Arsenal is lucky with their group man, PSV has been playing shyte lately since they sold all their best players!

Ajax is in a pretty difficult poule but I'm pretty sure they'll do well, they've got a good played in team and they keep growing, which is weird since they sell all their good players every year and they keep coming up with decent teams, I'm pretty sure its because Ajax has a really, really good yought program.

oh, Marco Van Basten used to coach Ajax II, and they won everything there was to win for juniors, now he's coaching the national team, I dunno how well he will do but I'm sure the players have a lot more respect for Marco 'Goalo' then for Dick Advocaat

Marco Goalo! Hahahaha! Maybe he can 'discover' some good times for the Dutch and 'take them to places they've never been to before' in terms of the World Cup! Sorry, couldn't resist...

I hope Ajax do well as I've always had a soft spot for them. The team that won the European Cup in the 90's was awesome and was built on young Dutch players. That's the way football clubs should be - local players for the local club.

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yup, and what about the game against porto back in the day

no really big players in there, well not well known at that moment, most of them got their name well known after that.

just think about all the players Ajax has delivered to soccer, its insane. our competition doesnt have the kind of budget that england, italy or spain has, so its difficult for teams to hold on to their players..

Yeah, I think the rest of Europe circles Ajax's youth academy like vultures and waits for the next crop of young players to roll off the production line! It must be something you Dutch folk put in the water that enables you to produce great young players almost at will.

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^^ lol lol

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and yet they hav a tough time for fighting a spot for the world cup

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dont know y though..they ve got great players like davids,stam,van nistilrooy,overmars to name a few

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Well Fenerbahce are turkish!
The team I hate more though is
Olympiakos(the biggest team here in Greece,winning
every match and when the players can't,the referee can!)
If a turkish team played with Olympiakos I would have
a very difficult dillema as to which to support.

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Hahahaha, someone needs to pay their electricity bills in Valencia! The Scotland v Spain match was abandoned tonight due to floodlight failure while the game was 1-1.

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The same thing happened here to Aris(one of the big
teams) last year!Their chairman's reaction
was : (in an angry tone) What do
you want from us,we are just people!
We forgot to pay the bills.So what?!?!?!

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our revenge on the Czechs.... after beeing screwed at the EC

Holland - Czech Republic - 2 - 0

and ofcourse a nice 3 qualifying points for us! next up is moldavia.

both teams had a lot of injuries tonight, we didn't have Bouma, Van Nistelrooy, Zenden, Robben, Boukari, etc... the Czechs didn't have some of the midfielders, but they had Koller, Barros, Rosicky and that Jan Ku-something, anyways, their best players where there IMO, only Smicer was really missing.

We had the young team, like Marco Van Basten promised after winning the other game 3-0 this week, he promised to let the young guys have a shot at the czechs, good stuff, Dirk Kuyt, Boularouz and Romeo Castelen all served the team really well. van Hooijdonk scored all the goals, but he was the only striker with experience if you ask me... Davids played another killer of a game, Van der Vaart and Sneyder wheren't bad, Heitinga was awfull, but Ooijer did well (another young PSV'er)

good stuff, its nice to see the national team play attractive soccer again, it wouldn't matter if they played even or lost, I'm just happy to see they're playing their own game again and not taking too much interest in the opponent!

did you guys lose?

Germany : Brazil 1:1 !!!

germany played well ! I was happy to see the german playing like this ...
I think germany is on a good way !

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wtf, did brazil played with a B team or what?

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maybe, but brasil hasn't been playing that great lately, they're not on top of their game like they used to be.

good shit by germany though, I didn't see the game, but I hope they didn't play the same defending style like at the EC, that was just boring as fuck!

If only you could see him play for Liverpool... he's diabolical.

I haven't seen any of the goals but I read the scores in the paper. I was quite surprised at the Holland result, but I guess Van Basten has instilled a new leash of life into the team. From what you said, Def, the future really is Orange!

I was also surprised at the Germany result. I though they'd win! Hamann didn't play though and I think he is one of Germany's best midfielders. He's brilliant for Liverpool, although he doesn't score much.

Oh well, I'm just happy England won against Poland. Defoe took his goal very well indeed - we'll be seeing a lot more of this guy, I'm sure of that. I was so fucking glad that David James was dropped (like one of his attempts at catching a cross!). Now all we need to do is take him out back and put him out of his misery with a 12 guage.

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ah, germany brasil was a FRIENDLY match... now I get the score

Roemania or something is doing really well qualifying, Greece is doing shit, they lost one game and the other was tied with turkey. way to go european champs lol.

I don't know how well our national team will do in the future, it really depends if the young guys will be left in, Van Basten doesnt give a fuck about everybody else's opinion which is good! he left out Kluivert out of the selection, same goes for some other rather well known players, I think Kluivert will eventually end up getting in the final 22, but I'm not sure... he's still the top scorer for holland... Van Hooijdonk did well scoring two goals, but Van Nistelrooy would have made more.. Robben was injured which was a shame, we need a good winger!

Defoe, don't even know the guy, for what team is he keeping? LOL, James didn't make himself populair did he? I though he didn't do that bad at all in EC, but hey.. Van Der Sar had some excellent saves yesterday, I don't see anyone replacing him... but he's quitting after this WC and the guy taking over from him is Stekelenburg, but Terol is great too, they're the top keepers in our national competition right now. I don't think thats gonna be a problem, but we do need good steady defenders, the only ones able to do that now are Heitinga (who started in the EC), Ooijer (PSV) and thats pretty much it, we had one suprise and that was Boulahrouz, or something, he's from our competition too, he played great against the Czechs and against Liechtenstein. good shit, I like watching a team grow.

Defoe is a striker (he scored our first goal) and he plays for Tottenham Hotspur. He's very similar to Owen: small and quick. He's quicker than Owen (Owen isn't as quick as he used to be though) although not as quick as Owen when Owen was 17-18. Owen's the better finisher but Defoe has got more skill and better control. I think they can work very well together up front.

Paul Robinson (also of Spurs) replaced James in goal. He's young for a goalkeeper - still only 23 - so he has plenty of time to develop into a world class 'keeper. However, I prefer Chris Kirkland (only 22-23 himself). He's Liverpool's current no. 2 goalkeeper (behind Dudek) but I think this is mainly down to the fact that he's injured all the time. As soon as he gets over his injury problems he'll be England's goalkeeper before long.

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Dudek is pretty shit, lol.

I remember Defoe now, but its just the way of pronouncing it! eh, you won't get it, but if you hear me say Defoe you'll understand (I thought I reckognized his name but keeper?) ah well.

Owen has been pushed too much IMO, like they did with Rooney now, I hope they let him develop his skills, England has an steady team, I hope we'll play against each other in the world cup, like the finals or something! I don't even care too much about who wins, because I know that would be a super-entertaining match that'll have a sharp edge at every second!

and ofcourse whoever wins, its a party here, which wouldn't be the case if germany wins something I have a lot of English friends at my work, I'de prolly party hard with them, they partied with the dutchies too this EC, great folks. (and no the hooligan kind of soccer fans)

Yeah, man. We've been hoping for this for a while haven't we? It's always a great game. I think the last time we played (apart from friendlies) was in 1996 so 2006 has a nice symmetry to it. I can see it now...

*adopts the voice of that deep-voiced guy who does all the trailers for films*

"Holland have waited 10 years for revenge... and now they have the chance. But who will emerge as champions? Out in cinemas July 2006, rated PG13"

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