Netherlands Topple Mexico in World Cup Warm-Up
It is time for final practice sessions and friendlies for the fancied teams, as they look to settle their squads at the eve of the Football World Cup in South Africa.
The Netherlands fashioned out a close win over Central Americans Mexico in a warm-up match that must have helped the men in orange boost the morale of their players before action gets underway in the rainbow nation on the 11th of June.
The star of the show in the match played in Freiburg, Germany, was Robin van Persie, who once again proved his worth as the central force for the Dutch team with two fine goals to lift his team to a 2-1 win over Mexico. Mexico were beaten 3-1 by England in another warm-up match held on Monday.
The Dutch team started the match with only five first-team regulars as the coach of the national team Bert van Marwijk declared that the match would be the last test before he reduces his 27-man squad to 23 later that day.
The Dutch were without Arjen Robben, Mark van Bommel and Wesley Sneijder, who all featured in Saturday's Champions League final between Inter Milan and Bayern Munich in Madrid.
Van Persie led the line alongside Dirk Kuyt and Ibrahim Afellay with Rafael Van Der Vaart as the playmaker in the team.
The Dutch team made a bright start and created one scoring chance after another with Captain Van Der Vaart leading from the front hitting the goal post in the eighth minute with a long range shot that sent jitters in the Mexican ranks.
The Dutch efforts were not to be denied for long as only nine minutes later, Van Persie opened the scoring from Van der Vaart's cross field pass.
The rampaging forwards tore into the Mexican defence with a plethora of moves, and the Arsenal forward added a second in the 41st minute, drilling home a fine cross field pass from Afellay.
The Mexicans came out all guns blazing in the second half, making inroads into the Dutch half that had dominated the proceedings from the onset.
Javier Aguirre's side tested the nervous Dutch defence, and in the 58th minute the Dutch were severely tested when Ajax goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg leapt to punch away substitute Pablo Barrera's shot.
The pressure was constant on the Dutch defence, as they were given a taste of what to expect in tougher World cup assignments.
Finally the Mexicans were rewarded when Javier Hernandez broke through for in the 74th minute, heading home from close range off Jorge Torres' cross.
The Mexicans came close to equalizing a minute later but Stekelenburg denied Giovani dos Santos' long range effort with a fine save.
Amid increasing pressure, the Dutch succeeded in salvaging a win, by holding on tight to their slender lead.
The Dutch have a few games to flex their muscles in before they embark upon the World Cup campaign.
They will be hosting tournament dark horses Ghana on June 1 in Rotterdam, followed by a clash against Europeans Hungary four days later in Amsterdam.
The Netherlands will get their campaign underway in the World cup on the 14th of June where they will face Denmark in their opener; Japan and Cameroon are the other group E opponents for the Dutch who have a chequered history in the tournament and have generally failed to live up to their reputation of being a frontrunner in the competition.
Mexico on the other hand has two more friendlies before opening their World Cup campaign against hosts South Africa on June 11. Teams France and Uruguay are also placed in the same group [Group A].
Tags: