Celebrating a goal during Holland Uruguay game
Holland stamped their passport to the 2010 World Cup final in South Africa, by winning the first semi-final against Uruguay by 3-2 in Cape Town tonight. Van Bronckhorst, Sneijder and Robben scored the goals of the “Clockwork Orange” while Forlan and Maxi Pereira scored for the “Celestes”
More than three decades after the legendary Johan Cruyff generation and the “Total Football” devised by Rinus Michaels, Holland returns to a World Cup final.
Coach Bert Van Marwijk and his Orange team won every game in South Africa, adding this game to a string of 25 games without losing.
Uruguay was also carrying the dream of returning to make history, after they won the World Cup back in 1930 and 1950. The team led by Oscar Tabarez entered this game unwilling to risk much.
Uruguay had made some solid games in this World Cup, but a shot from Netherlands defender Van Bronckhorst started the orange demolition. At 18 minutes, the veteran Dutch captain fired a missile from over 30 meters beating goalkeeper Muslera, and leaving the Dutch fans in delirium.
Uruguay managed a small reaction, but without causing great inconvenience to the Dutch defense. The absence of striker Suarez took away incisiveness to the Uruguayans, who were too dependent on Diego Forlan today. It would be the Uruguayan captain to give a ray of hope to his companions, after a great left-footed shot from outside the area to tie the game at 41 minutes.
The goal got the South American team moralized and more daring after the interval keeping the Netherlands in the midfield without giving them space to move forward. At 66 minutes Forlan could have scored the turnaround goal from a free kick, but Stekelenburg made a great save to maintain the tie.
After having eliminated Brazil in the quarter-final, Netherlands were experiencing unusual difficulties to get past a solid Uruguay midfield and defense, but Sneijder once again showed up to solve the problem. The midfielder from Inter Milan made it 2-1 on 70 minutes from a relatively weak shot with the ball still touching in a Uruguayan defender. It was his fifth goal of the tournament, making him best scorer in this World Cup along with David Villa of Spain.
And if this goal had already left the impression that it was too much for Uruguay, the Netherlands third goal virtually killed the hopes of the South Americans just three minutes later. At 73 minutes, Robben headed Holland’s third goal creating an outburst of joy among the Dutch players, aware that their place in the final was virtually guaranteed.
Holland then wasted several opportunities to score but it was Uruguay who surprised when they reduced to 3-2, by Maxi Pereira, at 91 minutes, leading his team to try to draw with only 3 minutes of extra time. There was still danger but there were to be no more surprises, and the Netherlands held on to defend their lead till the final whistle.
Netherlands now wait for tomorrow’s other semi-final game between Germany and Spain in Durban, to find out who they will be playing with for the World Cup Final.
