WFC World Cup Diary: Matchday 18, June 28th 2010

Two more quarterfinal spots were up for grabs today.

First up was the Dutch match with Slovakia. The mere fact that the Eastern Europeans were still in the tournament was a surprise, Italy and Paraguay were favorites in group F, but the Italians failed to live up to the initial expectations.

Robben's goal.

Slovakia came to the game today as underdogs. Yet , anyone who saw the early minutes of the match wouldn’t have said so. In those first minutes, both teams lost three or four good opportunities in what seemed to be the beginning of a really good match.

The more time progressed, though, it became clearer that the Dutch had more weapons. Included in that arsenal was a first team appearance by Arjen Robben, his first in this World Cup.  On a fast counter attack, Wesley Sneijder’s wonderful pass found Robben and sprinting through the middle, he dribbled left to his good leg, firing a beautiful shot which left no chance for goalie Jan Mucha.  After the goal, the Oranje started passing the ball slowly and the rest of the first half went by without any good chances for either team.

That's a proper celebration!

The second half started in almost the same way.  Slovakia tried to find a way through the Dutch defense but without any clear opportunities. Still, after the 65th minute, the Slovakians managed some good chances. On one, Robert Vittek lost his man and kicked from the edge of the box with great danger, only to be saved by goalie Maarten Stekelenburg. Vittek had another great chance in the 78th minute, wasted as the Jabulani went far away from the target.

In the twilight of the match, when all seemed said and done, the Dutch decided to make certain. After an error by Mucha, Dirk Kuyt coolly kept the ball possession and crossed to Wesley Sneijder, unmarked, to touch to the net.

A great save by the Dutch goalie.

In a desperate move, Slovakian coach Vladimir Weiss made a couple of changes after the Netherlands’ second goal.  From that, they managed to at least score one goal. Spanish referee Alberto Undiano saw a penalty in the 94th minute, which was well capped by  Vittek.

Overall, not much effort was required for the Dutch here, as they controlled the ball well and didn’t have too many scares during the game.

The penalty that led to Vittek's fourth goal in the tournament.

The Netherlands’ next adversary was surely going to be South American. Brazil and Chile faced off for the opportunity to play the Dutch, on Friday, in one of the quarterfinals match. The Chilean game plan was simple enough: quickly approach the Brazilian box when they had the ball and mark in the offensive half.    Making Brazil try direct connections, almost always without luck, between the defense and the attack, was the result.

Unhappy Brazilian fans started booing the team after the 20th minute, mainly because the Seleção were not able to create good opportunities and Chile were equal to the match.

A hard header to the net.

That was, until the 34th minute. A well placed corner flew to Juan’s head, and was redirected to the net. Just three minutes later Brazil sealed the deal. A formidable counter attack run began with Robinho on the left, who passed the ball to Kaka in the middle, who, in turn, neatly passed to Luis Fabiano inside the box.  The only work the number 9 had was to dribble past the Chilean keeper and touch to the empty net.

One thing that must be said is that Dunga’s involuntary changes, Felipe Melo and Elano were out injured and replaced by Ramires and Daniel Alves, worked pretty well. Both players showed good effort and one can wonder if Dunga will consider changing his previous regular first team. Michel Bastos also had his first good game in the national squad; he marked Alexis Sanchez well enough and produced a couple of chances on the offensive side..

No "magic" could help Chile today!

With a comfortable 2 goal lead, Brazil settled for short passes and counter attacks, while Chilean coach Marcelo Bielsa boldly sent his team to the attack. Some players produced great chances, like Jorge Valdivia (known as ‘El Mago’ in Brazil) and Humberto Suazo. Brazil, however, remained dangerous and Robinho capped a wonderful move from Ramires to score the Brazilian third and final goal.

With the scoreboard secure, Dunga replaced some players, giving a short play time to Kleberson, Gilberto and Nilmar. Chile came out of the World Cup but they never failed to show good football and the offensiveness expected of a team managed by Bielsa.

Friday’s game will be one for the ages. Brazil and the Netherlands were always considered favorites to win it all, sadly only one of them will be in the top four.

.

Match Day 2: South Korea v Greece, Argentina v Nigeria, England v USA