Cempaka Belanda: World Cup 2014: How Louis van Gaal made Robin van Persie smile again

"A Summary" – Apr 2, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Religion, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Intelligent/Benevolent Design, EU, South America, 5 Currencies, Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Middle East, Internet, Israel, Dictators, Palestine, US, Japan (Quake/Tsunami Disasters , People, Society ...), Nuclear Power Revealed, Hydro Power, Geothermal Power, Moon, Financial Institutes (Recession, Realign integrity values ..) , China, North Korea, Global Unity,..... etc.) - (Text version)

"The Timing of the Great Shift" – Mar 21, 2009 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“ … Here is another one. A change in what Human nature will allow for government. "Careful, Kryon, don't talk about politics. You'll get in trouble." I won't get in trouble. I'm going to tell you to watch for leadership that cares about you. "You mean politics is going to change?" It already has. It's beginning. Watch for it. You're going to see a total phase-out of old energy dictatorships eventually. The potential is that you're going to see that before 2013.
They're going to fall over, you know, because the energy of the population will not sustain an old energy leader ..."

"Update on Current Events" – Jul 23, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: The Humanization of God, Gaia, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Benevolent Design, Financial Institutes (Recession, System to Change ...), Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Nuclear Power Revealed, Geothermal Power, Hydro Power, Drinking Water from Seawater, No need for Oil as Much, Middle East in Peace, Persia/Iran Uprising, Muhammad, Israel, DNA, Two Dictators to fall soon, Africa, China, (Old) Souls, Species to go, Whales to Humans, Global Unity,..... etc.)

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“… The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. …”

Friday, July 4, 2014

World Cup 2014: How Louis van Gaal made Robin van Persie smile again

The Holland manager has ‘an incredibly proud’ captain for the quarter-final against Costa Rica, two years after dropping him

The Guardian, Owen Gibson in Salvador, Friday 4 July 2014

Holland's Robin van Persie dribbles past three Mexico players during
the last 16 win in Fortaleza. Photograph: Li Ga/Rex

“This trainer wants to win. So he makes substitutions. It’s simple.” And when the Holland captain, Robin van Persie, puts it like that, it is.

But when Louis van Gaal’s side were 1-0 down in a World Cup knockout match in the searing afternoon heat of Fortaleza and he decided to gamble by taking off his talismanic captain, it did not seem so straightforward.

Like most of Van Gaal’s bold decisions at this World Cup so far, it came off. Having already switched from 5-3-2 to 4-3-3 as he chased the deficit against Mexico, he used a water break to implement his “plan B” and switch again, to a 4-4-2.

Dirk Kuyt, who began the match as a left-back, joined Van Persie’s replacement, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, up front.

Once Wesley Sneijder had equalised, they went back to 4-3-3 again. As against Australia, when Holland also had to come from behind, and Chile, when Van Gaal acted decisively to break the deadlock, it was a tactical masterclass. “The substitution was tactical. Let’s not forget before he joined the team he was recovering from an injury,” said Van Gaal after the game.

Van Persie, who appears determined to make up here for the disappointment of an injury-hit second season at Old Trafford, even praised his manager for the switch. It was Huntelaar who slotted home the last-gasp penalty that won the day for a Dutch side acquiring a shared sense of destiny with each of four consecutive victories.

Almost immediately, many drew a comparison with David Moyes’ refusal to withdraw an unfit and under par Van Persie as his Manchester United side lost at home to Newcastle United in December, fearing for the reaction of the fans if he did. But the relationship between Van Persie and Van Gaal is very different to the clearly dysfunctional one the striker had with Moyes during the Scot’s short and ill-starred Old Trafford tenure.

Compare and contrast the brooding figure who less than subtly questioned his manager’s tactics after the grim 2-0 defeat at Olympiakos in February with the picture of contentment around Holland’s training camp in Rio de Janeiro’s upmarket Gavea district. At the end of one session this week Van Persie could be seen having an impromptu kickabout with five or six of the squad’s young offspring, all kitted out in Dutch training garb as their mums watched on.

He finished Wednesday’s session with his left thigh taped up but is expected to be fit to face Costa Rica in Saturday’s quarter-final. If not, then Huntelaar will deputise.

