FIFA World Cup 2010: Why the Dutch can collapse in the final
The Dutch have made it into the finals of the World Cup after beating Uruguay in normal time by a score line of three goals to two. Uruguay were effective but lacked quality in the middle of the park to really trouble the Dutch, who bossed the game for long periods and kept the ball fairly well.
This Dutch side does not work on the total footballing philosophy like its predecessors but it has grit and steel along with effective attack minded players. Another important characteristic of this Netherlands side is that the manager is not attempting to squeeze in all the star players into the starting eleven, like previous managers tried to do.
The Dutch failure at the World Cup has usually been due to their failure to win penalty shoot-outs firstly and secondly it has been largely due to in-camp fighting amongst big name players and managers. This time around the Dutch seem to have the second one in order but are have yet to exorcize their penalty-shoot out demons. Up till now they have been efficient enough to secure wins for themselves within normal time.
However, this new Holland side is not perfect by any means and is not particularly World Cup winning material either. Yes, they do have players such as Sneijder, Robben and Van Persie but there are several reasons as to why this team can once again falter at the final hurdle.
Luck has played a massive part in the Dutch progression to the finals of the FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa. Whatever one might think, Luck plays a crucial role especially in knockout sport tournaments. The World Cup is a knockout football tournament and thus anyone who wins will need some luck on their side. So far the Dutch have used up a lot of their luck, against Brazil they were given an advantage because of Felipe Melo’s immature stomp on Robben, they were also assisted by his own goal earlier on the in the game.
Then against Uruguay, Van Bronckhorst’s shot went into the goal via the goalpost, there is a possibility that it could have gone out of play, but it didn’t. Their second goal also had an element of luck to it as Sneijder’s shot took a deflection off a Uruguayan defender. How much longer will the Dutch depend on luck for? Will it run out in the final?
The Dutch have been known to have lapses of concentration during matches. Against Brazil, they were out of the game in the first half when Brazil dominated the game, it was looking as if the Dutch will be overrun in the second half as well by Brazilian attacks but that wasn’t to be, as they woke up just in time to save the match.
Against Uruguay after taking the lead, Holland seemed to relax a bit and took their foot off the pedal. This meant that Uruguay were given an opportunity to come back into the game because of the relaxed demeanor that the Dutch had adopted, Uruguay took this opportunity brilliantly as Forlan scored their first goal to bring the scores to one all.
After that the Dutch seemed to wake up again and scored two more to secure victory. These momentary lapses in energy and concentration can hurt the Dutch especially against teams like the Germans and the Spanish. Both of these teams go for the jugular whenever they see the opportunity, whereas the Dutch don’t seem interested in killing the game off like their prospective opponents. Such an attitude might be the cause of their eventual downfall in the ultimate game of the tournament.
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