Van Persie enters top 10 of all-time topscorers
Friday, 25 June 2010
Robin van Persie's goal against
Cameroon was his 19th for the national team and with
that the Arsenal player has entered the Top
10 of Holland's all-time topscorers. He now equals
the amount of Leen Vente, who scored his goals between
1933 and 1940. In the ranking Van Persie is now only
five goals away from Marco van Basten, who is on place
9 with 24 goals scored in 58 games for Holland. There
is of course a chance that Van Persie reaches that level
during this World Cup, with a possible four games left
to play for Van Persie. The all-time topscorer for Holland
is still Patrick Kluivert, who scored 40 goals in 79
games.
Van Persie's first goal of the
tournament was special for several reasons.
With Johnny Rep (1974 and 1978),
Rob Rensenbrink (1974 and 1978) and Dennis Bergkamp
(1994 and 1998) Van Persie is now one of four players
to have scored at two World Cups. At the 2006 World
Cup in Germany Van Persie scored one goal, opening the
score in the game against Ivory Coast. That was only
his second goal for the Netherlands in his 12th game.
Van Persie's goals have also turned
out to be very valuable, as Oranje have never lost a
game in which Van Persie scored. The former Feyenoord-player
scored his 19 goals in 16 games. These 16 games resulted
in 14 wins and 2 draws. He scored more than half his
goals in competitive games: four during the qualifications
for Euro 2008, two at Euro 2008, two during World Cup
qualifications and two during the World Cup finals.
The goal against Cameroon was Van
Persie's tenth with Bert van Marwijk at the helm and
with that he is Van Marwijk's most productive player.
In that period he opened the score five times, more
than any of the other players.
Van Persie also does well during
the big tournaments, as so far he has scored at every
tournament he played.
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