no news about the game yet, so i will begin with some other news from Romania/Germany [result]4-0 romania at half time[/result]
i have no way to follow this besides eurosport so here are some commentaries: Netherlands-Greece 7' Corner for the Dutch...COMES IN FROM THE RIGHT!! MAKAAY FREE HEADER AT BACK POST!! COMES OFF THE KEEPER!! KLUIVERT!! Can't react quick enough and the chance goes begging! Netherlands-Greece 11' The Dutch struggling in the face of the Greeks' hard work...any player in an orange shirt being closed down as soon as the ball comes to him. Netherlands-Greece 15' The Dutch lacking quality in the final ball for the moment, despite the willingness of Seedorf who's working hard in midfield. Netherlands-Greece 19' LONG-RANGE SHOT DRIVEN IN!! NIKOLAIDIS GETS A HEAD ON IT!! But van der Sar down well to his left to save without too much trouble. Netherlands-Greece 22' Van der Vaart's probing run brought to a halt on the edge of the box...free-kick.
lineup: Van der Sar, Edwin van Bronckhorst, Giovanni Stam, Jaap Zenden, Boudewijn Heitinga, Johnny van Bommel, Mark van der Vaart, Rafael Seedorf, Clarence Makaay, Roy Kluivert, Patrick Bouma, Wilfred i am guessing this is the formation: ...........super roy.........pk GvB......raffy....MvB....Seedorf Zenden...Bouma...Stam...Heitinga VdS zenden and gio may be flipped, idk. i am happy to see gio getting a shot as he has been quit solid this yr. and if DICK isnt going to play with wingers i would be happy to see him in midfield where he belongs, but put bouma as LB, johnny at CB, and de jong at RB!!!
i really hope pk and makaay perform well together, maybe it would convince DICK to always play at least one of them and hopefully forget about ruud van horseface. Netherlands-Greece 23' Looks like it's going to be Stam to drive one....SMASHES IT GOALWARDS!! But blocked bravely Netherlands-Greece 28' Seedorf spreads it wide to Makaay who's peeled out wide...LOW CROSS FOR KLUIVERT!! FIRES IN A SHOT!! COMFORTALY SAVED BY Netherlands-Greece 30' Greek free-kick out wide on the right...DELIVERED WITH PACE!! DABIZAS UP WELL! POWERUL HEADER!! NICE REACTION SAVE FROM VAN DER SAR!! btw every1 baggio is starting with the #10 on, his last game. i wish i could watch that :'(
here is another score and i doubt any1 cares that much so no result tag belgium 1 - 1 turkey *sonck *basturk good to see sonck scoring and also basturk has been rumored with ajax cuz koeman went to watch his team.
Netherlands-Greece 38' Cross in from the left...HEITINGA GLANCING HEADER!! But wide of the far post! judging from the text this is a pretty good game. good news is frank de boer is on the bench. i havent heard of any injuries so i am guessing DICK actually is learning some things.
the spirit of higuita is taking over edwin!!! so cool! Netherlands-Greece 41' What was van der Sar thinking there? He just decided to dribble the ball round Nikolaidis in the box - the Fulham keeper was a lucky chap! they are underestimating him, he knows what he is doing!!!
Netherlands-Greece 48' Greece looking the sharper of the two sides, but that's not saying much Netherlands-Greece 49' Seitaridis coming forward from the back..GETS TO THE RIGHT BYLINE!! FIRES IT IN LOW!! VAN DER SAR HAS TO KICK IT AWAY!! Netherlands-Greece 50' Van Bronckhorst chips forward..finds Zenden streaking down the left...DELIVERS A NEAR POST BALL!!! MAKAAY!! SNEAKS IN IN FRONT OF DABIZAS AND TOUCHES IT HOME!! great to see super roy score. and finally he is playing as a forward, not as a winger or w/e the hell DICK does with him. now time for kluivert!!!
Netherlands-Greece 53' Papadopoulos breaking away...van Bronckhorst racing back...SHOT COMES IN!! But high and wide! A chance wasted! Netherlands-Greece 56' Zenden in acres of space....takes a couple of touches...LEFT-FOOT STRIKE!! DEFLECTS OFF BASINAS!! AND INTO THE NET!! THE DUTCH GO TWO UP!! hahahah, zenden scores. this is for oscar (btw i dont like zenden anymore) Netherlands-Greece 61' Free-kick for Holland wide on the right..VAN DER VAART SWINGS IT IN!! HEITINGA TOTALLY UNMARKED!! HEADS HOME FROM CLOSE RANGE!!! 3-0 heitinga's 1st senior goal, idk if it counts tho since it is a friendly.
grrr, damn robben for still being injured. he should have been fit for this game and then injury himself again for psv.
Netherlands-Greece 63' Tsiartas delivers a free-kick into the Dutch box...DELLAS ALL ALONE!! HEADS WIDE!! He had all the time in the world and stuck it wide! There was no-one within three metres of him! Netherlands-Greece 70' Dick Advocaat starting to make a few changes - the game is won. Netherlands-Greece 74' Early ball through for Tsiartas - he's in between Stam and Bouma...SPOTS VAN DER SAR OFF HIS LINE AND HITS IT EARLY FROM THIRTY METRES!! JUST FLOATS OVER THE BAR!! Good improvisation from the Greek! BAGGIO IS NOW PLAYING AS THE CAPTAIN :-D do it for the ponytail!
Netherlands-Greece 88' Zenden racing into the left side of the box...DRIVES IN A LOW CROSS! TWO GREEK DEFENDERS MISS IT!! COMES FOR VAN HOOJDONK!! MISCONTROLS IT! BUT THEN FIRES HOME!! WOEFUL DEFENDING AGAIN FROM GREECE!!! P-AIR!!!!! i love this game. gosh they are letting zenden kill them. now just a freekick from P-AIR!!!
thats the final, here are the subs: M Reiziger for J Stam (46) W Sneijder for M van Bommel (46) P van Hooijdonk for R van der Vaart (65) P Bosvelt for P Kluivert (73)
Yay! Good result though it sounds like the Oranje defending was a bit slack at times. And the Greeks sounded like they defended about as well as the Scots did on the 2nd leg of the playoff.
This was a very solid second half by the Oranje. I think the Netherlands are playing good football going into Euro 2004. That's more than what I can say about Germany. 5-1 to Romania? Ouch. I'm really excited to watch the Oranje play the damn Gerries in Euro 2004.
I thought they defended very well actually, even after Stam was substituted. That's been the positive of this year's friendlies, they haven't given much away in the back and they haven't conceded a single goal these last three friendlies (1-0 v USA, 0-0 v France and now 4-0 v Greece). Heitinga was excellent I thought, so was Bouma (almost faultless). Seedorf (shock and horror!) didn't play too badly in the first half, but it was same old same old in the second half. What the F was he doing on the left again when Advocaat told him to stay on the right? More importantly, when will he learn some team discipline? Oh well. End of the day we beat the Greeks 4-0, and that's not too bad considering that they (the Greeks) beat Spain in Spain for Euro qualification, and that they (the Greeks) were on a 15-games unbeaten run. Which we ended (hurrah!). This may sound strange after a 4-0 win but I reckon the only real problem we have at the moment is scoring goals. We could have been 2-0 been in the first five minutes.
Patrick didn't do much, he was clearly lacking match fitness and sharpness. I thought Makaay played well, always looked dangerous. Overall they didn't make enough of their partnership, they played too closely together at times. Still it's worked out to be a good alternative to 4-3-3.