Match report: Netherlands 4-0 Romania

After winning all 5 of their previous group games in 2014 World Cup qualifiers, Netherlands were determined to continue the streak against Romania who were 2nd (level on points with Hungary) in the group. Louis van Gaal made just one change to the side which won 3-0 against Estonia 4 days ago. Rafael van der Vaart replaced injured Sneijder with Kevin Strootman getting the captain's band. That's the fifth game in a row the 23 yr old Strootman was named captain [discounting the previous match when Sneijder came back into the side after a brief hiatus] and Van Gaal seems to rate him extremely highly.

Netherlands started the match brightly with rigorous passing from the back to the front. What they lacked though, was a killer ball that opens up the opposition defence. To the Romanians' credit, they must have watched the Oranje's game against Estonia and defended deep and compact. Kevin Strootman operating as a box to box midfielder brought the first save of the match when his powerful left footed shot was parried away by Pantilimon. Within a few mins, Netherlands got a clear cut chance to score when Jeremain Lens, operating from the right hand side delivered a sumptuous cross into the box and all it needed was a decent finish. Robin van Persie inexplicably managed to volley it high and wide from just a few yards away. Lens was at it again, taking advantage of Romania left back's poor first touch by robbing him of the ball and providing a low cross to Van Persie at the edge of the box. Van Persie was ahead of the pass but adjusted his body perfectly to produce a deft touch and leave it in the path of an onrushing Van der Vaart whose right footed shot beat the goal keeper. 11 mins gone and Oranje were 1-0 up. This was Van der Vaart's 23rd strike for the national team and he is having a bit of renaissance since the dreadful Euro 2012 ended. This goal marked his 5th goal in last 7 games for the NT including 4 in a row in WC qualifying matches. Only other Oranje player to score in 4 consecutive WC qualifiers was Patrick Kluivert, who was in the dugout accompanying the coach Van Gaal and Danny Blind.

Lens and Janmaat combined well several times on the right side with Lens releasing the ball perfectly during the fullback's forward forays while also rushing behind to cover the position when the ball was recovered by the Romanians. Van Gaal seems to prefer wingers playing on their natural side for the Dutch national team as this would stretch the opposition. Arjen Robben was brilliant on the left side against Estonia and he continued his good run against Romania. Unlike Lens - who stays wide and gives crosses into the box occasionally - Robben sticks wide only till he reaches the 18 yard box. From there, he either passes the ball infield to RvP/VdV or releases the ball for Blind's forward's run. I believe this strategy provides two plans - a) if the opposition decides to defend with 10 men, then it allows Blind to go wide stretching the play and provide a cross into the box b) if the opposition full back tracks Blind's run, then it opens up space inside the box and Robben can receive the return pass from Blind with a higher chance of scoring.

Romania had a couple of chances to score on the counter but there was always protection for the center backs De Vrij and Martins-Indi in the form of De Guzman. Strootman covers the ground pretty quickly too. De Vrij belongs to the highly acclaimed group of ball playing center backs and he reminds me so much of Jan Vertonghen (Spurs/Belgium). De Vrij, effortlessly plucks the ball away from the opposition strikers before foraying forward in the space left behind by the opposition striker's run. Martins-Indi provides the physical presence and can always be counted upon to win headers inside the box. Oranje went into half time break one goal up and were the dominant side for most of the first half. In contrast, Romania had only one chance when Popa's shot went across the goal and narrowly missed the target.

Oranje continued their dominance in the second and after 11 mins, some neat interchange of passes on the left side of the pitch allowed Robben to run parallel to the goal line and provide a cross to RvP whose brilliant header beat Pantilimon. Looking at the goal again, Van Persie had no business scoring such a goal [:p] as the angle was really tight. Kluivert, Van Gaal and Blind all celebrated near the side line. After a 7 game goal drought for Manchester United, Van Persie has scored 2 goals in 2 games for Oranje and also equaled Cruyff's tally of 33 goals for the national team. Janmaat continued to provide brilliant support for Lens on the right and one of the forward runs by Lens resulted in a penalty when he was fouled inside the box. Robin van Persie stepped up and coolly slotted the ball on the wrong side of Pantilimon for his 2nd goal of the game. Goal number 34 for Oranje, overtaking Cruyff's tally. After 73 mins, the awaited substitution finally arrived. Van der Vaart made way for Adam Maher.

