World Cup: Netherlands vs Slovakia - Arjen Robben and Sneijder Lead Netherlands to 2-1 Victory
Holland made their way into the quarterfinals of the FIFA World Cup 2010 by comfortably beating Slovakia 2-1. It was once again a trademark left footer that opened the scoring for the Dutch, and a clever piece of play in the 2nd half led to their 2nd, when Schneider and Kuyt showed awareness catching Slovakia off guard. On the other hand, an unnecessary penalty kick in stoppage time led to Slovakia’s only goal, which also took Vittek to 4 goals (Making him the top scorer of the World Cup so far alongside Argentina’s Higuain).
The first half was even at first, with both teams having a go at each other, but Slovakia, after having most of the possession, rarely threatened their opponents.
Netherlands, though, were on the attack as soon as they got the ball, and constant aggression finally paid off when the Bayern Munich man Arjen Robben picked up the ball at the edge of the area using Van Bommel as a decoy, and created just enough space for himself to slide the ball under the keeper at the near post for the lead.
The pattern continued for the rest of the half, but there was no more success till the break, and the first half ended 1-0.
The Dutch got the second half started. There were no changes from either side at the break.
It was time to see what the Slovakians were made of. They needed to get Vlad Weiss on the ball more for a start, and he had already made some inroads into the Dutch defence since the restart, although his final ball found a man in orange rather than Erik Jendrisek.
Soon there were a couple of great chances for the Dutch. First Arjen Robben picked up the ball on the edge of the area, cut inside while wriggling past a couple of challenges and forced a brilliant save from Jan Mucha. From the resulting corner, they attacked again and Robben ran at the defence from the left this time before crossing for Gregory van der Wiel, to bring an even better close-range stop from Mucha - the ball actually hit the keeper in his face.
Still there was nothing to shout about by way of the response from Slovakia, who had more problems because Radoslav Zabavnik was in a lot of pain after being caught by a high challenge by Robin van Persie.
Arjen Robben escaped from Radoslav Zabavnik, who was back on his feet but struggling, and looked for a teammate as he cut in from the right. His cross was a bit disappointing to be honest, and was easily cleared. Still, the Dutch were soon threatening again: Robin van Persie fired in a fierce free-kick from the same flank and Jan Mucha - who was soon to join Everton - punched clear under pressure from Dirk Kuyt.
Arjen Robben again found himself in acres of space on the right. He decided to square it to Wesley Sneijder, who cut inside before having a pop - which was blocked.
Dutch keeper Maarten Stekelenburg was having a quiet match till then, but soon he was called in to make a super stop, two of them actually. First Miroslav Stoch cut inside but saw his rising shot tipped over the top. Seconds later, Robert Vittek was clean through but Stekelenburg came out to block as Vittek tried to blast the ball past him.
On the 82nd minute, Jan Mucha, who against Italy had a terrific game for Slovakia, was having an absolute nightmare. Mucha came out to try to beat Dirk Kuyt to a quick free-kick on the right of his area, but missed the ball completely. Kuyt was able to look up and square it to Wesley Sneijder to slot it into an empty net, and that was pretty much game over for Slovakia.
There was some consolation, though, for Slovakia in stoppage time, when Netherlands conceded a penalty and Vittek slotted in his 4th goal of the tournament. His goal was the final kick of the match.
Netherlands won 2-1 - in the end quite a convincing win - and now await the winners of the Brazil – Chile match.
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