A shocking error from right back Daryl Janmaat handed the Czech Republic a 2-1 win against Netherlands in the opening game of the Euro 2016 qualifiers for the Dutch.
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After the disappointing defeat to Italy on Thursday, Guus Hiddink decided to change back to the 5-3-2 formation that was successful for Louis van Gaal at the World Cup. However Netherlands were disappointing early on, and failed to trouble the Czech’s with Robin van Persie isolated up front, and Memphis Depay unable to get on the ball.
Czech Republic defended resolutely and deservedly took the lead on 22 minutes when Boreck Dockel smashed first time off the post, and past a stranded Jasper Cillessen, from the edge of the box.
Guus Hiddink clearly fed up of his teams performance in the opening 30 minutes decided to change back to a 4-3-3 and brought on Luciano Narsingh for defender Joel Veltman. The change improved Netherlands, and Depay stung the palms of Petr Cech from distance, while Narsingh got in behind the defence but couldn’t bundle the ball into the net.
The second half saw Netherlands continue to press for the equaliser, and on 55 minutes Stefan de Vrij headed Daley Blind’s excellent cross past Cech to level the scores.
Netherlands failed to capitalise on the equaliser with Depay’s header, which was saved by Cech, was the only real chance created in the latter stages.
Then in injury time a poor looking ball into the box from Czech Republic looked likely to be cleared by Janmaat, but the right back stupidly tried to head back to Jasper Cillessen, and the misjudged touch came back off the post and allowed Vaclav Pilar a tap in, to hand the hosts victory.
Its now two losses out of two for Guus Hiddink, and Netherlands get off to a poor start on their journey to the Euro 2016 championships in France.
Netherlands now have to wait until October to get their campaign back on track with a home game against Kazakhstan and a trip to Iceland.
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Well exactly as I predicted. The back line is still a disaster and Sneijder looks like he never played before. No midfield play. Wijnaldum did he even touch the ball oh yeah a give away at the 18 yard box. He is worse than De Guzman. Only De Jong showed anything in midfield. Blind was the only consistent player. Team looks like the the 2012 version. So Sneijder says its more relaxing, looks like they took that attitude right onto the pitch. Let’s see how relaxing it is now. As a huge fan I cheer them always but as a critic of the sport I must tell it like it is and this squad lacks heart, speed, commitment with ZERO focus. Two games and both poorly played with no effort. Janmaat can’t make those errors at this level. Its just one game but NOT impressed.
I finally realized what was the problem with the Ornaje team in those last two games. People constantly say that without Robben the team is horrible and talentless, but that’s not true. You can’t call players like Blind, De Vrij and Wijnaldum “Talentless”. But they are all still two young, and they need someone on their team to help them show the talents they have. In other words: A LEADER.
After his amazing World Cup, it’s really easy to forget that Robben only scored 3 goals (+ 1 assist) in the entire tournament, all of them in the group stage, two of them in the same match He is not a Van-Basten like scorer, and he never was. So what But even when he didn’t score, his actions made a charismatic influence on the entire team, he was the one who motivated the other players, inspired them, and in his own way he was like an assistant manager who also plays on the pitch.
So in other words, if Robben would have played, it wouldn’t have suddenly make goals appear out thin air and it wouldn’t magiclly make the defense better. But the team would have had someone to look up to, and follow his lead, someone who can make THEIR talents bloom. It’s not about Robben or about talent, it’s about leadership.
If Strootman, another natural born leader, would have played, I’m pretty sure the Dutch would have won even without Robben.
I agree with u there….we lost a leader in those games, however i would add that if we had vlaar and maybe he can be the leader.
Whats the deal with cilesseen I mean hiddink knows that cileseen went from the second tier in the eredervisie to being holland number on edue to a string of poor performances from vermeer.I hope krul regains his spot.