June 19, 2010, 8:52 am
Wesley Sneijder’s 53rd minute blast of a goal was enough to break the deadlock, and the Netherlands held off Japan, 1-0, in Durban, this morning. The result puts the Dutch at the top of Group E, with the maximum six points. You can read how the game unfolded below.
A 1-0 victory for the Dutch gives them a foot and a half into the second round; if this afternoon’s result goes as expected, they will qualify. Although they haven’t looked as dazzling as they might, they have done more than enough to earn their six points. And in Sneijder, they have a player who can conjure goals out of next to nothing.
Also, Holland has Arjen Robben in reserve, who is not only a proven goal-scorer but a proven scorer in difficult and clutch situations. The word from South Africa is that Robben has recovered from his hamstring injury. But Holland can now afford to save him for the second round, if they wish.
As for Japan, they look like they could qualify for the second round, too. They’ll have to do well against Denmark, no doubt, but on the evidence of today’s performance, they can beat Denmark. It would be surprising to some, given Japan’s poor run-up to the World Cup, but it’s clear that the Japanese have come a long way. They have talent and today they showed maturity in the way they stayed organized and kept pressuring whenever possible.
That’s it from me. Enjoy the rest of the day’s soccer!
After all the tumult yesterday concerning referees, this guy was virtually unnoticed. He called a fair, tight game, and the players (perhaps as a result?) gave him little trouble.
FULL TIME |FINAL: Holland 1 – Japan 0
That’s it. And the Japanese will take cold comfort from having played so well.
De Jong shoulders Nagatomo to the ground in the penalty area, just at the end line– hearts in mouths for the Dutch fans as the referee points to the spot — but he’s pointing for a goal kick.
91st minute |Added time will be 3 minutes
Ref says three minutes of stoppage time.
Okazaki shoots JUST over the bar, just barely, and from close range after Tulio headed the ball onward for him.
90th minute |Japan attacking again
Komano, still wearing that huge Band-aid across his mouth,tries to push it through form the side, but it’s cleared. The Dutch are really wavering here.
Huntelaar!! He mimics his fellow sub Affelay, and sprints into the penalty area — this time the low shot beats Kawashima and it takes two defenders to knock it off the goal line!!
Holland replaces Robin Van Persie with Klaas Jan Huntelaar
87th minute |Easy stuff for Dutch goalie
Another long, looping ball in from Japan, but Stekelenberg easily catches it.
From almost at the center circle, Endo sends it long … Nagazawa heads it but it’s cleared.
Affelay — who is only 20 — takes off suddenly down the left flank, and keeps accelerating! Nobody is with him! He gets into the box but his very last touch takes him too close to Kawashima, who makes a good save.
83rd |Sneijder substituted
Ibrahim Affelay has come on for Sneijder, probably to play in roughly the same area but to play defensively. Or maybe just to bring more energy for these final minutes.
80th |Can Japan find a break?
We’re into the final 10 minutes, and the Japanese are still pressuring away. Even the big center back Tulio is up in the area, attacking. Are the Dutch living a bit dangerously?
Halden Krog/European Pressphoto Agency Japan’s Yuji Nakazawa fell to the ground during a match against the Netherlands on Saturday.
Nakamura shows off his tricky footwork at the edge of the box; he then slides the ball into the path of a teammate but it runs out over the endline.
Kuyt long ball down the right to Van der Wiel, but his cross is blocked.
Elia lost the ball, but chased back and tackled it away again, then sped off and fed toward van Persie — but the goalkeeper got there first.
Both subs are strikers, so Japan isn’t giving up the quest. And Abe has ben given the captain’s armband
77th |Japan substitutions
Keiji Tamada and Shinji Okazaki are coming on, replacing Hasebe — the captain — and Okubo, the very hard-working forward.
Van Bommel steals it off Hasebe in midfield; the Dutch break but the final ball into the box is cleared.
Elia is a rookie with the national team. Plays along the left flank, mostly, to take advantage of his speed.
