Majestic Oranje - Euro here we come - Official Euro Thread

Not to change gears here, but out of curiousity...why is RVP wearing #16? No number 9 or 7? I would think he would have more "seniority" that Kuyt and Huntelar..

 

Here in Canada they know next to nothing outside of what happened in the EPL.
TSN When reviewing Denmark:
who to watch
#1 at the back:Tomas Sorensen
#2 up front: Bendtner and Rommedahl with three goals each in qualifying
#3 watch out for Eriksen, he'll be looking to move to a bigger club if he can perform for his country.
Where was I when Eriksen was having a hard time getting bigger clubs to notice him and save him from Ajax? Some how Denmark's main playmaker is now just some kid trying to impress the talent scouts
When "analyzing" Holland:
"solid at the back, experienced in midfield, and all kinds of options up front, the likes of Arjen Robben, Wesley Sneijder from midfield, Van Persie and Huntelaar up front, Expect them to score lots of goals."
The reviews here are designed for people who follow soccer once every two years (Euro and WC). They pretty much just look at the stats sheets from qualifying and make their reviews from that. You can't honestly know what you're talking about if you make the claim that Holland is "solid at the back" especially when you don't even bother analyzing the back line. Or they say "experience in midfield" and then mention Sneijder and Robben with the attackers. No mention of Sneijder's poor season, or the fact that KJH and RvP were the top scorers in two of the biggest three leagues in the world. No mention of the weakness at left defense, no mention of the two destroyers, ect. They then say "expect them to have enough to make it out of their group.
I'm not sure how you can tell people that a team is going to make it out of the group of death when all you've really said is that they'll score goals.

 

The problem is these are the people who decide what football the rest of the world gets to watch. It's a chicken and the egg thing. People will like the football they get exposed to the most. Or have access to the most. Just like they will like McDonalds not because the food is that good but because it's all around them.

 

The English have Huntelaar as Holland's key player. I guess they're not yet made aware of the fact that he won't even start for us.

 

american media and australian media owns a lot, in the usa, ABC(american broadcasting company) and Disney are together and own the espn family of networks, that means espn in every country is owned by americans, along with fox sports and sky sports owned by rupert murdoch, that covers the majority of sports stations,

Watching soccer coverage we get an former american player red headed, tommy smyth, the scottish guy, and all the same british guys commentating, and at the world cup, even ruud guillit would guest on the shows to analyze the games. and even then they are not the smartest bunch,

I think we all know they scoreboard read, and only watch a few leagues, they watch EPL, La liga (only barcelona and real madrid) and italian leagues only certain teams. Because they act like players or weak if they never seen them, like have you seen that funny british commentator chart about how they will call the only guy who plays in the EPL the nations star player. and if they never seen a player on a team, they say that team will struggle.

But anyway, they repeat the same things over and over again, Holland defense is weak, there offense is super strong, they have van der vaart, sneijder, van persie (some will mention huntelaar) robben on the same team, watch out for the netherlands ultimate attack, and it's like these guys will be on the bench.

 

25,000 Poles lining up today to get a ticket to a Holland training session! Bloody hell.

Just saw video of it on Studio Voetbal.

 

All you guys complaining about football coverage, at least you get to watch the matches on tv. Where I live, no channel telecasts Eredivisie. Absolutely zero interest from the public regarding Dutch football. When the Euros or World Cup comes, a few will start supporting Oranje, say how they've been a fan of their Totaal Voetbal (forget the fact that we stopped playing it long time ago) and when Netherlands inevitably end up not winning the title, everyone will start eulogising over Spain or Germany.

 

"Has good possession" is the key phrase here. That will be difficult in the majority of games and I see us only having 55% possession in only the first game vs Denmark. Both Germany and Portugal won't let us control the match like that and than you have some tough possibilities in the further group stages in which the same thing applies. That being said, you just need forwards and mids who are able to defend decently and track back when necessary. Dirk Kuyt being a typically good example of this.

 

Well that's exactly what it's like in Canada. Also no one can figure out how to pronounce "Oranje" I've heard everything from the 'e' and the end being emphasized to the 'a' being emphasized

 

The Eredivisie is a minor league in Europe. It could be worse. Portugal and Russia are both better leagues according to the UEFA coefficients and Portugal has had a lot more success in Europe than the Eredivisie recently. When was the last time you see Portuguese football on TV anywhere in the Anglosphere? As patchy as it is now, I get 1-2 games a week here in the UK, and it's been on TV in the past on Fox Soccer/Fox Sports World (I miss the rugby!).

Of course the Anglosphere is going to revolve around the English league. For most of the world, and definitely every single country in the Anglosphere, England and its people bought soccer to their country. In Latin America, they also love the Spanish and Italian leagues since their guys go and play there and those influences mixed with the English to produce the South American game. That's why the Germans aren't that popular, because who did the Germans bring football too? But I'm seeing some buzz about Klopp and Dortmund, so maybe people are waking up. Then again, I'm one of the buzzers myself.

In most ways, it's never been better - there's low-cost, affordable legal live streaming, and there are guys you can dial up Sopcast who stream the game so good you can hook it up to your TV. EredivisieLive even has some great videos online - some weeks when I was away I watched their highlights show and was fully up to date. I watched probably 30 of Ajax's games this year, and I probably watched another 30 games from around the league. So, you know, I'm alright. I think things will get better. The style of play in the league is very good, the Oranje themselves are very good, and Ajax are back. I said it before - Ajax are the only worldwide brand in Dutch football, and people are more interested in the Dutch game when Ajax are good. That many of their coaches are famous old players helps. I have to say, I love it when I see Frank de Boer and Dennis Bergkamp on the bench - two of my heroes.

