Dissapeared, never a good thing

Greetings fellow blog mates,

So yes I dissapeared for quite a while, okay clearly I blame the world cup and my team being out and not allowing me to gloat, but it's a silly excuse, and well won't be used anymore. So why wasn't I around, maybe because my creative writing took a nose dive faster than the New York Islanders chances of winning the stanley cup anytime soon... seriously Garth Snow... you got to be freaking kidding me, but they aren't, and in the end I blame Mad Mike for somehow messing up the Islanders some more. Reminder goalies don't make good GM's, they take way too many shots to the head.

Anyways, i myself am getting my quota of sun each day, probobly over the quota and will get skin cancer in a few years and hate the fact I was a lifeguard... maybe I should add the fact I'll probobly get cataracts and just about any other sun problem one can have, then again maybe not, and that's all for the better. Yes i do wear my sunscreen each day, but when one is in the sun for 5 hours with no stoppage to hit the shade and hide from the sun, one is going to take in alot of wonderful UV rays.
Ah well atleast I have the wonderful racoon eyes.

I would also like to comment that John Slamons is a gigantic moron, firstly for not wanting to go to the Suns and enjoy the run and gun offense, and then not wanting to go to Phoenix North aka Raptors and playing the same sort of game. Could someone tell me what he wishes to do as he has no contract as of right now and well no one is going to offer him any big money, or maybe money doesn't matter and family matters, I'm sure it does Mr. James, errr wait you didn't end up in Houston like you wanted too, hmmmm so it sure isn't family. But yes athletes, espeically in the NBA make me laugh, they think they can ask where to go, and think that team will accept them, sure some of the star players could get away with this, but when your names are Mike James and John Salmons you should just be freaking happy you still have an NBA contract and a wealthy one at that for your play. But then again, what do I know about the culture of the NBA, probobly nothing, only read a book on it, and did my own studying for classes. So alas I'll just shut up before I dig myself a whole I won't get out of.

Reminder to F1, as much as I love watching it, you guys still suck, and haven't been able to change it for 10 plus years, ever since Senna's death has that sport gone nowhere, you ask why, well it's pretty simple, firstly the cars still don't pass each other very often, which I hate to say makes the sport, you have made pitstops mostly ineffective as everyone can do it, you have also cut any dynamic out of the races but the obscene budget some teams are on. Put a budget on how much teams are allowed to research, you are killing the sport, you need more teams to compete so that more people will watch and rather than kill your sport you can grow it. Sure you went into the Asian and Middle East market, but that's not growing your sport in the core market, which is Europe.

Anyways that was a quick post, more on everything shortly... I really really really promise.

Hup Holland

How to soccer commentate

Just a quick note for the ESPN coverage of how to commentate a soccer game, remember you need to show a bit of passion, and also you need to yell and scream, instead of being some stiff in a suit who has no idea what they are talking about, that's right I'm looking at you Balboa. And for entertainment purposes if you can mix in a you're with me leather comment then I will never make fun of you ever again. Now in case you didn't know how to do that, watch the following video from 1998, and listen to the passion.

Remembering Hoffa as a Raptor

Well I didn't go after this right away when it happened, I apologize the world cup came ahead of making fun of Rafael Araujo. But alas, the former BYU stiff is off to Utah, perfect for his mormon like tendencies and his ability to play below the rim. The question that needs to be asked though is will AK47's wife use her free sleep card with the brazalian mormon stiff who knows already had to go through the ladies.

Just so we don't forget, here is his best moment of the last 2 years with the Raptors and when I mean best, showed his talent as best he could. Actual talent is a whole different question, and so is heart. Ah well good luck Hoffa plenty of mormons in Salt Lake City for you.



Regards

Real Rap in my view

Well I feel like I should culture people in this blog, and when I mean culture I mean culture them about Netherlands and about music and the industry as a whole today. I have left the following video for you to watch with the words posted in english for you to understand. Enjoy it and read my thoughts on it after.