72nd minute |Substitution for Holland
Here he comes: Elia on, Van der Vaart off.
Another good attack — Van Persie is back “helping out,” and looks like a striker doing it. The cross looked dangerous but in the end Van P cleared it over the bar.
Komano races down the right flank, Holland scrambling to get back — his diagonally-angled pass it just about perfect but the back-tracking Van der Wiel gets a foot to it before anyone else.
Okubo scythes down Van Persie along the sideline, maybe 35 yards out. Free kick by Van der Vaart is poor and lands in front of the Japanese defenders.
Doesn’t quite get enough curl on it; it beat the goalkeeper but went wide right.
Matsui is coming off. In his place, Nakamura, a veteran left-footed midfielder with a great shot and a lot of experience.
What I should have said at halftime is the old cliche: “This game needs a goal.” Ever since the Dutch scored, the Japanese have responded, and so the Dutch have to keep their concentration and pressure, too.
This is impressive. They are keeping the pressure on. Honda just made a lovely cross, although it was cleared.
Roberto Candia/Associated Press The Netherlands’ Giovanni van Bronckhorst, right, and Japan’s Daisuke Matsui, left, vied for the ball during the Group E match.
This is very far out, but Endo’s long curving kick gets right into the front of goal — but Stekelenberg grabs it first.
Japan is reacting well to being a goal down. Heitinga has been forced to give up a corner.
And another. And another. Endo keeps sending them in from the left corner arc. This time it goes for a throw.
Another shot by Okubo, this time about a yard over the bar.
Okubo, being hounded by a backtracking Van Persie, gets off a good shot of his own from about 20 yards. Good save by Stekelenberg.
53rd minute |More on Sneijder’s goal
It was crossed from the left flank to Van Persie, and bounced off his knee; unable to control it with his back to goal, Van Persie pushed the ball gently back to Sneijder just outside the area, and he really uncorked a wicked shot. Kawashima lunged to his left and got his hand to it but could do no more than divert its path into the net behind him.
I take it all back: Wesley Sneijder with a terrifically struck shot from 20 yards.
52nd minute |Corner again for the Dutch
Sneijder takes it — yay! — but it’s headed away.
Tulio charges out to knock down — Van der Vaart for the free kick, sends it smartly into the mob in front of goal but Tulio rises above everyone else to head it clear. Corner comes to nothing.
Now Van Bommel springs Van Persie with a long floated ball into the box. Van Persie takes it first time and it skews off wide right.
Good cross from Van Bronckhorst on left flank to Van Persie for a decent shot on goal — the first time such a thing has happened. Save by Kawashima, though.
We’re underway. No lineup changes, I’m sorry to say.
Halftime |Halftime musings
As a journalist, I’m baffled. As a fan, I’m annoyed. Yes, I was expecting to see the Japanese give the Dutch a tough time, chasing them and fending them off — but I was also expecting the Dutch to cope with that. Where’s Wesley Sneijder? The heat graphic above tells me he touched the ball only 29 times, and I’d have guessed it was even less. Most of the choreographing from midfield has been done by Van Bommel, but he’s not a creative player. And wing play? We’ve been some good overlaps between Van der Wiel and Kuyt, but once they sent the ball toward the middle, the Japanese cleared it with little trouble. The Japanese are doing as expected, and as any team in their position would do, and they’re doing it well. Occasionally they spot the chance for a counterattack and sprint off, but they take few chances otherwise. They are very quick, and get back quickly. Holland will have to bring in some more speed of its own — the young Eljero Elia showed himself to be super-speedy coming on as a substitute against Cameroon — or wake up Wesley.
Paul Hanna/Reuters Japan’s Yuki Abe, left, fought for the ball with the Netherlands’ Wesley Sneijder.
HALFTIME |What does it mean?
It sure looks like these two teams decided to conserve themselves for the second 45 minutes. I don’t know how else to explain it. The first half was rugged at times, but never very energetic or incisive. Back soon if I can think of something else to say.
