and how he is an attacking coach and brings good football. Truth is that his football at Bayern was not good. After he left it was much better. Imagine using a statistic like yardage for his Bayern team. It was not good. Always that long build up time at the back with his center backs. Predictable football. No complex patterns or real triangulation. He did get results but his football was not impressive to me. I liked his football more at AZ. He is using that model also for the Dutch NT (as we are much weaker than many other country's), though Netherlands does not play as good as at AZ back then. The football with the NT is oke-ish, but not special or something. There were enough games that were boring or even bad. I will credit him with getting the most out of a bad hand he was dealt with. Becoming the best country in UEFA qualification (beating Germany on goal difference), while rejuvenating the back line and dealing with aging pillar players was a bit of a stunt. Not enough credit is given to him for that. I also do not understand why he did not invest in better defenders back in his second year at Bayern. I just don't understand why he resisted big quality injections after his first successful season there. He created the conditions to do something truly special and then just threw in his own windows. With a big club like United I fear he will do what he did at Bayern and go for a more dominating style. That style is slow in build up and quite predictable. It's not as good as people make it out to be. As much as it hurts me to say, the same can be said about the Boer and his style. In that way, they resemble each other to some extend.