A late Luuk de Jong header earned an impotent Netherlands side a 1-1 draw against the Republic of Ireland
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Kevin Strootman was back in the Netherlands line-up for the first time in two years as Netherlands looked to continue on from the win over England earlier this year and gain confidence for the World Cup qualifiers later this year.
Netherlands began the game with lots of possession, but looked clueless in the opponents half and as the first period wore on it was the hosts who began to take control. Harry Arter fired straight at Jasper Cillessen as Republic of Ireland gained confidence and after 30 minutes they took the lead. A corner was met by John O’Shea, but Jasper Cillessen kept out his header, only for Shane Long to bundle in on the rebound.
After the goal Netherlands showed small signs of life with Memphis Depay’s curling cross just evading Quincy Promes, while Riechedly Bazoer registered the visitors first shot at goal just before the break, but it was high and wide.
Early in the second half the Irish threatened a second goal but last ditch defending and a smart Jasper Cillessen save kept Netherlands in the tie.
As the game wore on Netherlands camped themselves in the Irish half, but still struggled to create any chances. Memphis, who was replaced on the hour mark by debutante Steven Berghuis, whipped another dangerous cross wide, while Bas Dost’s tame header fell wide.
With the game limping to an end Blind threw on Luuk de Jong and the PSV hitman headed in Jetro Willems perfect cross on 85 minutes to earn Netherlands a draw they barely deserved with their only shot on target in the whole game.
Its a meaningless match for the Oranje, but fans will once again be worried by the performance of the national team who looked short of ideas or confidence. Blind will once again be under more pressure and improved performances will need to come against Austria and Poland to avoid more calls for him to be sacked.
A disappointing performance despite the wonderful late goal by De Jong. Blind should have choose a natural right back as veltman does not look dangerous when forward. if oranje play with 4-3-3 , one of the strengths is the 2 attacking full back/wing back. Willems also was not a threat. luckily he woke up and assist de jong. Our midfield has not shown any much creativity despite strootman is back. Our wingers are poor. Janssen can’t be blame if no service was delivered. I still feel that there must be one or two senior players in the starting line up to lead motivational the whole team. U can see when stootman is sub and Bruma become the captain ! De Guzman , Elia, Van De Wiel, Janmaat, Fer should be invited. Debutant Berghuis was good. Van Ginkel has improved from the last time. De jong was the hero. Dost was fine. The next 2 friendly should be decisive for Blind future.
If I may add up a bit more, At the management level also there is confusion & strange. U have blind as the manager. U have Nisterooy & Van Basten as assistant. and u have also Dick Advocaat as the assistant. Van basten & Dick Advocaat was previously Managers of the national team. Don’t you think van basten & advocaat may want their respective tactics/preferences being used by blind ? and what are blind own style of management? ofcourse he respect van basten & advocaat much. For me and maybe some of the Oranje fans this setup is wrong and may contribute to the recent poor performance. If we lost, I would say very poor. Importantly, they as the management failed to maintain & develop Oranje traditional style of attacking possession play. Enough is said, Sack Blind and re-organise the rest and appoint Frank De Boer as he is out of job now.
WHAT A SHAME!In this team there nothing dutch,no play,no ideas,no chances created,no heart,nothing.This might be the worst dutch team,since 1970.they said they are preparing for the wc 2018,well gentleman from the dutch federation,i inform you it is in 2 years,so unless you are magicians, you are in really big trouble,there’s no light at the end of the tunel!
Sack Blind
Sack Blind!
Sack Blind
please sack blind, he destroyed holland national team, if holland continue whith him loses world cup too, frank rijkaard or koman are good fore this team.
we are disappointed
Sack Blind
i think danny is really blind,bert oostoven too,both of them must go
Sack Blind & oostoven
Yes sack Blind. But more importantly, sack the group of men who chose him. Where are they coming from?
The Netherlands surely won’t qualify for the WC on this current trajectory.
It was the most inept display I’ve seen from the national team.
Yes the problems for Dutch football are not Blind’s fault. But surely this is not the way forward. It’s clueless.
I see that the ‘plan’ going forward is to have a street football emphasis to younger age play. Yes this is good. The aim is to develop the combination of skill and instinct.
Yes we can see this is necessary. So why isn’t this same emphasis being brought to the first level players. Get them in camp (with big squads) and start training them to believe in their talents.
The current group play without instinct or expression.
Find someone who can turn this around. If it can’t be found amongst the Dutch coaches then look elsewhere. We need to change the mentality and it doesn’t look likes it going to come from within. The creativity, spirit and expression both individually and collectively that was uniquely Dutch has been frozen. Its seized up.
Blind’s sacking is irrelevant really. What and how are we going to do it is the only question that needs answering. Blind sacking will be a mere formality when answered.
Also, I wouldn’t want to see Koeman come in. I don’t want to see the great man just papering over the cracks of a broken down system. He is better than this. He should wait as long as it takes for things to be sorted out and then come in and make the big difference. The same goes for Cocu, De Boer, GVB,Overmars, Bergkamp, Van Basten etc.
There are two Dutch coaches though, who I think may be good at papering over the cracks for the time being, focusing on the players in front of them, getting the best out of them, getting them to play with some joie de vie – Gullit and/or Rijkaard.
I agree with your nominations of either Gullit or Rijkaard. Also perhaps we can consider also a bert van marwijk return as his record with the national team was allmost excellent, it may be excellent if we did won the WC. Everyone oranje fans and maybe general soccer fans will agree that we did play a better tournament than the spainiards. And that night , the final will be a different outcome if luck with us. HUP HUP ORANJEEEEEE