Bobby Anderson » holland

My Dutch Disappointment

Bobby — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 12:24:24 +0000

After having time to reflect on last night’s World Cup Final between Spain and the Netherlands I’ve come to the conclusion that even though I’m happy Spain won the tournament, I’m disappointed in the way Holland approached the game.

Holland got to the final playing expansive, decent football, letting their flair players such as Sneijder and Robben drive them forward, so why oh why when you get to the final of the World Cup would you change your tactics from setting up to play your best to set up to stop the other team playing their best?

I can fully understand their way of thinking, Spain have the best midfield in the world by a fair distance, Xavi, Iniesta, Alonso, Busquets and to an extent Fabregas Navas and Silva, its a solid unit and all of Spain’s play is controlled by the pairing of Xavi and Iniesta, they are no strangers to anyone in the world of football, sheer class, so what are the Dutch going to do? Batter them. Van Bommel and De Jong, two ‘good’ footballers in their own right, I say ‘good’ because they aren’t naturally gifted with skill, they are there to break up the play and put the boot in, but last night was a step too far.

For a country that prides itself on ‘Total Football’ it was a shame to see them resort to such shameful bully tactics, since the game Dirk Kuyt has criticised the referee for the number of bookings he handed out to the Dutch… eh Dirk, what game were you watching? The Dutch could’ve easily had as many red and they had yellow; I think Howard Webb did Holland a favour by doing his best to keep the teams at 11 players each for as long as he did as the Netherlands could have been down to 9 men before half time.

De Jong is an animal and that ‘tackle’ on Alonso was worse than Zidane’s headbutt on Materazzi 4 years ago.

So while the Dutch set up to frustrate the Spanish and hit them on the break, it killed any chance they had of Sneijder ever settling into the game and he has been their player of the tournament. It’s disappointing to see what should be the best 22 players on the planet having to either kick their way or be kicked through their way of the greatest football match they will ever take part in.

It was a poor way to end what has all in all been a decent tournament.

Spain vs The Netherlands

Bobby — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 13:38:53 +0000

The 2010 World Cup Finals will come to a conclusion today, with Spain and the Netherlands battling it out to win their first world cup ever.

It amazes me that neither of these two famous footballing nations have never managed to win the World Cup considering some of the great players and teams they have had over the years, tonight though one of these teams is going to change that.

We have Spain, a team who lost their opening game of the championships to Switzerland, but have gone from strength to strength as the tournament has progressed, a classic Italy look about them, very strong from the back, a tremendous midfield and strikers any team would love to have. Even though Spain are strong from the back, its strong going forward from the back, Ramos in particularly, defensively though they’ve looked shaky. The game will rest on how much time and space Xavi and Iniesta can get from the Dutch midfield and of course whether Fernando Torres’ shooting boots have been sent to him from Liverpool yet.

The Dutch have flattered to deceive thus far, without playing particularly well they have still managed to win every single game from the World Cup qualifiers until now, thats near enough 2 years of competitive international football without dropping a single point. They have the form of champions, scraping through games and doing just enough to get through. Sneijder will be the key to the Dutch success, if Alonso can’t keep tabs on him then the Spanish will be in trouble.

My prediction is for a 2-1 Spanish victory, but in all honesty I’m not bothered who wins as long as it is a good game, end to end with plenty of talking points, if its anywhere near as good as the playoff between Germany and Uruguay we’re going to be in for a good one.

Goodbye South Africa, its been fun.

Amsterdam & Brussels Trip

Bobby — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 16:37:22 +0000

So as you may or may not have known, about a month ago I was in Amsterdam then Brussels for a few days to take in the sights as well as the Amsterdam Dance Event (Heineken Music Hall) and I Love Techno (Flanders Expo, Gent).

What a trip it was, great banter all the way through from start to finish, Thursday night to the Sunday morning was nothing more than a blur… what started off as a few ‘quiet’ drinks in the hostel on the Thursday night turned into chaos as happy hour was introduced and, I quote, “what’s so happy about happy hour?” Basically €1.50 beers and equally cheap Jagermeister… aw naw. Lets face it, it was pretty much game over from then on, we went out to watch the Celtic vs Hamburg Europa League match, which as I recall at the time being utter gash, we left to get munchies and I ended up having the best noodles I think I’ve ever had while certain other people opted for “Chhhiiiippppssss” – tell you what, the Dutch and the Belgians LOVE their chips.

The Amsterdam Dance Event itself (a 5 day and night thing), tremendous, we only took in one performance at the Heineken Music Hall on the Friday night that started out with Groove Armada then Deadmau5. Groove Armada were beyond tremendous, they performed a lot of new material and threw in the odd classic like Superstylin – Deadmau5 should take a lesson from them on how to work a crowd, every single person inside that arena was dancing from start to finish… then Deadmau5 came on… and what started off like a good set with a couple of new tracks from his latest album before throwing in an odd classic such as The Reward Is More Cheese turned into an utter bore, I know the guy is a minimalist electro house producer but jesus christ, awful. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan and have been for a long time, I saw him in Edinburgh in 2008 and he did nothing but chuck out tune after tune after tune that night but at the ADE it just wasn’t happening for him… his Macbook even crashed!

Got a taxi back into Amsterdam city centre with some other random guy who was kicking about from the gig, he sat in the front seat and did nothing but paint the side of the car the whole way back… ‘lol’

Saturday was harsh, we had to be out of the hostel early doors before getting a train through to Brussels where we would be staying in a quality little basement flat for a few days before returning home. Probably just as well we left Deadmau5 earlier than planned otherwise I doubt I Love Techno would’ve happened for us; we were burst all day so just wired into Jupiler (probably the European version of Carling) with a few energy drinks for good measure and got back on the wagon. The event itself was outstanding, I’ve never seen anything like it in my life, 35,000 spread out across 6 rooms, all there to have a good time and not the slightest bit of trouble… apart from a couple having a bit of a domestic and literally knocking the shit out of each other, again… ‘lol’… highlight for me at ILT was definitely Vitalic… lowlight… having to sit in a train station for 2 hours to get the train back to Brussels from half 5 in the morning.

Definitely would like to go to that again next year, maybe without half ending myself in Amsterdam the two nights leading up to it though.

It was good having the extra few days in Brussels after ILT to chill out and take in the scenery, its a really really nice city, and anyone wanting to have a decent night out there could easily have one. One word. Delerium. Two words. Ginger Nicky. And six more words. Davie Howatson what were you thinking? “SSSAAAANNNNDDDDDYYYYYY”

I’m still trying to figure out what would’ve happened if there actually had been a reservation for Davis :/