Chapter 131 Ugly Blooming Tulips

The next day, the World Cup continued. The opponents of the fifth 1/8 knockout match were the Netherlands, which won all three games in the group stage and easily qualified, and Slovakia, the biggest dark horse in this World Cup.

As a new team in the World Cup, Slovakia's performance in this World Cup is impressive, especially the core player Hamsik in the team. As the captain of Slovakia, Hamsik played in the previous three group matches. Scored one goal and assisted two goals, a very good performance.

Although there is a big gap in strength between the two opponents in this game, before the game, almost no one thought that the Netherlands had a chance to win. Perhaps people are more looking forward to the fact that the dark horse of Slovakia can be blacked out to the end. The favorites to win the championship are the Netherlands.

But the Dutch obviously don't think so. The confidence of coach Van Marwijk has been fully revealed before the game. Some reporters asked Van Marwijk: "Why was there no penalty kick training the afternoon before the game?"

Van Marwijk replied confidently: "We don't need it. We have practiced many times, but it was a closed-door training. No one can see it. Although Slovakia is a newcomer to the World Cup, we will not underestimate them. We will not underestimate them." Any opponent, but we will play our own game, no matter who the opponent is, we have always been like this."

Captain Van Bronckhorst also said: "Slovakia is a very good defensive team and is also very efficient in counterattacks in positional battles. This will be a difficult game. We must be very careful, but I believe that the final victory will be sure." Belongs to Holland!"

The head coach and the captain are so confident, of course there is a reason, Van Marwijk said: "We controlled three games and won three games, the team is very consistent, I said to my players , we must have 100% motivation in every game, strive for the best result, every ball, every challenge, every foul, I hope a dynamic team can strike a wonderful game Performance."

For people who are more optimistic that Slovakia will go to the end, Van Marwijk said: "We will not lose to Slovakia. This cannot and will not happen at all. We will stay until the final on July 11."

Before the game, the biggest advantage of the Dutch team was that the core player Arjen Robben finally returned to the starting lineup. The comeback of "Peter Pan" also squeezed van der Vaart to the bench. Fans once worried whether Robben, who had been absent for so long due to injury, could adapt to high-intensity confrontation, but judging from the progress of the game, Robben still Is the most threatening player in the Dutch team.

The result of the game did not develop as expected. With the goals of Robben and Sneijder, the Dutch team finally defeated Slovakia, the dark horse of this World Cup, 2:1, and successfully entered the quarterfinals.

This is the fourth consecutive victory for the Dutch team since the start of the competition, and the opening four consecutive victories also created a new record for the Dutch team to participate in the World Cup.

Previously, the Dutch team participated in the World Cup 8 times, and the best record was two consecutive victories at the beginning. This was created in the 2006 World Cup in Germany in 2006.

Although Slovakia defeated Italy and broke into the top 16 of this cup, objectively speaking, there is still a big gap between them and the Netherlands in terms of strength. The final result was not unexpected. The Dutch team defeated their opponents and moved on.

However, in this game, Slovakia is not completely without a chance. After Sneijder scored the first goal, Slovakia and the core player Hamsik relied on his outstanding personal skills to kill in just five minutes. Into the penalty area of the Dutch team, pushed to score, and finally maintained the tie until the end of regulation time.

But in the extra time, the more powerful Netherlands still seized an opportunity. After Robben's iconic breakthrough from the side, he cut inside and hit the goal, bringing the dark horse's World Cup journey to an end.

In this game, the Dutch team continued their previous group stage tactics. Although the scene was no longer as aggressive as the Dutch team at the beginning, it became more practical.

Perhaps the previous offensive football did not win the championship for the Netherlands, which made the Dutch team begin to explore new tactics. The Dutch team that appeared in South Africa is not perfect, nor can it be said to be very active.

The superiority in strength makes them go through the motions to defeat their opponents along the way, and even some of them seem to have already focused on the next possible opponent.

