niet totaal, maar genoeg (not total but enough)

HOLLAND 3

URUGUAY 2

http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/matches/round=249719/match=300061512/index.html

Not total football, but enough. In any case, the notion of total football has long been an anachronism flattened out by pragmatic football. WC 2010 has been characterised by teams mostly playing 4-2-3-1 with 3 skilful midfielders playing in behind a forward doing his best to drag central defenders with him.

At last we have seen a long range bomber, with veteran Van Bronckhoorst unleashing a 35m bullet past Muslera on 17". The spirit of 1986 was all over it, with the 5 replays not enough. Think Rats and Aleihnikov, Josimar and add this to the collection.

Forlan then unleashed the bazooka from 30m just before halftime that Stekelenburg should have dealt better with, although the lateral swerve was later than George Costanza to a job interview.

After the break fortune favoured the Dutch again as a shot from Sneijder went through the legs of an offside Van Persie, with the benefit paid. No doubt about the 3rd though, as an excellent Kuyt cross was met by an unmarked Robben who angled his header for an unsavable goal off the post.

A late Maxi Pereira goal from a nicely worked free kick on 92" that had echoes of Javier Zanetti v England in France98, but the Dutch held on.

At game's end some frustration and far too many shots of Dutch royalty, with some antics more akin to Eurovision than to the world cup. The cameraman should take more licence and film the real fans. not the Jaggers, Di Caprios, Berlusconis, King Wilhelm (or whatever his name is) et al.

GP