"The Dutch have players of great quality. Honestly, that team has everything!"

BERNE, Switzerland (AFP) — The battered and bruised France team woke up Saturday morning still barely able to believe how Holland had inflicted their worst defeat in almost three decades the night before.

"4-1 doesn't reflect what happened," he said.

"4-1 - it's far too heavy a defeat. Their success is insolent."

“In the name of the entire team, I think I have to apologize to all the Italian fans.”

The Dutch certainly made the first surprise of the European Championship a stunner.
The Netherlands handed Italy, the defending World Cup champion, its worst loss in European tournament history, a 3-0 rout Monday in Bern, Switzerland, that left the Italians in danger of elimination in the first round.

Ruud van Nistelrooy and Wesley Sneijder scored in the first half, and the standout defender Giovanni van Bronckhorst added the third goal on a counterattack in the 79th minute.

“It was a historic feat,” Netherlands Coach Marco van Basten said. “This was Italy, the world champion. I cannot name one player who played poorly.”

Italy’s once-proud defense looked old and slow. Van Nistelrooy tore through at will. With the injured captain Fabio Cannavaro sitting on the bench, Marco Materazzi and Andrea Barzagli were picked apart by the Dutch attack.

“It was one of the ugliest games in the last 12 years,” goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon said. “In the name of the entire team, I think I have to apologize to all the Italian fans.”

The victory put Netherlands in charge in its tough first-round group. The Dutch have the only win in Group C after France tied Romania, 0-0, earlier in the day.

Italy argued that Van Nistelrooy’s breakthrough goal was offside. Van Nistelrooy deflected a 20-yard shot from Van Bronckhorst past Buffon with an Italy defender off the field next to the goal. The three goals equaled the number of goals Italy yielded in the 2006 World Cup.

“We have been able to play superb football,” Sneijder said. “Now we have to continue in the same vein.”

Hut, hut

Robert's Photograph

 

Big Soccer Game on Saturday

Be at the Port Saint John Soccer field at 8:30 for a nine o'clock kickoff

Big White versus Blue end of season game!

We need to get the word out that our last game will be Wednesday at Kelly park.

The blue team will play the white team on a bigger field so that all the kids can play at the same time. I have spoken with the referee and he will start as close to 5:30 pm as he can get. We need to have the kids in their uniforms ready to play.

In Media Res

Who is the best player this week?

Find out at Wednesday's exciting soccer practice.

Be there at 5:30, ready to play!

Fishey Soccer News

There will be no game on Saturday. This is a particulary bad weekend and neither Tom, nor Tom can make the game. We are going to reschedule.



The next event will be the Thursday night skills session which is entirely optional.



On Wednesday April 30, at 5:30 pm at our Cocoa Beach field, we are going to have a very special practice that the kids should enjoy.



If parents want to have their kids play in the end of season DC cup, we will need to have $20.00 from every player who wants to play on Saturday and Sunday, May 17 and 18 2008.



There are t-shirts. Do we want t-shirts?

T-Shirt Pricing: Pre-order - $10.00 per shirt ($12.00 for XL and XXL) if
paid in full by Friday, May 2nd 2008. Only one order per team will be
accepted. Pre-order price is already discounted based on a volume purchase.
The cost will be $12.00 ($14.00 for XL and XXL) if purchased separately
during the tournament. You must submit a separate order form for T-Shirts
and include a separate fee. These are-souvenir T-Shirts and their purchase
is optional. The players will wear the uniform provided by their club.
Your order will be delivered to the site of where your first game is played.


So, to wrap up, no game this Saturday, big practice next Wednesday, must bring $20 to guarantee a tournament roster spot.

Who is this?

 

The DC Cup?

Practice

Hello soccer parents.

This week we will not have soccer practice in Cocoa Beach on Wednesday. We are sending all the kids to the Merritt Island free training sessions on Tuesday and Thursday.

Have the kids at the park, Mitchell-Ellington, which is on North Merritt Island, at 5:30pm. Practice is over at 7:00pm. Take state road 3 north of the barge canal. Go to the road that leads to KARS park, but turn west, not east. Look for the park on the left-hand side of the road. Make sure the kids have shin-guards, a ball and water.

Could someone give me the score of the game on Saturday, I checked the New York Times but there was nothing about our game on the website.

Jan, could you forward this e-mail on to the people who need to see it?

Can you coach better than our current coach?

Coach Y on a good day.

Help wanted. Soccer Coach needed. Must be available to coach crackerjack U-10 soccer team on Saturday, April 12.

Applicants please apply to Tom Brophy arketk3333@aol.com. Tom will be accepting applications at practice Wednesday.

My wife planned a visit with her mother, John, Robert and I will not in town this Saturday. Help!

We are still having practice.

There are no scheduled games for this weekend due to public schools on Spring Break.

The Red, White, Orange and Blue.

The Big Mix

Parents,

Wash those jerseys!

We are trying an experiment this Saturday. We have permission from the league to mix up the teams and play this weekends games. Both of our game are at 8:30 a.m.

Here is the plan. All eighteen players are going to assemble at Kelly West and we will draw names from a hat. The kids will switch jerseys and one team will play at Kelly and the other will drive to Audubon Elementary. We will give the jerseys back on Wednesday.

To do this, we are going to be at Kelly Park on time. I’d like to have names drawn and be down the road by 8:05. I know this is a imposition, but we all need to make every effort to be at Kelly West at 8:00 am.



Setting up different teams will be exciting for the kids. By scrambling the teams we will create different combinations of players and allow new patterns to form. Kids that have never played on the field in a game situation will have a new experience. Please try and get to the field so we can draw the names, swap the shirts and be ready for an 8:30 kickoff.

PRACTICE

See you Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. for soccer practice. Now that the time has changed, this will be our regular soccer practice time.

Hippies

Practice Each Wed at 5:30

See you Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. for soccer practice. Now that the time has changed, this will be our regular soccer practice time.