How The Dutch Silenced Messi For 120 Minutes

After 120 minutes of soccer there was nothing that separated the two teams. It was two hours of cat and mouse football that saw neither side make any real impression on the game. A testament to this was the fact that there were only a combined total of 8 shots on net throughout the entire contest. So since seeing that penalty kicks are a toss up 99% of the time, I’m going to exclude them from this conversation and focus on the two hours of soccer that were played.

It was a very tactical matchup from start to finish. Both teams came out very pensive as neither of them wanted to give up the first goal. And it seemed like if a goal was going to come, it was going to happen because one of the teams was going to make a mistake. That mistake never came though.

Ron Vlaar was by far the best player on the entire pitch. He was a rock in defense and almost single handedly neutralized Lionel Messi. It was by far the most subpar showing from the FC Barcelona man throughout the entire tournament as there was a Dutch player at his side at almost all times. The Netherlands were spectacular in the back for the entire 120 minutes of play, but almost nonexistent once they got into the opposing half.

It was obvious from the get go that Robin Van Persie was not up to full fitness. He nowhere near looked anything like his regular self; giving the Dutch almost no production up top. Arjen Robben once again looked like he was the most prone to score, but Argentina did a good job for the majority of the game to contain him. The fact that he only completed 4 passes in the first half was a testament to how well the Argentinean midfield and defense were prepared for the Bayern Munich man.

Other than that there isn’t really too much to say about the Dutch. No one had a beyound obvious poor game, but no one, outside of Ron Vlaar had an exceptionally good game, either. The Dutch were unlucky to lose in the shootout but that is just the nature of the beast. One team has to lose one team has to win. On this day it could have been either of them. The Dutch were just on the wrong side of things and will have to once again wait four years to have another shot at claiming the World Cup trophy.