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Netherlands - Road to Euro

Ruud van Nistelrooy - star of the Team

Ruud van Nistelrooy – ( Rutgerus Johannes Martinius van Nistelrooij ). He was born on 1st July 1976 in Oss. A Dutch striker. At the beginning of his career yet when he was a boy he played as a defender. His career took off in 1993 when scouts of a second - league club Bottoms Bosch found him. Then Ruud discovered what he really is good at – scoring goals. He scored 13 times in Den Bosch. The next stop in his career was much more valued in Holland Heerenveen. After the episode in Heerenveen scouts of PSV Eindhoven spotted his talent and took him in 1998. Two months from the purchase to Eindhoven van Nistelrooy completed his first hat-trick in a game against Sparta Rotterdam. A nice developing career resulted in call-up for national team for a game with the Germany. Scoring as much as 31 goals on his debut season he clearly became a top scorer. After two seasons he had already scored 60 times which drew interests form Europe. The Dutchman was closely watched by Alex Ferguson, who brought him in his club in 2001 for 19 million pounds. The money was certainly not wasted. During just 3 seasons the striker scored 70 goals. As for Dutch national team, also there Ruud was doing his best and scored goals over and over. On EURO 2004 in Portugal van Nistelrooy together with his colleague from Manchester, Wayne Rooney, became the second top scorer on the tournament scoring 4 goals. Just Czech Milan Baroš was better. In 2006 van Nistelrooy said goodbye to Manchester Utd and moved to Real Madrid for 15 mln euro. The beginning of his play in Primera División turned out to be unexpectedly good as Ruud already completed his hat-trick in a second league match against Levante. In his first season in Primera División he scored 25 times and became a top scorer.

Netherlands - National Team

Player	Club	Position	Age	Value
Maarten Stekelenburg	Ajax Amsterdam	Goalkeeper	25	5,500,000E
Edwin van der Sar	Manchester United	Goalkeeper	37	5,000,000E
Henk Timmer	Feyenoord Rotterdam	Goalkeeper	36	2,500,000E
Joris Mathijsen	Hamburger SV	Defender	28	10,000,000E
John Heitinga	Ajax Amsterdam	Defender	24	7,000,000E
Wilfred Bouma	Aston Villa Birmingham	Defender	29	5,250,000E
Tim de Cler	Feyenoord Rotterdam	Defender	29	5,000,000E
Mario Melchiot	Wigan Athletic	Defender	31	3,250,000E
Andre Ooijer	Blackburn Rovers	Defender	33	3,000,000E
Wesley Sneijder	Real Madrid CF	Midfielder	23	24,000,000E
Rafael van der Vaart	Hamburger SV	Midfielder	25	23,000,000E
Nigel de Jong	Hamburger SV	Midfielder	23	7,000,000E
Giovanni van Bronckhorst	Feyenoord Rotterdam	Midfielder	33	5,200,000E
Ibrahim Afellay	PSV Eindhoven	Midfielder	22	5,000,000E
Demy de Zeeuw	AZ Alkmaar	Midfielder	24	4,500,000E
Orlando Engelaar	FC Twente Enschede	Midfielder	28	3,500,000E
Ruud van Nistelrooy	Real Madrid CF	Forward	31	30,000,000E
Arjen Robben	Real Madrid CF	Forward	24	24,000,000E
Robin van Persie	Arsenal Londyn	Forward	24	16,000,000E
Klaas Jan Huntelaar	Ajax Amsterdam	Forward	24	15,000,000E
Ryan Babel	Liverpool FC	Forward	21	14,000,000E
Dirk Kuyt	Liverpool FC	Forward	27	12,500,000E
Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink	Celtic Glasgow	Forward	29	7,500,000E
Averages:			27.4	10,330,000E

Formations

Netherlands - Picks

Date	Time	Team	Score	Team
9 June 2008	20:45	Netherlands	3-0	Italy
Pick:	X2	Odd:	1.36: Centrebet
Bookmakers favour Italians in this game and I also think they should deal with Dutchmen, but nobody will give away a victory on this tournament for free, that is why they will have to strongly exert first to win any points in the group. The match will surely be even because two very good teams play. The players of Holland have made really good appearances in their clubs recently and they are praised. Italians, strengthened by the last victory on World Cup, surely aim at the next success. In my betting I will support Italians as everything is possible in this game, but the Italians shouldn’t loose this game.
13 June 2008	20:45	Netherlands	4-1	France
Pick:	1X	Odd:	1.5: Bwin
Holland in the first two rounds in team phase has two very tough matches and these will mainly decide about their further presence in the tournament. It will be surely an even match, played on very high level. Both teams will not want to lose any game, even if they had small chances for advancing to quarter-final. Frenchmen play may be different without Zidane but with or without him they are still superb team with strong position on international arena. Holland’s team has taken off with form recently and is on the winning strike. Robben, Sneijder and Nistelrooy had a very good end of the season in Real, not mentioning the rest, that is why in this game I am going to bet on Dutchmen ‘with support’.
17 June 2008	20:45	Netherlands	2-0	Romania
Pick:	X2	Odd:	1.38: Bwin
It will be a really interesting encounter. Holland has been playing brilliantly so far and actually that’s no surprise. They have excellent squad. They have defeated World Champions 3 : 0 and France 4 : 1. This sealed their qualification to quarter-final and they emerge as a favourite of this tournament. Their opponents play very well on these championships as well and they weren’t beaten by Italy nor by Frenchmen. Both games ended as draw, what gives Romania 2nd place in the group and big chance for qualification. A lot will depend on first game that day Italy - Romania because if there is a draw then Romania is almost surely in quarter-final because I do not believe they will loose 3 goals with Dutchmen who have already secured their qualification. It’s very probable that they will assign reserve team in this match. If Adrian Mutu had scored from a penalty in 80th minute Italians would be packing home. Penalty was not scored and in the end all 3 teams has chances for quarter-final. Romania however will have to play for the maximum to qualify and show everyone that they are a team capable of qualifying from their group.