Netherlands 2-0 Denmark
The Dutch in orange and the Netherlands in white come out onto the fields and begin with their national anthems, as the signs flash with the ‘be quiet’ signs. The crowd looks spectacular. This match is expected to be a great one.
As the teams shake hands the tension seems to build. The selections from the Netherlands seems quite predictable, the Dutch are technically expected to go far in this world cup. The match was overlooked by the French referee Stephane Lannoy.
Netherlands coach Bert van Marwijk made the decision to give Real Madrid star Rafael van der Vaart the nod on the left wing to replace Arjen Robben, who was not fully match fit. The Dutch don’t have any other injury concerns and thus started in their usual 4-2-3-1 formation. While Denmark coach Morten Olsen declared at the weekend that star attacker Nicklas Bendtner wouldn’t be match fit in time for the clash against Netherlands, but the Arsenal striker is playing. Patrick Mtiliga is not playing due to injury and has been replaced by Simon Poulsen. Young midfielder Thomas Enevoldsen has also been somewhat surprisingly included in the starting XI.
And they’re off on this lovely sunny afternoon with a good start from the Danish defence. The match starts off quite defensively from both sides, and thus progress was quite slow through the beginning of the game. Tentative performance from the Danes but they were doing what was predicted off them and playing very defensively. 20 minutes into the game no scores have been seen and very little action. The first shot we saw came from Denmark’s side, but wasn’t powerful enough.
Fans of the Dutch players were sure that this match was going to be won by Netherlands without a doubt. They felt that the key players in the team including Wesley Sneijder and Arjen Robben had been amazing this past year and fans felt that the boys in orange would win the match, up till tjhis point in the game though it didn’t look like anyone was going to be taking the lead.
Just over halfway through the first half, and the score was still 0-0. Holland were keeping possession, happy to look for an opening rather than threading through a hopeful ball. A horrible-looking tackle by Nigel de Jong on Jorgensen has seen the Danish captain go down. No free kick, as Lannoy says it was fair ball. But the Oranje put the ball out in a gesture of fair play.
Play restarts, and the Dutch go back to holding onto possession, just passing it around the defence, looking for the gap. The Dutch were dominating possession, 61 per cent to 39 at this point. Five minutes to go to the first half, and the score was still 0-0. Both teams had their chances though.
We got into the second half with a surprise, as Oranje got their game under way and we witnessed an ‘own goal’ by Simon Poulsen. What a horrible way this was to start the second half. Van Persie chased down a long and hopeful pass, and just wanted to cross the ball into the middle, but Poulsen was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and headed the ball past Sorensen.
The Oranje have not lost an opening World Cup match since 1938, and this ‘own goal’ will help them continue their run. Twenty five minutes to go and the scores was still one to Netherlands and nothing for the Danes. The Danish Dynamite got the best chance of the match after 27 minutes of play when Dennis Rommedahl sent in a perfect cross from the right for Nicklas Bendtner and the Arsenal star headed only just wide from close range.
Van Persie got a big chance to double his side’s lead in the 52nd minute after an error from Simon Kjaer. Nevertheless, Sorensen rushed off his line to collect the ball before Van Persie got the chance to fire in a shot. The Arsenal man did find the net at the hour mark, but the whistle had already gone and Van Persie’s goal was disallowed for offside.
Substitute Eljero Elia showed a flash of brilliance only minutes after coming off the bench. The Hamburg star went by two defenders with a nice individual move, but his cross wasn’t met by a teammate and the chance went begging. Gronkjaer got past two men after about seventy minutes of play and whipped in a long cross from the left. Going over the head of Rommedahl, the Danes lost the opportunity to equalise though.
Sneijder came very close to making it two for Oranje in the last ten minutes of the game. Ibrahim Afellay set up the Inter star with an intelligent pass on the Danish half and Sneijder unleashed a left footed shot that deflected off Agger to hit the crossbar. Netherlands decided the match five minutes before the final whistle. Sneijder sent Elia clean through on goal with a brilliant through pass. The Hamburg star’s shot bounced back off the upright, but Kuyt was alert to tap the rebound home from close range to make it 2-0. The Dutchies came close to making it three only minutes later via Afellay. However, Simon Poulsen cleared the PSV star’s shot only inches before the ball crossed the line. It was a sad attempt from the Danes, but the Dutch will be very happy with their success.