NETHERLANDS GO FOR POINTS NOT PRAISE IN 1-0 WIN OVER JAPAN
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 20 Jun 2010
Sacrificing the attractive, free-flowing football they were known for in reaching two FIFA World Cup Finals in the 1970s, the Netherlands has adopted a far more disciplined approach at least in the Group stages of the 2020 FIFA World Cup where points not praise appears to matter most.
Netherlands forward and hardworking Liverpool striker Dirk Kuyt summed up the attitude of the Orangemen when he told FIFA.com after a 1-0 win over a defensive-minded Japanese squad 1-0 in Durban ?it would be great to score bags of goals and play flowing football all the time but if you gave me the choice between points and style, I would take the points every day.?
The Netherlands didn?t have things all their own way against a typically disciplined Japanese squad and the only goal of the game came from Wesley Sneijder shortly after the break at the Moses Mabhida Stadium.
Japan played to a defensive plan with ten men behind the ball, enticing the Dutch to push forward and hoping for a chance to counter on the break in a first half where neither team threatened to score. A free kick by Sneijder in the ninth minute soared harmlessly over Eiji Kawashima's crossbar and seconds later Kuyt tried an audacious bicycle kick from close in which was well blocked by a defender.
In its match report FIFA noted that with Takeshi Okada's men looking to threaten on the break, the Dutch appeared reluctant to commit themselves fully forward. The result was an opening stanza that produced only two shots on goal, the first from Daisuke Matsui seven minutes before the break, as the Blue Samurai began to sharpen their blades late in the half. Rafael van der Vaart added the other in stoppage time, but it hardly had Kawashima worried.
In contrast to the first 45 minutes the second half began aggressively as evidenced when after a few seconds Robin van Persie's snapped header had Kawashima scrambling to smother and the Arsenal forward then raced into the box to volley towards goal from a long ball up from Mark van Bommel. Unfortunately, he could only steer the ball wide of the mark.
Dutch pressure was beginning to mount, and the roar the crowd were waiting to unleash came in the 53rd minute, Sneijder ? the Inter Milan danger-man ? supplying the bullet. After Marcus Tulio Tanaka failed to deal with a cross from the left, Van Persie laid the ball off on the edge of the box and Sneijder, always looking the likely goal-getter, slammed in a shot that Kawashima, diving to his right, got a hand to but could only help on its way into the net.
Okada's men were forced to come out of their shell after the setback, pushing forward into attack and putting pressure on a Dutch defence that had hardly had a thing to do up to that point. Japan's coach shuffled his pack just after the hour, bringing former Celtic star Shunsuke Nakamura into the fray while Van Marwijk sent on Eljero Elia ten minutes later. A further two attacking substitutes came on for Japan ? strikers Keiji Tamada and Shinji Ozakazi ? with a quarter-hour to go, and the latter nearly drew his team level on the stroke of full time, only to fire over the bar from close range to a groan from the blue section of the crowd.
The Netherlands, with maximum points from their first two games, next play Cameroon on 24 June in Cape Town, while Japan will look to recover from this reverse when they finish their Group E program in Rustenburg on the same day against Denmark.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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