I don't think Hunter did great but he won 80-90% of those aerial ball's and help up and shielded the ball. With RVP we were loosing all long balls. Krul should have started too. When you're GK can't save a PK and you don't have the team to kill the match in normal, better start Krul. Krul is as good as PK stopper. He was dropped due to poor distribution. I think Cillesen had mediocre distribution and the whole team played long hoofballs and when no-one passed the ball and GK had to only kick distribution was meaningless
Well he did get close on 2. Tough to blame the keeper but I've head his prep not good. But the real mistake was LVG's in not going with Krul to start knockout phase. Not sure Cillessen is better than him to begin with and why hamstring yourself? I guess maybe he felt obligated after pulling him last game
The blame goes on LvG. How can you ask a defender like Ron Vlaar to shoot first in such vital circumstances? Robben, Sneijder, Kuyt...any of those three would have been more logical. Vlaar should have been saved for last. And if Krul started at GK from the outset we wouldn't have this issue.
It was a pretty even game. What we did right vs CR is what we did wrong now with penalty's. That frustrates me. We could have done better with the penalty's but the subs did not allow us to bring on Krul. Cillessen had 2 penalty's he could have stopped.
Let us look forward to Euro'16. Blind will play at LB as we have no other guy. Janmaat, Paul, VDW, RVR at RB. Too many okay RB's none WC. Vlaar & De Vrij as CB pairing. Veltman as Kongolo as back-up CB's. De Jong & Clasie as DM's. Strootman as CM. Other CM spot is open. CAM Spot is open. Promes, Boetius, Depay, new guys with Robben at RW. Hunter to start at ST. RVP as sub. Krul as GK. We need De Vrij, Strootman, Depay, Promes, Ziyech, Kongolo, etc to keep developing. We have a good coach with Gus. Semis is a phenomenal achievement. This is the poorest Dutch team in history. The ruin has been stopped. There is a new supply line of talens
I still think Holland underachieved a bit and should have won, but the team that deserved to win today....won. No regrets. I wouldn't have gone with Vlaar on the PK!!!!!
Last penalty is often more critical than the first and percentage wise there are more misses as we go on or more saves. I imagine they just wanted to get him out of the way.
Van Gaal did also a lot of good. We did not give away a lot either. That organisation is also due to van Gaal.
I think there's some crazy stat where the team goes first wins more often than not, and if they score first it goes up even more. Of course I don't have a source for that......
I don't think the PK's were bad. Sneijder made a good PK which was saved well. Vlaar PK was okay, nothing horrible, average but 8 out of 10 such PK's go in. 4 out of 4 if your GK can't save a PK, you're in for trouble
Cillessen is a good distributor, but he's not a world class keeper IMO. Two of those balls were just a matter of instinct. Needed to be more aggressive on them and he could have had them. Good tournament by him otherwise, but today small mistakes get amplified. Given the way they played today, I'd say this team was outlasted by the tournament itself. They looked sluggish, tired and worn out. The will was sapped long ago and these guys look like they are ready to go home. My longer term about Holland is just depth. It's why Germany has found a second gear. Just based on the way Holland played today, I'd say they had run out of the gas they needed to beat the Germans. We had 4-5 players that needed to rest..
Yes I read that before here. But after Vlaar missed and Messi scored I knew our chances were really low.. and when Sneijder misses, you know it's over.. 50/50 match.. luckiest one won..
People should go and look at the last PK. Hit straight at Cillesen's hand and still he could not save. Could not have been an easier PK for a GK to save. If he can't save that, I don't see him saving a PK is his life
I disagree because there's a possibility that the PK's won't even get to the last shooter. Remember when Bento saved Ronaldo until the last shot vs. Spain? The first shot is so important, and sets the tone + builds confidence for the team. Sabella used Messi, his best player, for his first shot as well. Compare this to RvP's first shot vs. Costa Rica; if Robben scores, we have an entirely different game.
What just bothers me is that we had these penalty shoot outs down, but could not repeat it. Wish Krul had started.
Yeah they really wrapped up Robben. Not like he was getting any help though and he seemed tired. I think the CR game took something out of him
I don't feel there's any need to blame. This squad has exceeded all expectations. Almost everyone thought we'd lose the group or a 2nd round match against Brazil (including me). This sucks for RVP, Sneijder and Robben who are now early 30s. Euro2016 might be their last chance to dominate a tournament.
Might be fun to watch just as a glimpse to the future - Clasie, Kongolo and Veltman will start or at least some of them Plus will be interesting to see how Brasil reacts. Should be fairly wide open
Don't feel sympathy for RvP. We had to carry him now in 3 KO games and he never turns up at that stage.