Friday, 25 June 2010

Top Klaas: Holland 2-1 Cameroon 24/6/10


Holland line-up: Stekelenburg, Heitinga, Mathijsen, Van Bronkhorst (c), Van Bommel, Kuyt (Elia, 66'), De Jong, Van Persie (Huntelaar, 59'), Sneijder, Boulahrouz, Van Der Vaart (Robben, 73')
Cameroon line-up: Souleymanou, Nkoulou (R.Song, 73'), Nguemo, Geremi, Eto'o (c), Makoun, Bong (Aboubakar, 56'), Choupo Moting (Idrissou, 72'), Chedjou, Mbia

Holland take all nine points in the group stage without really hitting top gear as sorry Cameroon bounce out without a point. This game may have been a dead rubber but it still was very entertaining as both teams looked for the win. Cameroon probably played their best game despite losing and had the first notable attacks, Chedjou forced Stekelenburg into action. But Holland soon found possession and started to dominate terms in the game, Van Persie should have put Holland ahead after Van Bronkhorst played a superb ball through but Souleymanou dealt with the tame shot rather easily. Van Der Vaart was the next in line to test Souleymanou with a curling free-kick but the keeper was up to the task. Kuyt also should have scored but he blazed an effort wide but everyone could sense a goal was coming. Five minutes later Holland got that goal with a cutting edge move, Kuyt found Van Der Vaart who threaded the ball through to Van Persie who then coolly nutmegged the goalkeeper as the ball slid into the net.

Holland continued to dominate in the second half and Van Persie should have had a second but Souleymanou made sure he wasn't going to beaten one-on-one again. This was to be his last installment as he was replaced by Huntelaar, this break in play seemed to change the pattern and Cameroon were suddenly the team dominating possession. Eto'o, Nguemo and Makoun were all stopped by a combination of Holland's rigid defence and good stops from Stekelenburg. Cameroon did find an equaliser but it was from the penalty spot; Van Der Vaart was judged to have handled the ball and Samuel Eto'o stepped up to put Cameroon level, the stadium erupted for the African contingent. The crowd got even louder firstly by Robben's introduction by Bert Van Maarwijk but then by history making Rigobert Song who replaced Nkoulou. Both of whom were involved in Holland's second goal as Robben proved to quick and skillful for Song and fired a shot that smashed against the post, which rebounded into the path of Huntelaar who made no mistake and gave Holland their 100% success rate in the group.

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