Famous Dutch goalie breaks UK record

By

Elftal

Manchester United goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar has set a new record in the UK Premier League: he has now gone 1,032 minutes – which amounts to more than 11 matches – without conceding a goal, beating the previous record of 1,025 minutes by Chelsea’s Petr Cech five seasons ago.

Van der Sar made Dutch news as well this week by moving up from fifth to third place in the list of best paid Dutch sportspeople. The number one spot is held by baseball player Andruw Jones, while the rest of the top ten is strictly a football affair. However, the difference between Jones’s annual income (17,000,000 euro) and the number two spot, held by Ruud van Nistelrooy (8,200,000 euro) shows you which sport brings in the real bacon.

And Van Der Sar is the guy in black on the family portrait.

(Links: radionetherlands.nl, sportweek.nl, Photo: minbuza.nl)

8 Comments »

  1. Neil says:

    Pardon my silly question but is that a family photo of Manchester United of the Dutch National team? If it’s ManU, how fortuitous the team colors are orange! You must pardon my ignorance, whenever someone says football, I think New England Patriots.

  2. Orangemaster says:

    Orange is the colour of the Royal family, the national football team AND this blog :)

    IIRC, this picture was taken during some friendly practice game against Lichenstein.

    When Europeans talk about football, they mean soccer. When Europeans talk about American football, they mean New England Patriots and have no clue about Canadian football. And then Canada ‘invented’ football, but we won’t go there today.

    When the Dutch say hockey, they mean the on grass variety. If they say ice hockey, then they mean ‘our’ hockey.

    Only the US and Canada call football, soccer. We’re idiots :)

  3. Jeroen Mirck says:

    @Neil: The family photo shows indeed the Dutch national team (we patriots call it ‘Oranje’, and soccer is called ‘voetbal’ in Holland). By the way, Edwin van der Sar has another record, playing 130 caps for the Dutch team. That’s a national soccer record.

    Nice detail: Wikipedia mentions that “the referee gave Van der Sar permission to keep the match ball” after his new ‘clean sheet’ record.

  4. Neil says:

    Like American and Canadian football, voetbal championships are won with great defense. Edwin’s accomplishment, which approaches perfection, is precisely that, great defense.

    I remember the fans of Oranje at the World Cup and at the Olympic games. You could not miss them with their orange apparel and cheering throughout the contest. How does such a small country make every match, whether in Germany or China, feel like a home match for their team by being so conspicuously present and supportive?

    Orangemnaster, this may surprise you but my father played for the New York Giants in the NFL and then the Montreal Aloutettes in the CFL, so I have some familiarity with both games. No, I was not yet born but I have seen photos.

    I played the Canadian national sport in high school and college (the first Canadian national sport: Lacrosse… no, not ice hockey). I played defense but not goalie. I watched the Lacrosse World Cup on television in Ontario about two years ago and Canada won by beating the US team in the finals after losing to them in an early round. Ah! sweet triumph.

    Orangemaster, Jeroen Mirck, did you play sports in your youth? Which one(s) did you like the most?

    We have our Super Bowl on Sunday. I think Pittsburgh will win but I have “bet” against Arizona in the last three games incorrectly each time so what do I know?

  5. Neil says:

    Off topic –

    People can actually be steered into criminal behaviour, such as stealing, simply by tinkering with their environment. In fact, the scientists claim, if you know what psychological buttons to press, you can make antisocial behaviour spread like a contagious disease. The paper, which has gone virtually unnoticed beyond the academic community, should be read by anyone who cares how and why people disobey the rules of civil society.
    Dutch study at University of Groningen proves the the Cialdini effect.
    more

  6. Orangemaster says:

    Neil, I saw the Alouettes two years ago for the first time.

    And that criminal behaviour thing, poverty, abuse and discrimination trigger enough already thank you :)

  7. […] few days ago, Manchester United goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar set a new record of going 1,032 minutes (a bit more than 11 matches) without conceding a goal, and now he’s on a roll. Van der Sar made Dutch news again this week by being the goal keeper […]

  8. […] firm hands of Manchester United goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar. Previously, he had already taken the English league and English professional football records, but until last weekend the British record belonged to […]

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