Pointers of the World Cup matches
Netherlands vs Chile
- With both these teams impressing and knocking out the defending champions Spain in this World Cup, this promised to be an interesting match with a 'winner takes all' scenario.
- With Robin van Persie suspended, for the first time since 1996(221 matches) the Dutch will be playing without a player with the name "VAN" in their team.
- The crowd was flooded with Chile supporters and that would have certainly spurred them on.
- Chile started the game strong and kept pushing forwards with Alexis Sanchez continuing his blistering World Cup and tormenting Daley Blind whilst doing so.
- Every Chile attack seemed to be linked with their full back Eugenio Mena but they were lacking with the end product.
- The Chileans went down thrice in the box in the first half and were rightfully denied a penalty in all three cases.
- Gary Medel playing as a centre back was as solid as a ROCK in Chile’s defence. I wonder how he plays for a Vincent Tan run Cardiff City.
- The Dutch threatened via Jermaine Lens and Arjen Robben but the two failed to link up (Read Robben not passing).
- Wesley Sneijder was visible only at halftime waving to the crowd, he managed to complete a MASSIVE two passes in the first half.
- Chile certainly missed the iconic Arturo Vidal in their starting line up who hasn’t been completely fit coming into this tournament.
- Georginio Wijnaldum had a couple of shots in the first half and it was very evident that he was missing his glasses as he had no clue of where he was shooting.
- Chile continued to push forward and dominated possession but lacked the end product.
- Arjen Robben rarely passed the ball in the first half but had a tremendous run from his half to the other half but couldn’t finish it off, experts were of the view that Robben was never taught how to pass and thus refuses to do so.
- The first half was pretty boring for a neutral with no goals or no drama to witness.
- People expected Chile to go for the kill in the second half but they did anything but that, they continued to dominate possession and Wesley Sneijder was still not visible.
- Chile brought on Jean Beausejour at half time and expected their grand old man to probably shoot at goal which they failed to do in the first half.
- Louis van Gaal was frustrated along the sidelines and managed to give an earful to Ron Vlaar and Jermaine Lens for their average displays. I wonder what went on in the dressing room.
- By the way Louis van Gaal is the same person who had once dropped his shorts and pointed out to his players how big his balls were, fun times at Manchester United next season!
- Jermaine Lens was then taken off for Netherlands’ super sub and probably the player with the coolest name in the world cup, Memphis Depay.
- Jorge Valdivia replaced Francisco Silva and was roared on by the Chilean fans, Valdivia is fondly referred to as ‘magician’ by the Chileans.
- The game went on and we were still at 0-0 when Louis Van Gaal decided to spare Sneijder the horror and replaced him with Leroy Fer, yes the same dude that plays for Norwich City.
- Leroy Fer brought life into the game and scored after just 91 seconds of being on the pitch!
- Leroy Fer jumped so high, I thought he’d Netherland xD
- 1-0 to the Dutch and thank you for finally bringing some life into this game!
- The Chileans then decided that it was time to take Eduardo Vargas to a pool for him to continue diving and then replaced him with Pinilla hoping for a greater job in attack.
- The Chileans seemed frustrated after dominating the game and possession and yet falling back, the Dutch have proven to be counter attacking masters in this World Cup.
- Dirk Kuyt who was playing as a left back (he’s a fricking right winger man!) for the Dutch and had managed to do a pretty decent job was subbed off for Kongolo in the 89th minute. The game seemed over when Arjen Robben with his immense pace dodged pass the Chilean defence not wanting to pass but realizing he couldn’t do anything but that and gave a brilliant assist for Memphis Depay who slotted in and the Dutch went 2-0 up.
- Chile need to work in their final third if they want to finish off their chances in this World Cup and Jorge Sampaoli will surely be addressing that.
- Final Score : Netherlands 2-0 Chile
What Twitter had to say?
The Dutch will take belief and confidence from this win and will be looking to build on their play in the coming games whereas Jorge Sampaoli’s men will take a lot of heart and pride at the fact that they managed to dominate a Dutch side that had thrashed the defending champions, Spain 5-1. Expect great games from these two sides when they face off against Mexico and Brazil in the round of 16!
P.S – I still have goosebumps from that Chilean National Anthem.