Well the Dutch are out

The recovery process begins now for myself... I have to say i'm still digesting the game and it still stings in a few ways. I have to say I'm ashamed with the reaction of some Dutch fans on the world cup blog that I frequent, but at the same time and ashamed of the squad itself and also Portugal's team and fans. Basically it's one big mess nowadays, and I have to wonder if there would be a riot by the end of the night between the fans, as clearly the players didn't seem to mind going ahead and trying their luck in a hockey rink. I will apologize in advance as I'm just writing out my feelings and that I may jump around from time to time, i'll try my best to keep this in context, but rather than people asking me later what I thought, they can read the blog and understand where I'm coming from.

So I will rewind all away back to December when the pools were put together, Jose (my portuguese roommate) and I were watching the the little 10 inch tv that we have at school and watching the draw come out. We watched, and I predicted the group that the Dutch got and 2 our of the 3 freaking opponents we got drawn with. But anyways that's nowhere with where this story is going, it's more in the sense of when we first looked at it we knew that we would sadly probobly play in the round of 16. Firstly because we were probobly going to finish behind Argentina, and well Portugal was probobly going to end first due to the easy group they got. Anyways so back in that day I knew this day would come.

Rewind to the start of the world cup, I may not have said it, but their were 2 teams I didn't wish the Dutch to meet, firstly the Brazilians (we seem to screw up alot in the last 30 years against them) and Portugal (1-6 record doesn't look good on us... make it 1-7 now). You may ask what do these 2 teams have in common, well firstly both are coached by Brazilians, but that's not the real reason, the real reason is that they play our game, the Dutch game, offensive soccer, and they play it as good if not better than us at times. No other nations play soccer like these 3 nations do, and that's what is the big difference, we can't seem to match up well against teams that play our game, maybe it's cause we are so used to a defensive team that we forget about the offensive punishment those teams can put on us, their creativity and the fact they want the ball.

Fastforward to 5 days ago
I've been a wreck since that matchup reared it's ugly head, cause I knew it was going to happen and that their was nothing I could do about it. I've been told by people I'm not a real Dutch fan when I say we are going to lose to Portugal, it was a gut feeling, and a feeling of hating to play that opponent, sure I guess maybe I shouldn't have been so pessismistic, but alas it's how I felt and I thought I would state my opinion. I guess it was my attempt to be a realist of a fan and not just someone who pretends that their is nothing wrong at all and that everything is going well, when clearly it's not.

Game day
Like every game day this world cup, I've been dressed it my orange hat, orange 2000 to 2002 version Dutch jersey and I sat downstairs on the couch watching the game, maybe it was the fact I was alone this time, maybe I should have told people to come over, but i didn't, I was set to watch the game in agony by myself. My family left me alone, didn't even bother to come down, probobly for the better at points as clearly I wasn't in the mood to socialize.

Start of the game,
Well it was announced, the starting lineup, for some reason we have to start Sneijder and Van Bommel, yes I really dislike seeing both of those guys on the field at the same time, they fire shot after shot on net all the time, most times it's blocked, but they sure love to blast it rather than setting up plays in the midfield. The bigger news was the like of Ruud, while I was fine with it early on, I was expecting him to come in by the 60th minute if something was needed to be done... like score a freaking goal. So I was a tad nervous.

1st half,
Well first 10 minutes, Dutch has some good possesion, but we didn't infact use it at all, it was more of a let's play with the ball a bit, some chances were always one pass short, or one stupid shot long, or the fact that we could organize ourselves between the forwards and midfielders, it's been a problem all tournament, that last touch of the ball (quick pass to the forward), that never seemed to work at all, maybe it's the young and inexperience of the team still, but it just never seemed to click in the end. Then Portugal took charge a bit, found some room and Maniche scored an excellent goal, very nicely played with Pauleta and they deserved that goal, I have no problem admitting the Dutch defense broke down, and couldn't close the gap in time. Van Der Saar had no chance on it either. So 1-0 Portugal, they keep the play a bit for the next 10 minutes, finally the Dutch seemed to have woken up, or got rid of those nervous butterflies and start to take some control of the game, a few chances, some very nice work by Van Persie on the wing, if only he could finish the shot (maybe this is why Arsenal doesn't use him more). And a red card. Might I add the other like 3 yellow cards in the first half, mind you that didn't seem to matter much, cause it only got worse later.

2nd half
Well probobly the strangiest half of this year's world cup, and probobly will become well known as the game that just lost all marbles. 3 more red cards giving out, a brawl, another 9 yellow cards, Scolari yelling at Basten, lots of diving, pushing, shoving and really a whole lot of crappy none soccer play. A few chances, Cocu off the post (the old guard hitting the post... sigh sounds so familiar, and it wasn't a shootout), a few close changes and some 9 on 9 action. In the end Portugal won.

Marco Van Basten:
I still like him as a coach, as for the most part the Dutch team was kept together this tournament, but he did get out coached this game in a way, and he also tried to put his stamp on the team. He went for youth this tournament, I supported the idea, cause he brought a few veterans, but I did not enjoy the fact that he didn't play Ruud and instead put on VofH on to try score a goal, we never had a high ball to go after firstly, secondly our corner kicks sucked so much that it didn't matter how tall our big forward was, it wasn't going to do much. Sadly Ruud should have been on for Kujt, and he might have scored that goal that Kujt couldn't flick over the goalie. I like Kujt, he puts in a big effort all over the field, but the man can't score, he hasn't been a finisher really at all for the amount of chances he gets, it's a developing talent I guess, but Ruud would have been more effective in this flowing game with less players on, he needs space and he would have gotten it. As well Robben was getting double teamed all game because Ruud wasn't around and Portugal could focus on him, hence the fact that he was rather ineffective most of the game until it opened up with the circus show. In the end Van Basten got out coached, or out manuvered even himself, but I still think he should continue to lead this team until 2010, the players respect him, and he's coaching isn't that bad, give him time, he's learning as well and will grow up with these guys, and hopefully in 4 years we will be back and more ready and less nervous with the experience they will have gained.

The game itself
Diving, a Portuguese and Dutch tradition. Yes that's right a tradition, it's nothing new, and sadly I expected it, the problem was the Russian ref bought into most of it and threw out cards with more reckless abandoment then Shawn Kemp in a bedroom. Sadly he got suckered by the dirty tactics of both teams, and well they both kept playing like that because of it. If he had called a few diving calls that would have ended that game and it could have opened up, or closed up into an actual game of soccer.
The Dutch played with nerves for a good portion of the game, and you can't win games when you can't string that last pass together. I don't agree with people when they say the Dutch have no talent, as we saw it when players went one on one with others, but it was the last 1/3 of the pitch where we couldn't make that perfect pass to spring the forward, or for that matter pick out the right player coming down, everyone had tunnel vision sadly.

For now I wish Portugal well against england, I know the rivalry between them and the Dutch is only now just beginning, and will continue to grow, sort of becoming our Czech problem, just going to have to get over it. I hope they can manage without Deco and Miguel, and maybe Figo, but only time will tell, atleast beat up on England, cause really in the end no one likes them. For now I will hide away and ponder some more about the game and the future of the Dutch squad still hopefully looks bright.

Hup Holland