Ajacieden in Oranje

[Orange14]

Yeah, I was surprised. Maybe he was slightly unfit, but I did notice him getting outpaced against Germany.

On the second goal he was moving over to pick up Holtby but one of the German players in the box set a perfect pick (just like in Basketball) and Martins Indi could not get over. I suspect had he not been blocked off Holtby would not have had a clear shot on goal.

[Tom_]

I'm not saying he was at fault for either of the goals. But from memory there were a few instances where the ball was played behind him and he was in a footrace with the attacker, which he lost. I think Zoet came out and got the ball once or twice and once or twice he managed to force the play wide.

Anyway I agree that the Netherlands U21s are a pretty talented team, but they were put under pressure by a not-very-good German side. Part of it was the DMF position because Strootman and van Ginkel (both good players IMO) aren't defensive enough. I guess Pot could use Clasie instead of van Ginkel. But Russia were doing nothing in the second match and the defense fell asleep and gave them a free goal—I think it was another de Vrij giveaway?—and they tried to give away a second moments after the first with some sloppy passing.

Italy looked decent on attack against England and Spain even better in their two matches, so in my view (usually wrong!) either could score goals against the Netherlands. Norway on the other hand look like they take a more physical approach and my guess is that the Dutch would probably be able to cope with them.

PS Yes, I know I'm tragic for watching this much of the U21s...! But it's been quite entertaining so far with matches played at a fair pace, mostly attacking tactics and loads of mistakes, etc.

[rjf1]

Yeah, I was surprised. Maybe he was slightly unfit, but I did notice him getting outpaced against Germany.

He (and Indi), were getting ripped apart on Russian counterattacks during the 1st half (couldn't stay up for the 2nd, so don't know if they did any better). Some last ditch defending and Russian ineptness at finishing saved us from conceding on a couple of occasions. Neither of the two impressed me.

[Manneken Pis]

PS Yes, I know I'm tragic for watching this much of the U21s...! But it's been quite entertaining so far with matches played at a fair pace, mostly attacking tactics and loads of mistakes, etc.

I don't know if you're sad (;0)), but watching the U21s is not a sign of it for me...

There's no major tournaments and it's the future of the Dutch national team, so for me I follow it ...

[SPL]

Have to agree this is the future Dutch players . In England they treat this competition as a joke and moan about no youth .

I bet at least 12 of this squad will be with Oranje at WC next year whereas I will be surprised if any of the England U21 squad will make it ,if England actually make it to Brazil ,and thats a big if.

More good news for the future of Oranje . The U19's beat Germany tonight 1-0 and won their qualifying group to go to the finals in July. They beat Norway 2-1 ,lost 1-0 to Cyprus and it looked a difficult task as they had to beat Germany and they did with a 92nd minute winner. So wins over Germany at U19 and U21 level these last few days, think that will go down well with all Oranje fans.

The only down side for Ajax was that Nick de Bondt a left winger was the only Ajax player in action , he came on as a sub v Norway and played all the Germany game.V d Hart our young goalie would likely have made the squad but is recovering from injury. Ajax's current u19's are not a vintage crop!

[aveslacker]

I wonder what to make of the fact that, despite being Eredivisie champs three years in a row and having, according to some, the best academy in the world, we don't have that many players in the youth national set ups.

[Tom_]

Aveslacker: Danes and Belgians!

[Orange14]

Aveslacker: Danes and Belgians!

Quite right and Feyenoord which has a lot of players in these squads doesn't bring in foreign youth for development. I'm not terribly concerned about this statistic.

[aveslacker]

Aveslacker: Danes and Belgians!

Quite right and Feyenoord which has a lot of players in these squads doesn't bring in foreign youth for development. I'm not terribly concerned about this statistic.

Can somebody who isn't as lazy as I am look up the number of foreigners in our youth squads? I can see that being the case at the highest youth level, but not below that.

And I agree, as long as we are growing our own talent and winning the eredivisie, it's not really a reason for concern.

[SPL]

Our youth squads were nearly all Dutch .

The A1 U19's had Andersen and Fischer played 3 times early in the season of which 2 of their games were Next gen series.Meleg the Serb played 2 times at this level.

The A2 ie U19's 2nd team had aSwiss born Serb Marinkovic play a few times after Christmas ,he is a defender and has been injured for over a year . Below that all the teams are all Dutch kids.

Our u19's this season are clearly not a great bunch but the B1 U17's have some talent .

Hope that helps ,must go and watch Dutch U21's beat Spain now.

