In the Immortal Words of Homer Simpson: D'OH!

Spot the similarities?

37 goals in 10 qualifying games? The ability to call upon the top scorer in the Premier League AND the Bundesliga?  No matter, it only takes one well heeled Danish counter attack to undo the attacking confidence of the Dutch side.

De Oranje have faced similar criticism before.  The fluid passing of their Total Football approach has all too often been marred by an impotency in front of goal.  Their breezy movement around the pitch no match for the no nonsense, hard tackling approach favored by other sides.  (Well, that was until South Africa 2010, which saw the Dutch place second on the back of a cynical, albeit generally effective, effort.)

It was supposed to be different this time.  On the back of an impressive qualifying campaign and, most recently, a 6-0 drubbing of Northern Ireland, the Netherlands came into this match professing the attacking promise and deep experience (the most experienced in the tourney, in fact, averaging 42 caps per player) that other sides would kill for.  Point in fact, Huntelaar and Van der Vaart spent the first 70 minutes on the bench (more on that later).

And it all went according to plan...well, for the first 23 minutes, after which Michael Krohn-Dehli's opportunistic strike - and Maarten Stekelenburg's incompetent goalkeeping - sucked the life out of the Dutch in a manner not dissimilar to recent trends in Facebook's stock price.

Keeping with previous international form, RVP proved a disappointment throughout, wrong footed on a number of occasions and completely lacking in the sharpness expected from someone who just netted 30 league goals for Arsenal (see CR7 for a paradigmatic example of this phenomenon). Even the late intros of Huntelaar, who has finally found his footing at Schalke, and the dynamic Van der Vaart were not enough to lift the by then harried Holland side, though they did contribute some new ideas and went about their work with a sense of conviction otherwise lacking from the Dutch (save Sneijder, a singular consistent bright spot in the side) in the second half.


Exhibit A: Sneijder's magnificent through ball to Huntelaar and the ancillary chances that were created.  The last twenty minutes made the case for The Hunter up front with Sneijder as Trequartista for the Oranje's next outing against Germany.

Credit the Danes, though, who, while defensive throughout, benefitted from stand out performances from Krohn-Dehli, Simon Paulsen and Daniel Agger, and pushed the counter-attack when the opportunity arose.  In the end, it wasn't a shocker, just a case of one side taking advantage of 8 goal attempts, while the other wasted 28.