Belgium @ WC 2014!
Could the young stars of Belgium prove dark horses for Brazil 2014?
Nation of less 11 million people has a special generation of players who also give hope of future success to countries of similar size
The World Cup is less than 100 days away and, unsurprisingly, bookmakers and fans are already busy making predictions.
But what if you looked past that? What if you started thinking about possible World Cup winners in 2014 or even 2018?
read more...If you could find somebody who would take your bet, you might want to put down some money on Belgium as a dark-horse value bet. Never mind that they failed to qualify for the past two World Cups or that they have featured only once in the European Championship since 1984 (and that was in 2000, when they were co-hosts). Right now, no country its size has as impressive a crop of precocious 16 to 22-year-olds.
A fair chunk of it is in central midfield. Axel Witsel, who turned 21 in January, made headlines for an X-rated tackle that became a YouTube classic, but there’s much more to his game than that. Steven Defour, also 21, is a natural leader and an elegant passer who has propelled Standard Liège into the Champions League. And Marouane Fellaini, 22, has been a mainstay for Everton in the past two seasons. Then there’s Jan Vertonghen, a versatile left-footed giant of 22 who anchors the Ajax midfield but can play at the back or out wide as well.
There’s plenty to choose from farther up the pitch, too. Eden Hazard, who turned 19 in January, was voted Young Player of the Year in France last season and the pocket-sized Lille attacking midfield player is a constant pacey and creative threat, as Liverpool found out last week.
Kevin Mirallas, 22, has been slowed by injuries, but he’s a dangerous attacking midfield player or striker with bags of potential. Moussa Dembélé, 22, another dynamic attacker, played a key role as Alkmaar won the Dutch title last season.
The most exciting talent of all, however, is Romelu Lukaku, a 6ft 3in man-child of a centre forward who made his debut for Belgium last month at the age of 16. He has scored 13 goals for Anderlecht in the Jupiler League this season, despite often coming on as a substitute. While the Belgian league is what it is, his strike-rate of one goal every 100 minutes of league football is staggering, let alone for a player his age: it’s about the same as Wayne Rooney’s, who is eight years his senior and arguably the best centre forward around at present. Lukaku has size, athleticism, pace and silky skills. You’re tempted to draw parallels with Didier Drogba.
But there’s one important difference. When Drogba was Lukaku’s age, he was playing youth-team football for Levallois, a semi-professional side. In fact, it wasn’t until he was 24 and playing for Guingamp that he started to make waves.
And that’s perhaps what is most remarkable about this group of young Belgians: their precociousness. Lukaku is a regular at 16, Fellaini, Hazard and Defour have been starting for decent sides since the age of 17, Dembélé and Witsel since they were 18, Vertonghen and Mirallas 19. The skills and experience they’re gaining at such a young age will, no doubt, serve them well down the road.
The other obvious characteristic that jumps out at you is how they embody modern Belgium, a nation that is by definition multicultural, linking Flemish, Walloon and German ethnicities. Throw in recent immigration and you have a genuine melting pot, with players who trace their ancestry to Greece (Mirallas), what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo (Lukaku), Morocco (Fellaini), Mali (Dembélé) and Martinique (Witsel).
The last time Belgium had such a talented nucleus they reached the semi-finals of the 1986 World Cup thanks to the likes of Enzo Scifo, Jean-Marie Pfaff, Jan Ceulemans and Eric Gerets. Look no farther for evidence that the game is cyclical, particularly for nations of Belgium’s size (10.8 million population).
The basic premise could be applied to everyone from Sweden to Croatia to Scotland. Infrastructure and knowhow can guarantee a steady stream of good players but you need great ones to succeed in international football. And there is still a certain genetic randomness to when and where great players are born, although if you have a bigger population, the odds are that you will have more great players, provided you have the infrastructure and knowhow properly to train and develop them.
