We are now deep into the business end of the World Cup. A stage of the tournament that harshly punishes mistakes and greatly rewards teams that can bridge a gap towards success. Whether this path to success is paved by individual greatness or well-crafted team displays of tactical supremacy, the winner of this competition will be those who fail to make a sufficient amount of mistakes to lose.
So far, Holland have been by nature advantageous and lucky in the manner of their progression to the final. They have failed to live up to people’s unrealistic expectations of playing what is perceived to be “total football” and are a bit more rough and ready than people foresaw.
Those who would fill their appetite for international football with a major championship every two years would cast fond memories back to a Netherlands team not so long ago that demolished opponents with fluent and flowing attacking football. Unfortunately, the streak of flair in Dutch play has been slowly dying out and been replaced with a more aggressive element which takes a more direct approach towards the game, while also carrying an outlet of speed merchants on the wings for fast counter attacks.
The new way of Dutch football that has diverged from the path of ‘total football’ has been building up to this moment where their team has taken on a more black and white appearance. Total football by nature allowed for the interchange of positions between different players on the pitch, giving the team diversity. Nowadays, Holland have a very rigid outlook to their team that sees little variety in the positions taken by their players. Admittedly Dirk Kuyt and Arjen Robben can switch wings and striker Robin van Persie cane drift across the forward positions, but this hardly aspires to the similar variation seen in total football.
Throughout this World Cup, the Netherlands have been set up on a strict foundation of a back four with attacking full-backs Gregory van der Wiel and Giovanni van Bronckhorst. Sitting ahead of this are the holding midfielders Mark van Bommel and Nigel de Jong or Demy de Zeeuw, charged with breaking up the attacking play of their opposition. Sitting ahead of this defensive precursor lie a potent attack force with a range of abilities. Until now this system has gotten them through to the World Cup final, but the next step may be that bit too far.
Their set up is solid, they have a system that can be executed by the players available to Dutch coach Bert van Marwijk and have a winning mentality in place, though this team leave far too much to chance and have been aided through to this stage of the tournament. Their semi final victory over Uruguay was far from convincing. A lucky offside decision going in their favour and the inability of Diego Perez to stick to his allocated position gave Holland two clear goals and the lead in a tightly contested semi final on two separate occasions.
Although their first goal was a marvelous piece of technique by stalwart captain Giovanni van Bronckhorst, the full back would not have had ample opportunity to release his shot if tough tackling Diego Perez was defending his territory adequately. Build up to that play also saw a somewhat vicious body check from van Bommel. The midfielder clashed with Walter Gargano while leading with his studs and this should have resulted in a free kick to the Uruguayans in the lead up to the opening goal.
Admittedly Holland’s second goal required exquisite eyesight from the assistant referee to spot, but there is no doubt that van Persie was interfering with play when Sneijder unleashed his shot. These two incidents show that Holland may not be a team that make many mistakes, but they do live off errors by others and cannot continue along that line.
For large parts, Uruguay passed the ball better than Holland and generally bossed the game. The Netherlands star outlets were marked out of the game with apparent ease and most Dutch efforts on goal were reduced to shots from outside the box. Uruguay firmly had their opponents stifled only for a 50-50 decision which saw Holland take the lead for the second time on the night.
Although this semi final win can be added to yet another unconvincing Dutch victory at the World Cup in South Africa, some positives can be taken into the final. The introduction of Rafael van der Vaart for Demy de Zeeuw at half time brought Dutch play more central and gave a purpose to their wing play. With the added figure of van der Vaart in attack, other attackers were forced to vary their positioning and seek space in other areas of the pitch. This was particularly evident in the third goal that saw Arjen Robben move more central and score an unlikely goal with his head.
They have gotten this far and now only need to muster up one exquisite performance to etch their name onto the World Cup for the very first time. On the other hand, if they expect to be helped along to a World Cup victory through a lucky deflection or favorable decision, they may find that their luck has run out on the biggest stage.
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Lucky Dutch!
Have yo actually ever watched the Dutch play? What a load of claptrap; apply for a job at ITV, you’ve got the right skills for it.
Bossed the game? How exactly? They may have bossed Holland’s forward players, but certainly they did not boss the game or control it. They simply stiffled Holland for the majority of it, with 8 defensive players outfield this is no real suprise.. Christ, even the highly criticised Inter team had 4 attacking players on the pitch, Uruguay had 2, hoping for something special from Forlan… Holland had three or four, which ultimately proved enough.
Matter of opinion I guess, but I think Uruguay were marginally better. Their passing was better, build up play tactically well thought out and showed a lot of fighting spirit for large parts of the game.
Uruguay the better side? Killian, do yourself a favour and go see the optician.
Killian get new glasses indeed. The Dutch had 6-7 goal scoring chances, Uruguay really had none. A long distance shot that the goalkeeper should have had and a late shot that caught the Dutch while they were already celebrating.
Billy, which game were you watching? Netherlands had far more chances, but Uruguay had several too. They had a shot from outside the box in the first half. And then Forlan’s goal later in the same half.
In the second half, there was a shot that was cleared by the last defender a few feet off the line, and then Diego Forlan’s free kick which almost went in. And then Uruguay’s second goal.
Cheers,
The Gaffer
Dutch are a better team than Uruguay but the Netherlands were given all the 50-50 calls in their favor. It appears after the Suarez handball, the Uruguayans have been portrayed as cheats and so the Referee did seem very, very lenient with Van Bommel. If anyone check replays prior to the first Dutch goal, they will see it was a clear foul on Van Bommel. He was lucky to end the match with just a yellow.
As for Sneijder’s goal, according to FIFA it should have been disallowed for offside because it was not a back pass from a defender and RvP was offside. If this was a valid goal, then Paraguay scored a valid goals vs Spain and Italy scored a valid goal vs Slovakia.
The officiating was on Holland’s side but there is no denying Uruguay did not play to win but they deserve credit for their fighting spirit. It’s also shameful for a talented player like Robben to continuously flop! He’s got the talent so he doesn’t need to flop at every opportunity- what a disgrace!
What a load of bollocks,tripe and codswallop !!
Oh, my god. Where have you been? The orange strip is way nicer than the blue one.
If I had a paper, I’d never let you write for it.
on the Sneijder Van Persie goal maybe it wasn’t ruled offside because Sneijder doesn’t consider him a team mate?
If you’re going to call the Dutch lucky then you should acknowledge that Spain has been lucky as well.
I might be benaitg a dead horse, but thank you for posting this!