Asked about his relationship with Van Gaal, Van Persie told RTL this week: “Yes, we have a very strong bond. It has been good since day one.” The relaxed mindset was underlined by his response to a follow-up question asking whether that bond had helped Van Gaal land the Manchester United job. “No, I don’t have that function. Maybe in the future I can become director of football,” he joked. And yet, it would be a surprise if United’s vice-chairman, Ed Woodward, had not sought his opinion before hiring Van Gaal.

“He has that [a good relationship] with almost all of his players. Everyone respects him, everyone believes in him,” said Van Persie.

Certainly the Dutch players filing through the mixed zone after every one of their matches to date have queued up to proclaim their total faith in Van Gaal, against a backdrop of scepticism in the Dutch media over their coach’s insistence on a 5-3-2 shape viewed as the antithesis of the total football tradition.

That relationship is built on mutual respect. And it is key to the dynamic that Van Gaal has created around a Dutch side in which his captain and his vice-captain, Arjen Robben, have become his lieutenants on the pitch. The rhetoric from both has been the polar opposite of the sometimes selfish public image they have projected in the past.

“The World Cup is not about Robin van Persie. It is about our team doing well. I love a big tournament but I don’t need to have the limelight,” insisted Van Persie before the finals. He and Robben have been empowered by their role as mentors.

And yet Van Gaal’s first move on taking over the national side for the second time – the first included failure to qualify for the 2002 World Cup – in 2012 was to drop the man who would fire Manchester United to the title that season.

At their first team meeting following the disappointing showing under Bert van Marwijk at Euro 2012, Van Gaal took each player aside and asked them to explain their role in the debacle. He told Van Persie he was no longer the team’s No1 striker and that he preferred Huntelaar.

Van Persie later recalled how he went home after sitting on the bench for 90 minutes and saying he had been impressed by Van Gaal’s approach to the job nonetheless. “So, my wife replied: ‘That’s great. So you have a good manager, but you are not going to play!’ Louis just did not know me. He had to get to know me as a person and I had to get to know him.”

A month later, Van Persie was leading the Dutch line again and eight months after that Van Gaal made him captain. The pair used the time Van Persie spent in Holland convalescing from the injury in March that ruled him out of the rest of United’s campaign to good effect.

They spoke often and attended Eredivisie matches together to study the 5-3-2 system that Van Gaal was convinced would best suit a side that blends the experience of Van Persie, Robben, Sneijder, Kuyt and the now injured Nigel de Jong with young domestic talent such as Daley Blind and Memphis Depay.

As a result of their victory over Mexico, Holland face a Costa Rica side that have emerged as the surprise package of this World Cup. But having been written off by their own media before the tournament, an unshakable belief is growing in the Dutch camp.

After the 2-0 victory over Chile that ensured Holland avoided Brazil in the second round, Kuyt said he had been told weeks ago that he might be needed as an extra wing-back. Likewise after the Mexico turnaround, Van Gaal said they had been practising his “plan B” – Kuyt and Huntelaar in a conventional 4-4-2 – for some time.

He will have to shuffle his pack again to take into account the absence of De Jong, whose World Cup is over after he tore a groin muscle against Mexico. The Milan midfielder had flourished in a role that gave him more creative responsibility in addition to his usual enforcing duties and Van Gaal could push Blind forward or bring in Feyenoord’s Jordy Clasie, who has yet to play in Brazil. Another possible option, Norwich City’s Leroy Fer, is also struggling with a hamstring strain.

Although this World Cup looks set to be remembered for individual brilliance and attacking flair over teamwork and tactics, it is worth noting that almost a fifth of the goals have been scored by substitutes. There has also been a flurry of late goals. Interventions from the dugout have proved crucial and are likely to become even more so. All that suits Van Gaal just fine.

Van Gaal, Van Persie and Robben do not appear in any mood to go home just yet. Meanwhile, any chance Wayne Rooney had of seizing the Old Trafford armband over his strike partner once Van Gaal arrives look to be receding fast.

“This group of players is very modest. We have an outstanding spirit, an outstanding atmosphere. Everyone feels we can win it, that it really is possible,” Van Persie said after the Mexico game.

“To be the captain of this squad makes me incredibly proud. It’s a huge honour to be here, at this stage, wearing the armband, because we are a real team.”