Brazil V Holland
There was an unusual atmosphere inside the Estadio Nacional as Brazil played fellow sem-final losers Holland in a third and fourth place play-off match. There was not the usual buzz around the stadium as in previous games (understandably) but the Brazilian national anthem was sung with the bare minimum of passion from Brazilian fans. Overall, like Louis Van Gaal suggested this seemed a rather pointless game.
Brazil’s defence looked to have started the match the way they left off in the embarrassing semi-final. When Holland robbed the ball from the Brazilians deep inside the Dutch half, solid defender Ron Vlaar launched a long pass onto the chest of Robin Van Persie. Van Persie then held the ball up excellently and played a brilliant through ball to Arjen Robben. Just as Robben was looking to shape and shoot, Brazil’s captain Thiago Silva pulled back the shoulder of Robben who fell to the ground as the referee blew for the obvious penalty. The PSG defender was very lucky not to have been sent off. Up stepped the confident Robin Van Persie who slammed the penalty into the top left corner. Two minutes played, Holland 1-0 up.
As the early stages continued, Holland looked increasingly dangerous on the counter attack, if it hadn’t been for some slack Dutch passing they could and should have had more than the one goal lead.
At sixteen minutes after a sequence of clever passing on the right wing, the ever dangerous Arjen Robben dinked a looping cross into the box. The ball missed the head of Van Persie and David Luiz attempted to clear the ball with his head, for it to only fall to the defender Blind who lashed the ball into the roof of the net. Straight after the goal there was a mass sound of silence. The Brazilian fans didn’t sound overly disappointed, there was perhaps a feeling that they expected it.
It wasn’t until twenty-one minutes through the game when Brazil created their first chance. Chelsea’s Oscar skipped past a few defenders then struck the ball low and hard into the hands of Cillissen.
After Brazil created their first shot, the team looked a lot more confident on the ball and were dominating in possession as well as they threw bodies into attack, trying find an unlikely way back into the match.
At thirty-three minutes as Brazil continued to knock the ball about with more urgency. They found themselves with a free kick in a decent position. Oscar struck an inviting ball inside the box as the rushing David Luiz headed well wide of goal.
At half time it was 2-0 to the Dutch, with the Brazilians doing little to cause Holland problems. Holland were counter-attacking at ease as the Brazillian fullbacks were playing so high up it was almost a 2-7-1 formation.
As the second half continued, Brazil were still dominating in possession but struggling to find a real cutting-edge pass to break through the stubborn Dutch defence. Much of Brazil’s attacking momentum would end when it reached to the most expensive defender in the world David Luiz who continued to aim long balls to nobody in particular.
At fifty-four minutes Chelsea’s midfielder Ramires’s compotent use of both feet came to good use, when he glided past three Dutch defenders but could only shoot into the chest of Cillissen.
Despite Holland’s obvious counter-attacking threat Brazil’s right back Douglas Maicon continued playing even further forward than Brazil’s right winger. To be fair to the right-back he did drive Brazil on and caused the Dutch defence a few problems.
Around half way through the second half, the game became very stretched as both sets of player’s lots of space for them to drive into. However, much to the fans annoyance, the players did not play to a quicker tempo and instead looked content to keep the ball for extended periods of time.
At sixty-seven minutes, Oscar once again used trickery to beat Blind. As Oscar knocked the ball past the left back, the two collided with eachover knee to knee, in what looked surely another penalty. However, referee Djamal Haldoumi did not give the decision. Due to the high-impact knee collision, sadly the goal scorer Blind had to leave the field of play.
At ninty minutes when the game looked set to finnish at 2-0, the golden ball nominee Arjen Robben held the ball up excellently on the right-wing and fed the ball threw to Veltman who scuffed in a cross, into the path of Wijnaldum who just steered the ball into the back of the net.
In some ways, I wonder how Brazil managed to make it this far into the tournament. In their last two games they have made so many defensive errors and failed to show any kind of danger in an attacking sense. It’s fair enough that Neymar was injured, but a team like Brazil with the amount of footballing history and culture, surely they shouldn’t have to rely on a twenty-two year old.
Holland should be proud of themselves and their performances throughout this tournament. It was Holland who proved to us that tiki-taka is a finished art and that footballing is evolving into a more dynamic and direct system with flair and technique.