As for the media, c'mon guys, stop complaining. The English media is crap all over, and they resort to lazy stereotypes for England, and the US media is the same about the US. They can't read Hodgson or Klinsmann's mind any more than we can. The one exception is World Soccer, since they rely extensively on foreign correspondents. Klaas-Jan Droppert successfully predicted van Marwijk would opt for van Persie, although he had Kuyt on the left side of midfield. I'd heartily recommend anybody to buy their tournament guides, which are miles better than anybody else's. You even glean some information from their coach and player (BVM and RVP for this issue) interviews, since they actually ask decent questions.

 

I agree--I can see any Eredivisie game on the internet

I saw every AZ game and probably another 25 games with PSV-Ajax or Twente.

that's fine I just wish there wasn't such a huge turnover of bodies every year--teams are just development league sellers the way it works

now back to the Euro

If Holland and Germany win their first games

Cynical as it sounds I very much believe the next game between these two will be a dull draw--

why??

it forces both Portugal and Denmark to have to play for a win the last game--which makes life easier for the team that only needs a draw

 

It Oranje and Germany pocket a W in their first matches (which, in my opinion, is likely to happen), I can see the match between the two will be like a training practice. Both teams will be happy to sit back and knock the ball around, hoping for no injuries and cards. I think the real 'test' for Oranje is really on the third match against Portugal. Hopefully by then all cylinders are warmed up.

 

So continuing on--Oranje and Germany move on as long as they don't lose the last game

one of them will run into Spain in the semi--

the other has what I consider a pretty easy ride to the final--probably something like either Russia or Czech--then France or England

which will allow one of them them to peak at the very end for the final with 2 of Spain Oranje and Germany in there

 

I must not be the only one who thinks Marco van Basten should keep his uninformed mouth shut? What credibility does he have in the coaching arena? For those who don't speak Dutch, he's saying that Oranje is past its best moment after what happened 2 years ago.

http://www.vi.nl/eknieuws/222046/Va...witter&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=nieuws

 

he's free to speak whatever he wants, and he's not lying, van bommel had a season full of injuries and slow play, nigel de jong was getting benched, sneijder the same. kuyt was just being benched.

lots of players are past their peak, doesn't mean they can't win the euros, other teams have been past their peak and won tournaments with old guys like italy 2006.

he also nicely trashed the defense of germany, saying badstuber can't lead, boateng is volatile (sucks) and mertesacker is out of form, only solid guy is lahm,

so do you guys think affellay vs boateng will be key to winning the germany game, i think affellay beats boateng all the time, and van persie definetely has more speed than mertesacker and badstuber, should be able to win comfortably, and with either willems or schaars at left back, they can overload them. isolate robben on lahm, who knows what can happen

 

This 'past its best moment' is nonsense... if anything, this Euro team has EXTRA motivation after what happened 2 years ago. Plus, the fact that some of the key players will be playing with chips in their shoulder after a season of frustration at their respective clubs (Sneijder benched/played at LW, Robben isolated by teammates and fans, Afellay and vd. Wiel hampered by injuries, De Jong relegated to spectator role, Kuyt in-and-out of starting lineup, etc.) I think the hunger is definitely there!! Especially if you take into account a few other key players are riding on a high wave, most notably Van Persie, Huntelaar and Heitinga (voted best player at Everton). I'd be more worried if the team is self-implode due to internal conflict, just like what happened in the past (Edgar Davids, Ruud van Goal, etc). Having said that, I am fully confident that Van Marwijk has all what it takes to get the dressing room in order. I don't hear anymore "I-should-take-the-free-kick" b.s. from Van Persie or Sneijder...

 

I wish the games would start --this is so much mental masterbation because nothing is going on--lets get to the real thing

 

If I'm not mistaken Feyenoorder Gio van Bronckhorst, PSV Philip Cocu and PSV van Bommel were there to win it.

 

Vagegast tried to make the asinine argument you can't win prizes playing beautiful football and then used Barça as an example. That Barça have a limited contribution of Dutchmen is not relevant to the argument. And if anything, the Dutch have forgotten how to play good, offensive football (I'm not even going to use the word beautiful)

 

It's relevant 'cause you're always arguing how Holland should play like Barcelona, but rarely note that Barca can pull off what they do because of the incredible players they have in the team, especially midfield. If Oranje had a little engine that could like Xavi, much less Iniesta and (pulse quickens) Messi, I would be screaming at van Marwijk to play a more attacking style, but they don't.

It seems to me you believe that what van Marwijk does is proactive and process-driven, that he chooses to play the two tanks in midfield because he believes in strength over ability. I'd argue it's the opposite, it's reactive and driven by necessity, that he chooses to play the two tanks in midfield because his back four sucks and he has no confidence in them to succeed without having two sweepers in front of them cleaning up their mess before the opposition's attack even gets there. I think he understands having four attacking players in a side is not optimal under any circumstances, and that we do well in many ways because they are so good they can win games on their own, a man or two short.

 

Every player can learn to defend. If Xavi and Iniesta can then so can Sneijder and Van der Vaart. Its no wonder they have never learned because they have never been given the responsibility.

 

The problem is that all 11 players on the team know how to play on offense and have zero clue or skill in defense, that is the problem. If van der Vaart was decent at tracking back, I'd advocate for him to start. It's not that van der Vaart won't learn or can't, he doesn't have the discipline to do it. That's the problem with the Dutch and defending: zero discipline.

 

Must say that in the Bayern game I was chocked how Kroos was not picked up and how the passing lanes were not cut off/shielded. Maher is a player in the future who can do both. Can attack and defend. Hope he develops an Afellay engine on top with his technique. He can become a very complete player.

Fingers crossed.