In a rematch of the 2010 final, a young and athletic Holland took on the masterful Spaniards in the hideous humidity of Salvador – the opening Group B fixture of the 2014 World Cup. Diego Costa, our pick for Spain’s key player, started his first competitive match for Vicente Del Bosque’s side as both sides opened their bids to become the first European team to win the World Cup in South America. Following the refereeing controversy that had hindered the first two games of this year’s tournament, fans all over the world will have been hoping that the referees stopped making mistakes and let these two sides’ supreme footballing ability take over!
They say in these kinds of fixtures that experience counts for a hell of a lot – the Spanish starting XI averaged a staggering 77 caps in this fixture; what good did that do them? Read on to find out!
Spain and Holland started probably as expected, pressing most of the way up the pitch and chasing the ball persistently. Both also looked comfortable in possession but were also willing to play quite direct; Spain in particular looked for the runs of Costa fairly frequently. Both sides’ key playmakers had good opportunities early on with Sneijder being played in only to shoot straight at Casillas and then Iniesta finding space on the edge of the box to just shoot over. Spain took control after the opening exchanges but were hesitant in taking their chances as Ron Vlaar in particular kept Diego Costa and co. on a tight leash.
Undeterred, Spain kept pushing for an opening and, sure enough, they got it. A textbook pass from Xavi found Costa and put the young Dutch centre-back Stefan de Vrij on the back foot. Costa then dropped the shoulder to cut onto his right foot and had his trailing foot caught by the centre-back who made the mistake of committing to the challenge, which ultimately led to a penalty for the Spaniards. Expertly tucked away by Xabi Alonso, the penalty put Holland on the back foot and this is when the Dutch started to play their best football of the match. Blindt and Robben in particular were menacing on the left-hand side for Holland and asked some real questions of Spain’s defensive line. A defence-splitting pass from Andres Iniesta almost put an end to Holland’s good spell of play though as his pass saw David Silva clean through on goal but it wasn’t enough as Silva’s cheeky chip was smothered by the Dutch goalkeeper.
Then came one of the game’s best moves and it didn’t come from the World Champions. Danny Blindt, who had an absolute corker of a game, darted past the half-way line on the left flank before playing a delightful diagonal ball over the heads of the Spanish defenders towards the on-rushing Robin Van Persie. The United forward had an age to track the flight of the ball and dinked a very clever free header from beyond the penalty spot past a hapless Iker Casillas on the stroke of half-time.
The Dutch came out in the second half continuing to build on the momentum they’d built up with that stunning goal in the first half. Many were sceptical before the game of Louis Van Gaal’s defensive selection with the three centre-backs and two wing-backs as it can leave the centre-backs exposed but can equally benefit a side massively on the offensive end of the pitch. Holland were seeing those benefits and then some here as Blindt and Janmaat were adding a lot to Holland’s offensive potency and before long Holland were ahead because of it. On top of this, Robben and Van Persie were given far too much leeway by the Spanish defence and in due course they both took their turns to make the holders pay for it.
Robben struck the first blow as he tied Spain’s defensive duo in knots after being played in superbly again by the brilliant Blindt before tucking the ball past the once again helpless Iker Casillas to make it 2-1 to the Dutch. Stefan de Vrij then made up for his earlier indiscretion as he nodded home a Wesley Sneijder free-kick at Casillas’ back post. The only blight on this performance by the Dutch might be that Van Persie’s contribution in challenging Casillas before this goal was scored arguably had a very big part to play in the goal – the referee didn’t see it that way however and Holland’s third goal stood.
No excuses could save Casillas from the blame for the fourth goal though as a terrible touch when receiving a Jordi Alba back-pass allowed the chasing Robin Van Persie to come in and snatch the ball from the Spaniard’s feet and tuck away, with all due respect a tad unbelievably, Holland’s fourth goal of the match. Van Persie then made his exit to a rapturous reception from the fans but Spain’s misery didn’t end there as Robben was still on the prowl. Any memories in Arjen Robben’s mind of that miss in the 2010 final will have gone some way towards being buried after this performance. In the latter stages of the game a counter-attacking move was spearheaded by the winger’s blisteringly fast run down the centre of the pitch only for Robben to slow down and wrong-foot Casillas and Ramos to see the goal open up for the Bayern Munich winger to put away Holland’s fifth goal of the game.
For the first time in a long time, Spain were comprehensively beaten by a brilliant Dutch performance. Victims of an almost perfectly executed system by Louis Van Gaal’s men, Spain found themselves losing their opening group game for the second World Cup tournament in succession. They ended up qualifying from the group last time out obviously; can they do the same this time? Stick with us here at Fortitude to find out!