Holland 2-1 Slovakia: long balls towards wingers win it for the Dutch
The starting line-ups
Another quiet but effective win for Holland, who progress to the quarter-final, where they’ll face a stronger test from either Brazil or Chile.
Holland welcomed back Arjen Robben, who made his first start of the competition, having appeared as a substitution in the final group game against Cameroon. He replaced Rafael van der Vaart, who himself had become injured. The rest of the side was as expected.
Slovakia named a very attack-minded team – playing both Vladimir Weiss and Miroslav Stoch from the start for the first time in the tournament, in addition to three-goal Robert Vittek, auxiliary forward Erik Jendrisek and the main creator, Marek Hamsik.
They still kept their broad 4-2-3-1 shape they had used in the victory over Italy, but it meant that Hamsik was deployed very deep in the centre of midfield, often coming short to receive the ball from the centre-backs, before looking to play the ball towards the four forward players. He did this job reasonably well, but sometimes got caught too high up the pitch when the Dutch won the ball back, and Slovakia missed having him roaming behind the main striker.
The attacking band of Stoch, Wiss and Jendrisek had fluid roles, all drifting across the pitch and interchanging throughout the game. This added a slight element of unpredictability to their attacks, but often resulted in them all becoming relatively central. The game rather passed those three players by in the first period, with Slovakia looking to play long balls to Vittek, who struggled for support. Alternatively, they played it along the ground to his feet, where he would drop off towards the ball – but the Dutch defensive square of Mathijsen, Heitinga, van Bommel and de Jong made it difficult for him to find space in that area.
Weiss and Stoch fail to get at van Bronckhorst
The most disappointing thing from Slovakia is that neither of their pacey wingers really looked to continually get at van Bronckhorst. When there was a player on that side, he stayed very tight to his man, trying to prevent them turning if there was a ball played in to feet. This was never really exploited with a ball into space behind him – both Weiss and Stoch looked to drift into the centre when they started from a right wing position, which made Slovakia’s build-up easy to defend against, and didn’t utilize those two players’ main attribute – their pace.
That said, the Dutch were solid on that side because Dirk Kuyt was deployed on the left, rather than his usual position on the right. His hard work and defensive awareness helped van Bronckhorst throughout the game, and he gives a lot of balance to the Dutch when they don’t have the ball. He was also excellent in an attacking sense, even when he wasn’t directly involved – he stretched the play by staying wide on the left, taking his position according to the movements of the three other attackers, and making good runs from out to in. His aerial presence also offered the Dutch a different option with their passing – they could look for a long diagonal ball towards him, whereas Wesley Sneijder and Robben prefer balls to feet.
Inverted wingers
The use of Kuyt on the left and Robben on the right also offered a rare glimpse of last season’s tactical trend – inverted wingers, cutting in from the flanks onto their stronger foot. Robben has done this all season for Bayern Munich, and he opened the scoring here with his signature move. He got the ball on the right, ran down the flank until about 25 yards out, before cutting in and stroking the ball into the near post past Jan Mucha. The goal had come from a direct ball from the back when Slovakia were high up the pitch, a type of attack Holland hadn’t been able to construct until now, against their defensive-minded opponents. Jan Durica defended rather poorly for the goal – not doing enough to show Robben down the line.
The Dutch dominated the game after that, without looking too dangerous when they went forward. van Persie showed a couple of good turns but still doesn’t look as sharp as he’d hope to be, whilst the full-backs became increasingly conservative as the game went on. The Dutch won the game from the centre of midfield – Nigel de Jong and Mark van Bommel controlled possession and the tempo of the game when they had the ball, and were disciplined and reliable in a positional sense when they didn’t. Those two have arguably been this side’s star performers so far, which says a lot about the nature of their wins. de Jong barely crossed the halfway line, but was always an option in the centre of the pitch, and never played passes more than 10-15m long, preferring to leave that to van Bommel.
Problems at the back?
The concern for Holland will be in the centre of their defence, where both Mathijsen and Heitinga looked to step up, leaving themselves exposed on more than one occasion. Slovakia’s golden opportunity to get back into the game came when the defenders both moved forward ahead of Vittek too late, leaving him one-on-one with Maarten Stekelenburg in a similar situation to Vittek’s opening goal against Italy. This time, he could only blast at the goalkeeper.