I'm from the country of Pim Fortuin and Volkert van der G.
The country of Theo van Gogh and Mohammed B.
Am from the country of croquettes, frikadellen
Which you can order all the way until the Spanish coast
From the country where index never goes out of fashion
Where they'll crack you up the moment you will make it large
Am from the country of red white blue and the golden lion
Plundered the world and called it the Golden Age
Am from the country of weedplantations and bicycleraces
The country you can ask a junkie for a bike
The country that became euro champion in 88
The country of biting herring, dikes and canals
Am from the country of, the country of tall Fransie
This is the country I come home to after my vacation

Am from the country where I was born in 1982,
Where I lost the guilders to the euro
The country that participates in the war on Iraq
Cause uncle Bush has Balkenende in his bag
The country where miserly is common no doubt
Cause Baas B is still from Diemen South
The country of riots between Ajax and Feyenoord
But when Orange plays everyone will gather
The country of Johan Cruijf and Aben Lenstra
The legion never lets the lion down
The country where we hope the weather will improve every day
No one trusts the weather guy anyway
The country that has been free since 45
The country where I'll stay forever
Honoustly
I love it

I'm from the country you can drive through in less than three hours
With a different dialect every ten minutes
Am from the country where theoretically there's room for everyone
And where XTC is export product number 1
Am from the country where Andre Hazes will always rule in every bar
Where Peter Gert-Jan Raymond Frans Bart and Ali run the game
Am from the country where hip-hop is a 30 year old kid
You find out how cool that is
The country where prostitution and dope smoking is allowed
The country of Sinterklaas and Queensday
This is the country I was lost and betrayed
This is the country I was born and raised

I'm from the country with the highest cultural diversity per sq. meter
But where one is too afraid to have dinner with his own neighbour
And integration is a beautiful word
But shit, it's fuckin bitter when it is never heard
I share my country with Turks & Marrocans, Antillians, Moluccan & Surinames
The country where we hold to many thoughts back
Worldwide represented by Harry Potter
A country where Apartheid, internationally
is the best known word from the Dutch language actually
Am from the country that ticks like a bomb
The country that has dinner at 6 and is always on time
This is the country where I'll win in the end
Untill you sing along in the ArenA subways
And till that time I've lost my heart
This is for Holland, Baas B, Lange Frans


That's the song, and if you watched the crowd, the silence in the crowd is wonderful, it was played in Nederlands and well young and old understood it and to me that's what makes this rap wonderful. It cultures others of a real life problem, makes you think, hence why I've never liked some North American rap, I find that it's not telling a story but rather trying to make a quick buck about being shot 50 times, or berating other singers. Sure it's all fun and games for some, but when every rap song has little meaning other than picking up a girl at a club, losing a girl, or telling some story about how his or her life was so tough, then really it's not worth my time to listen. For the most part that's what I perceive as North American rap, in the end their is no story only a bunch of random thoughts, with a thuggery beat that gets everyone thinking that being the big bad tough thug isn't so bad after all. What does this bring, it brings out the thought that everyone can be a thug and dress with the bling, steal things, get shot at and life will be good. But to me that's not what rap was supposed to be about. Back in the early 90's is when the real North American rap was around, telling stories about the difficulties of being black, the struggles of a North American society and so forth, and to me that's the kind of rap that should be heard which it isn't anymore. Anyways hopefully you all reflect on this, feel free to post your thoughts, for or against, it's more of a debatable topic for everyone.

Regards

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

Bring on the West Iberian

Ah yes,

Quietness on my front, it's a patient quietness, I didn't want to cause the wrath of the gods to strike down on me. So it hasn't yet, somehow the Dutch made it quietly through the round robin, not stepping on too many toes and therefore not causing me to become over confident nor over nervous. Usually it's the latter of the two I have problems with as they love to not make it easy on themselves. But here we are, moving onwards, and yes this is why I have stayed quiet. I haven't wanted to put my foot in my mouth, and probobly should just stop talking now, but got to move on, the round of 16 is upon us.

So after a round of 2: 1 goal games and a 0-0 tie, I have to say i'm pleased. You may ask why, but it's simple, we have had tough games so far, no easy games and slowly but surely we are building ourselves up. So why the nervousness with Portugal. I'll be honest I don't want to play them for a couple of reasons. I believe they are a quality team, and I don't want to lose due to bragging rights with the one they call the slave trader.... yeah you know who he is.

Anyways i'll be pushing the dutch bandwagon is obvious nervousness and I'll be ready for the game this coming Sunday. It should be another classic battle between the 2 teams... just hope my team prevails. More to follow shortly enough.