Yes but if they beat Finland, they'll be 7-1-0. For argument's sake, assume a loss to Czechs but I think they win all 3 of their other matches which means they'd be 10-1-1. And that would surely give them one of the two best 2nd place spots whioch automatically qualify. No guarantees of course but a win in Finland and Oranje are sitting extremely pretty. Anyway, thanks for the pbp!
VDS 6.5 GVB 7.0 Heitinga 6.5 Opdam 7.0 Lucius 7.0 Mark 5.0 Landzaat 5.0 VDV 7.0 Robben 7.0 Ruud 6.0 Dirk 7.0
Yeah but with a win on Wednesday, then even if the Czech's win all the rest of their games and catch Holland, I have a hard time seeing any other team catching Holland for one of the top two runners up positions that also get automatic qualification.
And for a more sad note.. our Southern neighbours (belgium) played a nil - nil. Their chances look slim to qualify. I almost feel sorry for them.
Oh yes, I eagerly await that on Wednesday. I don't eagerly await the sh!tty commentary that will go along with it from the douchebags on FSC
Too bad Ruud had a bad game. Robben was absolutely mom, nice to see the supposed biggest talents of the last years, vd Vaart; Robben and v Persie, give Oranje some of that creativity they so desperately needed.
Great result, ok game. Again the midfield was average and Romania had way too much pocession in Holland's area the last 20 minutes of the first half and the majority of the second. Had there been more concentration they would've caused more problems. I'll list some positives and negatvies for some of our players. Robben - seems to be back in form. Great display of skill and speed. Could start using his right foot besides a few touches of dribbling, it would give him more versatility. Kuijt - Worked very hard again, stood his ground well to score his goal. His first touch let him down a couple of times. RVN - not a lot was created for Ruud this evening besides maybe the low cross from Robben(where I think he should've went for goal again, would've made a good carbon copy to the first goal .) Maybe the midfield gets the blame for that. come to think of it, the first goal came from a long ball and the second came from a set piece. In offence, the midfield could pass the ball around a little more and create or support the front line. van Bommel - Not a good game. Did his job defensively, but when Holland got pocession, the ball didn't flow in midfield at all. Wasn't moving enough to support the front line, didn't hold pocession at all. Landzaat - good effort. This guy ran a lot and was all over the field. However, his passing was a bit off especially under pressure. I feel whenever there was an interception, Holland had a problem hoalding up or looking for a release pass. Good, but still doesn't convince me as an anchorman. Maybe I'm comparing him to Davids. de Jong - hussled well and things were flowing a bit better in midfield when he came on. I still like him more in RB where I think he's aggressive on the tackle and has enough skill/sped to come up and cross. Got no more time, maybe I'll carry on later. Congrats on the win everyone.
I loved it, especially after van Persie came on. The attack with van persie, kuyt, robben en de jong coming from midfield was fresh and creative, great to see. midfield missed cocu though.
No, I don't think RVP got a lot of touches. But he was effective on the wing. Maybe the chance he wasted should've been put to rest, but he had some great touches and I felt the ball flowed more smoothly when he and de jong came on. I would like to see Maduro as the anchorman in the next game. I think he can pull it off.
This team is so exciting! We also have Ryan babel, kalou (eventually) Joris matthijsen, Kromkamp and Bouhlarouz who didn't play. This is a young, exciting and fresh team!
I know the team is exciting. But Landzaat wasn't convincing as an anchorman and van Bommel was like a shadow in the last game. The midfield requires creative memebers for the front line to get any decent service.
Great Game by you guys. You really deserve to be top the group. I might just be climbing the Dutch bandwagon for the WC. Sadly we must look towards Euro 2008 (cringes). Robben truly is a world class player I guess I underestimated him immensely. The Game from the Romanian perspective: Chivu was clearly our best player. Mutu's 7th month absence was made clear early by the Dutch. There was no penalty to be awarded. The people clammering for the penalty have no grip of reality. Contra was to blame for both goals and should be promptly benched for the next game, and possibly dropped from the squad. Lobont played well coming up with some big saves to keep us in the game, but to say we were ever in that game is a big leap. We have no heart simple as that. Couldn't you guys see that thr Romanians didn't really want it in the 2nd half? I could and it made me sick. I think Anghel Iordanescu took our hearts with him after he resigned. Piturca is garbage as manager and should be canned after the wednesday game. He has a 1-0-2 record in WCQers. That simply is not good enough and I believe that if we will ever be a real threat again we need a coach that can motivate our player and force them to play with heart and passion. Good luck to you guys and hopefully we can help you guys out by taking some points off the Czechs in September.
After getting a phonecall from Van Basten today Van Bommel says he's thinking about his future in Oranje. Van Bommel is close to resigning from the Dutch team, he doesn't want to take "the Seedorf" -road. Van Basten sent him home (together with 3 other PSV-players) today and several rumours why he was removed from the squad are buzzing around again. From not doing his job on the field to being too late on the pitch for the 2nd half. I guess we'll hear more about it from Van Basten on monday.
Has Johan Neeskens been around yet this weekend? I feel I must own up to the garbage I yapped. I hope it was understood that it was pre-game optimistic yap.
ja ook bedankt! I was camping this weekend so it was a nice way to follow the match... I have to spread some rep around before I can give you more apparently. Otherwise you'd get my vote.
Wow, Van Bommel, Ooijer, Bouma, and Vennegoor all sent home. Well clearly everyone's spirits aren't as high in the Dutch camp as it was led to believe. Something must have been said to van Basten of the him being anti-PSV nature, and Marco's cracking down on it hard--and with good reason too, any Dutch player that has the audacity to complain right now needs a good quick kick in the head to put him back in place. Anyways, I suppose that must be the way it looks, if anyone can clarify it would be much appreciated. Cocu and Lucius are the only PSV players still in the squad now.
That's bad news. To be fair, van Bommel had one of his worst games last Saturday and it doesn't seem like his PSV form shows in Oranje, not to me at least. However, sending 4 players away from camp is abit shady if they don't have injuries. I hope there's a good explanation for this and there aren't any problems between the players involved and the coaching staff.