Euro Eulogy: The Netherlands

Joep Smeets has rejoined us once more, although this time, his prose is decidedly more maudlin, thanks to the manner in which Russia dismantled the Oranje this past weekend.

Joep, the floor is yours. Just limit the tears, please.

I am entirely too disappointed right now to search for the humidity level in Basel for last night, but it must have been one-of-a-kind. For this was no ordinary humidity; not only was it high enough to completely slow down the Dutch, it also appeared to have no apparent effect on the Russians whatsoever. Holland looked slow, uninterested and all around rather lethargic. Russia, on the other hand, kept up an amazing pace for not just 90, but 120 minutes.

We Dutch are at a loss for words. It is not as if we haven’t been eliminated before. We’ve gotten used to the feeling over time. But what we’re not used to is the enormous yawning void that comes with being eliminated and having absolutely no one to blame but yourself.

Last tournament, it was those dirty Portuguese, the one before that it was our idiot coach, who we were quick to renounce as one of our own – and thusly, not blaming ourselves – after substituting the best player on the field for an old has-been who was to mark Nedved. I’m no English native speaker, but I always thought that the word “marking” meant that you had to be able to at the very least keep up with a player to do so. Which didn’t happen.

In 2002 we weren’t there, but we had put the blame of the failure to qualify firmly on the shoulders of the unlikable Louis van Gaal, so no problem there then.

I could go on for a while like this, but I’d rather not mention the debacle that was the Euro 2000 semis, when we missed five (five!!!) penalties in front of a home crowd.

This year there is no-one to blame. The last time that happened was 1998, and we comforted ourselves rather successfully with the thought that we had played pretty football, and because goals are such an arbitrary manner with which to decide who is the better team, we didn’t hesitate for one second to claim the moral victory, which we could live with.

It may not have gotten us any silverware, but silverware is for the flashy, and the most common saying in Holland isn’t “doe maar gewoon, dan doe je al gek genoeg”, which roughly translates to “just act low-key, that’s crazy enough as it is”, so we could do without crass trash like trophies.

We briefly considered a couple of candidates; the referee, naturally, because that is every football fan’s first gut reaction.

We could bitch about the absolutely shocking decision not to send off that Russian defender – and we will, believe me, at great length – towards the end of the game, because the charge he made on Sneijder had occurred after the ball had crossed the backline.

This decision, which effectively rules any contact between players when the ball is out of play to be fair game, is the only measly thing we can think of to vindicate us.

Unfortunately for us, it isn’t even enough to claim a moral victory.

Written by Darkvader on June 24th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Euro 2008 and Euro Eulogies and Lingering Bursitis and Netherlands and sad.

Euro 2008: Quarter-final 3

Russia 3-1 Netherlands (aet)
Another semi-final, another surprise result. The Netherlands, who had been the team of the tournament up until now, are out, and Russia have been upgraded from dark horses to genuine contenders. Guus Hiddink has further enhanced his reputation as someone who can produce the improbable, but a lot of the credit also has to go to Andrei Arshavin, who was once again pulling the strings for Russia and befuddling their opponents.

It wasn’t all about Arshavin, though; the whole team has improved remarkably since the defeat against Spain in their opening game, picking up steam with a their comprehensive victory over Sweden. And they came out to win this one from the outset, forcing the Netherlands back by simply outplaying them. The Dutch team were supposed to be the favourites, but there was none of the caution from Russia that you might have expected. Although the Netherlands did manage to work themselves into the game more as the first half went on, they were still second best heading into half-time.

Marco van Basten attempted to invigorate his team by bringing on Robin van Persie for Dirk Kuyt, and the substitution did have an impact, as he created a couple of good chances. But it was Russia who scored in the 55th minute, as Sergei Semak’s cross was volleyed into the net by Roman Pavlyuchenko, giving Edwin van der Sar no time to react.

That meant that the Netherlands had to really go all out in the search for a goal, but I think they don’t react well to being allowed lots of possession rather than counter-attacking. They were mostly reduced to long-range shots as the Russian defence held firm, while it was Russia pulling them apart on the counter. Finally, in the 86th minute, Ruud van Nistelrooy found the equalizer, heading the ball in from Wesley Sneijder’s free kick to send the game into extra-time.

