Holland - Uruguay analysis

Last Monday Holland played the semi-final of the world cup. Uruguay was the last obstacle on the way to the final. I want to talk about the important role of the midfield when playing a 4-3-3 formation.

Holland started with the same formation as they every match did this WC. Only the line-up was slighty different because of two suspensions. Boularhouz played instead of van der Wiel and de Zeeuw played instead of de Jong. This way the defensive block of 6 players was complete again. Up front were the three attacking midfielders and the striker.

When you put 2 central defensive midfielders right in front of the defense, it's hard to keep possession and play attacking football. It's hard because when they recieve the ball, there are no option's ahead, they only see the way back. This caused problems in the first half. Holland could not create any chances, the 1-0 was a rather lucky strike from van Bronkhorst. Uruguay are the lesser team and also had trouble creating chances. Forlan did the same as van Bronkhorst and put the ball in the back of the net with a shot from distance.

The second half became very interesting. De Zeeuw went off having an injury and van der Vaart came in. With van der Vaart there were now 2 players in the midfield who can distribute passes anywhere on the pitch. After a couple of minutes the block of 2 defensive midfielders was gone. Van Bommel played behind van der Vaart and Sneijder. This way they played with 3 central midfielders against 2 from Uruguay. Holland took possession of the ball and scored twice, game over. Uruguay did a little something back in injury time but it wasn't enough, Holland through to the final!

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.