Official Twilight Zone Orange Army Thread

[Toots Hibbert]

The mighty orange army is on the march in Euro 2008. It will end in tears but until then we can dream of glory in a major tournament.

Game 1 Holland 3 Italy 0. Just about the perfect match. The opening goal was the result of a controversial goal which gives the Italians a taste of injustice to avenge the manner of their win over Australia in the World Cup. Not only that but the Dutch then went on to inflict humiliation on a team they hadn't beaten for ages. w00t.

Game 2 Holland v France tomorrow morning at the Stade de Suiss in (get this) Wankdorf!! (If you want to watch the game you'll need to subscribe to Setanta Sports).

Australia is not involved so if you're a neutral you should seriously consider supporting the homeland of Aussie Guus and Mr Pim.

 

[Toots Hibbert]

 

[WhyAlwaysMe]

I'm on Holland for Euro. Always liked them.

 

[Ford Fairlane]

Netherlands 4 France 1 last night.

I'm waiting for the Teutonic comeback from the industrious Germans. Deutschland Deutschland uber alles ...

 

[blackdiamond]

Ford can you find one with painted on soccer balls?

 

[Ford Fairlane]

Google images is your friend bd.

 

[blackdiamond]

Thanks for the tip Ford, this one fits well with todays game.

Which Geelong player do you think this might be?

 

[Toots Hibbert]

So far this has been the best quality football of any major tournament in ages. Croatia Germany was a cracker, Holland Italy and Holland France were crackers, Romania and Portugal playing great, haven't seen Spain yet but they're scoring plus plus goals.

Now here's my dream ending:- Holland to beat Portugal in a semi thanks to a controversial penalty after trailing for much of the game. Would be great revenge for the dive and foul fest last time they met. Then, and even more importantly, the Dutch to humiliate the Krauts in the final.

Won't happen of course but one can dream. Not sure how I'm going to survive the next couple of weeks. These 4 AM starts are wearing me down.

 

[Ford Fairlane]

Thanks for the tip Ford, this one fits well with todays game.

Which Geelong player do you think this might be?

That is wrong on just so many levels.

PS sorry for hijacking your thread Toots.

 

[Toots Hibbert]

Would be nice if we got the chance to use that pic for good.

 

[Toots Hibbert]

Here are a few ideas for those who've decided to get on the Dutch bandwagon over the next couple of weeks but don't want to outlay much for some orange gear to wear during games.

Buy one of these and make a helmet or mask (also make cream of pumpkin soup).

Steal one of these and use it as a hat or get a few of them and put them on your front veranda.

Get a safety vest and put in your dog when you go for a walk

Wear this when barbecueing

 

[blackdiamond]

I can get you one of those Home Depot aprons if you like Toots.

 

[Toots Hibbert]

 

[tribey]

It's funny, the ridiculously l33t Dutch squads of 1994-2002 never got their shit together, now this one, early days at least, is riding roughshod over some extremely good opposition.

Maybe the dressing room fissures that have plagued squads for as long as anyone can remember have finally been sorted out?

 

[Toots Hibbert]

Thats the word on the street. Van Nistelrooy has patched up his differences with Van Basten and is providing Tredrea like qualities up forward. Van Bommel and Seedorf have been told to take a hike and the team dynamics on show after they've scored looks very positive

 

[tribey]

... at the Stade de Suiss in (get this) Wankdorf!!

The home stadium of BSC Young Boys - I wish I was making this up.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Apart from playing great "fooball", they beat the French last night 4-1, after beating Italy 3-0, they have the best looking female fans.

Just look at yesterday's Weekend Australian, sports section page 48 and the "A week at a time" section's first story. The picture of a female Dutch fan and goal keeper Edwin van der Saar's wife are testament to that.

As the article says, "forget total football, the Orange army has given us party football. It's all about men wearing carrots, ladies wearing wings and ugly boring men having beautiful wives called WAGS..........Let the Gouda times role (sic)."

Let's hope they don't stumble early in the knockout stage like they tend to do.

