Netherlands Announce Euro 2012 Squad

With friendly losses mounting and recriminations already beginning to fly, the Netherlands named their 23 man squad for Euro 2012 on Saturday.

The ever-formidable trio of Arjen Robben, Robin van Persie, and Dirk Kuyt will lead the attack with Rafael van der Vaart and Wesley Sneijder providing fire support. Meanwhile Mark von Bommel and Nigel DeJong will set up their usual midfield karate dojo.

Everton's Johnny Heitinga leads the defensive lineup along with Malaga's Joris Mathijsen, Ajax's Gregory van der Wiel, and Stuttgart's Khalid "The Cannibal" Boulahrouze. Not sure why he's called "The Cannibal," but assume it's because he looks like Richard Kiel's "Jaws" character from those '70s Roger Moore Bond films.

A trio of goalkeepers has been selected that along with regular starter Martin Stekelenberg of Roma, includes Newcastle's Tim Krul and Michel Vorm from Swansee.

In addition to other familiar standby supporting players such as the formidable Schalke striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, Barcelona midfielder Ibrahim Afellay, and PSV defender Wilfred Bouma there are a number of less familiar faces in this summer's team.

FC Twente striker Luuk de Jong has been included in the attack as has Heerenveen's Luciano Narsingh. De Jong provided a crucial goal for the Oranje in qualifying against Finland last fall. The striker also notched up 25 goals on the season for Twente, making him the club's top scorer.

Feared throughout the Eredivisie for his speed and dribbling skills, Narsingh made his international debut in last week's friendly loss to Bayern Munich, during which he scored one of the Netherlands' two goals in that 3-2 defeat.

Midfielders hoping to somehow elbow their way into the lineup ahead of the usual crop of coveted maestros, include Stijn Schaars and Kevin Strootman. Schaars is an attacking midfielder who currently plies his trade at Sporting Lisbon. He was with the Dutch squad in South Africa two years ago but saw little to no action. Strootman is a central midfielder at PSV who has one previous international goal to his credit.

Feyenoord's Ron Vlaar and PSV's Jetro Willems are both new additions to the defense since South Africa. Vlaar has actually been in and around the team since 2005 while Willems is previously uncapped.

Saturday the Dutch suffered a surprise defeat to Bulgaria in a friendly leading up to the tournament, which begins in 12 days.

Oranje coach Bert Van Marwijk laid much of the blame on Heitinga.

"A pass like Heitinga's is just forbidden," said Van Marwijk to SBS. "You just don't do that."

Despite back-to-back warmup friendly losses against Bayern and Bulgaria, the Dutch remain among the favorites for this summer's tournament, along with Spain and Germany. Holland's only previous major trophy was a European Championship title they won in 1988 with a team that featured the likes of Marco van Basten and Ruud Gullit.

Galaxy Snatch Defeat from Jaws of Victory in Thrilling California Super Classico

(Carson, CA) -Despite being reduced to 10 men with 30 minutes left to play, the LA Galaxy snatched a 2-0 lead Wednesday night, only to see it evaporate into a 3-2 California Super Classico defeat at the hands of the visiting San Jose Earthquakes.

A makeshift Galaxy side that was without Landon Donovan and Robbie Keane took an early lead, courtesy of Hector Jimenez. The Galaxy midfielder, who was making his MLS debut, collected a pass from Chad Barrett inside the 18 and slotted it home to make it 1-0 Galaxy in the 3rd minute.

However following a first half in which the Galaxy enjoyed the majority of possession and seemed to resemble last season's championship side for long periods, Jimenez went from hero to zero when he was shown a red card just on the hour mark for a reckless tackle on San Jose defender Steven Beitashour.

"I felt good, I felt like I was doing good and unfortunately I put my team in a tough position with the red card," said Jimenez. "I talked to the guys and they said it was a red card and it’s a bad tackle and unfortunately things happen."

However not everyone in the Galaxy locker room was convinced the referee got it right.
"I don’t know. It could go either way," said David Beckham. "Obviously he sent him off but I think there’s a chance there he wouldn’t have sent him off. Unfortunately we had someone in control of the game that tonight that every time that we’ve had him, he wants to be the star and that’s what happens when you have a referee that wants to be on Sports Center."

But even with 10 men the Galaxy remained dangerous, scoring on the break in the 73rd when Beckham crossed the ball to Mike Magee who rounded Quakes keeper Jon Busch and tucked away what at the time seemed like the goal that would all-but-guarantee the Galaxy take full points from the match.

