Today I was very excited to see the match between Holland and Slowakia. I've seen Slowakia play some good attacking football against Italy so I thought the match against Holland would be a nice one, since Holland tries to play attacking football as well.
Well, at 6 o'clock I was left dumbfounded. Holland controlled the match by not give away any spaces in the back and Slowakia was unable to put some pressure at Holland's defence. Two counters led to a 2-0 victory for Holland.
Slowakia tried their best but couldn't do any better. Holland played a very negative match. They couldn't get the ball foward and keep it there. The main reason for this is the poor position play of the midfielders. Holland plays with two defensive midfielders, three attacking midfielders and one striker. Sneijder is supposed to be the playmaker and plays as the central attacking midfielder. Robben en Kuyt were the two wingers behind Robin van Persie.
Each time a pass went to van Persie he had to deal with two defenders, because there was no one in midfield to support him. De jong and van Bommel are always too far off because they are given the task to defend. Sneijder lacks creativity and fails to see how and when to step forward. Van Persie lost almost all his battles versus Srktel and so Holland couldn't keep possession.
Sneijder is the main reason why holland can't keep the ball, although he has his qualities. The first goal is a perfect example. Mathijssen reaches Sneijder with a great tackle, Sneijder turns and immediately gives a great long ball behind the defence of Slowakia. Arjen Robben takes the ball, makes a run towards the centre and scores with his left foot.
Holland played very defensive after this and gave Slowakia even the chance to get back in the game. Unfortunatly for Slowakia fans their striker missed two great chances.
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