That extra-time could have gone much differently had it not been for an unusual refereeing decision: Denis Kolodin was initially shown a second yellow card for a foul on Sneijder, but the referee then consulted with the linesman and decided that the ball had gone out of play first — it hadn’t — and took the card back. Probably the wrong decision; but on the other hand, with the way Russia were playing, they might well have won even with only 10 men.

They were certainly the better team throughout extra time as it was. The Netherlands needed to build on the momentum of that late equalizer, but Russia just kept attacking, and the longer it went on, the more they were likely to win. And in the 112th minute, Dmitriy Torbinskiy popped up with the winning goal, a cross from — who else? — Arshavin that went over van der Sar and was tipped in at the far post. Arshavin killed the game off with a third goal a few minutes later, running onto a throw-in, getting behind the defenders and sending the ball through van der Sar’s legs. (I feel a bit bad for Van der Sar; he’d kept his team in the game up till then and his defenders were pretty much useless.)

Anyway, it’s nice to see an underdog team winning games like this — rather than, you know, pulling a Greece — but at the same time I’m a bit disappointed that the Netherlands are out. Partly because I’m wondering who will take up the mantle of wearing the tightest shirts at the tournament, now that both they and Portugal have been eliminated.

Bad hair of the day award: Another prize for man-of-the-match Andrei Arshavin. 27 years old and he still looks like his mother cuts his hair with a bowl and a pair of kitchen shears.

Written by Jen on June 23rd, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Euro 2008 and Netherlands and Russia and magical Guus Hiddink.

Euro 2008 Liveblog: The Netherlands v. Russia

Dewi Diegen: She doesn’t look like a Double-D to me.

Natasha Poly: We salute you too!

Based on this highly scientific research method, one would presume that Russia will win this match. Join us after the jump for all of the details.

The starting XI for Guus Hiddink’s Russian squad:

GK - Akinfeev
DEF - Anyukov; Ignashevich; Kolodin; Zhirkov
MID - Semak (C); Zyryanov; Semshov; Saenko
ST - Pavlyuchenko; Arshavin

And the starting XI for Marco Van Basten’s Dutch side:

GK - Van der Sar (C)
DEF - Boulahrouz; van Bronckhorst; Mathijsen; Ooijer
MID - Engelaar; De Jong; Sneijder; Van der Vaart; Kuyt
ST - Van Nistelrooy

This match is being played at St. Jakob Park in Basel.

Centre official: Lubos Michel (SVK)
Assistant referees: Roman Slysko (SVK); Martin Balko (SVK)
4th official: Massimo Busacca (SUI)

2 important points for this match:
(1) to the relief of announcers and livebloggers everywhere, Saenko is in for the Russians in the starting line-up, replacing Bilyaletdinov; and
(2) if we are lucky, we will see the classy Ruud van Nistelrooy repeat these antics:

TFA here, just finished doing some wedding stuff. That’s right, some lucky broad bagged me. Gentlemen, let me tell, wedding stuff blows. It’s stressful and expensive.

So, babes, ballers and anthems right now. Russians singing. Dutch singing. I don’t understand a word of it.

Holland is wearing all orange and Russia in all white. Monochromosity at it’s finest. Although, I woudn’t mind seeing some baby blue accents on the Dutch kits.

I’m out of the prediction business today, as it seems each prediction I make goes horribly wrong immediately after I make it. That said, I am really looking forward to this match.

0:00 We’re off.

2:00 Boulahrouz Ooijer fouls a Russian like the guy was responsible for his daughter’s death Boulahrouz’s daughters death. Too soon?

4:00 Commenter/Contributor The NY Kid says HD soccer makes him happy in the pants. I couldn’t agree more. Well, not about him being happy in the pants, but HD soccer is a wet dream come true.

6:00 Wow! Incredible save by Van der Sar on a Zhirkov free kick right over the wall to the near post. VDS just got a hand on it to steer it around the post. Holland gives up a corner but nothing results.

8:00 Pavlyuchenko puts a header on the top of the net. Great opportunity for Russia and Holland’s defense looks like its back to its normal form. All Russia so far.

10:00 Guus Hiddink has learned from WWII. You don’t fight a two front war. He’s only focusing on the offense. Not the defense. Sound strategy if you ask me. Kinda like my strategy with women…I only focus on the looks, not the brains.

Written by Darkvader on June 21st, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Euro 2008 and Liveblogs and Netherlands and Russia and The Fan's Attic and The NY Kid.

