DUTCH DELIGHT AS THEY ENTER THE FINALS WITH 3-2 WIN OVER URUGUAY
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 07 Jul 2010
In an absorbing game of football, the favored orange shirts of the Netherlands beat a gallant young Uruguay side in which 21 of their 23 listed players were seeing action in the FIFA World Cup for the very first time 3-2 to enter the finals against the winners of the second semi final showdown between European champions Spain and a young German side that has played so far like a well-oiled machine.
Dutch delight at a 3-1 lead going into the final few minutes was suddenly snapped after Maxi Pereira curled in a goal to set up a frantic injury time tussle in which the Netherlands held on to score a well deserved victory and enter the finals for the first time since 1978.
As Chris Bevan of BBC Sport observed the Dutch looked short of ideas for long periods but still had the quality in front of goal when it mattered.
The Netherlands took the lead in the 18th minute when skipper Giovanni van Bronckhorst sent in a thunderbolt that curled past the Uruguayan goalkeeper as it touched the fingertips of his outstretched hands and crashed off the goalpost into the corner of the net.
But the confidence of the Dutch was shattered when Uruguay?s skipper Diego Forlan hammered home another cracking goal from long range to even the count at 1-1 although goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg?s effort was decidedly poor.
Both teams went into the dugout at halftime with neither side really dominating although the Netherlands controlled possession.
The Dutch regained the lead in the 70th minute when their top goal-scorer Wesley Sneijder picked up a through pass and scored off a slight deflection from an Uruguayan defender although Robin Van Persie appeared to be offside but was not called because he didn?t interfere in the play at all.
Three minutes later, as the Dutch kept the pressure on with Arjen Robben making one incisive run after another on the right flank and giving the defense all sorts of problems, Robben escaped his defender, latched on to a cross from Dirk Kuyt and headed the ball perfectly into the corner of the net once again benefiting from the ball glancing off the upright.
The goal which came one minute after Sneijder?s goal appeared to seal a finals berth for the Netherlands in what will be an all-Europe affairl but the last South American squad in contention in the final four never gave up.
With a tired if not disappointed Forlan the architect of Uruguay?s fine showing being replaced, the South Americans suddenly came alive playing the dying minutes with rare intensity and using their speed to good advantage and were rewarded with a late goal by Pereira two minutes into stoppage time even as the referee appeared to add a couple of minutes of his own to the added time.
The Uruguayans played with a desperate intent to force extra time cheered on by their bench as the Dutch appeared to be nervous. But time ran out and as the Dutch celebrated the young Uruguayans found it hard to hold back their tears over what might have been if their other star striker Luis Suarez hadn?t been suspended for his deliberate goal-line handball that eventually helped Uruguay beat luckless Ghana in the quarter finals.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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