Holland sealed the win from another long ball from the defence towards a wide player. This time, Kuyt made an excellent right-left run through the defence to meet van Bronckhorst’s lofted, curled quick free-kick down the channel. Mucha misjudged the bounce, Kuyt nodded it past him, before squaring for Sneijder to tap into an empty net. That was game over.
Slovakia continued to attack, and the Dutch still looked slightly vulnerable at the heart of their defence. They got a goal back when a deflected shot found Martin Jakubko in front of goal, again when the centre-backs had looked to move forward when the ball was in a central position. He was brought down by Stekelenbug, Vittek dispatched the penalty, but the full-time whistle went straight away.
Conclusion
A fairly tame battle in tactical terms – 4-2-3-1 v 4-2-3-1, with the more technically-gifted side prevailing. Vladimir Weiss may regret fielding such an attack-minded team, particularly because it didn’t allow Hamsik forward into his most dangerous position – but credit to him for giving it a go. His side did have opportunities to get back into the game, and defended reasonably well for most of the contest against van Persie, Robben and Sneijder, so his tactics can probably be justified.
The Dutch march on into the quarter-final without having played their best football so far. They are suspect in the centre of defence, but paradoxically defend well from further forward. The shield of van Bommel and de Jong makes them difficult to play through, Kuyt works very hard on one side whilst Robben pushes the full-back backwards on the other. The front four also have a good understanding when moves break down – returning to defend the zone closest to them, even if it isn’t their natural starting position. Sometimes, Sneijder ended up defending on the left and Kuyt in the centre, whilst van Persie was happy to track back on the wing if necessary.
There’s still a feeling they haven’t been properly tested yet, but you can’t fault Holland’s results so far.
Holland 2-1 Slovakia: long balls towards wingers win it for the Dutch
Brazil are going to take the Dutch apart…
How exactly?
Yes, exactly how? On what grounds?
In fact, the Dutch are playing not unlike Dunga’s Brazil; solid defensive midfield (if better passers than Melo-Silva) and fluent attack which prospers in fits and starts. They can press high up the pitch when they want but have also looked comfortable dropping off and soaking up pressure.
A half-fit Kaka up against De Jong and Van Bommel and without much space to move into would be less effective.
There are three major reasons why Brazil will go into that match as favorites.
1. With Robben on the pitch the Dutch are somewhat predictable in offense. Basically what you have to do is preventing Robben from cutting inside and always keeping a body between Sneijder and your goal. Easier said than done obviously and the Maicon/Robinho combination isn’t helping. Will Dunga play someone else on the left wing ? I’m sure he’ll be aware of the issue and take appropriate measures.
2. Brazil’s defense is much better than Oranje’s. Yea, there is Bastos. But there is van Bronckhorst too and Lucio+Juan are on a different level than Mathijsen+Heitinga.
3. Arguably Brazil has the most variable offense of all teams at this tournament. They can combine through packed defenses, punish their opponent on the break, score from set plays and utilize long distance shots. Unlike, say, Uruguay those qualities aren’t combined in one player either. Defending against all the threats at the same time will be a major challenge to even a world class side. In defense, the Dutch certainly aren’t one of those.
That is not to say that Oranje don’t stand a chance. They’re a good team and have a couple of genuinely elite players at their disposal. Dunga’s Brazil unifies individual brilliance throughout the squad with discipline, efficiency and above all a stringent plan for world domination though.
As ZM predicted they are the team to beat at this tournament and while I’ll freely admit I wasn’t that sold on them beforehand everyone should have seen it by now.
If Brazil will be facing the Dutch in the quarter finals, they can certainly beat them, but it will definitely not be a walk in the park…
You mean Bastos is the antidote on the right against Robben? Please. That side is the weak link in Brazil’s team, especially with Robinho rarely tracking back. Van Persie, however petulant he might be, occupies two defenders, which will allow both Dutch wingers one-on-ones against the fullbacks. Sure, Lucio’s great, possibly the best CB out there, but Van Persie, when fit, unlike Drogba and Olic, is a bit slicker, quicker and has moves to run around him, as well as strength to get a header by him.
