Northern Ireland bid to stifle De Jong falls short

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Northern Ireland bid to stifle De Jong falls short

2019-10-11 05:41 Last Updated At：05:50

Northern Ireland defender Paddy McNair snapped at the heels of Netherlands midfielder Frenkie de Jong for 93 minutes. It still wasn't quite enough.

Deep in stoppage time, De Jong sprinted past an exhausted McNair and into the heart of the Northern Ireland defense before laying off a perfectly weighted pass for Memphis Depay to score his second goal in 15 minutes and seal a 3-1 win for the Dutch in Thursday's European Championship qualifier.

It was a trademark De Jong move - gathering the ball while going forward at pace, looking around to assess where his fellow orange-clad players were and finding one of them with pin-point accuracy.

The victory took the Netherlands, which did not qualify for the last two major tournaments, to top of qualifying Group C.

De Jong, the 22-year-old Barcelona midfielder who only made his international debut just over a year ago, has been at the heart of the resurgence of Ronald Koeman's team.

It was a measure of the respect Northern Ireland had for De Jong that coach Michael O'Niell effectively posted McNair in his forward line just to shadow the rising star.

"Very much our game plan centered around trying to keep De Jong quiet," O'Niell said.

The tactic of stifling the Barcelona midfielder almost worked to perfection as Northern Ireland frustrated the Dutch for most of the night at De Kuip stadium and even took an unexpected lead when substitute Josh Magennis headed in at the far post in the 75th minute.

After Depay had equalized, it was De Jong who quickly placed the ball back on the center spot and urged his team to get a move on in the hunt for a winner.

De Jong arrived at Barcelona this season on a 75-million euro transfer following a standout year with Ajax, when his vision and pinpoint accurate passing from midfield helped lead the Amsterdam powerhouse to the Champions League semifinal and Dutch league title.

He is already making his mark in a midfield at Camp Nou long bossed by Sergio Busquets, the veteran with more than 540 Barcelona appearances to his name.

In an indication of a changing of the guard, De Jong was in Barcelona's starting lineup as holding midfielder and 31-year-old Busquets began on the bench for the 4-0 thrashing of Sevilla on Sunday, a switch allowed coach Ernesto Valverde to start Arturo Vidal in a more attacking midfield position.

Speaking ahead of Thursday's match, De Jong said he isn't doing anything radically different at his new club.

"You play with different players, get into certain situations more often - that makes you better and, of course, you learn from it, that seems logical to me," he told Dutch daily Algemeen Dagblad.

Valverde initially used De Jong in a more attacking role on the left of midfield than he was used to with Ajax and the Netherlands, where he often picked up the ball deep in his own half and drove his midfield forward - as he did Thursday in Rotterdam.

De Jong is the latest in a long line of Dutch players who have starred for Barcelona - including his current Netherlands coach Ronald Koeman and the likes of Johan Cruyff and Patrick Kluivert.

Koeman complimented the prodigy for his staying power in the match in finally shaking off McNair.

"You see as the game progresses that he becomes more decisive and finds freedom," Koeman said.

Rolland Courbis, a passionate figure in French soccer, dies at 72

PARIS (AP) — Former Marseille coach Rolland Courbis, a charismatic figure of French soccer who later became a prominent pundit, has died, his employer said on Monday. He was 72.

RMC radio did not disclose the cause of the death in a statement released in agreement with Courbis' family.

Born in Marseille, Courbis came through the club's academy. A rugged defender, he was part of the team that won the French league and cup double in 1972 and returned to the club in the late 1990s as coach.

As a player, he also won two French league titles and a French Cup with Monaco.

“A Marseillais at heart, he embodied popular, dynamic football. His unmistakable accent carried his frank, direct, often passionate and always sincere words,” Marseille said in a tribute.

Courbis enjoyed a much-traveled coaching career, with spells in France and abroad, notably at Bordeaux, Lens, Montpellier and the USM Alger.

Among the many defining moments of his career was a stunning comeback he oversaw when coaching Marseille. His team found itself 4-0 down at home to Montpellier in 1998 but fought back to seal a remarkable 5-4 victory.

Courbis, who had a taste for casino gambling and lived with an Italian countess for a while, led a tumultuous life. He was seriously wounded in 1996 when gunmen fatally shot the president of a French soccer team outside a stadium following a game. Courbis, who was also involved in several legal cases and sentenced to prison, was hit by a bullet during the attack.

France coach Didier Deschamps said that with his passing, French soccer lost “a fine connoisseur of football and its inner workings, but also of the game itself.”

“He was a true passionate figure,” Deschamps added. “And in recent years, he chose to pass on that passion behind a microphone, with a turn of phrase all his own.”

Since 2005, he had become a consultant on RMC, where he commented on football news.

“His passion came through in his trademark Marseille accent and in a very direct rapport with listeners,” RMC said. “A freedom of tone that kept the language of the supporters, while sharing their questions and emotions. He was particularly successful in remaining approachable and warm, while still being demanding on substance.”

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