World Cup Soccer 2010: Felipe Melo suffered the most as Brazil was eliminated by the Dutch
The first quarter-final of the FIFA World Cup in South Africa 2010 was played between Netherlands and Brazil. The Selecao stars ranked as the number one team in FIFA rankings, while the Netherlands was at the number four spot. During the entire tournament, the Brazilians showed a lot of promise, while the Netherlands had a rough road to the quarter-finals. The Brazilians were therefore the favourites to win the match and make it to the finals.
Defensively, the Brazilians were one of the best teams in the tournament, but their defence let them down in the match against Netherlands. From the beginning, they took the physical game to the Netherlands, as heavy tackles were made to stop the Dutch from attacking. However, the Brazilians had the first laugh in the game as they scored. It was a sublime through ball by Felipe Melo, which found its way to the charging Robinho, who provided the finish to an incisive move. The Brazilians controlled the game throughout the first half, as the Dutch defended hard to stop them from scoring another goal.
The star of the game, Felipe Melo, turned into the villain in the second-half, as the Brazilians took their foot off the gas. In the 53rd minute, Felipe Melo headed the ball in his own net, from a cross provided by Wesley Sneijder. After that error, the Brazilians went on the back-foot as the Dutch regained their confidence. The second goal came 15 minutes after the first strike as Wesley Sneijder headed the ball home, to take the lead from Brazil. The tough time for Brazil continued as the 73rd minute saw Felipe Melo being shown the red-card for a serious challenge on Arjen Robben. After the sending off, the Brazilians lost their confidence, as they failed to equalise in the match, crashing to a 2-1 defeat.
The Dutch, once again, did not seem to be in their top form, but still managed to get a result out of an apparent disaster. However, they had their chances, but the Brazilians kept on defending well and held them away from scoring. However, it was Brazil, who let the Dutch to come-back in the game with an own-goal. Afterwards, the situation went in favour of the Dutch as they finally scored another goal and kept the same score-line for the rest of the match.
Wesley Sneijder was once again, the best player for the Dutch side. Sneijder clearly showed the same class, as he had shown for Inter-Milan in the treble-winning season, as he led the team to one of the biggest victories in the Nation’s World Cup history. He provided quality passes to the forwards, and was definitely out-playing his Brazilian counter-parts in the midfield. However, Arjen Robben had a very bad game, as the forward did not look keen to shoot the ball from distance. It happened quite often that Robben had an opening, but his hesitation led to ultimate clearances by the Brazilian defenders. Also, Dirk Kuyt and Robin Van Persie had an average game, as they failed to convert attacking moves into goals. The Dutch were offered a number of chances towards the end, but they missed all their chances. Consequently, their hearts kept beating until the final whistle was blown by the referee. Good news for the Dutch was that Robben played the entire match and he seemed fit enough to play the semi-finals.
After the elimination of Brazil from the tournament, the Dutch would be rubbing their hands, as they now have a chance for a rare moment in the history. They will face Uruguay in the semi-finals - a match that is not as difficult as the one against Brazil. Thus, they have a chance to make it to the final of the World Cup in South Africa. Luis Suarez, the top-scorer for Uruguay, would miss the next match due to a yellow card in the game against Ghana. The Dutch are expected to make it to the final of the World Cup, but nothing can be predicted in this tournament of surprises in South Africa.
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