I think he meant what you said exaclty. Bastos is the weak link in Brazil’s defense, as is Bronckhorst to Holland. But Lucio+Juan are better than than Mathijsen+Heitinga. Which makes Brazil’s defense better than Holland in general.
Bier, the same could be said two years ago of the Italian defense as well as the French defense. Yet still the results were 3-0 and 4-1.
The Dutch don’t have defenders of Cannavaro’s quality. Aside from Jaap Stam and Frank de Boer years ago, Holland tend to have defenders no striker should really be worried about in theory.
However, Holland can defend as a team where even players like Robben aren’t too selfish to track back.
I do think Brazil are the favorites simply because i think the Dutch team overall is overrated in terms of quality (with the exception of Robben), but the weakness of defense doesn’t necessarily mean much.
Also, about Robben: EVERYONE knew how he plays on that right flank and yet nobody knew how to stop him. The Slovakians admitted to have trained three days on how to stop him and they just couldn’t. Only Mourinho stopped him in the CL final and it was by simply packing the defense full with lots of cover, with Inter winning simply because Milito made Van Buyten look like a fool.
Tony, I thought Filip misunderstood Blipp’s comment and I was just trying to clear that. Read again both their comments.
Gullit made an interesting point in the US telecast- that Robben might be less effective than Kuyt on the right. His argument was that Robben continually cuts in to the left, looking for the left foot shot (most teams have a player who does this, just on the opposite side), and doesn’t use the field- after he came out, Gullit felt Holland used the field far better. I can see how this might restrict Holland’s width, but Robben is so skilled and capable that it might be worth it. Very few players can cut in from the right like that and unleash with the left foot, but it’s pretty common from the left, and he did get his goal from a run across the top of the box from the right.
For Slovakia using the width against Van Bronckhorst, Vittek needs to get wide, right- hopefully before De Jong and Kuyt can shut down the space- with Stoch occupying VB, Weiss plays an early ball in the space behind, no? The thing about that side of the field was that Kuyt was almost playing a holding striker, getting well back for De Jong and Van Brockhorst (who is and has been the wink link of that defense for a long time).
Finally, Van Persie has shown nothing but lackadaisical effort and petulant behavior. He shames the badge- did you see his tantrum after being removed? He’s very immature, and his attitude is troubling- if he does something idiotic like refuse to pass to a certain player (he seems to have an inexplicable, philosophical problem with Kuyt’s very existence), this could be a painful exit for Holland.
Perfect analysis ; sums the game up. Holland were that bit better, though not at their very best, Slovakia have nothing to be ashamed of.
It certainly surprised me that Jendrisek, Stoch and Weiss all played. With Strba absent, perhaps Weiss didn’t quite trust Kopunek to play the defensive midfield role and thought, ‘what the hell, let’s go for it’. But against sides as good as the Dutch, Hamsik needs the extra insurance behind him in order to get forward to real effect.
I also thought Jakubko could have gone on just a bit earlier. He is truly ‘technically limited’ but also very muscular. He shook Chile up for the last 15 minutes or so of a friendly last year after Slovakia had been utterly outplayed and might have caused similar chaos today if he’d gone on after, say, 80 minutes. Not that we want to see true ‘route one’ football of course.
What do you think of Holland’s chances then? Could they win it or, like an Eriksson side, will they go out against the first genuinely class side they come across? They seem tactically well-disciplined and a fit(ter) Robben is a major asset.
Well as a German, lets put it this way – when fit, he was by far the best offensive player in the Bundesliga last season. There are many players that cut in, but few are able to score again and again in the same way, although all opponents must exactly know what Robben is up to…
Probably his flashiest individual goal last season was against Manuel Neuer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHr8mFOaX80
Now today, he can thank Sneijder for a great pass, and van Persie for crossing (though all three defenders ignored van Persie as they KNEW Robben wants to shoot it).