The Good, The Bad, The WTF: Euro 2008 Edition

This post, my friends is going to be a mess. As long as you know that going in, we'll all be okay. Inside, we will break down each competing country's home and away jersey and file it into the categories Good, Bad and WTF. Pretty simple, huh?
For ease of my poorly HTMLing soul, I will only provide links to each shirt instead of trying to force them all into the Blogger template. Trust me, if you've seen how Blogger can mangle posts by screwing up pictures, this is a good thing.

Onwards and upwards, my friends. Here we go.

Group A
Switzerland Home Away Switzerland wear Puma jerseys. In what will quickly become a theme in this post, Puma jerseys all look cookie-cutter. They have a template, switch colors where necessary, and affix the necessary badges. Boring. What I like about the Swiss shirt is the badge. That kind of artsy rendering of their national association where they also fit in the white cross. However, these are Puma jerseys, so the verdict is:
Home and Away: Bad
Czech Republic Home Away Plain. Boring. Go home. I do like the blue piping on the home shirt, and the Czech badge is one of the more interesting entries, full of history, for those into that. But it is simply not enough to overcome the crappiness of being a Puma shirt.
Home and Away: Bad
Portugal Home Away There is something wrong with the Portugal home shirt. We here at UF could not quite put our finger on it, but we hate it. It could be the wrong hue, or it could just be the too tight fit. We hated it all the same. On the other hand, we were much more sympathetic to the white shirt. It looks a lot better, but, in the end, we found it a little plain.
Home and Away: Bad
Turkey Home Away Now we're talking. It may still be a hangover from their unbelievable victory over the Czechs on Sunday, but these are both very nice shirts. The home shirt can look a little like a 'Boro effort, I'm sure, but it dazzles nonetheless. And that away shirt, my goodness. Two teams made solid use of baby blue accents this tournament, and Turkey is one of them.
Home and Away: Good

Group B
Austria Home Away A mixed bag. Once again, we are stuck with Puma templates, but Austria does something a little right here. It's not in the home shirt, really, though it should rate a "meh" instead of its final grade. The winner here is the away shirt. Menacingly black with a little flag flair thrown in at the collar.
Home: Bad; Away: Good
Croatia Home Away Did we even get to see the all-checkerboard shirt yet? I don't recall. You have to give them respect for sticking with such and irritating-to-the-eyes shirt for all of these years. As for the blue away shirt, man, I don't know. And for that, it perfectly fits the WTF category. Safe to say I would not want to sport either one of these walking around my town.
Home and Away: WTF?
Germany Home Away Poor Germany. Forever saddled with a white shirt that they are not entirely happy with, so they fuck around with it. This year's entry feels unbalanced. Too much black in the striping, not enough red or yellow. At least it keeps us away from the away shirt. Seriously, this is not a look for top tier international football. This is a training top. Even though I kind of like the gold stitching on the black background, I hope they never have to wear it.
Home: Bad; Away: WTF?
Poland Home Away Poland, the home of unattractive football. They never looked good playing in the Euros, and these shirts did not help. Blandest of them all.
Home and Away: Bad

Group C
Romania Home Away Romania's shirts this year felt like a throwback to USA '94. Sadly, the team did not perform in the same manner. The worst part of it all is that they totally rip off the New York Cosmos badge. Anyway, 14 years is too soon to do a throwback jersey. Well, I write that, but I can't hate on the home jersey. I like it.
Home: Good; Away: Bad
France Home Away I am not a fan of the extra crap going across the middle of the French home shirt. They do, however, get credit with me by having their flag pop up inside the adidas stripes on the arms. Throw in that nice, newish badge of the rooster and you have a winner. God help me, I like the garish red away shirt as well. Two winners.
Home and Away: Good
Netherlands Home Away The Dutch are always hard to figure out. They have to use that bright orange which pays homage to a royal family line that no one likes. Sometimes they pull it off, and sometimes it is painful. This tournament, they pulled it off, sometimes. The Dutch were the second team to tastefully use Nike's new baby blue accent by pairing the orange shirt with baby blue socks. And it totally worked. However, when they reverted to orange socks yesterday, it all looked horrible. Also, nice try, but you can't work in your flag on the collar without it looking like you won First Grade attendance medals. As for the away shirt, it divides us. But, I'm the one writing here, and I hate it. So, there you go. We do seem to be unified in liking the cyborg numbering though.
Home: Good, with qualifications; Away: WTF?
Italy Home Away Italy stick with the basics. Once again, this is a Puma top, but it's not quite as bad as the red and white ones. This gets a passing grade for the gold at the neck. The away jersey, though, is run of the mill and boring.
Home: Good; Away: Bad

