Holland will contest their first World Cup final since 1978 after beating Uruguay 3-2 at Cape Town Stadium on Tuesday night.
The Oranje seemed to have the game in the bag leading 3-1 — and missing several opportunities to add to their lead — but a late goal by Maximiliano Pereira in additional time made for a nervy ending as Uruguay threw everything, and the neighbour’s kitchen sink, at the Dutch in search for a late equaliser.
At times in the closing minutes, the South Americans had as many as six players vying for the ball in the Dutch penalty area.
Dutch coach Bert van Marwijk said at the final whistle “there was a sense of relief that we had survived”.
“It’s quite something what we achieved after 32 years [in reaching another final]. I realised this towards the end when I was on the bench,” said the elated Van Marwijk.
Looking forward to the final, man of the match, Wesley Sneijder said: “Playing in a final is fantastic. I played in the Champions League final with my club [Inter Milan] and it really is something to savour. I will tell my teammates that they must savour the final, enjoy it and give everything they have.”
The first half had started innocuously enough, with Uruguay looking to contain Holland by defending quite deep in an attempt to nullify Arjen Robben’s speed and stopping him from springing the offside trap by chasing down one of the defence-splitting diagonal balls the Dutch have been using so successfully in the tournament.
But the deadlock was broken in the seventeenth minute when Holland captain Giovanni van Bronckhorst fired a scud missile from 30m out that sped past Fernando Muslera’s outstretched fingertips and pinged off his left upright into the net.
It was the sort of scorcher that would have given Muslera second degree burns if he’d touched it.
But Diego Forlan suggested that the players were finally getting used to the much-maligned Jabulani ball with a long-range goal of his own in the 39th minute. Forlan’s shot from 25m appeared to swerve at the last minute, startling Maarten Stekelenburg in the Dutch goal. The keeper got a palm to the ball, but its trajectory ensured it was going nowhere aside from the Dutch nets.
After a drab first half, both teams went into the changerooms on level footing. Van Marwijk made a tactical change for the second half bringing on the more attack-minded Rafael van der Vaart to replace defensive midfielder Demy de Zeeuw.
De Zeeuw had taken a blow to the face in the first half and was apparently not fully fit to continue. Van Marwijk noted that his team had “lost its grip in the midfield” and that the substitution was an attempt to remedy that.
It did. Holland looked more fluid in the second half. But then so did Uruguay, who were concentrating their attacks on Holland’s right flank through Alvaro Pereira.
Early in the second half Stekelenburg was caught stranded outside his box trying to clear a loose ball that Edinson Cavani also went in for. The ricochet landed at Alvaro Pereira’s feet and his shot at goal was cleared off the line by Van Bronckhorst with a header.
Forlan was — despite a slight injury noted before the match by Uruguay coach Oscar Tabarez — alternating between buzzing around the Dutch box like a pesky mosquito or dropping deep to spray passes around.
In the 66th minute, the Atletico Madrid striker drew a diving save from Stekelenburg from a curling free kick aimed at the keeper’s bottom right hand upright.
A minute later Van der Vaart latched on to a Van Persie cut back into the box and drew a save from Muslera. Robben followed up on the rebound, but couldn’t keep his shot down, ballooning it over the bar.
The Dutch had a slight edge at this point, passing quickly around the Uruguay box and this pressure finally told when Sneijder’s shot from inside the box shot deflected off Maximiliano Pereira, through the legs of Van Persie and into the right hand corner of Muslera’s goal. Two-one to Holland.
Tabarez felt this was the decisive moment in the match and that the goal should have been ruled illegal because Van Persie was in an offside position and interfering with play: “The second goal was offside and the match could have been very different,” said the man known as El Maestro (The Master) — as much for his tactical acumen as for his previous job as a teacher.
But Tabarez refused to put the loss down to dodgy refereeing, saying that human error by referees was part of football.
“I’m proud of my players, proud of what we have achieved and I accept defeat,” said Tabarez.
“If you had to choose a way of losing this would have been it,” said Tabarez.
Robben added a third for the Oranje when he headed in Dirk Kuyt’s centre in the 72nd minute, kicking off a series of Orange conga lines which started winding their way in celebration along Cape Town stadium’s south stand.
Tabarez then substituted the tiring Alvaro Pereira and brought on the man known as El Loco, Sebastian Abreu and later took Forlan off as well.
But, to no avail. The previously doughty Uruguay defence was beginning to lose its shape while Holland appeared slicker as they created several more chances that were squandered.
Then Uruguay pulled one back to ensure a nervy, exciting ending to the extent that an over-eager camera crew was escorted off the pitch by Uruguay players after mistaking the referee Ravshan Irmatov blowing for a free kick for the final whistle.