In this game, the Dutch team was not very active in running, and they seemed to be reserved. Obviously, the Dutch team has deliberately kept their strength in this campaign. Perhaps, this Dutch team has completely erased the shadow of gorgeous football, but as Robben said in an interview after the game that victory is the most important thing.

Dutch coach Van Marwijk said before the World Cup: "We can play beautifully, but the most important thing is to win the final championship. As long as we can win, we are willing to put down the gorgeous and become ugly."

But in fact, the opponents of the Dutch team are not afraid of the gorgeous Dutch team, they are even more afraid of the uglier Dutch team.

For this Dutch team, it may be more promising to abandon the gorgeous football of total defense and adopt a pragmatic style of defense and counterattack.

In addition to the change in style of play, what is more worthy of recognition is that this "Oranje team" is very united. In the previous World Cups, the contradictions in the Dutch team will always be endless topics. Take the recent European Cup in 2008 as an example. In other words, there was an antagonism between Van Bommel and coach Basten.

But for the team under Van Marwijk, fans rarely saw negative news of internal discord in the media. The unity of the team is the driving force for the Dutch team to move forward.

The new tactics have made the Dutch team more stable, and the unity has allowed the Dutch team to burst out with greater energy, not only reflected in the overall, but also reflected in the individual.

As the core of the new Dutch team, "Brain" Sneijder played in the fourth match of the World Cup, and finally let people see the familiar Sneijder, one goal, one assist, as if Sneijder's state It's a bit late, but a fact, I believe many Dutch fans have already agreed that in this orange team, the most reliable player in the midfield may be Sneijder.

Of course, once Robben cuts inside, there will be a play, but Robben's injury determines that he can't play 100%, so coach Van Marwijk wants to overthrow the five-star Brazil, no one can lack Sneijder.

In the previous group match against Japan, Sneijder made a sudden shot, allowing the team to score three points under the premise that the scene was not good. However, against Denmark and Cameroon, Sneijder was more in the midfield to command and dispatch , The shot was also played around the penalty area.

Only today against Slovakia, the fans saw a Sneijder who ran more deeply and dispatched the ball more imaginatively. This is the brain of the Tulip Netherlands team.

Helping the team take the lead in the first half, Sneijder hardly made any adjustments after getting the ball outside the penalty area, and directly kicked the world wave, so that the Slovak goalkeeper could only look at the ball and sigh.

In today's game, the goal that determines the outcome can also be said that Sneijder contributed the most, Robben's iconic inward cut work, but the ball came from Sneijder's delivery, although the distance is about 40 meters, and Sneijder's position is on the left, but at this time the greatest advantage of the midfielder can be displayed, referring to the footwork scheduling where to play.

Sneijder's oblique pass, the first landing point was just a little ahead of Robben's run, between the opponent's two defenders, Robben had to turn around and catch it, and the heavier Slovakian central defender accepted it all, impartially. With a lean foot, "Peter Pan" can also be very comfortable when sprinting with the ball.

Originally, the Dutch team still had a chance to resolve the battle in regular time today. It was Sneijder's pass at that time. Robben and Dirk Didert took over immediately. The two played a quick two to one. Robben entered the penalty area With a cross pass, Dirk Kuit shot angrily from behind, and the opponent's goalkeeper blocked the ball with his nose regardless, which made the Dutch team miss a chance to win the game.

Sneijder made two threatening passes in this game, one far and one near, one oblique pass and a straight pass, and there was no exaggeration. The influence of high-level professional leagues is enough for Sneijder to manipulate the ball as he pleases.

Because Robben scored the lore goal, Robben was awarded the best on the spot after the international block game. In fact, from the overall point of view, Sneijder is the most suitable to win the best again.

Robben, who sealed the victory for the team, won the best player, and the team's brain Sneijder is also impressive, but the Dutch team should also thank one person for this victory, and that is goalkeeper Stekelenburg.

It was the goalkeeper from Ajax who saved the opponent's two must-have goals in a row at the last moment of overtime, which allowed the Dutch team to keep the victory.

