Dutch Football - Team Bejing Olympics - Feyenoord-coach not happy about Makaay playing

"The intellectualisation
of football has
always foundered
on a simple problem-
-the players. Doing
all your most
rewarding thinking
with your feet seems
to dull the philo-
sophical impulse.
Unless, of course,
you are Dutch.
According to legend,
Europeans played
a moronic, muscular
version of the world's
game, until Holland
proclaimed its vision
of total football in the
1974 World Cup,
and enlightenment
dawned."

From:
Brilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Football

Feyenoord-coach not happy about Makaay playing

Monday 11 August 2008

Gertjan Verbeek is not happy with his former teacher Foppe de Haan.

The Feyenoord coach couldn't believe his eyes yesterday when he saw the coach of the Olympic team put on Makaay in the last fifteen minutes of the match against the USA.

Makaay has been struggling with a foot injury he sustained in the game against Nigeria and Verbeek understood would only sit and watch.

"But perhaps they have some kind of Lourdes in China, with magic water and all," a cynical Verbeek told Dutch daily De Telegraaf.

"I wasn't too happy about Makaay traveling to China to begin with. Then he got injured and I heard worrisome news coming from Bejing. Roy told me he would not be able to play, so I thought he was only on the bench as a spectator."

"Now just because they were in danger of losing the game they decided to put him on. That is taking high risks and not acceptable. I expect the medical staff to give me some sort of an explanation. If the injury has worsened the last word has not yet been said about this."