FIFA World Cup 2010: Preview - who will top Group E Netherlands or Chile
Netherlands have given this tournament the best performance by a European team so far. They are the only European team to have won both of their opening matches and not conceding in either of them (two South American teams Uruguay and Chile are also yet to concede a goal with the former having played their three group matches).
Netherlands opened their campaign with a clinical win over the fellow European qualifiers Denmark. Deadlock in that match was broken by a fault from the Danish defence line when Simon Poulsen headed the ball on to the back of his own team-mate Daniel Agger only to direct the ball into the net. The second goal in that match was scored late through Dirk Kuyt’s tap in after Eljero Elia's shot had struck the goal post.
Dutch players lives in the second match was made difficult by the industrious Japanese side that were most willing to go for every tackle, run after every ball and take chances at every opportunity. Netherlands required a thunderous strike from the edge of the penalty box by Wesley Sneijder to overcome Japan and confirm their qualification through to the Round of 16.
The Dutch side will play their last group match against the bottom team Cameroon and are favourites to clean sweep the group by three wins in three matches. It is worth considering here that their star midfielder Arjen Robben has not played in the tournament so far due to an injury but is expected to take full part in the on-field matters from the knock out stage. After his inclusion in the team, the Dutch will only get stronger than before with an added quality of Robben.
Cameroon became the first team to be knocked out of this World Cup after defeats in both of their opening matches. Their coach Paul Le Guen’s decision to play the key striker Samuel Eto’o on wide right did not benefit them in the first match against Japan. Eto’o was moved in centre of the attack for the second match against Denmark but they overthrew their early goal advantage to lose 2-1 in the end. The only thing left for the Indomitable Lions against the high flying Dutch is to restore some of their battered pride and end their sixth World Cup campaign on a positive note.
With the Japanese team on the ground, viewers can be sure of experiencing one battle-like football match. Fitness and commitment levels for the Japanese players is always so high that they fight for every ball from start to end, with no fear of who they are playing against. Both of their matches were low scoring but very entertaining and very well played.
Japan and Denmark will go into their final group match with an aim of grabbing the only available qualification spot in the group. Denmark needs to win this match in any case to progress through the group stage while Japan has the luxury of superior goal difference because of which they only need to avoid defeat to qualify for the knock out stage. This will prove to be quite a tough match for the Danes with the Japanese composure, discipline, and energy.
After the second round of group matches, things have become quite straight forward, particularly in this group. Only a seemingly unlikely defeat at the hands of Cameroon plus a win by either Japan or Denmark in their match with a handsome margin will deny the Netherlands from topping the group.
The winner of this group will face the runners-up of Group F in the Round of 16. While the second-positioned team from this group will face Group F’s winners. Group F consists of Italy, Paraguay, Slovakia and New Zealand.
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