Maarten Stekelenburg Makes Oranje History

September 7th, 2008 | by: chris | Comments Off

You’d think, having played organized fixtures for 103 years now, the Dutch National Football Team would have experienced it all. Nope. Somehow, Maarten Stekelenburg, the newly minted Oranje No. 1 after Edwin van der Sar’s retirement, earned the first red card for a goalkeeper in the history of the Oranje – with at least 1.5 assists to ex-Ajax teammate John Heitinga for that criminal backpass – and during a friendly, no less. The validity of the card is up for debate, but it’ll stand regardless. So hat’s off to the Dutch for managing a full century plus without having a keeper sent off, and hopefully this won’t prove to be an indicator of things to come for Stekelenburg’s career as the Dutch No. 1.

Oh yeah, and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar scored a goal. Of course he did.