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Blinders & Blunders: Netherlands Bloodbath

Written by Dan Bolas on Sunday, 18 July 20105 Comments

Some people may remember a time with Dutch football was refered to as pure. Even in the club game today, sides from Holland tend to play 4-3-3, very fast paced and attack with both intensity and ability. Spinning great Dutch footballers off the tongue is childs play for most, names like Cruyff, Gullit, Van Basten and Bergkamp are all household names even today. So then, the 2010 World Cup final gave the Netherlands that opportunity to write the infinate wrongs of world football, and not just be known as ‘the best side never to win a world cup’.

Unfortunately, what we got on July 11th was a performance more akin to a Sunday pub match. Inspite of playing top attacking players such as Robben, Sneijder and Van Persie, the Netherlands tactics and performance against Spain was both crass on the eye and nothing more than a way of limiting an opponent. If you get to the final of any major competition (and beat Brazil in the process!) you have to be able to play a bit, and the final is a place to really pit your footballing ability against an equally matched team. In South Africa though, the gulf was huge between one sides quality and another sides fear of defeat. Petite fouls, late tackles and De Jong’s kung fu kick will all be more memorable then any other aspect of the game, and the fact that Howard Webb had to send Heitinga off was nothing more that just desserts. Van Bommel, a player who I personally rate, spent more time kicking Spanish midfielders than he did the ball in that 120 minutes, and whilst Webb has received much criticism from the Dutch press, it is the national side that need to take a look at themselves before casting blame. In the biggest game in World football, on the biggest stage and with the biggest audience, the nation deserves better than the tactics used. Memorable yes, but only as a huge blunder!

5 Comments »

Chris said:

Not sure how well you read the Dutch press. True, the referee received a lot of criticism. According to the press he was not consistent in his performance. 14 yellow cards…

On numerous occasions he should have presented the red card. van Bommel, de Jong they should have been sent off. Robben should have received a second yellow card for kicking the ball in the goal after being flagged offside.

Puyol should have been sent off with a second yellow card after Robben broke free. Robben decided to play on while diving would have been better. Another Spanish should have had a red card for hitting van Bommel when the ball was not in play. Think it was Iniesta who should have been sent off.

But…

All the Dutch press agreed that the Dutch played in a non-dutch style. Playing defensive, not playing the way we are used to play. So did agree the Dutch press on the fact that Spain deserved the win.

The Dutch team walked back throughout the game and seemed not to have learned from Germany’s semi-final performance which was similar to the Dutch playing style.

According to the Dutch press Spain deserved the win and the Dutch team tactics to blame. And not to blame the referee, although he played a strange role in this final.

But what if…
Robben put the ball past Casillas
Webb gives a corner after Sneijders free kick when playing with 10 players, everybody could see it was a corner
Spain gets some better striker, or was it thanks to Stekelenburg’s performance.

- 18 July 2010 at 10:48 pm

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- 19 July 2010 at 12:02 pm

Rastiniai namai said:

Webb is good referee. He did good jon ine the final

- 21 July 2010 at 9:11 am

Juan_007 said:

Correction…Webb is a good ref, but did an awful job at the WC final, as he did on the CL final…

Is it a good idea to not let this man lead final? Let him do semi-finals…:)

Kiddin…he is a good ref, but the finals he led this year werent his best jobs, thats for sure!

Btw, tottaly agree with Chris about our Dutch press…there wasnt one single columnist who didnt say Spain deserved it and that we had chosen the wrong approach for this game.

And though not as ‘pure’ as some may think our football was, that final was thrilling (at least for us, Dutch).
Too bad we didnt win after loosing two finals before, playing our best ‘pure’ football we ever saw.
Maybe Van Marwijk felt we should try another approach for our 3rd final…?

Hopefully the 4th time we will succeed, and let it be with attacking football that is appealing to the eye!

- 27 July 2010 at 5:06 pm

Juan_007 said:

Owh, and before I forget…that red card for Heitinga was rediculous! He was one of the only players that didnt deserve a card that game…the first yellow was a trick of Ramos (if I remember it well…otherwise it was Torres) and the second was HARDLY a yellow.

- 27 July 2010 at 5:10 pm