Maher started the game in a slightly inhibited fashion and he wasn't really himself initially. This might be because of nervousness trying to impress the coach. His passes towards the wings had a little more loop on them which allowed the fullbacks to intercept the passes easily. Maher started in the 1-1 draw with Italy in a recent friendly and if not for Buffon, he could have had a brace before half time. A really exciting player to watch. A few mins later Clasie came on for De Guzman and we had the chance to look at the future midfield (hopefully) of Maher-Clasie-Strootman. Even Van Persie got subbed eventually with Ajax's captain Siem de Jong taking his place. This meant that Oranje had 10 Eredivisie players on the pitch with only Arjen Robben the odd man out. This proved yet again Van Gaal's faith in the country's league and the young players. There was still time for Maher to shoot powerfully with his left foot which could only be parried into the path of Lens by Pantilimon and Lens made no mistake to make the score 4-0.

This match brings up 14th consecutive victory for Oranje in World Cup qualifiers and with Germany (1969-85) holding the all-time record of 16 wins. Van der Vaart has taken part in 64 wins for Oranje with the table being led by another Dutch legend - Edwin van der Sar with 75 wins in 130 apps. Louis van Gaal called it the best performance under his 2nd tenure at Oranje while RvP was gushing about the #10 role: "I play for Oranje a bit like how I do at my club, there's always a No10 near, at MUFC it's Rooney, today Vd Vaart. This suits my game".

Highlight of the day: De Vrij's brilliant cross field pass to Robben. The pass was so good that Robben was applauding it before the ball even reached him! Start watching the video from 1:00 onwards.

Match report: Netherlands 3-0 Estonia

Having been the only side along with Russia to have a perfect record (4 wins out of 4) in 2014 World Cup qualifying from Europe, Netherlands resumed their campaign with a home game against Estonia.

Jeremain Lens was impressive in his Oranje career but was initially left out due to his recent disciplinary troubles. After Huntelaar got injured in the recent Schalke game, Lens was recalled into the squad and made a starter. Arjen Robben started on the left wing while Robin van Persie played as center forward. Louis van Gaal made it clear that he will not be selecting players who are not regulars at their respective clubs. Never the one to avoid tough decisions, he dropped the captain Sneijder during his initial days when Inter Milan regularly benched him. Sneijder moved to Galatasaray in the recent transfer window and made his way back to the Oranje starting spot again. Impressive Swansea midfielder Jonathan de Guzman partnered Kevin Strootman in a 4-2-3-1 midfield.

Daley Blind has been getting plaudits for his performances at Ajax and was given a start in the familiar ground of Amsterdam ArenA. Bruno Martins-Indi partnered his Feyenoord teammate Stefan de Vrij in the center. I don't normally rate Daryl Janmaat highly at right back but his recent performances for Oranje and Feyenoord have been brilliant whenever I had a chance to watch. And if my memory serves me correctly, he was my man of the match in a recent Oranje game (1-1 draw with Italy?). Ajax's Kenneth Vermeer started in goal.

Oranje started the game strongly by keeping possession comfortably but Estonia were resolute in defence. Instead of trying to take the ball off Oranje, Estonia players waited patiently deep into their half and tried to base their attacking game solely on counters. Oranje kept searching for the opening goal, but it was difficult to come by. Robben was the best player of the half where he mostly stayed on his natural left wing and combined very well with an overlapping Blind several times. One of those moments led to a fine cross into the box by Blind which was knocked down by Van Persie to Sneijder 6 yards from the goal but Sneijder's shot missed the net. Within a few mins, Robben was at it again, dribbling around 3-4 players on Estonia's right side before advancing into the box without losing possession and his left footed shot narrowly missed the goal.

Around this time, Oranje passed 1000 mins of not conceding a goal at home in World Cup qualifiers. Last time it happened was 9 years ago in a 3-1 win over Finland in 2004 WC qualifiers. The return for Sneijder wasn't as successful as everyone has hoped with the captain forced to leave the field after 35 mins with a groin injury (it is now confirmed that he'd miss the next qualifier on 26th Mar). Van der Vaart came on for Sneijder but it was Strootman who got the captain's arm band. Estonia had a brilliant chance on counter attack before the half time but missed. Both teams went into the half time break with the match goalless.