Article by Joseph James
There was an unusual atmosphere inside the Estadio Nacional as Brazil played fellow sem-final losers Holland in a third and fourth place play-off match. There was not the usual buzz around the stadium as in previous games (understandably) but the Brazilian national anthem was sung with the bare minimum of passion from Brazilian fans. Overall, like Louis Van Gaal suggested this seemed a rather pointless game.
Brazil’s defence looked to have started the match the way they left off in the embarrassing semi-final. When Holland robbed the ball from the Brazilians deep inside the Dutch half, solid defender Ron Vlaar launched a long pass onto the chest of Robin Van Persie. Van Persie then held the ball up excellently and played a brilliant through ball to Arjen Robben. Just as Robben was looking to shape and shoot, Brazil’s captain Thiago Silva pulled back the shoulder of Robben who fell to the ground as the referee blew for the obvious penalty. The PSG defender was very lucky not to have been sent off. Up stepped the confident Robin Van Persie who slammed the penalty into the top left corner. Two minutes played, Holland 1-0 up.
As the early stages continued, Holland looked increasingly dangerous on the counter attack, if it hadn’t been for some slack Dutch passing they could and should have had more than the one goal lead.
At sixteen minutes after a sequence of clever passing on the right wing, the ever dangerous Arjen Robben dinked a looping cross into the box. The ball missed the head of Van Persie and David Luiz attempted to clear the ball with his head, for it to only fall to the defender Blind who lashed the ball into the roof of the net. Straight after the goal there was a mass sound of silence. The Brazilian fans didn’t sound overly disappointed, there was perhaps a feeling that they expected it.
It wasn’t until twenty-one minutes through the game when Brazil created their first chance. Chelsea’s Oscar skipped past a few defenders then struck the ball low and hard into the hands of Cillissen.
After Brazil created their first shot, the team looked a lot more confident on the ball and were dominating in possession as well as they threw bodies into attack, trying find an unlikely way back into the match.
At thirty-three minutes as Brazil continued to knock the ball about with more urgency. They found themselves with a free kick in a decent position. Oscar struck an inviting ball inside the box as the rushing David Luiz headed well wide of goal.
At half time it was 2-0 to the Dutch, with the Brazilians doing little to cause Holland problems. Holland were counter-attacking at ease as the Brazillian fullbacks were playing so high up it was almost a 2-7-1 formation.
As the second half continued, Brazil were still dominating in possession but struggling to find a real cutting-edge pass to break through the stubborn Dutch defence. Much of Brazil’s attacking momentum would end when it reached to the most expensive defender in the world David Luiz who continued to aim long balls to nobody in particular.
At fifty-four minutes Chelsea’s midfielder Ramires’s compotent use of both feet came to good use, when he glided past three Dutch defenders but could only shoot into the chest of Cillissen.
Despite Holland’s obvious counter-attacking threat Brazil’s right back Douglas Maicon continued playing even further forward than Brazil’s right winger. To be fair to the right-back he did drive Brazil on and caused the Dutch defence a few problems.
Around half way through the second half, the game became very stretched as both sets of player’s lots of space for them to drive into. However, much to the fans annoyance, the players did not play to a quicker tempo and instead looked content to keep the ball for extended periods of time.
At sixty-seven minutes, Oscar once again used trickery to beat Blind. As Oscar knocked the ball past the left back, the two collided with eachover knee to knee, in what looked surely another penalty. However, referee Djamal Haldoumi did not give the decision. Due to the high-impact knee collision, sadly the goal scorer Blind had to leave the field of play.
At ninty minutes when the game looked set to finnish at 2-0, the golden ball nominee Arjen Robben held the ball up excellently on the right-wing and fed the ball threw to Veltman who scuffed in a cross, into the path of Wijnaldum who just steered the ball into the back of the net.
In some ways, I wonder how Brazil managed to make it this far into the tournament. In their last two games they have made so many defensive errors and failed to show any kind of danger in an attacking sense. It’s fair enough that Neymar was injured, but a team like Brazil with the amount of footballing history and culture, surely they shouldn’t have to rely on a twenty-two year old.
Holland should be proud of themselves and their performances throughout this tournament. It was Holland who proved to us that tiki-taka is a finished art and that footballing is evolving into a more dynamic and direct system with flair and technique.
Article by Joseph James