Greetings to all our friends in the Netherlands from Canada and wishing the best of luck to the brilliant oranje team in their opening Euro U21 match today vs Germany. Euro U21 has full tv coverage here in Canada!! GO NETHERLANDS GO!! Today is June 6th the 69th anniversary of D-Day The Longest Day: They fought for us and a better world never forget them. Thank you veterans!!
I was just going to slag off Wijnaldum and he scores the 2-0 hehehe. Van Ginkel, Maher and John excellent. Strootman is probably hoping ManU aren't watching this.
^same here. Initially thought our right wing was our weakest position; after all Wijnaldum is playong a little out of his normal position. But this is our strongest u21 side in recent memory; on paper, at least. Let's see what happens...
Really surprised about how bad German players are on the ball. This match could easily be 4-0 the way the Dutch young guns are playing. de Jong looks like he's laboring a bit out there. Defense is covering well.
So much for the famed German youth development, they look positively uncomfortable on the ball. And that goalkeeper of theirs, oh dear. De Jong, Strootman and Wijnaldum (despite of his goal) deserve to be subbed.
Ya ok thanks. 2 brilliant oranje goals by Maher in the 24th and Wijnaldum in the 38th!! Very impressive 1st half and start to Euro U21 for the Netherlands vs Germany!!
I wonder if Mr Puck van Heel can still keep up his argument about Dutch vs German youth development. Our boys are technically superior. And yes I know the Germans aren't fielding their strongest side but still.
By the way, one of the German defenders is a Twente academy product (Thesker). We sold him to Hoffenheim last year. He's not giving me the impression that that was a mistake...
I'm most pleased by the way our players are beating the Germans to the ball, and out-hustling them in most tussles. If that is part of mental nurturing, then it's hopefull to say we are definitely progressing nicely.
Thoroughly entertaining match with some great plays as well as terrible plays. Holtby's goal was really nice but Martins Indi who was coming across to defend was perfectly picked off by one of the German players, perfectly legal. Thundering header by Fer who was surprisingly unmarked.
Is it just me, or does Oranje already look flushed, early in the 2nd half? Reminiscent of the senior squad a-la Ukraine. They couldn't hustle to open spaces, and hence couldn't string a handful of passes together. So Germany dominated, and in the end we were terribly lucky.
Defense was so awful... which is pretty scary considering it's virtually the Senior's team back four. De Vrij is too soft and slow, he needs to step up big time!! Van Rhijn and Blind both have mediocre positioning, were caught off guard too many times. BMI was probably the only one putting up a decent show, though I think he can be more dominant. Strootman is... well, Strootman. Started strongly buth then gradually disappeared. Liked Maher and Van Ginkel, showing some promises especially in attack. Ola John did well. Luuk De Jong was no factor. Wijnaldum is a poor man's Lens, a non-traditional winger who likes sliding to center and is quite opportunistic. Aside from his goal, I thought he was pretty average.
We're talking about a country that has a population what, five times the size of the Netherlands? A country that in your view has far superior youth development to the Dutch. That was not showing, at all. The Germans still have all the classic superiority over the Dutch. Mentality, discipline, defensive and physical ability, all that. But in terms of technical skill, sorry but I don't see it. Players in the Volendam youth academy have at least equal technical skill to this German lot.
It is a scary thought that these defenders have to go to a world cup.Let's just hope we don't get drawn into a group with attacking teams and proper wingers. If we do, we're doomed. I guess van Gaal sees it coming seeing that he's already handed in his notice. On the plus side, in terms of midfielders, this Dutch generation is loaded with talent. And as a Twente supporter I'm proud of Ola.
Anyone know if there are individual players' stats anywhere for this game? I'd like to see Daley Blind's stats. It seemed as though he didn't put a pass wrong in this game, and he had a lot of really nice long passes. He also put in better crosses than either winger. Wijnaldum was shit. That goal was the only good thing he did all game and was rightfully subbed. Luuk pressed the German defense constantly all game, but other than that was pretty bad. His touch was awful and squandered many a good long pass because of it. It also didn't help that the midfield was all out of order, but more on that and the other issues after I eat dinner.
What if I told you that van Rhijn had a better pass accuracy rate? Not sure about these stats. Fer messed up big time in midfield 1 time and has 100% behind his name. Also Luuk de Jong has 58% behind his name and that must be 58% too much
De Vrij was easily the worst player on the pitch. He lost the ball near the box which caused the PK and we were lucky enough for Zoet not to see red. With the 2nd goal Stefan chased Holtby, but did nothing to prevent him from shooting. Maher and van Ginkel had encouraging performances while Luuk and Strootman were dissapointing (but knowing Pot I'm pretty sure he will never replace both nor even sub them). Ola played a lot better than Wijnaldum, but the latter scored a beautiful individual goal lol. Fer needs to start imo especially when Gini's injury turns out serious. Zoet van Rhijn - de Vrij - BMI - Daley Fer - Strootman Maher - van Ginkel - John Luuk