Wednesday, June 18, 2008

A walk in the park

Unbelievable. Beautiful. Dominant. Those would be the 3 words I'd use to describe Orjange's ascension from Euro 2008 'favorites' (along with 5 or six other nations), to actual FAVORITES. I'd love to hear if anyone can ever remember a display like this from a Dutch team, and I'm not only talking about goals and wins, but the absolute beauty that they are injecting into this tournament. Seriously, what the hell is going on with these guys. What has happened? Why are they playing SO much better than they were in qualifying? Is the formation change from the good ol' 4-3-3 to this magical new 4-2-3-1 the main reason? I think that has to be the answer, they LOOK like a completely different team out there. I think v.Nistelrooy's recent comments sum it up pretty well: "There's more movement, it's less predictable for our opponents and we are less position-bound. We've got our duties, but have more liberty to make moves up front and that's more difficult to defend against." It sure does Ruud, nobody seems to be able to defend against the new and improved Oranje offensive onslaught. And the best part is that the entire team seems to be getting in on it. Everyone is playing well and seven different players have scored goals at this point.
But I am worried. I'm worried that we will be shocked by either Sweden or Russia in the knockout stages, or my worst fear, that we will end up losing to Italy in a semi-final rematch (damn you Mutu!). Its almost like things are going TOO good at this point...like its just a set up for a colossal failure.
Anywho, its was good to see Klaas get a goal yesterday, and all 3 Ajacied (well, recent Ajacied) played reasonably well. Steks only had to make one save, but looked solid back there, and Heits had some deer in the headlights moments but overall played well.
I'm hoping for Russia.

Anonymous said...

Hi, My name is Diego, I'm from Argentina, and a long time ajacied, and a holehearted suporter of the Oranje... even over my own country (that's weird, isn't it? but I can´t help it, I love that orange shirt).
I just saw the match against Russia... what to say, this time the clockwork orange were the russians instead of the dutchs, what a shame... I'm really sad with this, I had faith in this team, after what happened in the previous stage. So far, I think the best were Wesley and Edwin van der Sar... Van Pierce, what an awful match... Anyway, the story remains the same. So much potencial wasted again. Let's cross fingers and hope Marco will make Ajax a top ducth and european team again.

Regards from Argentina

SydAjax said...

Yeah Diego, I'm pretty crushed about this whole thing too. It really really really sucks. Its was so hard to watch after seeing them play so well during the group stages. I dont know what to say, its just like a bad dream that I can't wake up from.