I remember when the Olympics were on in Sydney, the official Dutch team bar in Darling Harbour, The Heineken Club, was the place most people wanted to get into to party on all night. But it was pretty tough to get in.

 

[Powerade 08]

Do the Euro teams need to provide a team list with the INS and OUTs days before a game? (like AFL teams do on Thursdays) or is it completely different I dont follow it too closely.

 

[Toots Hibbert]

You would think that the Dutch will be too strong for either Sweden or Russia in the QF. Then it gets much tougher in the Semi with either Spain or Italy as the opponents. Sure they beat Italy 3 - 0 but in a knockout match the landscape is different. It will be interesting to see whether the Dutch will be able to play the free wheeling game they've shown to date.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

On the other half of the draw it's Portugual v Germany and Croatia v Turkey in the quarterfinals. The tournament is opening up for Germany to get to the final. Could be 1974 WC all over again Toots.

 

[Toots Hibbert]

I don't know that it's opened up for them. Portugal will be a difficult proposition and Croatia have already beaten them once. I think the Germans have shown they're fallible. Even Austria opened them up 3 or 4 times in the first half. I hope the Portuguese play dirty and torment them to the extent they get a red card to a key player. Does that make me a bad person?

I'm in two minds. If we do get to the final I'd hate to lose the Krauts, on the other hand beating them is the dream of every dyke builder.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Have Portugal or Croatia ever beaten Germany at the knockout stage of a Euro or WC in the last 20 years? The Germans just know how to play at this stage of the tournament. I'm not saying they are guaranteed but they are a reasonable chance to make it.

 

[Toots Hibbert]

You can't help but respect the Germans. But yes Croatia beat them 3 - 0 in a quarterfinal of the 1998 world cup. Slaven Bilic their current coach was in that side.

Do you have any emotional attachment to the Italians in all this REH?

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

You can't help but respect the Germans. But yes Croatia beat them 3 - 0 in a quarterfinal of the 1998 world cup. Slaven Bilic their current coach was in that side.

Do you have any emotional attachment to the Italians in all this REH?

Not a huge one. I guess when I was a kid I followed them as Australia didn't make the WC and I didn't really follow the Euro championships until 1992 when SBS broadcast it for the first time. I watched a few games with my mate of Danish ancestory when they won the tournamant as a late minute replacement for war torn Yugoslavia.

The Italians for all their cultural flair and passion play a boring bland style of soccer which is hard to get excited about. Usually the national psyche is reflected in the way a national team plays. Not in soccer. Was bloody flat after they knocked us out of the 2006 WC and sort of was barracking for them in the final v France, but not with any real passion.

Yeah I checked the Germans WC history. I remember Bulgaria knocking them out of USA 1994 in the 1/4 finals when Stoichkov turned it on that tournament but forget about Croatia in the 98 knocking them out in the 1/4's.

I looked up their Euro record and you will be happy to be reminded that the Dutch beat them 2-1 in the semi's in 1988 West Germany tournament and then you beat the Soviet's 2-0 in the final.

 

[Toots Hibbert]

Yeah watched every game the Dutch played in 1988. On TV I hasten to add.

On the question of national character I'm open to correction but am of the belief that the Italians are the descendants of the Romans. I base that on having read somewhere that by the end of the Roman empire the Latin spoken by the ordinary people on the Italian peninsula had evolved to be very similar to Italian. My assumption is that had there been a mass influx of outsiders their language would have overwhelmed the original in the same way that the language of the Angles Saxons and Jutes overwhelmed the celtic language in Britain and pushed it to the margins of Wales Scotland, Cornwall and Ireland.

Now the Romans in warfare were extremely organised and ruthless and that enabled them to overcome the more excitable Celts. IIRC the Romans surrounded Vercingetorix's Gauls with fortifications rather than fight them in open battle because even at that stage of their rise to domination they were concerned about the fighting prowess of the rebels.

Very similar to the cattenacio tactics of the Italians in soccer. All very unresearched I know but there you go for what it's worth.

Edit:- In any case the Italians have played some quite attacking football in recent tournaments.