Balázs and the World Cup

Even though on holiday, Balázs is paying close attention to the Cup. His opinion can be read every day in Blikk, one of the Hungarian tabloid papers, just like in 2008, when he was commenting on the European Championship.

Several of Balázs’ teammates are present at the WC in South Africa: André Ooijer and Ibrahim Afellay (Holland); Francisco “Maza” Rodríguez and Carlos Salcido (Mexico) are all there. One of Balázs’ best friends, Danko Lazovic is playing too, in addition to a number of his former club mates: Brazilian Heurelho da Silva Gomes (currently at Tottenham Hotspur) and the Australian Jason Culina.
The 2 Mexican defenders are base-players in their national teams, and “Iby” Afellay, who played as sub in both Dutch games, is the 40th PSV player to take part in a World Cup. Since 1974 there was only one occasion that PSV sent no player to a WC, while stars like Brandts, Gerets, Kieft, Romário, Van Breukelen, Vanenburg, Popescu, Wouter, Cocu, Stam and Zenden came from the Philips Stadium.

1934 – Van Run
1974 – Edström, Nordqvist (Sweden)
1978 – Brandts, Poortvliet, R. and W. van der Kerkhof, Van Kraay
1986 – Arnesen (Denmark), Gerets (Belgium)
1990 – Gerets, Chovanec (former Czechoslovakia), Romário (Brazil), Van Aerle, Van Breukelen, Vanenburg, Kieft
1994 – Ingesson (Sweden), Popescu (Romania), Numan, Wouters
1998 – Möller (Denmark), Nilis (Belgium), Stinga (Romania), Numan, Stam, Zenden, Cocu, Jonk
2002 – Bögelund, Heintze, Rommedahl (Denmark), Nyikiforov (Russia)
2006 – Addo (Ghana), Beasley (USA), Culina (Australia), Koné (Ivory Coast), Cocu, Ooijer, Vennegoor of Hesselink
2010 – Salcido, Rodríguez (Mexico), Afellay

Out of all the goalkeepers entering the World Cup five guard goals in Holland – they are well known to Balázs. He has already played against Sergio Romero (AZ Alkmaar, Argentina), Aleksandr Seliga (Sparta Rotterdam, Slovenia), Maarten Stekelenburg (Ajax Amsterdam), Michel Vorm (Utrecht) and Sander Boschker (Twente) too.
Stekelenburg, Nr. 1 goalie of Holland, is not a big fan of Balázs, having received altogether 5 goals from him. Dzsudzsák has scored to Boschker twice, to Seliga once, and Konstantinos Chalkias (Greece) is also there at the WC – he was to receive Balázs’ first national goal ever in May 2008.
Several of the field players are also known to Balázs, no wonder, as about 3 teams of players from Dutch clubs play at the games. Let’s see the direct opponents, the rightbacks he has met during his career:
Gregory van der Wiel – defender of Ajax, one of the biggest opponents. He will surely not forget last August’s Dzsudzsák-show.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst – senior captain of Oranje. He had close encounter with Balázs in June.
The Hamburg defenders Balázs is not likely to forget easily: Jerome Boateng (Germany) and Guy Demel (Ivory Coast). They were the ones to see PSV kicked out of the Europa League.
Out of the other WC rightbacks Balázs has already played Gurkas Seitaridis and Lukas Vintra of Greece, Lars Jacobsen of Denmark and Álvaro Arbeloa of Spain.