that was crap.
you can't play liddat against stronger teams. you will be punished.
what was most disappointing was that it was not as if we couldnt play. for maybe the first half hour, we were clearly on top. the opening minutes of the second half also saw us create a few chances. overall statistics say that we have 8 shots on goal, while ivory coast 9. we have 51 percent possession to their 49 percent. but i suppose you know me well; statistics don't tell the full story. i cannot accept being on the backfoot for such long duration of time. can you imagine? close to 40 minutes of the second half was spent in our half. the last time i saw that, was in 1998, the third placing, when we camped in croatia's half for more than 70 minutes of the game. i am certainly not used to seeing this happen to us. you have to wake up. you can't play like this anymore.
van der sar: absolutely nothing to say about their goal. but other than that, error-free. quite steady. no doubt most of ivory coast's shots were straight at him, but at least he din fumble and was steady. but really, he din have much saves to make, for all of ivory coast's possession and shots on goal. 6.5
mathijsen: ok only. made a few key interceptions. but he got to watch his hands. 6
ooijer: didnt see much of him in the game. 6
van bronckhorst: in the opening period, was cruelly exposed in terms of pace by eboue. but managed to pick up his game and improved. once, he even outpaced the ivory coast player. for once, having been beaten for pace most of the time prior to that. think he turned out to be the best performing defender for us. 7
heitinga: dangerous coming forward. but his passing is disappointing and scary. too weak, misplaced. etc etc. but he is strong and steady in defence. too bad he had to be sub out at half time due to a calf strain. but then again, maybe it was a blessing in disguise. more on that later. 6.5
sneijder: for a staunch supporter of sneijder, i must admit i am damn disappointed with him. because i know he is capable of more. none of his passing was there. his touches were poor. and they didnt close down the space well enough. 5
cocu: of course more is expected from him, the inspirational figure. but to me, the entire midfield was a flop. 5
van bommel: i was calling for him to be taken off. because he was committing those cynical fouls. and i wasnt sure what he was doing. true he put himself in to stop the ivory coast attacks and that was brave, but most of the time, he wasnt doing much. i think his peak was over. he shouldnt be starting for us. 5
robben: can you please pass the goddamn ball? i don't know why you are the man of the match. but i know that there were at least 2 occasions when you SHOULD have passed the bloody ball to another teammate in space. and there were a few more occasions when you lost the ball because you held on to it for TOO long. no doubt you were dangerous. but i think you know it: it could have been more. still, i must congratulate you for this performance and the previous against serbia. you proved me wrong; you are a deserving starter. but please for the queen's sake, PASS THE BALL. 7
van persie: my choice of man of the match, if he has to come from holland(otherwise it should have been one of the ivory coast players.) always lively. he gave the leftback nothing but trouble. so much so that the only way to stop him was to bring him down. and during the second half, he came back to defend like hell. and wonderful technique too. 8
van niistelrooy: when he scored, bob and i both said ruud van niistelrooy together. good goal. see wad we were talking about? one chance. glad you are scoring again. its special because its your first ever world cup goal. just do more of it. quite a decent game. won a few balls in the air. but it is never enough, of course. 7
bhoularouz: came on for heitinga. i think he added even more mass to the defence. that's why i say it could have been a blessing in disguise, because i wasnt sure if heitinga could provide that mass we needed. ivory coast is very strong, u know.. decent game. 6.5
van der vaart: came on for sneijder. showed his brilliance with that scissors kick. but just before that he really threw himself to the ground to trap the ball, before executing that. it could have been a goal of the tournament if he managed to steer it better, rather than straight at the keeper. more dangerous than sneijder. but also more dangerous at the back when he tried to dribble out of the area around the box. same problem as robben. 6.5
landzaat: came on for ruud to shore things up. quite ok. but towards the end we got a few more chances and ended their siege. so it might have somehting to do with his presence in the midfield. but then again, serriously, he din do much. 6
tactics: attacking wise, we were ok. but the midfield should come up more. and robben of course should pass more. but it is generally still ok. but only till this game. next game onwards, it's even more serious stuff. but when we play on the wings and deliver crosses, people must go in to attack the ball. it didnt really happen. and i think we rely alot on the wingers cutting in. i like that style alot. but you have to have plan Bs. long shots and crosses. work on that.
defending is a headache. i think there are problems.
