Holland beat Senegal but the candidate’s dress still doesn’t add up

It wasn’t a triumph to leave a message to the rest of the group world Cup. A group that was a candidate for the title in the previous one had to wait for the last five minutes of the game to find the three points. The 2 to 0 of Holland in view of Senegal in the Group A (Ecuador and Qatar complete the zone) explained himself with two timely appearances at the end of a hard-fought game and that he was on track to split the points. But they won it Van Gal (with triumph became the DT with the most wins leads the orange team with 38 wins) and now they dream of the final octave. It was not a presentation to scare others, but to be quiet behind closed doors.

Rhythm, intensity, friction, physical wear. Senegal and Holland played 45 minutes of pure exhibition, but they played little. From area to area, yes. With the tone of a World Cup and with the Africans more predisposed to explode in speed from their wings. But with a lack of area on both sides that didn’t finish transforming the entire performance into clear scoring chances done at the start of the game. Did the absences of Mané, figure from Senegal, and Memphis Depay, Dutch scorer, matter? Without such clear goal references, the goal seemed to be far away.

De Jong’s distribution (he took too long to define himself in a counterattack that found Senegal in a bad position for the only time in the first half) was orderly in the orange midfield but was always away from the rival area and from Bergwijn, as fast as with a lack of weight as a reference in the decisive rectangle in Van Gaal’s team. On the other hand, Ismaïla Sarr, the Watford striker, faced De Ligt one-on-one, with mixed success, but always a little more dangerous than the other attacking partners.

The second phase was shorter, between variations, injuries and continuous infringements that took away the emotion from a game that was falling into positional and not very direct movements. Depay’s entry was inevitable for the Netherlands, but it was Senegal who looked closest to goal. Noppert stretches over two meters to avoid Dia’s goal in a one-on-one inside the area: it seems like a key save.

In closing, everything turned orange at Al Thumama Stadium. Because a precise, timely and lethal cross from De Jong found the neck of Gakpo (the PSV star who follows Real Madrid closely) before Mendy’s weak start. It was too much reward for what Holland were after at that stage of the game. And the result stretched much further, exaggerated, when on the last ball of the game Klaassen caught a bad rebuttal from Mendy on a shot from Depay. The 2-0 was celebrated by Van Gaal and all of Holland, which suffered, which had nothing left, but which is now waiting for Ecuador in the leaders’ duel. It didn’t scare anyone, but La Naranja has already started its journey.

The goals of the match