Group D
Spain Home Away I think we were a bit undecided by these. The home jersey is nothing out of the ordinary, but it works well. That light gold away shirt, though, is rather atrocious. Hopefully, Spain will not be required to trot it out on their way to winning this year's tournament.
Home: Good; Away: WTF?
Russia Home Away These had potential, especially the away shirt, but the execution is off. I am all for integrating you nation's flag into the shirt. I don't like it when doing so means that I have to fill in the blanks for you. The white shirt loses the top stripe of the flag and the red shirt loses the bottom stripe of the flag. Why not go with a blue away shirt so that one can easily make out the flag running across the torso? Nike FAIL.
Home: Bad; Away: WTF?
Greece Home Away Thanks for coming and bringing the same kit from 2004. Did you think that would work? Okay, the sublimated flag print on the away shirt is nice, but no dice.
Home and Away: Bad
Sweden Home Away It's always tough to deal with the Swedish shirts. The combo of yellow and blue is a nice one, but they just use too much yellow sometimes. If only I could get a reason to really like a bunch of yellow Swedish shirts. Oh, here's one. The away shirt is a tough one. In some pictures, it looks black, which would be a bold move, but in others it looks navy, which is kind of boring. Still, since Swedish girls will wear them and get pictured in them, they are both winners.
Home and Away: Good

Written by Darkvader on June 18th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Austria and Croatia and Czech Republic and Euro 2008 and Germany and Greece and Netherlands and Poland and Romania and Russia and Spain and Sweden and Switzerland and The Good The Bad The WTF and Turkey and france and italy and portugal and ü75.

Euro 2008: Day 11

Italy 2-0 France
Au revoir, mes enfants. You got the feeling it wasn't going to be France's day when Franck Ribery had to go off injured after just 8 minutes, having messed up his ankle in by getting tangled up with Gianluca Zambrotta. Ribery has been one of the few bright spots for France in this tournament, although I do think that Samir Nasri, who came on as his replacement, deserved more playing time as well.

And the poor kid was hauled off again 15 minutes later, after Eric Abidal was sent off for bringing down Luca Toni in the box. I've seen a few people arguing that Toni dived, and I think he may have gone down deliberately, judging from the way he trailed his leg back, but I also think that Abidal fouled him, because he was grappling with Toni from behind. So it was the right call by the referee. Andrea Pirlo buried the penalty for Italy, Jean-Alain Boumsong came on to replace Abidal for France (oh dear), and the game was virtually decided.

You really have to question Raymond Domenech's decision not to call up Philippe Mexes for France. Well, you have to question Domenech's decision-making for a lot of things, but especially that. Lilian Thuram and Willy Sagnol apparently asked to be dropped for this match based on their performance in previous games, which mean that Abidal had to be shifted to centre-back, where he looked distinctly out of place -- but when your only other option is Boumsong, what else can you do?

France have looked shaky defensively all along, and it was the same in this game -- which is particularly galling considering that they're playing with two defensive midfielders to shield the back line. Italy could have been up by two or three goals by halftime, if it hadn't been for some abysmal finishing by Luca Toni. What the hell have they done to him in Germany? It's bizarre.

The other big problem for France is that they've failed to rejuvenate the team after making it to the World Cup final in 2006. There are a lot of players for whom this was one tournament too far, but Domenech apparently doesn't have enough faith in the youngsters to bring them in yet. Italy have a lot of the same issues -- a weak defence and a manager who doesn't seem to know what his best team is -- but this was a classic Italian performance in that they did enough to win regardless.

It helps that they've got the best goalkeeper in the tournament by a mile. Gianluigi Buffon saved their ass against Romania and made one especially good save again here in the 73rd minute, tipping Karim Benzema's shot just wide. But it was already 2-0 to Italy by that point, after Daniel de Rossi's free kick was deflected into the net by Thierry Henry on the end of the wall, sending Gregory Coupet diving the wrong way. I feel a bit bad for Titi for that, but not that much, considering he spent most of the game flailing in disappointment at his teammates. Way to be captainly there.