1) we get beaten too easily. somewhat like germany.
2) the midfield is not pressing enough. we give them alot of space outside the box. remember, this was how argentina punished serbia. when you watch the game, at any point of time, you just have to pause it and you can circle out all the spaces around argentina.
3) poor communication. it happened alot of times. ok, maybe a few. but its way too many. so i say alot. it results in ball watching and ivory coast just gets the ball and runs away again.
4) the back four. isnt really very convincing. i was wondering if one of the centrebacks were told to move up from the line to press the ivory coast attackers. i mean, i like that idea, but it seems to be wrong, because it means geo and heitinga must move in to the centre to cover the other centreback, but it leaves our wings very very open. which is really another problem. but the fact is that the 3 defenders didnt really cover well enough for the one going forward. and the midfield must do their job too. sandwich them in between. it didnt really happen. so i guess that was why we were so open.
5) the wings. i think this is due to the nature of a 4-3-3 formation. i think we still ahve to work out the shape when we defend.
and i was very glad when it was over. it had been very frustrating. especially since we just sort of self-destructed. full credit to ivory coast; they deserved more. but as i have learnt, life is never fair.
of the 3 teams, 1 must go home. surely you can't expect me to hope you get through at the expense of my holland???
but i think we controlled the game up till the 30th minute. then we let them attack. and we let them score. and i was just praying 1998 and 2004 won't happen again. in 1998 we were 2-0 up against mexico. 2-2 in the end. 2-0 up against czech in 2004. 2-3 in the end.
we just have this funny habit of going to sleep. we almost did today. lucky, undeserving, whatever people may say. but we are through. and for now. that's all that matters.
because when the game against argentina starts, the score line is 0-0, not 0-6.
you can't play liddat against stronger teams. you will be punished.
what was most disappointing was that it was not as if we couldnt play. for maybe the first half hour, we were clearly on top. the opening minutes of the second half also saw us create a few chances. overall statistics say that we have 8 shots on goal, while ivory coast 9. we have 51 percent possession to their 49 percent. but i suppose you know me well; statistics don't tell the full story. i cannot accept being on the backfoot for such long duration of time. can you imagine? close to 40 minutes of the second half was spent in our half. the last time i saw that, was in 1998, the third placing, when we camped in croatia's half for more than 70 minutes of the game. i am certainly not used to seeing this happen to us. you have to wake up. you can't play like this anymore.
van der sar: absolutely nothing to say about their goal. but other than that, error-free. quite steady. no doubt most of ivory coast's shots were straight at him, but at least he din fumble and was steady. but really, he din have much saves to make, for all of ivory coast's possession and shots on goal. 6.5
mathijsen: ok only. made a few key interceptions. but he got to watch his hands. 6
ooijer: didnt see much of him in the game. 6
van bronckhorst: in the opening period, was cruelly exposed in terms of pace by eboue. but managed to pick up his game and improved. once, he even outpaced the ivory coast player. for once, having been beaten for pace most of the time prior to that. think he turned out to be the best performing defender for us. 7
heitinga: dangerous coming forward. but his passing is disappointing and scary. too weak, misplaced. etc etc. but he is strong and steady in defence. too bad he had to be sub out at half time due to a calf strain. but then again, maybe it was a blessing in disguise. more on that later. 6.5
sneijder: for a staunch supporter of sneijder, i must admit i am damn disappointed with him. because i know he is capable of more. none of his passing was there. his touches were poor. and they didnt close down the space well enough. 5
cocu: of course more is expected from him, the inspirational figure. but to me, the entire midfield was a flop. 5
van bommel: i was calling for him to be taken off. because he was committing those cynical fouls. and i wasnt sure what he was doing. true he put himself in to stop the ivory coast attacks and that was brave, but most of the time, he wasnt doing much. i think his peak was over. he shouldnt be starting for us. 5