It was evident that Oranje were struggling to create too many clear cut chances against a resolute Estonia side. Inclusion of De Guzman and Strootman along with a #10 like Sneijder (and later Van der Vaart) meant there was too much space between attack and defence. De Guzman was happy to stay deep while Strootman didn't know whether to commit himself completely in attack as a counter from Estonia would leave the team vulnerable. Considering Estonia's game play of sitting deep, the game was crying out for a creative midfielder like Adam Maher, who was not selected. With all the scoring chances coming from the left, it was a surprise when the goal came from the right. 2 mins into the 2nd half, Janmaat's pass found Van der Vaart at the edge of the box and his near scuffed shot found the left side of the net. Deadlock finally broken.

Robin van Persie is going through a relatively poor form in front of the goal for Man Utd but what never left him was his exquisite first touch. He displayed good technique once again in this match, he held the ball up for others and his vision allowed Netherlands to be more creative compared to having Huntelaar in the team. With De Guzman and Strootman in the side, the inclusion of Van Persie was necessary. Anyway, Janmaat got his 2nd assist of the game when his cross was volleyed into the goal by RvP. Shortly after the 2nd goal, Lens made way to Schaken who responded by scoring his 2nd Oranje goal in 3 matches with Van Persie getting the assist. There was still time for Clasie to come on for De Guzman with Netherlands comfortably winning the game 3-0 making it 5 wins out of 5.

Sneijder will miss out next home game vs Romania on 26th March but the good news is Maher was called up as replacement. After watching Van Gaal's Oranje a fair few times, the difference between his team and Van Marwijk's is clearly evident. Van Gaal's team is more creative, more assured in their passing and more youthful. In the match vs Estonia, only starters who can be considered seniors were Robben, Sneijder and Van Persie. Not for the first time in his managerial career, Van Gaal has put faith in young players and they are responding well to his methods. A notorious disciplinarian, Van Gaal has drilled it into the Oranje players. It also helped that the 2 World Cup qualifiers this time are both in Amsterdam ArenA which means the young players can expect to get a lot of support from the stands.

The rise of Janmaat and Blind is heartwarming to see as they faced severe criticism from their own section of fans earlier in their career. There is no more a place for players like Nigel de Jong and Mark van Bommel and it would help if De Guzman produces a wider range of passing like his Swansea performances. He is still fairly new to the Oranje team and I guess he would open up once he feels more comfortably on the pitch playing for national team. Hoping to see Strootman tried as lone DM with Maher starting ahead of him in the next qualifier against Romania. 

Corporate jargon is too fucking polite

After working more than 3 years as an IT developer, I noticed that the corporate jargon is filled with way too much politeness. For example,

Please Michael, can you please review the following issue and resolve it as soon as possible please?

Of course I am slightly exaggerating but, most of the day-to-day emails are filled with such bullshit. Who are you trying to impress anyway? Some guy sitting a few thousand miles away on other side of the world? Give me a break.

Guys don't do Pleases. Guys don't do Thank Yous. If I help someone and he responds with Thanks dude! my first response would be Fuck you, man!

You're welcome is almost banned from our dictionary. So, spare me the politeness and look into my fucking issue and fucking resolve it soon.

Book Review: Soccernomics

Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski decide to become number crunching bots for a couple of years and painstakingly analyse a lot of phenomenon on why they happen and how real world data disagrees with the noted football clichés.

Using the data available, they try to find out why England lose regularly in big tournaments [if they qualify, that is] and whether England actually over perform considering their resources [I hear your chuckles]. Along with that, we also find answers for

- which team will dominate the scene in near future

- why so many football clubs exist in the north west of England

- why glory seems to escape the London clubs compared to Lancashire/Merseyside ones

- is it really worth hosting a big tournament [World Cup or Euro]?

- the most underachievers [I'll save you the trouble and answer it now - India] and most overachievers in football

- how Chelsea’s perfect penalty plan got ruined by rain and a bald head with due credit to a smart Dutchman

- how many fans are really like Hornby (author of Fever Pitch – another must read) and not Basking-In-Reflected-Glory types

- why Manchester United is the greatest club ever [the book doesn't mention it, but it's obvious :p]

- does discrimination still exist in football?

