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Orlando Engelaar


Murfy1
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According to the social media platform, Engelaar was an immediate hit with fans of the Red and White, who are excited at the prospect of the 14-time international donning the Red and White for the 2013-14 Hyundai A-League season.

Engelaar is due to arrive in Melbourne this Friday and join his teammates over the weekend.

hope he be at Richmond :up: 

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Engelaar speaks from the heart

Date August 21, 2013
 
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Towering presence: Orlando Engelaar has received high praise from Heart coach John Aloisi. Photo: Getty Images

The Dutch have a reputation in soccer for calling it like it is and not beating about the bush.

So when Melbourne Heart's new marquee player, former Oranje midfielder Orlando Engelaar, was asked whether a dinner meeting with his compatriot and now teammate Robbie Wielaert to discuss the club, Melbourne and Australia, had any bearing on his decision to uproot his family and move to the other side of the world, he was refreshingly frank.

''I already played with him a few years ago [at Dutch club FC Twente] and what he told me about it was good. If he would have said don't come here because it's shit, then maybe I would have had second thoughts, but it wasn't really a decision-maker. I would want to make a decision for myself on the way I feel here, the way it looks.''

Engelaar, 34 this month is, at 195 centimetres, a towering presence. He made his name as a holding midfielder, a pivot who can break up the play but also turn provider for those further forward.

He is also a man who appears comfortable in his decision to move out of the European mainstream, even though other clubs were interested in him after his time with PSV Eindhoven came to an end after the last Eredivisie season.

''I wanted something else, something different,'' he said on Tuesday after arriving in Melbourne on Friday.

''The country excites me, the city, Melbourne, and when Melbourne Heart came, they intrigued me with what they wanted. They showed me that they really wanted me, they made me see that I could be really important in certain areas for the other boys, and bring something extra to the team, so that's what really excited me.''

Engelaar has trained with Heart three times, but admits he needs to work hard to get up to match fitness before the season kicks off against Melbourne Victory at Etihad Stadium on October 12.

He admits that he doesn't know that much about the A-League, save for what he has heard from a handful of players: that it is played at a quick tempo and requires players to be in top physical condition.

''It's a totally different way of playing football. I am curious to see how I will do,'' he said.

''I get a lot of responsibility in the team, and I really want to help the guys.

''I have seen and heard that the players are really fit and that the games are played at a really high tempo - maybe a little bit too high sometimes, which doesn't help the quality of the game - but that's something I have to get used to.''

His new coach, John Aloisi, has predicted that Engelaar can be one of the best midfielders to have played in the A-League.

''It's not really pressure, I see it [Aloisi's praise] as a compliment. I just want to make him look not bad,'' Engelaar said.

''I don't think John will ask me to score 20 goals or do things that I am not able to do or what I am less good at. He will want me to do what I am good at, what I have shown before.''

And that, says Aloisi, is controlling the game: slowing things up when necessary, or orchestrating fast counter-attacks.

''We have been looking for this type of player a long time,'' he said. ''We have lacked someone who can control the tempo of the game and, I think, as Orlando said, about how quick the Australian league is, it's not always a positive.

''Sometimes you need to be able to dictate the tempo and when you can break you break, and when you have to keep possession of the ball you can.''
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/sport/a-league/engelaar-speaks-from-the-heart-20130820-2s9ah.html#ixzz2cWZehYbf

Edited by Peter
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