Next up, the holding champions, Spain, faced the boys in
Orange, Holland. Few people gave Holland a chance, their young squad doesn’t possess
the great quality known by the Dutch teams of the past, no Van Nistelrooy,
Seedorf, Jaap Stam, Bergkamp or Van der Sarr. Instead they start Ron Vlaar of
Aston Villa, and Swansea’s De Guzman. Meanwhile Manchester United fans eagerly
waited to see what Van Gaal could do.
Spain started off well, as expected. Free-flowing tika-taka
football at it’s finest. The battering ram, Diego Costa started up top for the
Spanish, and he was involved in the first goal. Xavi slid a neat through ball
in behind the defence to Costa who shimmied and turned the onrushing Dutch
defender, de Vrij, who caught the attacker and brought him down for a penalty. Xabi
Alonso, and his glorious beard stepped up to the spot kick and smashed it home.
The spectators assumed that was it, that Spain would win this easily now.
And when David Silva broke through, one on one with Ajax
keeper Cillessen, it would be hard to think of anything other than a goal would
occur, but Silva tried a cheeky trademark chip only to have it easily collected
by the keeper. At this stage the Dutch were beginning to find their feet, or
clogs… Could that miss be costly?
Yes, it could. Within a few minutes the Dutch equalised. A long
cross field pass found the prolific Van Persie who flopped a looping header over
the on rushing Iker Casillas from just inside the box. A magnificent goal. Man united fans will have been delighted to see their man score, and more delighted
to see his rapport with Van Gaal, albeit via the worst high five in history.
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| The Flying Dutchman, Robin Van Persie equalises for Holland |
Spain would up the ante after the break surely and the Dutch
would be defeated as expected. But they didn't read the script. The dutch defence held strong, Vlaar proving me wrong and kept Costa quiet. Blind dispossessed Xavi and played a
long ball and picked out Robben, who turned Ramos and smashed home to put
Holland ahead. And it wouldn't end there.
Sneijder whipped in a free kick to the back post and the
victim became the hero as de Vrij made the score 3 – 1. Although it is argued
that it should have been ruled out for a foul on Spanish captain Casillas. It
was more of a foul than the one that seen Croatia’s ruled out on the opening
day.
The most capped player at this world cup, Iker Casillas made
a huge mistake, another high profile mistake following his error at the
Champions League final. Sergio Ramos laid an innocent back-pass to the
goalkeeper who took a very heavy touch which saw it roll toward the pressing
Van Persie who nicked it away from the Spanish keeper and passed his second,
and Holland’s fourth into the empty net.
Holland weren’t done. They craved blood, a team clearly
seeking revenge for their World Cup Final defeat in South Africa against the
same opponents four years ago. Robben
picked the ball up at the half way line and burst passed Ramos leaving him in
his wake, before turning Casillas and left him scrambling before cooly slotting
it home. Five – one. An absolute hammering and a master class from Van Gaal. If
you listened closely you could hear the red half of Manchester growling in anticipation
of what this man could bring to them.
An obligatory open-goal miss from only a few yards out by
Fernando Torres finished proceedings and the Dutch skipped off delighted with
their performance whilst the Spanish slumped away to begin an inquisition.
Probably the best game of the World Cup, so far, and
certainly the biggest shock so far.
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