The Dutch FA confirmed that De Guzman is out for The Netherlands' game against Wales tomorrow. Dutch media saying he will be replaced by Leroy Fer. De Guzman appears to have a hamstring problem and Feyenoord midfielder Jordie Clasie picked up a small injury also, but it looks like Van Gaal has chosen fo Fer over Clasie for the friendly against Wales.
good for him. hope he impresses. with the amount of problems le oranje are having in midfield he could have a shout at starting in the world cup at this rate
From the Dutch public news, the starting 11 of injured players that will miss this World Cup please log in to view this image
Cove - apart from Van der Vaart, Van der Wiel, and Strootman, are there any other key Dutchmen missing out through injury?
i honestly think the dutch will go out in the group stages. i think chile and of course spain will both be too strong
Van der Vaart wasnt really injured, just not good enough. Afellay is still out, but to be honest, he has done nothing but spending time in rehab and sitting on the bench at Barcelona. Then we got... nope thats about it.
I can't see Leroy hanging around for next season, and if he did then his heart wouldn't be in it and we'd get lacklustre performances I suspect. Hopefully he can really shine with the national squad and earn himself a big money move somewhere!
....whereas I have a funny feeling that it might be the Germans who have an unforeseen disaster and crash out of the group stages By the way apart from '66 we ever gone further than the Germans in any tournament ever? Got a feeling this is going to be first time if not...
the problem the germans have is up front. they still have 59 year old klose but they don't really have that 'spark' in their side - lots of good players, some great players - so although i think they'll ease through to the latter stages (they always do) i can't see them being a serious threat to brazil, spain or argentina. for me, these three are comfortably the strongest in the competition. indeed, looking at the groups and the paths to the quarters, france seemingly have a nice passage, but i watched them on sunday night and they were absolutely dreadful. only a warm up admittedly.
have you watched them lately? they are incredibly frustrating. i said above, these are all good footballers, some of them great, but they genuinely lack spark up front. they will struggle to put teams to bed, no question at all.
Granted, I haven't watched any of their more recent warm-ups/friendlies, but I did hear that against Poland they fielded what was very much a 'B team'. Did they draw in the end against Cameroon? I haven't what their line-up was for that one.
drew 2-2 but i didn't see it. this has been an issue over the last 12 months for the germans. they don't really have any strikers, certainly not out and out forwards anyway. they rely on muller to pinch a goal, schurrle or podolski.
just to add, i'm wary of writing off the germans completely (who is mad enough to do that?!) but unless they have one of their midfielder-come-forward have the tournament of their lives, i can't see them taking the chances against the other top nations. for me, they are quite weak compared to previous german sides and they are definitely behind the three teams i mentioned above.
I respectfully disagree with you here Supers! (although I will admit Ãzil has had a bit of a dodgy end to the season) Marco Reus has been on fire, Draxler is coming on in leaps and bounds, Schürrle is always a danger, Götze is a little genius (especially when played ahead of Schweinsteiger and Kroos), and you'd never bet against Müller scoring. NB: fact of the day - Thomas Müller is the most common name in Germany (like the equivalent of John Smith in England)!
