The Mexicans will remember June 29, 2014 for years to come, as will the Netherlands, not just as victory was quickly snatched from ones grasp to the others minutes from the games conclusion, but also because one team deserved it and the other certainly did not.
Sometimes that’s football and after witnessing his team play their most ineffective and substandard football of this World Cup so far, Dutch coach Louis van Gaal should be sending his gratitude to a perpetually important factor termed ‘luck’ and pledge such a display will not repeat itself following his side’s 2-1 victory over Mexico.
I accept it’s a clever, though risky, game plan to defend for 70-80 minutes and then go full throttle on your opponents; it worked for the Oranje against Chile. However, the same nearly backfired this time around, with them starting far too defensively- they actually overdid it – and found no control over the game courtesy of El Tri‘s brilliant and dynamic play.
Van Gaal got his tactics and personnel completely wrong from the onset of this quarterfinal. Firstly, he played Dirk Kuyt, naturally right sided, out of position as an apparent left wing-back, hindering the team’s ability to operate resourcefully on that flank.
This shifted an excellent crosser, yet rather slow, Daley Blind into a more central position and as a consequence La Verde had more space to exploit in the central midfield, providing players such as Hector Herrera a big incentive to attack.
So inhibited was this system that the play-maker had to multi-task, playing as both a sole creative source and drive, but Wesley Sneijder was visibly poor and wasteful, further compounding problems for the Dutch.
When Mexico scored it seemed like van Gaal’s team stood with their tails between their legs, sunken so low that I couldn’t as much predict a humbler decimation. However, the La Verde will still be agonising now on why they did not kill off the game from that moment.
They basically lost the plot, when coach Miguel Herrera substituted goal scorer Giovanni Dos Santos for a more defensive minded Javier Aquino it was a sign they were going to sit back and see the game through. Only problem, Netherlands choked them out.
At this stage van Gaal becomes some sort of a redeemer. Trailing by a goal, he reacted by moving Kuyt to his more favoured right wing and the decision worked wonders as the Fenerbahce man doubled up with Arjen Robben on the right flank and offered good support as Robben exploded into life and proved to be the underlining difference between the two sides.
Unlike the Mexico, his big substitution came off, Robin van Persie exiting for Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and as I was still questioning the decision to take off your best striker, even having an off day, Huntelaar defied my doubts by providing an immaculate knockdown for Sneijder’s equaliser and subsequently scoring the crucial penalty all within the six minutes.
Many though would not care to reserve acclaim for the Netherlands coach, others would call this result a farce. Of course, the Dutch didn’t deserve to win yesterday, but take nothing away from how van Gaal operated intelligently when it mattered and the sheer individual brilliance shown to recover. Not deserving to win doesn’t necessarily mean you have no claim over it.
