It's important for the media and pundits to continue to analyze and critique this team. Keeps them in check. We're getting fantastic results from mediocre performances, counting on the brilliance of the front three which is directly correlated to the tireless workmanships of the remainder 7 field players.
It's not like the matches are complete snorefests. I'd say the world finds it pretty spectacular, if I'm reading the comments right! A tend to agree...
Dutch possession 37% Chile shots 7 NL 13 On target Chile 1 NL 8 The Dutch 532 is not pretty, but it's not parking the bus either!
It's important to find the right balance. Before this game Dutch had the most goals of all teams so far in 2 matches, so it's not bad adjusting tactics to get a result here with RVP out too against a Strong Chile side. The squad and quality is not there to blaze all opponents left, right and center.
That's the most telling stat, right there: CHI shots at goal 7, on target 1. They never really came close to scoring except for two occasions I recall. Something is working right, in the middle of defense, yet it looks so scrappy today, fwatching form the tele.
Hmm.. but didn't Nike start to sponsor Brazil in the 90s, a time when Brazil started to play more defensively..?
Brazil is too big a country and market to ignore. Nike had back then a Dutch boss by the way. He got the Nike football department on the right track. He said that making an inroad in the football market without sponsoring the biggest and most successful country is unthinkable. The symbolism they have, too, that is enormous. Imagine if they had stuck to the white shirts + blue shorts kit... It was a golden move to switch to a yellow-golden shirt. To cut it short, for Brazil it is irrelevant how they play. It doesn't matter. For everyone it is in many ways too big a country to leave aside. The call to sponsor Holland did not originate from the Dutch boss by the way. It were the Americans in the USA who said: we want to sponsor 'the Brazilians of Europe'. France is sometimes put in that bracket too, and guess what, they also got France in 2010.
Fact: the only times Netherlands won all three first round group matches were in.... 1974 & 2010 I can dream, can't I
Apparently we (we are winning so it's obviously 'we' as opposed to 'them') have never before scored multiple goals in all three group games at a WC. Also... This win goes down as the win by a team with the least successfully executed passing percentage in WC history. #Redefining football? ;-)
^strange days are ahead of us! I wonder how many Cillessen hoof balls are lowering the passing stat. Still tho, outside of Cillessen, our passing has been poor, especially Sneijder. Very weird and strange feeling, this world cup
Croatia looked decent against brazil but got tired and made mistakes. They thrashed cameroon but cameroon are terrible. They have a good midfield and top striker. Very dangerous team. As for performance v results i thought holland were great in 2000 but no trophy, in 2006 they were better than portugal and lost. They arent parking the bus in brazil, that would betray the dutch style
So if everything goes right we play Croatia/Mexico, and then Costa Rica/Ivory Coast in QF's. Semi's should be doable, at which point we'll probably face Argentina
It's going to be Mexico. Now up 2-0, and Croatia completely gassed. That is going to be an issue on Saturday. A 1pm match for Holland against Mexico in the searing heat of Fortaleza. That is probably worse than playing at 4:00 in Manaus.
Uh oh. Mexico now up 3-0. One more goal, and they win the group, and Holland plays Brazil! Edit: Never mind. Brazil scored again and so did Croatia, so it will be Mexico for certain.
Total confidence Netherlands can beat Mexico! Robin van Persie, Arjen Robben & Memphis Depay gonna fry some Mexican burritos!
A cooling trend coming to northeast Brazil. Sunday forecast for Fortaleza is about 15C with some rain. How lucky is that? SunJun 29 58° 45° Light Rain CHANCE OF RAIN: 60% WIND: W at 10 mph http://www.weather.com/weather/tenday/BRPR7510
All we can do is hope thats its cloudy on sunday. That at least helps a bit. EDIT: oh crap, didnt see that post above
My forecasts says something completely different: http://www.weather.com/weather/tenday/BRXX0093 http://www.weather-forecast.com/locations/Fortaleza/forecasts/latest
Then we would be the Buffalo Bills of world football. For those not in the know about American Football, the Buffalo Bills had a very good team and went to four Super Bowls, losing each time.
It's weird that two posts above both use The Weather Channel website and come up with wildly different predictions. I tend to think it's going to be hot and sticky: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortaleza#Climate though it's probably better than playing in Manaus.
Yeah, it wont be 15 Celsius, you can bank on that. But it might be cloudy though, and that will help a bit
Many people have suggested playing Kuyt as a wing-back before, but Bert never took a chance. Turns out it works pretty well, which is no surprise at all. It's nice to have a coach that doesn't have his line-up for the next 7 games decided already regardless of the opposition.