Van der Vaart gets off a good strike – unfortunately he was about 25 yards out and wide, so the goalkeeper had a good view and caught it easily.
Well, it’s something to tell you.
Apologies, but there is really very little to say. At the moment the Dutch are passing the ball around their own end.
40th min |Free kick Japan
Heitinga trips Honda about 40 yards out. Endo and Honda over the ball — Honda strikes it ferociously but it is well over the bar — indeed it smacks into the boom of the behind-goal camera.
That Japanese midfielder’s name surely has a sporting pedigree, especially in the Northeast USA: Daisuke Matsui.
Japan break down the right, fast — but they get into traffic; the ball is passed back to Matsui who volleys, but not too hard, and Stekelenberg gathers it easily.
Endo’s long free kick finds the big defender Tulio on the left side of the area, he makes a great leap but his header goes just wide of the near post.
Vander Wiel body-blocks Matsui, and gets a card.
This time it is Honda doing the fouling, on Van Bommel. He may regret that; Van Bommel is one of the harshest tacklers in the game. Anyway this free kick is 45 yards out, at least, and produces nothing.
Japan has a free kick about 35 yards out — Endo loops it over everyone into the box to the peroxided Honda, who heads it well over the bar.
Even the commentators have had to say how insipid things are so far: Robbie Mustoe just said this would be a good time to go make a cup of coffee because nothing’s happening!
Some good buildup by the Netherlands, now: long cross-field pass from Van der Vaart to Kuyt, who runs it into the middle and lays off to Van Bommel, who tries to thread one straight ahead into the box but is blocked.
26th minute |Japan ventures forward again
Some nice passing gets them down the right flank; they get a throw-in — but the Dutch regain possession.
Almost beat the trap, but no.
Perhaps I should amend that comment about overlapping backs. Van Bronckhorst, on the left, doesn’t really do too much of it. Not only is he 35, but he was never exactly fleet in his prime. And now his right-side counterpart Van de Wiel is having to race back to defend — but does.
19th minute |More Dutch possession
As we would expect, Japan seems resolutely focused on defending. They’d be happy with a tie. But Van Persie, in frustration, has just fouled Tulio.
For anyone wondering about that name “Tulio” on Japan’s team: he was born in Brazil and was naturalized as an adult — his full name is Marcus Tulio Tanaka.
The Dutch keep passing smartly around — backward, forward, side to side, looking like they’ve got all the time in the world to figure something out. The injured Komano has come back on the field.
It’s wide right and almost to the halfway line. Van der Vaart takes the long free kick. Cleared, with his head, by Tulio Tanaka.
11th minute |Japan’s first attack foray
Japan finally get into the Dutch end — and Nagamoto takes a long shot that skips along that bumpy ground but goes wide right.
Van der Wiel on the right has been on the rampage — here he exchanges with Kuyt, who puts the ball across — nice work but no reslt.
Good position but Sneijder sends it just over the crossbar.
Japan’s Nakazawa and Matsui double-team Van Persie, fouling him. As they all tumble, Van Persie’s upswinging boot hit Komano in the face. He’s stretchered off.
6th minute |What about that surface?
The field does look patchy and uneven. Some spots are quite brown. Also, as so often in these morning games, about two-thirds of the field, length-wise, is in shadow.
5th minute |First corner – Holland
Van Persie sent over a nice cross form the left, which was headed out. Corner came to nothing, though.
Dutch lose the ball, then foul, but in the center circle.
The whistle |Referee Baldisso of Argentina starts the game
The Japaese are wearing white shirts and blue shorts, going left to right. The Dutch are wearing … well, you know.
Moses Mabhida Stadium — about 70,000 capacity — looks full. And although most are orange-clad, the cameras are showing us some zanily-dressed Japanese fans, too, wrapped in flags or with painted faces.
Anthem time |Every player looks very solemn
As always, thousands of Dutch fans have traveled to watch their team, almost every single one of them in bright orange.