It’s nice to see a player hit is so well from right to left- but yeah, it’s pretty predictable, and when you have three back someone needs to take away the space and make him go right. At least take away the bottom corner (though he tries to slot it high most of the time? I have heard this, but have not seen it).
That’s the miraculous thing about Robben, as NiWa stated: Everyone knows what he is going to do, but still he’s so hard to stop. It’s really unbelievable, but the fact that he can run past you left or right means you can’t really offer him one direction, because he’s gonna take it (and turn afterwards, if necessary).
I really don’t know how well he fits into systems and concepts and he might even be detrimental to the overall cohesion, but he does have the ability to create danger at any given time in the match (considering the importance of full-backs: his presence alone can intimidate them and stop them pushing forward). That makes him a pretty special player.
Part of the breakdown on that play was van Persie’s cleverness. Robben was facing two defenders on the right with van Persie faced one on the left. When van Persie overlaped to the right instead of taking the run to the left, the defenders were caught as that was a situation where Robben’s first defender needs to cheat towards van Persie, who now was to Robben’s right, giving Robben a cutback to the left. This was all the space that Robben needed.
I wouldn’t call this cleverness, more van Persie doing exactly what every player in the world needs to do when a winger is cutting in – crossing (ideally) or at least getting away from mid instead of soaking up the space there. Movement off the ball, key to the game.
But you are right, van Persie did it well here, it’s just sad it needs to be pointed out because others fail to do it at times. And truth be told, some of us have raved about it regarding Germany, so van Persie definitely should be mentioned =)
Watch a replay. Van Persie made an excellent overlap run, but actually the defenders all tracked Robben. Robben got a bit lucky, as there was almost no space between the three defenders, and he couldn’t know exactly where the opening was, if any. What he did right was keep the ball low, so it went under the defenders leg instead of up into their bodies.
The percentage play (assuming Van Persie could finish) would have been a back-heel to Van Persie, leaving him 1v1 against the keeper in the box.
Mehmet Scholl (former Munich player now tv pundit) says that Robben does this on purpose, forcing the long step of the defender who has to reach out to block, and then exploiting it and using it.
Normally I would have disregarded this and crazy & Robben just being lucky, but looking at those goals again where he cuts in, I think Scholl is right.
I think Holland are capable of knocking Brazil out, it could go either way and Brazil are the likely winners but they have it in them.
I hope they do knock Brazil out.
where can i find the FIFA averaqge position diagrams????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
brasil will crush the dutch no doubts
stronger keeper+defence, much better passing & movement
Go to fifa.com click on one of the matches that have been played on the right, click on matchcast, and then you will find plenty of stats for the game. For average position there are either the heatmaps (which I personally find more useful) that you can see by clicking on any of the players on the left or right. Or alternatively click on pitch (menu in the middle, beneath the score) and then choose tactical line-up.
Talentwise the two sides are evenly matched. Robben predictable? So what? Messi is also predictable. Thing is, what is predictable is the likelyhood that both will be a handfull for their opponents.
BTW Arjen (even coming off injury) is playing the best football of his life. Kaka is’nt.
That said, Brazil will win. Brazil have faced Portugal and Ivory Coast. Holland have faced Denmark(who lost to Bafana Bafana in warm up!) and Japan… That’s worth half a yard on the pitch for at least part of the match.
But most of all, Holland are the consumate chokers (can somebody say Russia and Euro ‘08? (and world cup ‘90;’94;’98;’06…) ). Brazil are the exact opposite psychologically.
Yes, Holland hate knock out round games (if memory serves, Holland reached the finals of WC ‘74 and ‘78 without needing to negotiate any knockout games. In fact the finals themselves were the only knockout games!).
Robben on the right side and Kuyt on left also has an advantage that Kuyt can support Van Bronkhorst (where Robinho doesn’t seem to help Bastos).
I think this will be a midfield battle. Both sets of controlling midfielders will decide the tie: Van Bommel & De Jong vs. Melo & Gilberto Silva.
Realisticly Brazil have an advantage, but Holland isn’t without a chance.
If it wasn’t for a bogus call on Skrtl (he go the ball cleanly) the game might have gone to a tie and extra-time.