June 7, 2013 - Indonesia vs Netherlands June 11, 2013 - People's Republic of China vs Netherlands I see no reason to have two separate threads for these two matches. Discuss:
Same here - it will be interesting to see if there's any Dutch players in the Indonesian side but I couldn't care less about the football. I will be watching jong oranje's tournament though.
I would have to agree with the above. I was trying to make a best/most interesting XI for this game, until I realized that it's a very uninteresting squad. Just look at the midfield. Sneijder is the only worthy player there. After him there's Toornstra, Duarte, Siem de Jong, and a three times turncoat. zzzzZZZZzzzzz. Up front we have our normal top three and it might get a little interesting if Wolfswinkel starts. And at the back we have the fascinating CB options of Pieters, Heitinga, and Vlaar. I can't wait to see them cowering with fear like at the Euro. If I were to hazard a guess at the likely XI for at least the first game, I think it will look like this:
There was a nice little story about Heitinga's Indonesian roots in my paper today. His grandad was adopted by a Dutch couple and moved to the NL in the early 1950s. It's the first time Heitinga's visiting Indonesia and he's very excited about it. Apparently he has a lot of fans over there.
I don't think many Indonesians know that Heitinga has a root there. He looked 'Westerner/European' enough. If I were to guess, Giovanni van Bronckhorst would be the most recognizable icon for his physical resemblance to the native folks.
RVP is also of Indonesian descent. It's a shame that Irfan Bachdim wasn't called up for Indonesia. Never imagined from his time at Ajax that he would turn out this big in Asia. He has close to 4 million followers on Twitter, more than any other Dutch footballer.
The Dutch is attacking in number but the GK made 4 close range save. Also, Indonesia defending with 8 players.
Schaken:"God bless you Siem, I've put in so many crosses and you were the only one to head them in against inferior defenders" Btw. How bad was Pieters in that central role? I think BMI has nothing to fear for his place in the NT, at least not from Erik.
Can we just end this game now before half our team gets injured? One rightful red card already and the penalty should have been a red as well
I think China has some real fighting spirit in their team and even some nice combination play. It was all killed off by the red card, otherwise this game would have been pretty tough to win. They were not going to let Netherlands play with them.
Pieters is a joke by the way. Understandable, but still. He was chosen over Willems. Nelom is just as bad. No way Willems would not have done a better job than those 2.
Build up first half was bad. Especially Vlaar with wrong vertical balls into the final third. BMI can do that better than him.
Guzman was also sloppy in this match. Good that we have an overload of fine midfielders coming. The second he becomes complacent Clasie will be there to step in, or van Ginkel if van Gaal likes Pot's idea to play him DM or Nigel when back in business. Maybe Anita if a miricle happens at Newcastle Toornstra was mediocre at best and don;t expect to see back in Orange.
I have said this in the past and is one of my personal weird theories, but I think Lens could have been one of the best right backs in Dutch history. He must be up there with the people in the world having the best foot eye coordination. He is so precise and fast towards balls changing course or rolling different than expected. The reason why Ballotelli rammed the ball inot the stance during the Netherlands vs Italy game was because of an off world Lens interception. I remember Guardiola saying that Messi would also be the best left back in the world had he played that position and the reasoning behind that remark actually also applies to Lens in this regard. Lens is also fast and strong. I simply don't see any player get passed Lens if he is willing to put in the effort.
Really harsh for Duarte to not get any minutes. I think he is at least as good as Toornstra if not better. Maybe he was bad in training.