The quality of Belgian football in terms of coaching, scouting and infrastructure has not changed all that much relative to its neighbours over the past 30 years. It is heavily influenced by its more pedigreed neighbours, Germany to the east, the Netherlands to the north and France to the south, and has above-average facilities compared with the rest of the Continent. While immigration has helped in terms of varying the gene pool and bringing diversity, it is by no means a recent phenomenon, suggesting that while it may be a factor, it’s not a decisive one (otherwise Belgium would have produced a strikingly talented generation of footballers in the previous decades).
So perhaps the only real explanation for why a disproportionate number of babies blessed with the raw genetic material to become top footballers were born in Belgium between 1987 and 1993 rests in the vagaries of random distribution. Which at least offers some hope to the rest of Europe’s mid-sized nations: sooner or later you, too, will have your golden generation.
(c) Gabriele Marcotti - The Times
Interesting wall of text but... very doubtable :)
Nation of less 11 million people has a special generation of players who also give hope of future success to countries of similar size
The World Cup is less than 100 days away and, unsurprisingly, bookmakers and fans are already busy making predictions.
But what if you looked past that? What if you started thinking about possible World Cup winners in 2014 or even 2018?
read more...If you could find somebody who would take your bet, you might want to put down some money on Belgium as a dark-horse value bet. Never mind that they failed to qualify for the past two World Cups or that they have featured only once in the European Championship since 1984 (and that was in 2000, when they were co-hosts). Right now, no country its size has as impressive a crop of precocious 16 to 22-year-olds.
A fair chunk of it is in central midfield. Axel Witsel, who turned 21 in January, made headlines for an X-rated tackle that became a YouTube classic, but there’s much more to his game than that. Steven Defour, also 21, is a natural leader and an elegant passer who has propelled Standard Liège into the Champions League. And Marouane Fellaini, 22, has been a mainstay for Everton in the past two seasons. Then there’s Jan Vertonghen, a versatile left-footed giant of 22 who anchors the Ajax midfield but can play at the back or out wide as well.
There’s plenty to choose from farther up the pitch, too. Eden Hazard, who turned 19 in January, was voted Young Player of the Year in France last season and the pocket-sized Lille attacking midfield player is a constant pacey and creative threat, as Liverpool found out last week.
Kevin Mirallas, 22, has been slowed by injuries, but he’s a dangerous attacking midfield player or striker with bags of potential. Moussa Dembélé, 22, another dynamic attacker, played a key role as Alkmaar won the Dutch title last season.
The most exciting talent of all, however, is Romelu Lukaku, a 6ft 3in man-child of a centre forward who made his debut for Belgium last month at the age of 16. He has scored 13 goals for Anderlecht in the Jupiler League this season, despite often coming on as a substitute. While the Belgian league is what it is, his strike-rate of one goal every 100 minutes of league football is staggering, let alone for a player his age: it’s about the same as Wayne Rooney’s, who is eight years his senior and arguably the best centre forward around at present. Lukaku has size, athleticism, pace and silky skills. You’re tempted to draw parallels with Didier Drogba.
But there’s one important difference. When Drogba was Lukaku’s age, he was playing youth-team football for Levallois, a semi-professional side. In fact, it wasn’t until he was 24 and playing for Guingamp that he started to make waves.
And that’s perhaps what is most remarkable about this group of young Belgians: their precociousness. Lukaku is a regular at 16, Fellaini, Hazard and Defour have been starting for decent sides since the age of 17, Dembélé and Witsel since they were 18, Vertonghen and Mirallas 19. The skills and experience they’re gaining at such a young age will, no doubt, serve them well down the road.
The other obvious characteristic that jumps out at you is how they embody modern Belgium, a nation that is by definition multicultural, linking Flemish, Walloon and German ethnicities. Throw in recent immigration and you have a genuine melting pot, with players who trace their ancestry to Greece (Mirallas), what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo (Lukaku), Morocco (Fellaini), Mali (Dembélé) and Martinique (Witsel).
The last time Belgium had such a talented nucleus they reached the semi-finals of the 1986 World Cup thanks to the likes of Enzo Scifo, Jean-Marie Pfaff, Jan Ceulemans and Eric Gerets. Look no farther for evidence that the game is cyclical, particularly for nations of Belgium’s size (10.8 million population).