But just three minutes later San Jose striker Steven Lenhart put the Quakes on the score sheet when he connected with a corner from Marvin Chavez and headed it home to make it 2-1.

Five minutes later Beckham appeared to handle the ball in the box while blocking a shot from Jason Hernandez. The veteran midfielder was shown a yellow card and San Jose were awarded a penalty which Khari Stephenson duly converted to level the score at 2-2.

"I just turned my back and my arms were as close to me as they could be," explained Beckham. "They weren’t outstretched yet it hit my hand, but could’ve gone either way. In the first half one of their guys falls on the ball in the penalty area he rolls over it couple of times touches it with his hand a couple of times, everyone else sees it apart from the star."

As the now-contentious match ticked into extra time it seemed headed for a draw. But second half Quakes substitute Alan Gordon had other ideas. The former Galaxy striker, who has a habit of scoring against his old team, received the ball inside the 18 and headed home the match winner just seconds before the final whistle was blown; leaving the Galaxy and their supporters stunned and despondent in the face of a 3-2 loss.

But despite Wednesday's disappointing result there were positives to be gleaned from the team's performance and Beckham for one, was at least optimistic.

"Overall I think it felt a better team performance and one of the better team performances this season," said the former Manchester United man. "I think when you’re on a run like this sometimes you need a little bit of a break and a little bit of luck. I think that we haven’t had that. But we’ll be fine, we’ll bounce back it’s good to have a tough game at the weekend so soon."

The Galaxy are now win-less in their last six matches and in dire need of a turnaround if they are to retain any hope of defending their MLS title. The LA side  have a season record of 3-7-2 and will head into their match away to the Houston Dynamo on the weekend sitting at the bottom of the Western Conference table.

Fear and Loathing Sets in for LA Galaxy

By Alex Baker
(Carson, CA) - The LA Galaxy lost their fifth match of the season, going down 1-0 at home to a Thierry Henry-less New York Red Bulls on Saturday night.

"It's a bit of a broken record," admitted LA coach Bruce Arena, who seemed to have reached new levels of frustration and irritability in the post-match press conference.

"We haven’t found the player that can consistently get us goals," said the coach. "There've been plays when the balls gotta end up in the back of the net and it isn’t, and it’s costing us dearly."

New York's match-winner came in the 19th minute, courtesy of Joel Lindpere who got off a shot under pressure from the edge of the 18, beating Galaxy keeper Bill Gaudette at the far post to make it 1-0.

Lindpere's effort was the Red Bull's sole shot on goal of the match. The Galaxy meanwhile registered a total of five shots on target but were unable to find the back of the net once.

As the catalog of missed chances mounted up the match began to feel like a microcosm of the Galaxy's season thus far.

"I think it’s getting even more frustrating week after week" said LA midfielder David Beckham. "We had our chances, we didn’t finish the chances off that we had. We got sloppy in defense with a couple of plays. Obviously it’s disappointing to lose at home again."

Having gone undefeated at home all last season, Saturday's loss was their third at the Home Depot Center this year.

"It’s something that we were proud of last year, having our home ground as somewhere where it was tough to come and play against us," said Beckham. "That obviously went the first time we lost this season and it’s continued. It’s something we want to change because we want to make it hard for teams to come here and play and right now teams and individuals are coming here and enjoying it."

New York were without their star player and leading goalscorer Thierry Henry along with other key players, Rafa Marquez and Teemo Tainio. Still they put in an organized and disciplined performance, managing to defend a 1-0 lead for 70-plus minutes.

The Galaxy built last term's championship season largely around getting a single goal and shutting down the opposition. However coach Arena bristled at the suggestion that New York had beat them at their own game.

"All this horseshit about 1-0 this or that that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard in my life," said Arena. "New York would gladly take a 1-0 win tonight. Any time you win by a goal you should be thrilled."

While the Galaxy's early-season defensive frailties seem to have been rectifed, they're currently suffering from a serious problem with converting opportunities on goal; which is surprising considering that on Saturday night they fielded a squad that in addition to Buddle and Keane, included Landon Donovan, Pat Noonan, and Mike Magee.

"In the early going, we made some defensive mistakes for sure," admitted Arena. "But we’ve produced enough chances to score more goals this year and haven’t gotten it done. Whatever that reason is you’ve got me because there’s been enough chances since early March for us to be scoring more goals."

With a record of 3-5-1, the Galaxy currently sit third from the bottom of the Western Conference table and desperately need to find their winning ways when they travel away to face Montreal Impact next Saturday.

"We keep saying we’re not worried about it," said Beckham. 'There’s gonna be a point where we need to be worried about it and we’re close to that now."