No Flying Dutchman around here

Van Persie was hardly seen and his companions did not surprise

The second round of the competition placed an under distress Holland, after losing for Brazil, facing a more comfortable England, already with three points in the bag. With “a knife to his neck” the Dutch never showed the necessary talent to beat the English and ended up defeated, with a handful of goals and zero chances of going through to the final stage.

Mundialito Oporto Indoor (2nd round – group C)

June 15th of 2014, 17 hours

Holland, 0

England, 5

At Oporto indoor Games

England – Daniel Banks; Pedro Crouch (1), Nuno Ferdinand [C] (1), Sérgio Wright Phillips (2); Pedro Beckham.

From the bench: Tony Lampard, Leandro Lineker, Hugo Walcott (1), Max Seaman [GK].

Coach: Tózé Robson

Mid-term: 0-3

Robson made a single change in the line-up. Crouch made his debut in the Mundialito, sending Lampard to the bench.

A very hot afternoon reminded us the summer is just around the corner. Looking at the opponent, Van Persie stood up as the most dangerous of the Dutch squad. The menace however, was never consummated...

The game started and England scored early. There were only three minutes played when a nice triangle with Ferdinand allowed Wright Phillips to score.

Two minutes passed and another pass from Ferdinand left Crouch in the face of goal. It was the second of the afternoon…

With a two goals advantage Robson started moving the chess pieces…

More than ten minutes passed until a new goal. Honours to Lineker, who launched the counter attack after a corner against the British. Wright Phillips ran through the left as if he was being chased by the devil. Arriving in the area he just had to pass it to Walcott, who finished with success.

Already in the second half, with Seaman also debuting between the posts, Ferdinand and Crouch changed roles. Ferdinand went up the field. Crouch saw his captain, all alone in the attack and made a pass through the air. Ferdinand received the ball, entered the area, called for the keeper’s exit and dribbled him to the left, just to clear the goal and finish with a leftie. Beautiful.

But even more beautiful would be when a few minutes later, almost in a copy of the previous move, Ferdinand tried to put a hat on the keeper but the ball hit the bar and not the net…

There were a couple more opportunities for the English players to score. Lampard for instance, proved he was not having a good day when he missed a goal, while having no one covering the goal area… by his side, Lineker just could not believe it.

On the other side of the field, Overmars didn’t do any better, failing the most outrageous chance that Holland had in the entire 40 minutes.

Until the end, there was still time for the fifth goal. Crouch tried twice but finally settled for the pass. Wright Phillips took the opportunity and scored his fifth goal in the competition.

Both England and Brazil have now a reservation filled for the second stage of the competition. Their game next week will only serve to determine who passes in the first place, avoiding a premature confrontation with Switzerland.

Star of the match

Nuno Ferdinand – 7

Started paving the road to victory, by assisting his teammates in the two starting goals. In the second half, when things were kind of sleepy, scored himself the fourth goal, after dodging the keeper and shooting with the left foot. Afterwards had the goal of the match in his right foot, with a superb volley over the keeper’s head. The ball didn’t find the net… but left the bar trembling.

The other members

Lampard – 5

Banks, Beckham, Lineker, Walcott & Seaman – 6

Crouch & Wright Phillips – 7