robben: can you please pass the goddamn ball? i don't know why you are the man of the match. but i know that there were at least 2 occasions when you SHOULD have passed the bloody ball to another teammate in space. and there were a few more occasions when you lost the ball because you held on to it for TOO long. no doubt you were dangerous. but i think you know it: it could have been more. still, i must congratulate you for this performance and the previous against serbia. you proved me wrong; you are a deserving starter. but please for the queen's sake, PASS THE BALL. 7
van persie: my choice of man of the match, if he has to come from holland(otherwise it should have been one of the ivory coast players.) always lively. he gave the leftback nothing but trouble. so much so that the only way to stop him was to bring him down. and during the second half, he came back to defend like hell. and wonderful technique too. 8
van niistelrooy: when he scored, bob and i both said ruud van niistelrooy together. good goal. see wad we were talking about? one chance. glad you are scoring again. its special because its your first ever world cup goal. just do more of it. quite a decent game. won a few balls in the air. but it is never enough, of course. 7
bhoularouz: came on for heitinga. i think he added even more mass to the defence. that's why i say it could have been a blessing in disguise, because i wasnt sure if heitinga could provide that mass we needed. ivory coast is very strong, u know.. decent game. 6.5
van der vaart: came on for sneijder. showed his brilliance with that scissors kick. but just before that he really threw himself to the ground to trap the ball, before executing that. it could have been a goal of the tournament if he managed to steer it better, rather than straight at the keeper. more dangerous than sneijder. but also more dangerous at the back when he tried to dribble out of the area around the box. same problem as robben. 6.5
landzaat: came on for ruud to shore things up. quite ok. but towards the end we got a few more chances and ended their siege. so it might have somehting to do with his presence in the midfield. but then again, serriously, he din do much. 6
tactics: attacking wise, we were ok. but the midfield should come up more. and robben of course should pass more. but it is generally still ok. but only till this game. next game onwards, it's even more serious stuff. but when we play on the wings and deliver crosses, people must go in to attack the ball. it didnt really happen. and i think we rely alot on the wingers cutting in. i like that style alot. but you have to have plan Bs. long shots and crosses. work on that.
defending is a headache. i think there are problems.
1) we get beaten too easily. somewhat like germany.
2) the midfield is not pressing enough. we give them alot of space outside the box. remember, this was how argentina punished serbia. when you watch the game, at any point of time, you just have to pause it and you can circle out all the spaces around argentina.
3) poor communication. it happened alot of times. ok, maybe a few. but its way too many. so i say alot. it results in ball watching and ivory coast just gets the ball and runs away again.
4) the back four. isnt really very convincing. i was wondering if one of the centrebacks were told to move up from the line to press the ivory coast attackers. i mean, i like that idea, but it seems to be wrong, because it means geo and heitinga must move in to the centre to cover the other centreback, but it leaves our wings very very open. which is really another problem. but the fact is that the 3 defenders didnt really cover well enough for the one going forward. and the midfield must do their job too. sandwich them in between. it didnt really happen. so i guess that was why we were so open.
5) the wings. i think this is due to the nature of a 4-3-3 formation. i think we still ahve to work out the shape when we defend.
and i was very glad when it was over. it had been very frustrating. especially since we just sort of self-destructed. full credit to ivory coast; they deserved more. but as i have learnt, life is never fair.
of the 3 teams, 1 must go home. surely you can't expect me to hope you get through at the expense of my holland???
but i think we controlled the game up till the 30th minute. then we let them attack. and we let them score. and i was just praying 1998 and 2004 won't happen again. in 1998 we were 2-0 up against mexico. 2-2 in the end. 2-0 up against czech in 2004. 2-3 in the end.
we just have this funny habit of going to sleep. we almost did today. lucky, undeserving, whatever people may say. but we are through. and for now. that's all that matters.
because when the game against argentina starts, the score line is 0-0, not 0-6.
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