The Official Euro 2012 Thread

[bryan]

which means we will have to revert to either Boulahrouz (old) K.

Boulahrouz is almost the same age as me, give or take a month or two.

Therefore Boulahrouz is not old. I will not let you speak like that about him!

[Tom_]

Boulahrouz is almost the same age as me, give or take a month or two.

Therefore Boulahrouz is not old. I will not let you speak like that about him!

Haha. Sorry Bryan but you just have to let go, like I did when I realised most of Ajax's first team was younger than me and hence my dreams of becoming a professional footballer were starting to look unlikely.

[Frans]

Kowalczyk - always optimistic about Oranje's chances

Holland will suck big time and crash out in the first round.

Fortunately, this tournament is not just about Holland.

Germany the favourites, in my book.

K.

Before the 2010 WC:

I think Holland have a couple of world class players upfront and a few really great ones in midfield, too. The defence, though, is a serious problem: old, mediocre, nothing special. And as someone else said already: not much depth in the squad.

To be honest I think there's a very serious risk that Holland will crash out in the first round. My gut feeling is that we will start the tournament with a surprise defeat to Denmark (which would not even be that suprirising, really). Defeat to Denmark would turn the other two games into must-wins. We beat Japan, but fail against Cameroon - and that's it.

I wouldn't be surprised.

And even if we make it through the group phase we won't really go anywhere, I think. Quarter finals at the very best.

Before the 2008 Euros:

My prediction for Holland!

First game: Italy. The Italians are slow starters whereas Holland will regard Italy as their toughest opponent (reigning world champions and all that). The two teams will settle for a 0-0 draw and will be quite pleased with that result. "Not a bad start," will be the common feeling.

Second game: France. Another big one. Holland will look quite good and create chances for a win, but the final score is 1-1. Holland will have mixed feelings: perhaps they should have won it, but hey, 1-1 is still not too bad. "Everything is still in our own hands. A win against Romania will see us through."

Third game: Romania. Romania are much better than expected, Holland have loads of possession but fail to find any real openings. Final score: 0-1 Romania and exit Holland. Flight back to Amsterdam: Wednesday 18 June, just in time to see Bruce Springsteen at the ArenA.

[souras84]

Hahahahahaha that's a pattern!! Let's see what trully happens in 10 days

[Kowalczyk]

*LOL*

By the way: did you know that Bert van Marwijk did win a World Championship once?

I kid you not. He was the 1975 World Champion at playing jass. Seriously.

K.

[Cruijff]

Yes I know. Together with his father he was number 10 at the Dutch Championship jass and 10 couples went through to the World Championship (which they won).

[souras84]

Our "good" friend Mertens, just got Cahill our of the Euros

[Philippe]

Racism in Poland ? Who could believe this ?
http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2 ... ught_u.php

[souras84]

nice ref today!! in the first half Greece got murdered

[Orange14]

nice ref today!! in the first half Greece got murdered

+1, two really bad calls. Neither should have been a card.

[souras84]

A 2008 similar performance by the Russians. Beware... they are actually playing "Dutcher" than the Dutch

[Kowalczyk]

Greece should actually have won. Poland looked clueless in the second half. Greece had the better chances.

K.

[ajaxusa]

Kowalczyk - always optimistic about Oranje's chances

Holland will suck big time and crash out in the first round.
K.

Before the 2010 WC:

To be honest I think there's a very serious risk that Holland will crash out in the first round.

Before the 2008 Euros:

Final score: 0-1 Romania and exit Holland.

LOL, post of the year!

Mark my words, people: Holland will WIN IT ALL! You heard it here first, and all of you nay-sayers (led by the Eeyore aka Ko) can suck it!

And just because I've watched none of the Holland friendlies, haven't been reading the news, and have no fucking clue what I'm talking about... DON'T LET THAT FOOL YOU. I asked Ryan King, and he confirmed it:

Holland will win it all.

[rjf1]

For anyone watching on the internet, there is a good English sopcast feed at:
sop://sop.rojadirecta.es:3912/106723

[Orange14]

Based on the first half, Ko is looking like the prophet of this thread. Heitinga loses all sense of where he is on the goal and lets Krohn-Dehli in on goal. Lots of possession but other than a couple of shots, everything else is either over the crossbar or wide.

[rjf1]

Can't believe how lousy vPersie is playing -- that guy totally infuriates me.

[Tom_]

The chances were there. Nothing more Dutch than dominating and losing 1–0!

[rjf1]

Typical Holland performance -- can't score a goal to save their lives. What a waste that vPersie is.

[Orange14]

Some days the ball just cannot find the back of the net. This reminded me of the Ajax-Sparta match, about 3 years ago, where Ajax had about 50 shots on goal and couldn't score. Too many wannabee heroes today and a lack of looking for the man who had a better chance at the net. We always thought the left side of the defense would be weak, yet the score came from the right side. FWIW, here are my player ratings:

Stekelenberg (7) - made a couple of good saves to keep it at one but could he have done better on the goal?
van der Wiel (5) - decent enough on defense but lack of commitment on offense left Robben always facing two defenders
Heitinga (4) - you simply cannot lose your mind out on the pitch when you know that the other team is only having 20% of the ball; at fault for the goal
Vlaar (7) - good match under pressure
Willems (5) - caught out of position on several occasions and showed no willingness to attack though maybe that was by design
de Jong (7) - good match and I would have subbed van Bommel off instead since he was laboring
van Bommel (6) - yellow card was deserved for the chippy tackle; totally out of gas the last 15 minutes
Sneijder (7) - best player on the pitch and had some very nice passes that didn't amount to much
Afellay (6) - still keeps his head down where he had a chance to make a pass to a player with a better shot
van Persie (5) - extremely disappointing match; should have done much better with his chances
Robben (5) - unlucky to hit the post but otherwise what did he do? problem is that van der Wiel didn't help him at all by overlapping
van der Vaart (5) - didn't do much coming on for de Jong
Hunterlaar (5) - should he have done better on the chance he had?
Kuyt (NR) - not enough time on the pitch

What does BvM do now that he's faced with having to win two matches?

[Tom_]

Yeah, agree with all the above but I would give van Bommel partial blame for the goal. He was picking his nose while the scorer drifted into space without the ball.

Netherlands are virtually eliminated now, having lost to the team that should theoretically be the weakest in the group.

[GangstaRiB]

Defense of Holland is just mediocre at best. That's the main problem. Everybody picked Holland as favourites, and the team itself started to believe in that. But this is reality. Holland is a very mediocre team.

[Tom_]

I wouldn't expect a mediocre team to have 32 shots... Denmark were very lucky

[Orange14]

van der Wiel's transfer value is dropping fast. We will be lucky to get €4M at this point in time. I hope things change in the next two matches.

[ofey]

Just saw the delayed highlights of the game.

Besides Sneijder, I didn't have anything good to say about any other Oranje player.

Who would have thought an Ajax disposal i.e. Krohn-Dehli would have nicked a very unlikely winner.
Indeed, this is the group of death.

We could have done with Anita in midfield.

Germany is now a must win.
And Denmark need to do us a favour by not losing to Portugal. Else I fear it's over.

[Valerius]

Sneijder was excellent. He created 10(!) chances.
I thought Willems was surprisingly ok, actually.

The rest was crap. Holland to finish the group with 1 point.