- does a team's loss in Biggest Cup lead to mass suicides or does football really help in saving people's lives?

- and more

If you're a football fan and have a thing for numbers [I mean, you don't have to think of statistics on a cold winter night, but a bit of interest in a wow what a game that was, wonder who made most passes? sort of way would be fine], do read this book for some interesting and eye opening facts.

Chelsea: Sackings vs Stability

A look at the managerial merry-go-round at Stamford Bridge and Roman Abramovich's fascination to pull the trigger. Before I present the analysis of each manager's tenure at Chelsea, let's look at their achievements in last decade since Roman took over.

Premier League (3): 04-05, 05-06, 09-10

Champions League (1): 11-12

FA Cup (4): 06-07, 08-09, 09-10, 11-12

League Cup (2): 04-05, 06-07

10 trophies in 10 seasons, not bad really. That's probably only next to Man Utd in England. Let's look at each manager's performance then.

1. Claudio Ranieri - 

As shown by his prior and post jobs with respect to Chelsea, Ranieri is a steady-the-ship sort of guy but is not made to win things. He developed the spine of the Chelsea squad [Cech, Makelele, Lampard, Joe Cole, Robben, Duff, Gallas, Wayne Bridge and Crespo who I believe were among the regular starters for the side that won league title after 50yrs. Oh he also brought decent squad players like Parker, Cudicini, Huth, Glen Johnson along with giving debut to John Terry though I’m not sure how much credit he can take from Terry’s inclusion]. He is also the first Chelsea manager to reach European Cup semis. But when a new owner comes, it is inevitable to expect a new manager signing based on the preferences of owners. He had to go.

2. Maureen – 

Always feared this guy coz he was extremely good. He can talk the talk and can actually walk the walk [instead of you-know-who]. During his initial days, I felt he could be Chelsea’s Fergie – both managed domestic and continental success with clubs in native countries [Porto were a bit big in Portugal unlike Aberdeen in Scotland, mind] and moved to clubs in England who were dogged with years of underachievement [Utd hadn’t won a league in couple of decades, Chelsea hadn't won league in 50 years], both were hated by rivals. But unlike Fergie, this dude from Portugal had instant success [still believe it was tougher atmosphere for Fergie to come in than what Maureen found in Chelsea’s dressing room]. Not comparing the greatness of two managers, but just a few similarities. 

Maureen won a league with record points and fewest goals conceded. Won a couple of FA Cups and League Cups. Though he couldn't beat Ranieri's success in CL [losing in semis at best], there were signs of Maureen carrying on for 10 years and leaving a legacy. Now, he may not come across as a manager who stays long term, but that time, it was fairly early in his career. He seemed like he genuinely loved the club and the players were openly telling us about the bromance. At the least, I thought he could become Chelsea’s Wenga and stay for a decade [Arsene completed 10 years around the same time]. But the problem for Maureen is that his ego is too big to let someone tell him what to do. If he had Sheikhs instead of Roman, he would have stayed a few more years happily pocketing whatever trophies he can win. But Roman is the biggest meddler in the history of meddling in football. As a Utd fan, it was sweet to win 06-07 title over Maureen's side but Shevchenko's transfer and a few other incidents broke the relationship between Roman and Maureen. Alas, what could have been eh?

3. Avram Grant – 

Throughout his managerial period with Chelsea, I saw no change with respect to how they played. They seemed to be in auto-Jose mode and kept playing the same way they've known. It was like Stefan Kovacs winning two European Cups with Ajax after Rinus Michels left. I remember him getting dog’s abuse by crowd and media [which game was that where Chelsea home crowd booed a result during the run-in? Probably a 0-0 draw with Everton?]. His interview at that time was recently published by Guardian in their Top 5 Rants by Managers [unsurprisingly, Joe Kinnear at Newcastle came first]. If Terry hadn't kicked the post, maybe Grant could have kept his job – I dunno and I cannot predict what Roman would have done. But Chelsea were trophy less [lost 2-1 in League Cup final to Spurs, lost to Barnsley in FA Cup quarters, lost PL title on last day by 2 pts, lost CL on penalties]. Correct decision to sack him and he later became a Millwall legend [if you know what I mean].

