Again, that substition

I woke up today still feeling gutted because Holland lost against Czech Republic. I was (and am) still blaming it on that substition. In case you don't know, yesterday Holland played Czech Republic in Euro 2004. With 2-1 up, in the 60th minute Dick Advocaat, the Ducth coach, decided to take out Arjen Robben - who was having a magnificent night and was by far the best player on the pitch - and put in Paul Bosvelt. Apparantly Dick's reasoning was that Arjen hadn't played 90 minutes in 3 months and that the midfield was lacking people and he needed somebody to take care of Pavel Nedved.

Turns out I wasn't the only one mad at him. About 16 million other people were/are as well. I checked the forums on the nest and found one thing in common: nobody understood why the hell Dick made that substitution.

I agree with him about the Nedved bit. Nedved was having a superb game as well and putting one person on him might be useful. Here's the flaw though: Nedved is the European Player of the Year, a superstar in Juventus and comes up to any dream 11. Bosvelt, the guy who is supposed to take care of Nedved, is a 34 year old benchwarmer at Manchester City. That's like putting a Fiat Punto next to Michael Schumacher's Ferrari F2004 and telling the Punto to keep up with the F2004. And also, another golden rule in football: when you're team is still fighting for a result, never ever take out your star player.

Dick could've waited a bit. Robben was dangerous and the counters were giving Holland chances a go go. If he wanted to be defensive, he coulde've put in Sneijder, take out van der Meyde and tell Davids to take care of Nedved. But no, meneer Advocaat thought he was the smartest. Well he's not. Even his players don't understand him.

Anyway, I can go on ranting about that substitution for on and on and on. But here are some links to read yourself:
Advocaat faces flak over Robben substitution
Dutch players hammer Advocaat over substitution
Robben "flabbergasted" by substitution
Dutch fans burn flag in frustration after 3-2 defeat
Dutch fans buy plane ticket for Advocaat out of Portugal - so far the best!
And there are more if you can read in Dutch. Or Italian. Or German. Or French. Everywhere in the media Dick is the scapegoat. Deservedly so I might add...

Thank you Dick!