Congratulations to ORANJE!!!!

The Nehterlands 3 Italy 0


Holland to Win!! Go Oranje!!!!!!


Oranje overklast Italië


Bern - Het Nederlands elftal heeft in de openingswedstrijd van het EK wereldkampioen Italië met 3-0 overklast. Oranje was in Bern oppermachtig. Bij rust stond het al 2-0.

Ruud van Nistelrooy opende de score door een voorzet van Wesley Sneijder binnen te schieten. De spits van Real Madrid leek vanuit buitenspelpositie te scoren, maar de achter de doellijn liggende Christian Panucci zorgde er voor dat dit niet het geval was.

Al vijf minuten later zorgde Sneijder op prachtige wijze voor de 2-0. Hij volleerde na een perfecte counter een kopbal van Dirk Kuyt achter doelman Gianluigi Buffon. Nederland bleef vervolgens de betere ploeg en Van Nistelrooy had de 3-0 op zijn voet. Buffon lag echter dwars.

Na rust kwamen de Italianen af en toe gevaarlijk door, maar de beste kansen waren voor de ploeg van Marco van Basten. Invaller Ibrahim Afellay schoot na een prachtige actie uit een moeilijke hoek bovenop de lat. Uiteindelijke was het uitblinker Giovanni van Bronckhorst die met een kopbal voor de 3-0 zorgde. De voorzet kwam wederom van Dirk Kuyt.


http://www.telesport.nl/voetbal/ek_2008/41...ie__.html?p=2,1

They played very well hup hup holland!

The World Champions cheesed off by the Orangees!


@Universeel: please provide an English translation of your post (as required by Expatica's rules). Many members cannot read Dutch very fluently yet.

"De spits van Real Madrid leek vanuit buitenspelpositie te scoren, maar de achter de doellijn liggende Christian Panucci zorgde er voor dat dit niet het geval was."

Actually, he was off-side. Rule 11.1 was recently modified so that only players who intentionally step out of the field of play can play attackers onside, and Panucci clearly was bundled over the line by Buffon.

Not to take anything away from Oranje, they were much the better team and deeply deserved their win.

I firmly disagree that Ruud van Nistelrooy was offside. Please re-read the rules carefully. Besides, it doesn't matter: both teams played well but the Dutch won because they used the tactic which has made the Italians great: the swift counterattack!

Congratulation Universeel for the win and really Holland deserve the win yesterday; they were dominating from the start of the match.
Second goal (I don't know the name of the guy) is one of the best I ever seen.

Match with Romania vs Italy will be even good to watch now!!!

Cheers,

I'm not particularly a big fan of Oranje, but they did indeed play a great game last night - the Italians looked gobsmacked!

"Please re-read the rules carefully."

I did.

Different refereeing associations are interpreting the rules differently. The rule was modified to prevent defenders stepping over the lines deliberatly to cause attackers to be off-side - clearly Panucci didn't do that. But this morning the Secretary of the Italian referees association has said that Van Niss was not off-side, other 'experts' are saying he was, it all comes down to interpretation.

It all goes to show that the rules around off-side are a mess, and need cleaning up.

I agree with you that the rules should be cleaned up. At present there is too much "latitude" for interpretation...

UEFA will always try to defend the referees to avoid having to include technology in decision taking. But I also find it a difficult case. I am a bit biased as a Dutchie, but i would say the whole action took only about 1-2 seconds and as the Italian player was put outside the lines by its own player it's hard for all players to readjust to the new offside situation if not impossible. If the goal was disallowed, players in the future might risk to abuse this rule.

Eventhough Holland played great match, knowing the Dutch, this doesn't mean anything. The way France equalised might prove deadly for the Dutch team.

But one thing is sure, this group of death will guarantee excitement and great matches to come!

Lack of interpretation or latitude is exactly the problem here.

Before they had Rule 11 whatever the referee was free to decide if a player was acting the mickey by leaving the pitch or had been generally injured.

It was a rule introduced to solve a problem that never existed. I never once in decades of playing and watching football saw a defender purposely leave the pitch to put a player offside.

And UEFA are supporting the referee, as they always would, and just as they would be if he had disallowed the goal. (And nobody would have complained)

The irony here Oddsock is that this new interpretation of Law 11 was applied incorrectly, in an Italian Serie A game in 2007. In a Roma-Fiorentina match Papparesta disallowed a Mancini goal when Pazzini was out of play behind the goal. Head of the Italian Refereesw committee, the legendary Pierluigi Collina, publicly rebuked Papparesta a couple of days later for not applying the new interpretation correctly.

The Netherlands 4 France 1

Go Oranje! Go!

Amazing win simply superb....Universeel congratulation again for the win.

Go out man what are you doing .

Cheers,

That was excellent football!

Holland are on fire, let's hope they can keep this up and win the tournament. They've already beaten both teams (convincingly) who played in the last World Cup final. Keep it up guys!

Another fine performance by Holland against another ageing group of has-beens lead by another clueless coach (is there a stupider coach in all of international football than Dommenech?) But as the old football cliche goes, you can only beat the team in front of you, and that's what Oranje have done comprehensively.

The Italian team against Holland was the oldest team ever to play a European Championship game, and it showed - the French coach actually uses astrology in picking his team - sweet jesus you couldn't make it up.

Wesley Sneijder is deeply unlikeable arrogant little prick, but he's my player of the tournament so far

**

My top three reasons Oranje won't win the tournament.

1. They are in 'the group of death' Teams that win groups of death never go on to win tournaments because they expend too much energy getting out of the group.

2. They have begun too strongly, it's better to start slowly and build up as the tournament progresses, teams that start in a blaze of glory generally fizzle out later. Every team has one bad game in any tournament, and it's beter to have that bad game in the league section than in the sudden-death section.

3. The defence just isn't good enough. More mobile forwards like David Villa, Fernando Torres or Cristiano Ronaldo will surely find them out.

Maybe Turkey will beat Holland in the final.

That would be ff'n hilarious.

It would! However, I don't see Oranje reaching the final and, to be honest, neither the valiant Turks!

Both games have been excellent and some great football has been played. I've thoroughly enjoyed watching it. I'm not really too bothered who wins or loses, so far it's been better than watching many footy games where they don't play too well/slowly/boring.

If the Dutch team can keep this up, I think they have a good chance. But, it's whether or not they can keep playing as well as they have been in the last 2 games?