UEFA Cup group D: NEC, Spurs, Udinese, Spartak & Zagreb

For those wondering who the f@ck NEC are, here's a little info on them.

Nijmegen, which is on the border with Germany has about 150,000 in habitants; 99% of which are squatters.

NEC means Nijmegen Eendracht ('Unity', name of a club) Combination; it's a fusion club like lots of clubs in Dutch footy. They mainly played in the Eredivisie (top league), but had to promote back a few times after relegations. In Holland they reached the Dutch FA Cup final 4 times (and lost all). Their best result in Europe was reaching the last 16 in the UEFA Cup in the early 80s. They even went 2-0 up v FC Barcelona in the first homeleg, but lost 2-3 in the end.

In 2008 they've been 1 of the best performing teams in Dutch football. Halfway the previous season, they were in a relegation spot, but the 2nd half of the season they were about unbeatable & earned more points than any other club. They seem to have carried their good shape into this season & are doing pretty good so far. 7th in the league, 2 clean sheets v Dinamo Bucuresti.

They don't have a squad with big names, but they do have a very good manager, Mario Been. Tactically/positionally they're very good, everybody knows what they have to do. They can play a lot of systems, but at the moment they seem to play mainly with 3 defenders (not 3 central defenders, but 3 playing zonal, so 2 fullbacks & 1 CD! ), depending on how the opposition plays, 3-2-3-2, 3-4-3, or something close to that.

Key players: Goaliie & defence

------------------Babos-----------------
Wisgerhof-------Zomer--------El Akchaoui

MF: Davids, Kivuvu, Sibum, Radomski (all solid)
AMF: Schoene (good creative player)
winger: Saidi (fast, tricky)
striker: Van de Beukering (decent poacher with ASBO past)

Well Been just gets the most out of it, I mean most of that squad's players have been failures at other clubs. They will end last in this group, but they should enjoy it as long as the fairytale lasts.

Yep they'll probably finsh last. Still they're capable of causing an upset.

What I like best about Been's teams (NEC, Excelsior, Feyenoord youth) is that all played neat, organised ('ze staan goed', positionally/tactically sound) attacking footy & everybody knows what to do (Rutten's Twente was a bit the same last year). Players also seem to like to play for him. Guess he's a bit like Jol in being very honest & direct.

Udinese V Spurs this week

I really don't know who I want to win.

I actuallu like Udinese but if they were to win it would work against my agendas

Bring on the Spurs

Bring on Spurs.

Just a shame I couldn't get tickets for these matches.

Interviewer: "what do you expect from Spurs"
Mario : "Long balls; lots of them"

'Redknapp perplexed by long-ball jibes from Dutch opponents'

"[Tottenham] play a type of football that is predictable," said the Dutch coach, whose side are eighth in the Eredivisie but unbeaten at home. "When we see the DVDs, what we see is that they try to play the long ball and then the game starts from the midfield. We are prepared for that."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/nov/27/uefa-cup-tottenham-hotspur-nec-nijmegen

Mario