Heading into this World Cup, many people expected this to be a tough tournament for Louis van Gaal and his Netherlands side.
I must hold my hand up and admit that I was one of these people. I predicted that the Oranje would fail to make it out of the group, with Spain and Chile progressing at their expense. 
My logic seemed flawless, to help explain myself, I’ll give you some of the reasoning behind my Group B expectations.
This was a Dutch team that was a far cry to that which reached the final in 2010. This current squad contained a lot of Eredivisie players, no less than ten, and a lot of their star players seemed to be beyond their peak. Robin van Persie came into the tournament off the back of a poor season by his standards, Wesley Sneijder hasn’t performed to the levels reached in South Africa since that tournament. Another one of their attacking midfield players, Rafael van der Vaart was ruled out late on through injury. Given all these on field issues, I figured it wouldn’t be overly helpful that their manager Louis van Gaal has already announced that he would be leaving for Manchester United after the tournament.
Their task was not to be made any easier by the fact that they would come up against current world and European champions Spain in their opening match. With 25 minutes on the clock, Diego Costa went down in the box and Spain were awarded a penalty. The spot-kick was cooly converted by Xabi Alonso and Spain looked firmly in control. With Chile playing Australia later that evening, my prediction looked set to unfold nicely.
The Dutch had other plans, an outrageous Robin van Persie header just on half-time brought the two sides in at the break on level terms.
Football went a little bit mental in the second half of this game, and the seemingly unstoppable world champions crumbled as van Persie and Arjen Robben tore them to pieces time and time again. The form of the Dutch matched with the self-destructive tendencies of Iker Casillas and the Spanish backline made for fascinating viewing as La Roja succumbed to a 5-1 defeat.
Holland were then faced with a relatively easy task of facing Australia, the lowest ranked nation in Brazil this summer. It didn’t unfold as they would have liked, however. After going ahead in the first half they were pulled back within 60 seconds by the goal of the tournament so far, courtesy of Tim Cahill before falling behind to a controversially awarded penalty. Van Gaal’s men held strong and ground out a 3-2 victory, meaning they were as good as through before Spain and Chile met later that night in Rio.
The side that I had very low expectations for before the tournament kicked off are really starting to win me over. Of the three goals they have conceded, two have been penalties and the other a wonder goal which will be a contender for the goal of the tournament. Ron Vlaar is performing to levels many felt he was incapable of reaching, he even kept Diego Costa firmly in his pocket in the opening game. Behind the defensive line stands Jasper Cillessen in goal. He has made the number one spot his own after a period of trial and error where Maarten Stekelenburg and Michel Vorm were tested, and ultimately didn’t make the position theirs.
Solid at the back, they are also strong in the middle of the pitch with Nigel de Jong and Jonathan de Guzman providing the foundation on which the attacking players can thrive.
Robben’s talent is so obvious it needn’t be discussed, and van Persie finally seems to be doing it in an international tournament, after flopping at the European Championships in 2012.
So after predicting that they would come up short in the group stages, my opinion of them has changed so much that I feel even Brazil might be worried about facing them in the second round should that be how the draw works out after what will now be a first place playoff against Chile.
Follow Conor Clancy on Twitter: @concalcio