After that save by Buffon, the game sort of petered out, with France subsiding into existential crisis and the Italians trying to ensure that nobody else would get booked -- Pirlo and (surprise, surprise) Gennaro Gattuso picked up second yellow cards and will be on the bench for the quarter-final. They do have a variety of options in midfield, but I think their main concern will be getting Toni's mojo working again so he can properly threaten the Spanish defence. Oh, and, you know, figuring out how the hell they're going to cope with Villa + Torres. Should be a hell of a game.


Netherlands 2-0 Romania
The Netherlands second string cruised into the quarter-finals with a win over a Romanian team that may be limited and yet had previously managed to foil both the World Cup finalists. I think this makes the Dutch B-team slightly better than the Croatian B-team, for those of you who care about such things. Then again, when your B-team has players like Arjen Robben and Robin van Persie, that's kind of a misnomer.

The Netherlands dominated from the outset, but I don't think they were trying particularly hard. At least, it took them a while to find a way to cut through the Romanian defence, wasting several chances in the first half. They didn't take the lead until the 54th minute, from a right-wing cross that was flicked on by Orlando Engelaar for Klaas-Jan Huntelaar to finish.

As for Romania, they just didn't look like they really wanted to win the game. Even after they went behind -- and knowing that Italy were leading against France -- they were still too defensively focussed, with not enough players pushing up to support Adrian Mutu in attack. (Poor Mutu, incidentally, must still be kicking himself for that penalty piss against Italy.) And their fate was sealed with a second goal for the Netherlands late on, Robin van Persie controlling a great diagonal ball from Demy de Zeeuw and slicing his shot past Bogdan Lobont at the near post.

This performance doesn't really tell us anything new about the Netherlands squad -- we already knew that they had an obscene number of gifted attacking players. But what I find interesting is that their supposedly shaky defence hasn't really put a foot wrong so far. I'm very curious to see what would happen if they come up against, say, Portugal, further along the line.


Next up: The Netherlands play the Group D runners-up (Russia or Sweden) on Saturday, and on Sunday, Italy will see if Spain choke yet again at the quarter-final stage

Bad hair of the day award: Fabio Grosso, for his white-boy fro. Fabio, Andrea Pirlo would like to teach you a few things about the proper use of conditioner.

Written by Jen on June 18th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Euro 2008 and Netherlands and Romania and france and italy.

Euro Trash Day 11: The Replacements

The Dutch rested 9. The French made 3 changes. The Romanians stood firm. The Italians mixed and matched a little.

Today was a day for drama and substitutes, for hasty tactical rearrangements and a formation shattered by a first-half red card. Regardless, every team earned their cash, and we enjoyed the treats.

Somewhere tonight, an astrological chart burns.

France 0
Italy 2 (Pirlo 25" pen, De Rossi 62")

If I were Raymond Domenech, I simply wouldn't go home. I wouldn't run the risk of being mutilated and torn limb-from-limb by the croissant-chompers lying in wait at Charles de Gaulle airport. I would simply pull a Jason Bourne; burn my current ID, pull out a fake passport, cut my hair and add a fake moustache, and disappear into the night.

No note of apology, no note of sorrow and regret... just get the fuck out and start again. Barbados is looking for a coach, but even he might be a touch too New Agey for a country rooted in various spiritual traditions.

That being said, let's put Gallic castigation aside for a minute and look at these scrappy Italian feckers.

Did they wet themselves when examining the task at hand? No.

Did they complain at every refereeing decision? No, especially not the contentious red card for Thuram's understudy, Eric Abidal. It was a blatant, clumsy foul. No doubt whatsoever there. But a straight red? Is someone taking the term "professional foul" a little too seriously? Coupet was right there, although Eric was the last man.

Did they work hard in the second half to make sure the victory was theirs? Yes.

Did they make the most of what was good fortune and enterprise was thrown their way? Yes, with the exception of yet another dismal performance from lone frontman Luca Toni. (As the BBC liveblog noted, Toni and Mario Gomez combined for 43 goals this season in the Bundesliga. What the fuck is going on? Are they that bad, or is it the Bundesliga?)

For Italy, this was a fine way to bounce back from two terrible performances earlier in the group. They now stumble into the quarter-finals to face Spain, with the grim reality of continuing to toil without Cannavaro, and now losing Pirlo and Gattuso to 1-game suspensions after their yellows this evening.