Thanassis Stavrakis/Associated Press Japanese and Dutch fans gathered prior to the start of Saturday’s first World Cup match.
As with so many World Cup match-ups, this one intrigues for its cultural differences. Almost every player for Japan’s team plays in the nation’s own J-League, while the Netherlands routinely produces players who are snapped up by top clubs in other European leagues.
Looking just at the Oranje starters, you find four players who earn a living in England’s Premier League, three in Germany’s Bundesliga and one each from Italy’s and Spain’s top leagues. Wesley Sneijder, of European champions Inter Milan, Arjen Robben, of Champions League runners-up Bayern Munich, and, for my money, Arsenal’s Robin Van Persie (when fit) are among the top players in the world at their positions.
A small handful of Japanese players find success overseas. But Japan has focused on building its J-League into a lucrative and competitive option for its own players and foreigners. In synch with that, the national team has been growing stronger. Its 1-0 victory over Cameroon in the group opener was Japan’s first ever on foreign soil but, while a mild upset, it wasn’t a shock. (In 2002, when they were the Cup’s co-hosts with South Korea, they made it to the second round, where they lost to Turkey.)
Today, the Oranje know first-hand that Japan is not to be taken lightly. Although their friendly match last September finished 3-0 for Holland, it was scoreless for an hour (and the game was in the Netherlands). The tenor of the game if not the result, gave the Japanese players confidence. So did the victory over Cameroon, according to coach Takeshi Okada.
The Dutch coach, Bert van Marwijk, said he expects Japan to be more aggressive than they were in September – and he needed only to watch the Cameroon match to reach that conclusion. Although the score was 1-0, the Japanese pressured, harried, rushed, hustled and out-ran the Indomitable Lions, from start to finish, on defense and on the attack. Keisuke Honda (who plays in Russia, for CSKA Moscow) popped up at the far post to poke in the game’s only goal.
Still — let’s not get carried away. The Dutch are legitimate contenders to win this World Cup; they didn’t drop a single point in eight qualifying games, and looked smooth and strong, if not yet sharp, in defeating Denmark, 2-0, in the opener here.
On the injury front, Arjen Robben survive a full 90-minute training session, after sitting out their first match (against Denmark) with a hamstring injury. But I’d be surprised to see him start. The playing surface in Durban is said to be in bad shape (so much so that the local organizing committee asked the teams to train elsewhere before the game), and van Marwijk has enough talent that he can afford to protect Robben for the final group game (against Cameroon) or even for the next round.
Back with lineups in a few minutes.
As expected, neither team has changed its lineup from the first game.
Netherlands: Maarten Stekelenburg; Gregory van der Wiel, Johnny Heitinga, Joris Mathijsen, Giovanni van Bronckhorst (captain); Dirk Kuyt, Mark van Bommel, Wesley Sneijder, Nigel de Jong, Rafael van der Vaart; Robin van Persie.
Japan: Eiji Kawashima; Yuki Abe, Yuji Nakazawa, Tulio, Yuichi Komano; Yuto Nagatomo, Yoshito Okubo, Yasuhito Endo, Makoto Hasebe (captain), Daisuke Matsui; Keisuke Honda.
Referee: Hector Baldassi (Argentina)
On Yellow cards: Abe; Van Persie
from: http://goal.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/19/world-cup-live-netherlands-vs-japan/?src=mv
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Wesley Sneijder was born on June 9th, 1984 according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wesley_Sneijder
June 9th
6 + 9 +2+0+1+0 = 18 = his personal year (from June 9th, 2010 to June 8th, 2011)
18 year + 6 (June) = 24 = his personal month (from June 9th, 2010 to July 8th, 2010)
24 month + 19 (19th of the month on Saturday June 19th, 2010) = 43 = his personal day = Fun. Enjoyment. Playing. Celebrating. Entertainment. Entertaining. Fun times. Good times. Congratulations.
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numerology behind the news 