Uruguay 2 – 3 Netherlands
After the early stages of the tournament suggested that South American sides might dominate in the first African World Cup, it is now confirmed that we will see an all-European final, possibly between two sides that have never lifted the trophy before.
The Netherlands found their road to the final a rocky one, though, shattering those silly, arrogant proclamations that had been emanating from Holland about an easy game. For a goal that featured five goals it was quite cagey, with long periods of the game going by in which neither team seemed likely to break down the others’ defensive barriers. Certainly the first fifteen minutes were as tentative as they were even. The Netherlands were slow to accelerate, with Wesley Sneijder, their standout player so far, not exerting any real creative influence, and Uruguay immediately looked like they were lacking a dimension without Luis Suarez. Much of what has made them such an impressive side during this competition has been due to the running of both Suarez and Edinson Cavani around Diego Forlan, pulling defenders away. We saw how crucial that is to their play with their equaliser in the 41st minute – Cavani made an angled run not once but twice to drag away Joris Mathijsen which gave Forlan the space to turn and shoot. What a good shot it was, too, although arguably Maarten Stekelenburg should have done better.
Good as it was though, it wasn’t a patch on the opener. Breaking out of that opening crawl, Dutch captain Giovanni van Bronckhorst pulled an absolute corker out of the bag. Played in by a little through ball advancing on the left, van Bronckhorst didn’t wait to take a touch, he just shaped and from an improbable angle (and the small matter of 41 yards) cannoned the ball at breakneck pace arrow-straight into the inside of the far post. Fernando Muslera did as well as he could but there was no way he could have stopped that shot. That absolute stunner is a late contender for goal of the tournament that may well not be beaten.
The intervening periods in the first half developed a bit of friction as some late tackles and more cynical fouls crept into the game. This was mostly from the Dutch, I think it’s fair to say, particularly after Forlan scored, and in the few minutes both before and after half-time, Holland looked rattled, defensive and edgy. That was the time when Uruguay could have seized the advantage but again they didn’t have enough penetration without Suarez and eventually the Dutch wormed their way back into the reckoning.
There was (and I’m sure will continue to be for a while) some debate over the goal that capped the Dutch resurrection. When Sneijder’s shot was hit, Robin van Persie was standing in a borderline offside position and was obviously ‘active’. From what I could see of the replay, though, van Persie looked marginally onside, but it was so close that whatever the officials’ decision had been there would have been complaints about it. It turned out to be van Persie’s biggest contribution – the striker had yet another average game, taking a little too much time to himself when opportunities presented themselves and not, to my recollection, getting off a serious shot on goal.
Whatever controversy there was over the second goal was completely absent from the third, which arrived just two minutes later and appeared to have killed the game off. You would have got long odds before the game on Arjen Robben scoring a header but that was what he did, burying with true poacher’s instinct a cross from Dirk Kuyt, who did surprisingly well stretching the Uruguayan right flank despite being right-footed himself. It was a cool, classy goal and it seemed to have taken all of the wind out of Uruguay’s sails. Their inability to mount a comeback was summed up by the substitution of Forlan, apparently carrying a minor knock, who looked resigned to his country’s fate.
There were a few hectic minutes as, out of nowhere, Maximiliano Pereira found himself with the ball on the edge of the penalty area following a well-planned free-kick and slipped a clever curling shot around Stekelenburg’s fingers into the corner of the net. Suddenly Uruguay were filled with urgency and they hurled themselves forward, causing a couple of nervy moments. Indeed, so eager were the Netherlands to see the end of this revolt that Mark van Bommel jumped to conclusions when the referee blew his whistle in stoppage time and kicked the ball away in celebration – for his trouble he was booked, ironic it being for such a simple mistake when he had inexplicably got away with several vicious fouls during the game. For him, certainly, it had been an unconvincing, slightly desperate game.
That was the problem with a few of the Dutch players, and, much like the victorious France side of 1998, they have reached the final having not yet really played all that well. There was so much obviously yet to come from the likes of Sneijder, van Bommel, Robben, van Persie and Rafael van der Vaart that the best player on the park in orange was the right-back Khalid Boulahrouz. Playing only because of Gregory van der Wiel’s suspension, and probably unlikely to keep his place for the final, Boulahrouz didn’t really get forward but just played a solid game in defense, helping to nullify Cavani’s runs.
So the Netherlands still have plenty of room to improve going into the biggest game of their lives – encouragingly, some might say. Uruguay, though, were clearly not as good as they had been in previous games. Suarez was a huge loss, and although Forlan had another good game, always looking capable of getting things done, he just didn’t have as much space as he did when there were two strikers running off him. In that way it was reminiscent of their first game against France, in which Cavani did not play and neither Forlan nor Suarez had much joy. But overall, despite this loss, Uruguay will look back on this tournament with pride. They have exceeded expectations, even accounting for a relatively good draw, and did it playing an attack-minded formation with a group of largely unheralded players. They also missed left-back Jorge Fucile tonight who’s had an impressive tournament but Diego Perez, Diego Lugano, Egidio Arevalo and the Pereiras (Maximiliano and Alvaro) have emerged with great credit. For a country with a population half that of Greater London, a World Cup semi-final is a brilliant achievement.
Man of the Day: Boulahrouz for me, although an honourable mention for Kuyt.
Tomorrow, I just don’t know which way to call it. On one hand, Germany have been arguably the best team of the tournament and should be well-suited to shutting down Spain. On the other hand, on paper Spain are the better side and David Villa has for my money been the best player of the tournament. Also, Paul the psychic German octopus, who has so far correctly predicted every German result, has spoken and the clairvoyant cephalopod has said that Spain for win, and who am I to argue with that kind of evidence?