For France, a long trip home and plenty of time to reflect. Why didn't Thuram play? Why did Ribery have to overextend on that meaningless, innocuous foul early in the game? Why did Domenech flirt with using Nasri, only to pull him after the red card instead of the listless Toulalan (who's been absolute crap in Euro '08)? Why did Henry toil alone up front? Why is Coupet not in line for the French presidency?

All these questions can be answered rather simply: Domenech is a useless son of a bitch. I eagerly await his termination and subsequent replacement, who is facing a Herculean task to turn around this old, tired squad that's horribly imbalanced towards the aged and tenured.

I just hope for Estelle Denis' sake that Raymond makes a better husband than manager (Else, I'll happily offer my services as a replacement).

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Netherlands 2 (Huntelaar 54", Van Persie 87")
Romania 0

Poor Romania. Even with 9 changes to the Dutch XI that fisted France and Italy, they still couldn't get it done. Of course, in lieu of finding actual constructive criticism, the Bucharest press will surely just call for Mutu's head after his penalty miss against Gianluigi Buffon.

But in reality, Romania simply wasn't good enough today. Despite the waves of possession and half-chances, you always had the feeling that the clog-hoppers were going to walk away unscathed, and two moments of class were enough. Huntelaar's finish was decisive from Afellay's cross, and Van Persie surprised our UF liveblog peanut gallery in playing the entire match and even bagging the late goal with an emphatic close-range effort.

Shame for the Romanians, but they're history now.

Regarding Holland, do we join the bandwagon and anoint them as the tournament favourites heading into the quarter-finals? On performances alone, they've been the most impressive by far. They've enjoyed clear victories over a darkhorse and two pre-tourney frontrunners, and now they're looking at a dinner date with either Russia or Sweden, two equally-dull and dismal sides to watch.

Beyond that, a mouth-watering semi with either Spain or Italy, and then who knows?

Of all the teams to make it this far, none other has shown the consistency of character or victory, but they all have their strong points. I wrote at length of the Dutch ability to waste talent in my team preview, and perhaps it's all downhill from here. At least they've shown us some entertainment in the group stages.

(ps. I'm still picking Spain to shake their pretender shackles and emerge victorious, even though Total Football appears to have, gulp, returned)

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Links Roundup
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Meet Aragones, your new Fenerbahce manager [Soccernet]
Madagascar fire their manager, who was UNDEFEATED in qualifying! [Yahoo! Sports]
Soccer means less people go to the opera? I'm stunned! [AP]
Jens Lehmann with some advice on how to stop Portugal. I'm worried, considering he couldn't stop Birmingham [International Herald Tribune]
Germany's bright young star might jump to the Jewish club of North London. Good/bad idea? [The Daily Telegraph]
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Top 10 US Players who deserve to see the pitch (seriously, get rid of Donovan) [THE YANKEE HOOLIGAN]
An inside look at Chelsea's propaganda machine [Pitch Invasion]
Remember this? Well, they've been found guilty! Elder brother Shaun must be so proud! [BBC News]

Written by Darkvader on June 18th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Euro 2008 and Euro Trash and Lingering Bursitis and Netherlands and Romania and france and italy.

Guest Post: A Dutch Fan Rejoices, Again

In the spirit of the competition, UF is trying to bring in fans to write about their country's ups and downs throughout the tournament, and with the Dutch being the biggest story of the tournament thus far, we are bringing back Joep, a Dutch native enjoying the Oranje run in the tournament, who previously recapped the Dutch perspective after its stunning 3-0 victory over Italy. Holland has already clinched its group and faces its final match against Rumania today with the prospect of having both Italy and France knocked out with a Dutch loss, but I don't think the Dutch are thinking that way.

Below is Joep's perspective leading up to and after the France match. I imagine the trepidation he felt then is not present now. And, don't forget to cheer for the Dutch because everytime they score Joep gets to do the above with a random hot Dutch women.




There was always that lingering insecurity when we looked forward to
the next game. Boisterous and confident we belted to "bring on the
French already!" But not very-deep-down it was apparent to all of us
that our growing sense of confidence was a front, and in reality
nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to hide the fear that what
he had witnessed against the Italians was nothing but a one-off. The
word fluke was not to be mentioned by anyone, but the sense that our
3-0 against the World Champions was exactly that had taken root with
everyone I spoke in the days after the game.