4. Felipe Scolari – 

Now, I heard that Roman wants pretty tippy tappy free flowing football that the continental teams regularly play and if that was the necessity, you need to look no further than Scolari. He’s a big name manager too, winning World Cup with Brazil and finishing runners up with Portugal in Euros. His initial side was scoring for fun and beating a lot of teams but then suddenly something went wrong. I don’t remember now, but their results slipped up while they still hovered around the top of the table. Utd weren't helped with Ronaldo's injury and the lack of goal scoring [08-09 title was largely built on a tight defense which broke records for consecutive clean sheets]. Utd also had a fixture pile up coz of their participation in World Club Cup and were lagging quite a bit in the table. Then Chelsea came to visit Utd at Old Trafford and got pasted 3-0. Which I think was what tipped in favor of Scolari’s sacking. I felt he should have been given one more season as it’s difficult to win everything on first try – that was the only season, Chelsea didn't finish in top two till they repeated the same last season. [whether Hiddink was responsible for getting Chelsea into 3^rd at the finish is another argument: Arsenal were known to implode on their own (remember 07-08 when they led league for a long time?) and the other sides weren't strong enough to challenge the Big Four hold yet]. Hasty decision, imo.

5. Guus Hiddink – 

Had to slot in as interim manager after Scolari's sacking. The players respected him, he got the best out of what he could, won the FA Cup in the end and left due to commitments with national team. If he weren't coaching Anzhi, he’d be waiting in Chelsea’s dressing room by tomorrow noon.

6. Carlo Ancelotti – 

Once Hiddink left, Chelsea were still licking their wounds for their unjust loss in CL semis the previous year. If winning CL is an important criteria, Ancelotti is the best bet. He sacrificed Serie A [won only 1 in 7 seasons with Milan] to win 2 CL titles narrowly missing the 3^rd [Istanbul, 2005]. Ronaldo left Utd, Benitez started demolishing his own work at Liverpool [a fall from 2^nd place in league to 7^th at the end of 09-10 I think?]. I credit Ancelotti to be the only manager who was capable to get a season’s best out of Malouda – that deserves a separate praise of its own. His side broke the record for most number of PL goals scored while also breaking the 100-goal barrier in EPL for the first time. FA Cup win was an icing on the cake which brought first ever double in Chelsea’s history. 

The way he got sacked left a bad taste in the mouth. He’s not a kiddie, he’s a legendary player and manager, won first ever double for Chelsea but that season saw him lost in CL knockouts to Maureen’s Inter [who went on to win the title]. Okay not bad, check second season. Lost to Utd in quarters – which I think brought his demise. Ancelotti was accused of being tactically naive in both the losses to Inter and Utd but Maureen is no mug when it comes to tactics. Fergie [despite being rubbished by rival fans as a err, rubbish tactician] outsmarted Ancelotti with Giggs-Carrick midfield just like how he outsmarted Scolari in that 3-0 win with Giggs-Fletcher midfield. Ancelotti wouldn't have won 2 CL titles [if Shevchenko remembered to put his scoring boots on, Ancelotti could have won 3 but that’s another argument I’m not willing to partake in right now] without some kind of tactical acumen, at least. Wrong decision, imo.

7. Andre Villas-Boas – 

Around this time, Chelsea’s job was considered poisonous around the world [due to recent sackings of Scolari and Ancelotti] but Roman went to the extent of paying 15mE to get his man. AVB was a brilliant manager at Porto, winning the league unbeaten which was only the third instance in Portugal. Capped that off by winning Europa League and domestic cup. He could have been next Maureen at Chelsea if he had a bit more experience and/or a stronger character to rein in players. Based on one of his tactical reports that was flying around Chelsea forums around that time, he came across as a brilliant tactician. Credentials to become a great coach. But in England, there’s this wee thing called ‘manager’ role which the coach is also expected to fill. That came to the detriment of AVB. The results were bad, the players were getting alienated [instead of gradual transition, AVB went for sudden changes; I hope he learns from this mistake] and a disastrous loss in Naples left him hanging by a thread. And it was cut. Didn't even get a season and I wish he did.

