Netherlands vs Russia

shane86 · 22-06-2008 1:10am

Shocking. While I didnt expect them to slaughter the Russians like the joke teams Italy and France fielded, it wasnt even a question of opposing defence at times. The passing was poor. The attacking was non existant. And why the hell was Van de Vaart left on? Arguably the worst player on field tonight. The only Dutch player who impressed was Affelay.

Cruijff wrote: »

What can I say absolutely gutted, I cant even fathom what has happened to us to go from such a good side to this tonight. Number of reasons , we have played badly, we had no robben, and in the dutch media there has been a lot of talk about the bad feeling in the camp following Boularhouz's kid death, and the measure of the man coming back says alot.

While Bouhalrouz didnt make any critical errors was it really wise to even play him? More bizarre managerial descisions considering Van Bastens prev flawlessness this time around.

I can imagine the whole thing certainly cast a shadow though, VDS had said before all this that he was one of the most popular members of the team.

Pigman II wrote: »

Russia are definetly winning the lovely girls contest btw.

meh. Smiling presumably optimistic Dutch blonde at the end of extra time pt 1 gets my vote. Although it would have been a plus if more of the female Russian crowd had taken the vow of toplessness like pretty much every man there.

Is there any website compiled by some bored individual with "best of" screenshots from each match?

I need cheering up. My 12-1 20 quid bet is in ruins.

Sherifu · 22-06-2008 1:20am

shane86 wrote: »

Is there any website compiled by some bored individual with "best of" screenshots from each match?

http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/pgStory?contentId=8216748#sport=Euro%202008&photo=8261800

http://www.soccergaming.tv/showthread.php?s=&threadid=154172

http://www.fbtz.com/forum/showthread.php?t=105024

Malice · 22-06-2008 11:03am

Well done to Russia. Holland seemed to start nervously and even though they took it to extra time, they never really looked like deserving the win. It's hard to single out players from an excellent team performance but Plavyuchenko and Arshavin were excellent. I would have loved to have seen one of Kolodin's pile drivers go in as well

.

It could all have been so different if van Basten hadn't taken off Kuyt at half time

.

estebancambias · 22-06-2008 11:43am

Russia are proof that a manager matters.

I'd say with the Russian League thriving he has more raw materials to work with than an Ireland manager, but Russia are examples of a renowned manager working wonders.

Its no suprise he did it with Australia, Korea and now Russia.

Sherifu · 22-06-2008 3:00pm

Russia's Dutch coach Guus Hiddink claimed his side were better than the Netherlands 'in all components of the game' after dumping his countrymen out of Euro 2008.
Hiddink's team bounced back from conceding a late equaliser to Ruud van Nistelrooy - the Real Madrid striker forcing extra time by cancelling out Roman Pavlyuchenko's opener - to run out 3-1 winners after goals from substitute Dmitri Torbinski and man of the match Andrei Arshavin.
'I'm extremely proud of the achievement of my team. I have not experienced that very much in my career,' he said.

'I think the team was superior technically in the control in passing but also in physical parts superior to the Dutch team, which is tremendous because I know how they prepare tactically and physically.
'I don't mean it (superior) as an arrogant word but we were better than the opponents in all components of the game.'
The result is the third time in as many quarter-finals the pool winner has been knocked out by the team finishing second in their respective group following Portugal's defeat to Germany and Croatia's elimination at the hands of Turkey.
Russia only clinched their place in the last eight with Wednesday's 2-0 victory over Sweden, while the bulk of Marco van Basten's first-choice players had had over a week to recuperate since their stunning win over France as the coach made nine changes for Tuesday's triumph over Romania.
But it was Hiddink's team who looked the more sprightly in the additional 30 minutes.
He said: 'If you look at the preparation after a tough Swedish game and after a tough Greece game - especially after Sweden - we had two days to recover.
'I did not complain a lot, a little bit, about the short preparation time for this very difficult game.
'The short preparation time meant we could hardly work tactically but we did it yesterday. To do what they did... that's a tremendous, unbelievable achievement by the team.'

Link.

Not nice for his countrymen but well deserved praise.

kronsington · 22-06-2008 7:43pm

the russkis mean business.

i hope they make the final, before the tourno started i had a cheeky punt on a germany russia final at 28/1

PDN · 23-06-2008 12:42am

I was in Moscow on Saturday and watched the game with a group of really happy Russian guys.

After the match Moscow went crazy. There were fireworks and the streets were filled with cars flying flags, beeping and people shouting (at 4am - since the match finished at 1.30am local time). God knows how they'll act if they actually win the tournament!

grenache · 23-06-2008 12:42am

Spineless, unimaginative, pedestrian, all words to describe the Dutch performance. I have never witnessed Holland, creators of 'total football' being totally out-footballed and out-fought in every single department. The Russians will win this tournament, provided they can survive the German set pieces in the semi.

The Dutch played like Ireland under Stan - to be fair.

heyjude · 23-06-2008 12:45am

grenache wrote: »

The Russians will win this tournament, provided they can survive the German set pieces in the semi.

The Russians play Spain in the semi

redspider · 23-06-2008 12:01pm

Russia 3-1 Holland

Well, the Dutch never got going in this game and the Russians played very well indeed. Russia deserved the win, no doubt about that. Holland were lacking in ideas in the final 3rd. They didnt seem to be at the races at all, there was little spark in their play and players didnt seem to be running flat out and movement was limited.

Its true that the incident affecting Bhoularouz may have affected the whole team, but it cant explain the whole thing. Bhoularouz played, which was a mistake in hindsight, but not as well as in previous matches, and when most of his tackles started becoming fouls, he was hauled off. What with this and the change of Van Persie for Kuyt, (going from holding to more attacking), and with the Robben injury, this left Van Basten with few options. Bringing on Affelay though did not change the game, and a change with Huntelaar may have.

Holland for me were going through the motions. They got deflated when the Russians scored, and although they got an equaliser through their main threat of the match, inswinging crosses from dead-ball situations, they remained subdued. In extra time, the Russian fans were going delerious and the Dutch fans were stone cold silent. This was when it was 1-1. The Dutch were beaten in their minds.

Where it all went wrong is hard to say? Its the first time they were tested going down 1-0. But the problems were there before that. The Russians seemed up for it, played good at the back, and were more dynamic going forward. The Russians were more Dutch-like. They were completley different than in the first game against Spain. Arshavin (what a name) made a difference but it was more than that. He had proven himself during the winter but this was a solid team performance and Paluychenko was getting into good positions and laying off the ball well.

Is it the Hiddink 'affect'? Perhaps. But as much as Russia were better, Holland were worse than they had performed before. Every team is going to have a bad game but rarely did they get into top gear even for 10 mins and put the Russians under severe pressure. They went out like a damp squib in the end.

The Russians can go forward with confidence, but Spain have the capability to give them a much sterner test than the Dutch did. Germany are likely to be pleased with the result as well.

Redspider

grenache · 24-06-2008 1:51am

heyjude wrote: »

The Russians play Spain in the semi

make that the Spanish set pieces!

Netherlands vs Russia

Comments