We started looking at the tables, and when the Italians drew Rumania
we started covering ourselves by saying that even a loss to the
French, losing finalists only two years ago after all, wouldn't even
necessarily be that bad a result. It would get our heads out of the
clouds that had gathered around them on Monday, and we would see all
the more clearly for the remainder of the Euros. So win, draw or loss,
we, being about 17 people crammed together in a student room, managed
to find half-hearted pros and cons for all of them.

Even going up early against the French didn't really ease the tension.
The French always have the habit of scoring exactly when I don't want
them to, and I don't think I've ever wanted them to blow every single
chance they'd get as much as Friday night – meaning they would surely
win. And indeed, after the halftime break, they started piling on some
nerve wrecking pressure and looked sure to score. And then San Marco
intervened.

Before the tournament started and our hopes of surviving the group
stage were slim at best, we had argued for fielding all of our best
players, in a formation that would surely leave our back four so
incredibly exposed, we would be home after a couple of days. These
players, we thought, were van der Vaart, Sneijder, Robben, Van Persie
and Van Nistelrooy. We daydreamed about this quintet on the field at
the same time, realizing it probably wouldn't happen because none of
them would track back and defend. But with 1-0 up against the French,
our defense under enormous pressure and with Sneijder, van der Vaart
and van Nistelrooy already on the pitch, Marco brought Robben. And
then van Persie.

What happened next you've all probably already seen; van Nistelrooy,
who has been forever dogged by nay-sayers about being nothing more
than a poacher, the lowest of the low, a limited striker who couldn't
score a goal from outside the 6 yard box if his life depended on it,
launched Robben on the left wing with the exact bit of skill the
French have come to see as their national heritage; Ruud's pirouette
on the ball allowed Robben to cross for van Persie for our second
goal.

The French did come back, once, but I had to wait longer for the line
for the bathrooms in the clubs of Utrecht later that night than it
took Arjen Robben to restore the margin to two. This sounds like an
overstatement but actually isn't. By the time Sneijder performed
his last minute hommage to Dennis Bergkamp, none of us had any air
left to scream. As it turns out, it takes quite a bit out of you to
see your country beat both finalists from the last World Cup 7-1 over
180 minutes of play.

We gaan naar Wenen toe. Get used to the idea and mark your calendars
accordingly.

Written by Darkvader on June 17th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Euro 2008 and Netherlands and guest post.

Euro 2008: Day 7

Italy 1-1 Romania
I know there were some people out there who picked Romania as the dark horse candidates for this tournament — not me, sadly, but it looks like those people were pretty smart.

After the embarrassment of their defeat against the Netherlands, Roberto Donadoni made a number of changes to the Italian lineup, bringing Daniele de Rossi and Simone Perrotta into midfield alongside Andrea Pirlo, giving Alessandro del Piero a start and rejigging the back line with Fabio Grosso and Giorgio Chiellini. Another loss would have eliminated them from the tournament, so they desperately needed to pick up at least a point here.

It was a good open game in the early stages, with Romania not playing quite as ultra-defensively as they did against France. Italy looked better than they did in their first game and had a few decent chances, but they seemed to be lacking the belief that they could win — that attitude from 2006 that said “We’re going to win this thing, and everyone else can go fuck themselves.” Romania had a few chances of their own, but I think they were a bit shaken up when Mirel Radoi had to go off partway through the first half with a broken nose and fractured cheekbone after a collision with a teammate.

Just before halftime, after a good spell of pressure from Italy, the first controversial incident: A corner for Italy, sent out to the edge of the box and chipped back in, where Luca Toni scored only to have it ruled out for offside. It was a very close call, but I’m pretty sure the linesman got that one wrong, and the Italians were justifiably aggrieved (cue much impassioned gesturing).

Things got worse for Italy early in the second half, when Romania took the lead. From a long free kick, Gianluca Zambrotta attempted to head the ball back to the goalkeeper, only for Adrian Mutu to pounce and slice his shot over Gianluigi Buffon and into the net. But the Italians responded almost immediately, with a corner that was headed back across the goal and turned in at the post by Christian Panucci.

