The nature of football

As I watch every single match of the world cup, yesterday I was watching Holland vs Brazil. As almost every country nowadays does, both  teams where trying to keep a clean sheet, rather than scoring goals. Brazil handled the pressure better in the first half and should have scored at least two goals. They only scored one, giving Holland the opportunity to get things right during half time and ultimatly get the 2-1 win.

Interesting enough, both teams played more or less in the same formation. Four defenders, two defensive midfielders (melo, silva - v. bommel, de jong), three attacking midfielders (kaka, robinho, alves - robben, sneijder, kuyt) and one target man (fabiano - v. persie). This resulted in a rather dull game.

This is much seen this WC. Only Chili and Spain choose to have an attacking style. The matches of these two teams are the only ones worth while. The rest is thrilling for the people of that specific country, but well played combinations or great goals are very, very rare.

Holland used to be the country who tried to play open and attacking football. That era is gone and since I'm dutch, I'm ashamed of the way Holland plays. Holland got this far, mostly because of luck. The goals of Sneijder yesterday were a good excample of that luck. But luck won't last forever. My hopes for the kind of football that brings real excitement are up for Spain and also for Argentina.

How a central striker can be essential

Yesterday I watched the match Spain vs Portugal. The keyplayer was Llorente, who came in the pitch as a substitute for Torres in the second half.

The coach of Spain, Del Bosque, knew that Portugal would be on the defensive so he thought of a plan to create space way up front. He used Torres and Villa more or less as wingers and let Iniesta play a free role to help out the midfield. Obviously he hoped this would make the defenders of Portugal decide to put pressure on iniesta on the midfield. The problem was they didn't. Spain had all the possession but couldn't create chances of any kind.

When Llorente, a central striker, came in everything changed. Llorente stayed in the middle and acted as a stand for Villa, Xavi, Iniesta and others to have the ball close to the goal to try to make a shot. Ramos and Villa became the wingers who were able to put in some nice crosses. This resulted in a major chance for Llorente, only after one minute on the pitch. The cross came from Ramos and Llorente was able to make a header. Fortunatly for the keeper is was directed at his hands.

Because Spain now had someone in the box who could keep the ball, wheter they tried to reach him through the air or through a regular pass. The goal is an excellent example of this. Llorente got the ball in the box, which was picked up by Iniesta who make a throughpass to Xavi who could reach Villa with his backheel. Villa then made the goal.

So, a central striker can be very important, not only in making goals, but also in creating chances for other players.

Holland vs Slowakia review

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.