Quote:
|
Originally Posted by demonrail666
You can't make excuses, you have to beat the teams you're tied against, but nobody's gonna tell me Greece are a better team than Holland. Losing to Denmark in a game I still think they deserved to win was what ultimately ended Holland's tournament. I'm still not saying they weren't a disappointment but it's far easir covering over cracks (as I believe say Spain are) when you're facing a team like the Rep of Ireland than you are having to deal with the likes of Germany or Portugal.
|
I could list several arguments for all three games and why Holland deserved to lose them all... but it's a bit pointless. I'll just list my biggest questions after this tournament.
1. Holland were flying through qualification, scored the most goals from all teams, thrashed Sweden, Hungary (and San Marino even 11-0) but from the moment they had qualified they lost their first game after that (Sweden away) and haven't played a single decent game since.
2. In all 3 games Holland started pretty well for 15 minutes, only to completely fall apart immediately after, conceding a goal between the 15 and 30th minute.
3. maybe related to nr 2, but all the Dutch players seemed to lack fitness. Both Morten Olsen and Joachim Loew commented on that after beating Holland. While there were a lot of players who had disappointing seasons or came back from injuries, it's still strange.
I can't wait for all the shit-slinging that's gonna come out in the next few days/weeks. It could be something of epic 1990/1996 proportions... and while those two tournaments were certainly a disaster, the results still weren't as bad as they are in 2012 (worst result ever). From the little that has come out so far it certainly seems to involve some big egos, dissatisfied substitutes, a lack of self-reflection and at least one player leaking to the press.
I wonder what Van Marwijk will do.. or what the Dutch FA will do for that matter. It has to be said that Van Marwijk has favoured some players ahead of others in terms of first picks and privileges. I could imagine some players being fed up with him (most obviously Huntelaar), while others have already pledged full support (Sneijder in particular).