Italy made a series of changes in the final half-hour of the game, trying to get that valuable winning goal, but were unable to break down the Romanian defence. Instead it was Romania with the chance to win the game, after they were awarded a penalty for a foul by Panucci on Daniel Niculae. (The Italians whined about this one too, but the referee got it right.) Adrian Mutu stepped up, but his shot was miraculously saved by Buffon — although it was hit fairly close to the keeper, he still had to react brilliantly to stop it with first his trailing arm and then his leg. Mutu looked like he was about to cry, and had to be subbed off soon after to stop him having a tantrum on the pitch.

So it ended 1-1, which means both teams are still clinging to life. Romania, actually, are in a slightly better position, because they have one point more, although they’ll have a few players suspended for their final game against an already-qualified Netherlands. Italy will survive if they can beat France, but they’re going to need a much better performance from Toni — it really wasn’t his day — and, of course, to sort out that defence.

Netherlands 4-1 France
The Netherlands, unlike Romania, don’t get to be a dark horse team. When you’ve played two games and handily defeated both World Cup finalists in the process, I think you have to be labelled as one of the favourites. They’ve clinched top spot in the group with this win, which means they could rest some players and take it easy against Romania in the final game; my only concern would be that if they do lose, it could mess with their usually fragile mental balance.

Anyway, Marco van Basten stuck with his winning lineup for this game, while Raymond Domenech changed things up in an attempt to inject some attacking flair into his team, moving Franck Ribery to a more central position and demoting Nicolas Anelka and Karim Benzema to the bench in favour of Thierry Henry as the lone striker (that, right there, would be the flaw in the plan, yes?).

So, yeah, that didn’t work too well for France. The Netherlands scored first in the 10th minute, with Dirk Kuyt’s header from a corner. And even after taking the lead, rather than sitting back to defend, they were brave — or wise — enough to continue pressing forward. France were struggling to hold onto possession, or at least to do much with it, with the Dutch players hustling to close them down. The French got better after the first half-hour or so, with Ribery — as expected — the source of just about everything good, but the Netherlands just kept playing their pretty triangles. In fact, they got even more offensively focusses, bringing on both Arjen Robben and Robin van Persie.

It was Van Persie who scored what turned out to be the winning goal in the 59th minute, after a fantastic bit of team play. From a throw-in deep in the Dutch half, Ruud van Nistelrooy did a sort of Zidane turn around the defender (I swear, I don’t remember him doing that sort of thing for United) and set Robben free down the left wing. He crossed the ball to Van Persie, who hit a great first-time volley. Beautiful football.

Thierry Henry scored for France 10 minutes later to bring it back to 2-1, connecting with a right-wing cross from Willy Sagnol. But Robben restored the Netherlands’ two-goal lead almost immediately from the kickoff, finishing off another mesmerizing passing move with an amazing finish from an almost impossible angle. That was pretty much game over for France, and I think the players might have just given up. And the Dutch rubbed their noses in it, Wesley Sneijder adding a fourth goal in stoppage time with a fine shot from the edge of the box.

So, France versus Italy in their final group game is not only a World Cup final rematch but also a battle for survival. That result won’t matter at all if Romania beat the Netherlands, but both teams have to go for the win (if Romania lose and the other two draw, then I think it’s decided on goal difference). If I had to pick a winner in that game, I’d say Italy, because France looked apathetic once again, while Italy were mostly just unfortunate.

Next up in Group C: France v. Italy and Netherlands v. Romania, both at 2:30 pm on Tuesday. Set your VCRs, y’all.

Bad hair of the day award: Sebastien Frey, France’s back-up keeper. No, he didn’t actually play, but his double-decker sideburns are bad enough to deserve a mention.

Written by Jen on June 15th, 2008 with no comments.
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Hup Oranje!

I’m heading out for the weekend and haven’t had a chance to watch any of yesterday’s games yet, so let me just say this: The Group of Death is now, officially, the Group of AWESOME.

Written by Jen on June 14th, 2008 with no comments.
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Highlights of Holland Vs France 4-1 in Euro 2008 - video

After defeating World Champions Italy by 3-0, Holland defeated the finalists of World Cup 2006 by a huge margin of 4-1. Netherlands paved their way to the quarter-finals with this win. and Substitute Arjen Robben set up one goal and scored another for the winning teams. Dirk Kuytm Robin Van Persie and Wesly Sneider scored the other three goals for Netherlands. The only goal for France came from

Written by Sudip Kafle and Sujan Kafle on June 13th, 2008 with no comments.
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