the_orangerie

Hello all, from one of your friendly mods! Just a quick post on here to see how everyone is doing, and also a question - how are you all feeling about this community, if you think about it at all?

I've been aware of how quiet it's been around here, but usually not very able to spruce things up due to a combination of RL madness and my fic-writing brain deserting me for quite a while. Many of our favorite Dutch players (or many of mine, at least) have retired recently, or swapped clubs, or gotten in trouble, and the Oranje in general seem to be mostly out of the news in this tiresome period between tournaments.

That being said, I'm sure that many of you out there do happen to be experts on the up-and-coming youngsters in the NT or in the Eredivisie, and we'd love to hear from you! Don't let our obsession with the old fuddy-duddies dissuade you from introducing that cute 20-year-old from Feyenoord, or muse on what shenanigans the team might get up to in Rio, or post fic featuring players we've never heard of. If they're Dutch, and have even a rumored connection to the Oranje, we'd love to see it!

-aka

P.S. And for a news update on the Oldies, off the top of my head it's a total grab-bag of the Good (Robin at Manchester United, Edwin as marketing director at Ajax), the Bad (Ruud, what were you thinking? Seriously, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?) and the Very, Very Ugly. Sigh....

Title: An Element Of
Rating: R for language
Wordcount: 584
Pairing: Mark van Bommel/Giovanni van Bronckhorst
Disclaimer: Not mine, not true. Woe.
Summary: A short slice-of-life bit of fluff between two captains at the 2010 World Cup. Requested by autumnsparkle a long time ago; I’m so sorry it took until now!

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Pictures are up all over Tumblr, on Getty and the Dutch service ANP (links will take you direct to event albums).

It was bloody brilliant, I have to say. Seeing the likes of Kluivert, Bergkamp, Cocu, Van Bronckhorst, Davids, Zenden, etc etc etc all playing together again was just awesome. The presentation of the '95 CL trophy from Bobby Charlton was a particularly nice touch. Everyone looked happy and glad to be there, and tributes to Ed have poured in from all corners. (Plus so help me, Joe was adorable in the U-13 match.)

Excuse me a sec while I cry a bit too.

Afscheid, Iskonijn! You'd better be back in football in some capacity within a year, or I'll kill you. *grin*

Edwin van der Sar has retired.

Apologies for the delay, but I was still letting it sink in. It really kind of sucks. See, leaving aside the fact that he's gorgeous and amazing and I'm a United fan and I've always wanted to have his babies, he's also the reason I got back into football. And therefore basically the reason I know most if not all of you. He means a lot. And now - at least for a while, at least, and at least as a player - he's gone.

HOWEVER, he is having a testimonial match with Ajax on August 3rd. Stay tuned and be there, even if it's only in spirit. In the meantime, we spam!





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images etc. from various sources as always - yell if you should be credited!

Edwin van der Sar won the Premier League with Manchester United, and made a nice little speech/got many ovations from the Old Trafford faithful: have a look at all the lovely pics on Getty!

Wesley Sneijder is tweeting away, hoping to be fit for one last game this season and then see his wife, Yolanthe (who apparently isn't living in Italy with him).

Ruud van Nistelrooy has played his last game for Hamburg after coming back from injury, and caused many ovaries to spontaneously combust. *squees at little Liam*

Mark van Bommel won Serie A with AC Milan, and looked very yummy while doing so.

Plus, I managed to get my hot little hands on an advance copy of Soccer Men: Profiles of the Rogues, Geniuses, and Neurotics Who Dominate the World's Most Popular Sport today. It's by Simon Kuper, the author of the very interesting Soccernomics, and while I highly doubt the book will catch on in the States - it's far too detailed, topical, and date-specific for anyone who doesn't already know the sport to catch on (the profile on VDS, for example, was written in 2005 and doesn't have any info such as 'oh btw, he's just about to retire' etc.) - I enjoyed it very much. It might be a bit naughty of me but I'm going to put some quotes beneath this cut, since I've found excerpts from several profiles in articles Kuper's written that are widely available on the internet. ( Collapse )

No matter what the result of the CL final on Saturday there will most likely be a big sobby spampost put up in the aftermath by myself and austengirl bemoaning Edwin's retirement. Grab for your tissues and bear with us.

Chime in with any other news you have, I'm sure I've missed plenty!

Title: I’ll Never Mention Your Name
Rating: R/NC-17
Wordcount: 5,950
Pairing/Characters: Edwin van der Sar/Ruud van Nistelrooy, Rio Ferdinand, Giovanni van Bronckhorst
Disclaimer: Not mine, not true.
Warnings: Not much specific, just general horribleness of the situation.
Summary: It is September 1944, the Allies’ advance into the Netherlands has failed, and food imports to the Netherlands have been halted. Told to go into hiding, Ruud van Nistelrooy finds himself living in a basement with a former medic and printer whose code name is the Ijskonijn. Oh, and a downed British gunner. The combination of darkness, famine, and close quarters make the last months of the war ones he will never recover from.

Over here at cornerflag ; x-posted to footballslash.

Comments are love!

Title: Skill Will Get You Nowhere
Rating: R/NC-17
Wordcount: 6,122
Authors: speak_me_fair and aka_centimetre2
Disclaimer: Not ours, not true. Woe!
Summary: Superglue, two-foot tackles, Lord Ruud and cooties: it’s 2005, and Edwin and Rio do not get along. At all. In fact, it’s more than likely they’re going to kill each other before the season’s out – and that's even without everyone trying to help. Also featuring David Beckham, Ruud van Nistelrooy, abuse of mobile phones, probably the entire Madrid dressing room, definitely the whole of various United dressing rooms, Petr Cech’s skull fracture, and Edwin’s broken nose in 2007.

link goes to posted fic at unitedslash

So, um.

Edwin's retiring, guys.

telesport.nl
manutd.com

I'll just be drowning myself in tears and then in equal amounts of double-chocolate ice cream.

Let's have a comment spam. Just to sustain us 'til his next oh-so-precious game.

  I drew Arjen Robben today.

Have a look at my journal.

I hope I'm allowed to post this here :)

A new promotional campaign in the Netherlands based on a collectible sticker book (these are going to be STICKERS? hottest damn stickers I've ever seen) has only the coolest website ever.

Each player has an individual photo - many with FIRE and WATER and COOL MOTHEREFFING CLOTHES - an interview, and a sort of news-aggregate page. Oh, and when I say 'each player'? I mean every Dutch player imaginable.

FULL LIST: Kuyt, Van der Linden, Boymans, Stekelenburg, Van Bronckhorst, Van der Vaart, Cruyff, Poepon, Gullit, Robben, Van Basten, Van der Heijden, De Boer & De Boer, Huntelaar, Mertens, Bergkamp, Propper, Winter, Van de Laak, Van Hooijdonk, Koeman, Schilder, Sneijder, Verhoek, Schaars, Van Bommel, Van Wolfswinkel, Suarez, Van der Sar, Van Nistelrooy, Fernandez, Van Breukelen, Van Persie.

Still need convincing? See the pic below.

GO NOW. (For Dutch residents: sales of the stickers benefit the Cruyff Foundation, so by buying you'd be supporting a good cause as well as adding some eye candy to your day!)

Stars of Football Stars of Football Stars of Football