The basic premise could be applied to everyone from Sweden to Croatia to Scotland. Infrastructure and knowhow can guarantee a steady stream of good players but you need great ones to succeed in international football. And there is still a certain genetic randomness to when and where great players are born, although if you have a bigger population, the odds are that you will have more great players, provided you have the infrastructure and knowhow properly to train and develop them.
The quality of Belgian football in terms of coaching, scouting and infrastructure has not changed all that much relative to its neighbours over the past 30 years. It is heavily influenced by its more pedigreed neighbours, Germany to the east, the Netherlands to the north and France to the south, and has above-average facilities compared with the rest of the Continent. While immigration has helped in terms of varying the gene pool and bringing diversity, it is by no means a recent phenomenon, suggesting that while it may be a factor, it’s not a decisive one (otherwise Belgium would have produced a strikingly talented generation of footballers in the previous decades).
So perhaps the only real explanation for why a disproportionate number of babies blessed with the raw genetic material to become top footballers were born in Belgium between 1987 and 1993 rests in the vagaries of random distribution. Which at least offers some hope to the rest of Europe’s mid-sized nations: sooner or later you, too, will have your golden generation.
(c) Gabriele Marcotti - The Times
Interesting wall of text but... very doubtable :)
btw this was written by a well known
He hasnt "anchored" the Ajax midfield for like over a year..
Belgians are rather modest
heb je een leuke verdediging.
Ben ik de enige die Maduro weer is een kans zou geven?? Speelt vrij regelmatig bij Valencia EN is geen totale faler zoals Ooijer.
Greg is wel sterk als vleugelspeler omdat hij veel mee gaat naar voren, maar in verdedigend opzicht...zwaar onder niveau imo!
de rest is wel solide.
kan Maduro niet zo goed beoordelen, geen zin om te zoeken naar herhalingen op sport1 :))
NL just needs someone like Terry, Puyol, Cannavaro etc
if that fool Robben would stop diving, he'd be a lot better.
altough I kinda like being the underdog, being confident is normally the way to go :p
de roover - vermaelen lombaerts - vertonghen
defour-fellaini-witsel - dembele
hazard - lukaku
das de shit !
? -- Vermaelen - Kompany - Vertongen
Defour - Witsel - Carcela/Fellaini
Dembele - Lukaku - Hazard
solved.
kan trouwens Sepp de Roover wel als rechtsback gebruiken, best een aardige voetballer...alleen meer een beetje van het kaliber Verthongen, misschien dat hij het niveau nog niet aan kan maar mss wel beter voor z'n ontwikkeling?
van damme- vermaelen-kompany-vertonghen
legaer-defour-fellaini-witsel/dembele
hazard-lukaku
Jan kinda fucked up vs Juventus (more than once) during the EL with Ajax.
Besides that, he still makes some bad judgements in the dutch league, dont think he's completely ready for this task.
^ moet zijn Verthongen! [edit]
maybe some of them should join HSV :)
Hazard or Lukaku maybe :)
I hope we will be more lucky thursday, gl hf ;)
yeah i hope we dont play like in leverkusen on thursday
some talents from germany
but yes germany has 80 Million people
And if people judge Jan Vertonghen vs Juventus i am laughing. He played back that game, but in my opion that should be never the case again. He is used now to play in center with alderwereld. Also i think its funny people judge a player on ONE bad game. If everyone would that there would be no player left. I even think the center should be Alderewereld - Vertonghen for belgium, not because they are the best. But because they are the best together. They know eachother like now other defenders know eachother in Belgium. And for 2 center defenders to work good together is the most important.
But they are right, i hope with Dick Advocaat Belgium can rise again in the future. So we can have some healthy competition between Belgium and us again.
vervlogen tijden xD:p
lets hope we can play like this again xD
We should be happy if they can reach a tournament for once.
btw, Advocaat said he will play vermaelen as left back and Vertonghen in midfield.