[SPL]

A comfortable 3-0 win by a strong Spain team over the Dutch 2nd string. Hoesen was the only Ajax player ,he got a yellow did nothing for 89 mins and then when the ball came to him in the box he kicked it into the ground and it bounced off the bar instead of volleying into the net .

Jong Dutch will play Italy in Saturday's final.Spain play Norway in the other semi.

[SPL]

Jong Holland lost their semi 1-0 to Italy last night. I watched the last 20mins ,the defence was static when Italy scored .After the goal every time an Italian was touched he rolled over as if shot or badly injured. I have never been a fan of Italian football. Hopefully a very good Spanish team will beat them in the final.

NB Blind and V Rhijn played. V Rhijn and V D Hoorn ,whom we are interested in were the 2 defenders who just seemed to be static and let the Italians score.

[Orange14]

NB Blind and V Rhijn played. V Rhijn and V D Hoorn ,whom we are interested in were the 2 defenders who just seemed to be static and let the Italians score.

Not sure that Van Rhijn could be blamed at all on the goal he had his man blocked off. Van der Hoorn who had just come on about two minutes early for an injured de Vrij was not quick enough to keep his man from getting goal side. The Dutch team clearly had the better of the play throughout the match but as the old aphorism goes, if you cannot score goals you cannot win matches.

[Tom_]

Funny because Italy looked pretty good against England. They played quite an attacking, open style. But they were up to their usual tricks last night, I would call that a totally typical Italy vs. Netherlands knock-out match (and result).

[Cruijff]

Typical Italian. They start the tricks when they feel they cannot win the normal way. So against a pathetic team like England they are able to play attractive, against Holland U21 they have to switch strategy.

I expect Spain to crush Italy in the final but you never know... semi finals between Holland & Norway and Spain & Italy would have been more interesting for me as follower. Conclusion of this youth championship: PSV Eindhoven please buy Van der Hoorn!

[Orange14]

Conclusion of this youth championship: PSV Eindhoven please buy Van der Hoorn!

Are you sure that he would not be an improvement over those they had this past season on the back line????

[Cruijff]

I expect him to be better than Marcelo, Derijck or Hutchinson, but considering the fact that PSV will never be able to sell those guys Van der Hoorn will have to play with some of those idiots.

Which means that PSV Eindhoven will still have a terrible defense, one that is weaker than at FC Utrecht, for example. If you play in a weak defense and your name is not Jaap Stam, Maldini or Nesta, you will look like a fool sometimes.

[SPL]

The European U19 champs have started and Oranje have 3 from our club . first game yesterday was a 3-2 win over Lithuania and goalie V d Hart ,RB Tete played all 90 mins and CD Gravenberch played the last 5mins . The game was not on Eurosport here but they will show some of the games. Some of Holland's better U 19 are missing as they are playing for their first teams pre season.

[SPL]

The Dutch U 19's lost 4-1 to Portugal today and can now look forward to an early return home as their last group match is v Spain. V d Hart and Tete played with Gravenberch again came on as sub .I caught a bit of the game today but not very convincing .

Meleg scored Serbia's only goal today in a 1-0 win so he may be staying a bit longer.

[SPL]

Oranje u19's lost 3-2 to Spain and are out the competition. V d Hart,Gravenberch and Tete all started.

[SPL]

It seems all our Dutch talent are defenders.

In the full team's 1-1 draw with Portugal Blind played and V Rhijn came on in the 2nd half. However in the U21's 1-0 defeat by Czech Rep we had 6 players. 22 players all played a half and we had Ligeon,V dHoorn, Denswil, and loaned out Dijks plus defensive midfielders Sporkslede and de Kamps.

We do seem to be short of bringing through Dutch attacking talent at the moment as all the best Jong Ajax are defensive and at A1 youth level the best players are all defenders.

[Orange14]

U-21 Oranje trounced Scotland 4-0 in Nijmegen. Ligeon, Van der Hoorn, Denswil and Koppers all started on the back line. Van der Hoorn scored the third goal and Sporkslade came on as a sub in the second half. van der Hart was the sub keeper for the squad.

[Tom_]

I thought we sold Koppers to Twente—or was it just a loan?

[Orange14]

I thought we sold Koppers to Twente—or was it just a loan?

We did and I should have noted that he was a youth product of the Ajax system. starting keeper was Warner Hahn who also came up through the youth system.

[SPL]

Bit late on my comments but Jong Oranje won their 2nd euro qualifier 1-0 v Luxemburg and de Sa was sub so a very good number of our players used at this level.

Plenty of our youth players played for U17,U18 and U19 in friendlies the last couple of weeks. Will be nice to see some of our players in the full Oranje side come WC next summer.