Just after Eurosport described the Dutch as creating no clear chances for the first 30 minutes,Edgar Davids hit what is described as a 25 yd rocket into the net...1:0 Oranje.
Again per Eurosport:" Its two goals in a minute for the Netherlands !!! Patrick Kluivert heads home Boudewijn Zenden's cross.!" 2:0 Oranje at Philips Stadion, Eindhoven.
JFH , on only for a few minutes, puts biscuit in basket and its 3:0 Oranje. Goal said to be a 12 yd left footer from a Kluivert pass. Fyi, JFH replaced Ruud van Nistelrooy.
2nd bookable offense Ramashchanko( fouled JFH)and Belarus are down to 10 men. It's late in the match but lets hope for at least 1 more goal to aid the goal difference stat.
So much for a 4th goal but the Oranje did get the most important thing of all ,3 points. Final is 3:0. The next Oranje Euro 2k4 match is ,I believe, away to Austria in October.
Good result, I read that van der Vaart was taken off about 10 minutes after coming on in the 70th minute with a knock. Any word how serious?
According to several posts on Ajax-USA, Rafael van der Vaart looks likely to be out at least six weeks. This makes the signing of Jari Litmanen seem an even more timely move .
Raffi's out 6 weeks? That sucks, I hope his knee problems are one-off freak things and not a sign that he's going to have continuing problems with them.
Last seasons injury kept him out 3 months + and necessitated two operations.Hopefully, this won't be nearly as bad.I still have no clue why he was used in a situation where the game was already in hand.If he is unavailable for the Austria match away,never mind three CL matches and away at Feyenoord for his club, it hardly seems worth it.Nice move ,DICK(emphasis added)!!
I was just on www.ajax.nl and saw picture of him sitting on the field hurt and went to the Ajax USA site so I could find out what happened. I hope he'll have a quick recovery and not get injured again anytime...
Crewman I'm not a fan of Advocaat's but I don't think you can blame him for bringing RVDV in. Raffi had only 1 cap going in (30 minutes in a friendly at that) and needs to get more experience with the NT. While I probably would have started him, I can understand Advocaat not doing so given the importance of the first qualifier since the WCQ disaster and the fact that there are a lot of more experienced options for the left/middle right now (Zenden, possibly van Bommel). So the only way Raffi would get something from the game was to come on as a sub. Just some bad luck really.
Vd Vaart is just as good and probably better than they are. He might lack the experience, but his fantastic footballing character makes up for that.
Well I agree what Raffi is more talented than Zenden (definitely) and van Bommel (probably) but he is inexperienced at the NT level and a coach has little idea how he's going to react. The Belarus game was a big one for the Oranje, anything less than a win would have been a bit of a disaster. So I understand Advocaat being conservative, especially given that he had another inexperienced winger out there (van der Meyde) and the key to beating 10 men behind the ball Belarus was beating them on the wings.