Even the head coach of the Dutch team, Van Marwijk, admitted after the game that Stekelenburg saved the team, otherwise the Dutch team might get into trouble: "He used his outstanding performance to ensure that we survived the most difficult part of the game." time."

Whenever the Dutch team is mentioned, they tend to think of those brilliant offensive talents in the frontcourt. Few people pay attention to what the players in the backcourt are doing. Especially after Van der Sar retired, the Dutch defense line, which lost its only star, was even more ignored by people. .

However, all the foundations of this Dutch team are based on defense, and the numbers speak for themselves. They only conceded two goals before entering the quarterfinals. When many strong teams were eliminated one after another, the Dutch team successfully entered the 1/4 knockout round relying on a solid defense.

For Dutch goalkeeper Stekelenburg, it was not easy to be the Dutch goalkeeper after Van der Sar: "Van der Sar is the best goalkeeper in the Netherlands. Immediately mention Van der Sar, I was with him in the last World Cup and Euro 2008, I have gained a lot of experience, it is an honor to guard the gate for the Netherlands, now it is my turn to show my ability."

Fans who are familiar with Dutch football will certainly not be unfamiliar with Stekelenburg. He has gotten enough training in Ajax in the past few years. He has accumulated various competitions in the league, cup, UEFA Cup and Champions League. Have enough competition experience.

Stekelenburg has good enough basic skills, three-way saves are stable, speed and reaction are impeccable, and the same excellent figure of 1.97 meters as Van der Sar can help him control various high-altitude balls.

What's even more commendable is that for all kinds of tricky dead corner kicks, he can stretch his long arms and leap up to make the so-called "fingertip save".

He made his debut at Ajax, and he also possesses the special ability that Dutch football requires goalkeepers-accurate long passes one by one.

As long as the center forward signals for the ball, he can accurately send the ball within one meter of the center forward's area. In the Eredivisie League, he even performed a good show of long pass assists.

In this game, it is not so much the Dutch team's powerful attack that destroyed Slovakia, but Stekelenburg's outstanding performance, which brought the dark horse's World Cup trip to an early end.

Of course, in this game, the Dutch team still did not play beautifully. The Dutchman honestly said after the game that this is still not the most beautiful Dutch football.

It is true that this Dutch team is a top-notch team, and it is not that there are players with outstanding skills, but they do not take pleasure in creating momentum in the frontcourt.

When the opportunity is not the best, they frequently pass back and down. Whether this will cause them trouble in the next game is still unknown.

But the maturity of this Dutch team is unprecedented. The age structure of the players is reasonable, the characteristics of the forward players are outstanding, and the two defensive midfielders have excellent interception ability. It seems that every player has reached a consensus.

Be patient, the opportunity will come, we can accept ugly wins, because beauty casts too many shadows on us.

This is the fifth time that the Netherlands has reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup. The previous four times, only 1994 stopped here. Interestingly, the opponent at that time was Brazil.

After that, in 1998, they were also eliminated by Brazil in a penalty shootout.

Brazil has become their stumbling block in the World Cup in the past 20 years, but the Netherlands has regrets every time they lose. In 1994, Blanco's free kick winning goal should have been a foul by his opponent.

In 1998, several shots missed by Kluivert made the Brazilian tremble until the last moment.

This time, the Netherlands is also not the biggest favorite, but this stable Netherlands has not dedicated their most beautiful football.

"The Netherlands' best performance is yet to come. We all hope that the game against Brazil will be better than this one," Robben promised.

In the next quarter-finals, the Dutch team is likely to encounter the semi-finals of the 1998 World Cup and knock out their Brazilian team on penalties. Robben and his Dutch team are ready for revenge.

The peak duel between the two national teams that are best at defending and counterattacking in today's football may have lost the excitement of previous duels, but it is related to the battle for the World Cup crown.

And the other 1/8 finals that will start immediately will be played against both Brazil and Chile. The winning side will become the next opponent of the Dutch team.