The Six Oh Six Part II: The Wrath of Johan

35K expected at the Azerbaijan game tonight. This has all the signs of a massive anticlimax...

God damn you are worse than a Scottish fan...

The way Barcelona play is the way we played 20 years ago. We have moved on, the quick passing game is what it's all about now, no more tedious back and side passes.

Barcelona will play (or, at least try to play) like we do now in 10 years time. Yes you've heard it here first.

Nobody really rates us so it's technically impossible for us to be overrated.

I predict 6-0 to Belgium!

Wind-up merchant!

They'll just leave it to burn. Like they did with Tsjernobyl. No-one eats spinach this year!

Madness! They beat Guus' Turkey 1-0 at home!

Did you hear that Guus said that if they don't get 6 out of 6 vs. Austria and Belgium, he's walking away? I wonder if that means the rumors about him going back to Chelsea are true after all.

Hehehe.

I was being serious albeit in a very small part. Barcelona's tikkie breed reminds me of Holland 20-30 years ago. It pissed me off then with Holland as it pisses me off with Barcelona now. Zaalvoetbal.

I don't think he's the type to walk away from a national team unless he's forced to (he's no Advocaat!). He probably overestimated how much power they were going to give him.

Wouldn't surprise me if he ended up at Chelsea again at some stage.

Barcelona are on the forefront of the tactical revolution though. No one thing is truly unique or new, but they are the first to combine a lot of these ideas.

Well in fairness to Guus, if they do get only 3 points or 1 point vs. Austria and Belgium then they would be a long way from making it to the EC.

Best possible result for us tonight is a draw between Austria and Turkey. It's not in our best interest if either of those is without a chance when they meet again.

I know all that. I just don't like the style of play. Like I said it reminds me of futsal. It's not physical enough for my liking. It's just a personal preference, don't mind me.

Hey Johan, the Frogs - the real ones - are confused about the fact that Leekens is leaving Hazard on the bench in favor of Chadli.

There was an article in today's l'Équipe about it!

Are you still to play a second leg v Austria and Turkey?

There were articles in the Dutch press about that issue. Apparently Leekens (and Vertonghen, and a couple of other Belgian players) consider Chadli a more mature player. That probably means that they reckon Chadli helps out in defence while Hazard does not hehehe.

No. We've played Austria twice. We just have the home game vs. Turkey left. And an away game to Germany, which will be the very last game of the campaign.

We're the only team of those three who have three games left against the minnows. Austria still have to play both Turkey and Germany twice. Turkey still have Germany once and Austria twice.

That's pretty much it, he does more defensive work and he is positionally more consistent.

For instance, the late goal we conceded in the home game vs. Austria started with a stupid loss of the ball by Hazard.

Maybe that's underscoring the cultural difference between Dutch football and French football too. Dutch football is all about positional awareness and being an alround footballer. You get told off as a forward here if you don't defend and put the work in, no matter how technically brilliant you are.

I can't get over how quickly Chadli has developed as a player. It's an amazing story.

The one worry for me is that in all likelihood, if everything goes as hoped from now on, we will still need a point away to Germany if we are to get the second place in the group.

It's a shame that it's out of your hands. Still both Turkey and even more so Austria are bound to drop points. Germany just has to do its job and win everything.

A Dutch newspaper (AD) reports that there scouts from eighty clubs at the recent Holland under 17s game. EIGHTY! This is getting fecking ridiculous.

Nice. I hope they all get snapped up!

It's impossible to know at that age how they'll develop. It's absurd!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We've got another young American on trial. We're quickly developing into a septics favourite at this rate.