8. Roberto Di Matteo – 

Contrary to popular opinion on other forums, I do not rate him as an excellent coach. But Chelsea needed a brilliant manager who can be a decent coach at worst. With Di Matteo, they found the perfect man for that particular job. His league results are comparable to Villas-Boas in terms of win percentage, he finished 6^th in league, which was like the worst Chelsea result since football got invented in 2003. But what he did was knock out Napoli, which seemed like such an improbable result at that time [Walter Mazzari must be kicking his players for wasting their chances and not winning 6-1 in Naples]. This brought back the belief in the side and when Benfica were knocked out in quarters [Jesus says they were the better side; but Chelsea were more clinical], Di Matteo completely ignored the league to focus on Champions League – san greal – Holy Grail. I was impressed with the performances of Chelsea players in semis vs Barcelona with every player giving their all and playing their heart out – but not necessarily impressed with Di Matteo’s tactics. Barcelona missed a penalty [nothing to do with Chelsea], Tello missed two clear shots on goal [nothing to do with Chelsea], Fabregas missed from 2 yards [nothing to do with Chelsea]. The result was still in Barca’s hands, but they terribly missed Villa’s finishing and can only blame themselves for that. Di Matteo won the FA Cup [they should rename it to Chelsea Cup as they seem to be winning it quite so frequently] and beat Munchen in their own ground [Allianz Arena] at their own game [in penalties] in their own style [scoring at death]. Europe conquered. 

The win tipped Hazard’s transfer towards Chelsea and Di Matteo also brought Oscar to complement Mata who has turned out to be such a brilliant player in England [if David Silva got so many plaudits for his first season, think of Mata who has been doing it even more consistently]. Everything is going smooth, Arsenal and Spurs were beaten at their own grounds, the goals were coming but the attacking style became the soft underbelly. This eventually led to exit from Europe in group stages [as Utd found out last season, it’s not so easy to get to knockouts with a weak-ish defence] and Di Matteo's sacking. I still believe he should have been allowed one more season, to correct the mistakes he has made – he’s doesn't come across as someone who’s too daft – it wasn't easy to deal with the transition. Big players from at least half a decade have started deteriorating, some of them even left the club. The current crop need a bit more experience but that’s a luxury Di Matte wasn't afforded. What made this poor decision as a terrible one was the next appointment.

9. Rafael Benitez – 

I’d rather not talk about his previous managerial awesomeness [or lack thereof], but this was a massively polarized signing when it came to Chelsea fans. They hated him, they resented him and just because he became their manager now doesn't mean they will have to change their stance. If all the Chelsea fans lapped up Benitez signing, the exact same people who criticize Chelsea fans now would criticize them again and call them hypocrites. For the 2^nd time in history, I’m siding with Chelsea fans [first time was when they unveiled Scouse Free Zone banner at Moscow final, 2008 :p]. Chelsea were 4/5 pts off the top spot when he took over, now they are 19 pts behind. If the results keep up, even Spurs can finish ahead of them. Lost the Club World Cup final [though that isn't new to him], blew an excellent chance to win League Cup [with all due respect to Swansea, the Chelsea side shouldn't be losing 2-0 at home], and now comes out blaming the fans, antagonizing them further. He is not new to having problems with the board, not new to wrecking teams and not new to blaming everyone but himself [If you don’t stop booing me, your team will be playing Europa League next season as if the manager isn't responsible for something like that at all].

Sacking managers may have brought titles to Chelsea in Chelsea fans’ opinion, but the first true sacking from Roman came with Maureen and they won only one league title since. Sometimes, the manager needs to be given time but hey ho, who will bell the cat? Who will tell that to Roman? 

The Comeback

I've been persuaded by a friend to reconsider my decision of quitting this blog and after giving it some thought, I decided it ain't that bad really. So, here I am back on Blogger again with a new url but the same old posts. Quite coincidentally, the first post after my comeback (disregarding this one) will also be about Chelsea, just like my first blog post.

I've gone through a few of my earlier posts and realized what a load of horseshit I've written so far. I hope the 4 yr sabbatical from this space made me a better writer but that is for you to judge, really. Hoping to keep the writing a bit more frequent this time and a lot better in quality.

Sayonara.