Thursday, July 8, 2010

Spain vs Netherlands: Can Sneijder, Robben Do What Cruyff Could not?

Netherlands is going to play their third World Cup final on 11 July 2010 when they take on Spain, a first time finalist. The Dutch reached the finals in 1974 and 1978 World Cup tournaments, but on both occasions they agonizingly failed to live up to the expectation.

In 1974 World Cup, Netherlands reached the tournament final after putting on some mesmerizing display of ‘Total Football’ orchestrated by Dutch legend Johan Cruijff who was the biggest star of the tournament. However, the Germans won the trophy after defeating the Dutch 2-1 in the final.

Four years later in 1978, the Dutch could not show the same kind of dominance, but still the players like Rob Rensenbrink, Johnny Rep, Arie Haan and Ernie Brandts guided them to the tournament final. This time it was Argentina who defeated the Netherlands 3-1 in extra time to clinch the World Cup title.

There is no doubt, Netherlands had better chance in 1974 when Johan Cruijff was at his best. Now, the question is if Wesley Sneijder and Arjen Robben would be able to do what Cruijff failed to accomplish.

Sneijder and Robben are among the best players of the World Cup 2010. Sneijder has scored 5 goals in 6 matches so far and is currently the joint top scorer in the tournament and a contender for both the Golden Boot and Golden Ball awards.

Arjen Robben has also quickly got his rhythm back after returning from injury. The Bayern Munich striker was instrumental in Netherlands’ victories over Slovakia, Brazil and Uruguay in the knock out stage. He has scored 2 goals in 4 matches and is among the contenders of Golden Ball award.

So, the Dutch side has two in-form star players in Arjen Robben and Wesley Sneijder. Both the players have perhaps displayed their best football at club level last season. Now, they would not like to squander off the opportunity of becoming proud members of their country’s first World Cup winning team.

5 comments:

  1. It is for the Netherlands 3th time world cup final! Also in 1974 and 1978 there was one!

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  2. Netherlands will beat spain.

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  3. This will be a very exciting match.

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  4. im not a follower of Paul, the Octopus but I hope spain win the tournament...max

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  5. Paul predicted wrongly in 2008 when he saw Germany Win the European Cup.

    May he be wrong again for THIS final.

    Hopefully he's only good at predicting matches and NOT Finals.

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