Seeing red: Felipe Melo gets his marching orders for stamping on Robben
Seeing red with Robben: Brazil's Robinho is furious with a bemused Arjen Robben
It wasn't the beautiful game the world had longed for. Far from it. But it had drama, it had courage and it had resolve. Ultimately, it also had the right result.
At half-time in Port Elizabeth yesterday, there seemed little chance of Holland winning from a goal down. Their football in the first period had been poor. Where they had been assertive and aggressive in earlier matches, they seemed a little cowed.
Cut open: Robinho (right) fires Brazil ahead as the Dutch defence disappears
Gift: Felipe Melo and keeper Julio Cesar end up putting the ball in their own net
Turnaround: Sneijder (2nd right) heads home to put Holland 2-1 in front
But this is a Dutch side unlike many that have passed before. Playing pragmatic football for a coach that seems to have fostered a team spirit so alien to previous generations, Bert van Marwijk’s team have a sense of purpose that could yet lead to the ultimate prize in South Africa.
And so it was that Holland looked deep inside themselves at half-time to produce a second-half display to which Brazil shockingly had no answer. As the Dutch grew in strength, the South Americans wilted before them.
It was a sight as remarkable as it was unexpected.You need many things to win a World Cup. Good players and a decent coach help. But you also need strength and heart and determination.
Brazil coach Dunga announced after the game that he was giving up the job and perhaps rightly so for this was a tournament that was his side’s to win. Perhaps it was the dreadful nature of the second-half goals they conceded that so sucked the life from the South Americans.
Perhaps it was the persistent harrying of Mark van Bommel in midfield or the increasing assuredness of the two Dutch central defenders Andre Ooijer and Jonny Heitinga, who started dreadfully and then improved beyond measure.
Whatever it was, the Dutch will not care. They may not play in the manner that legends such as Johan Cruyff would like but that will not matter today. A path to their first World Cup final since 1978 has opened up.
Afterward Van Marwijk said: ‘I said when I started that my mission was to win the World Cup. People mocked me but today you could see that belief. We didn’t play well in the first half and could have lost this in this first 15 minutes. But the difference in the second half was huge.
‘We started to play our own game and once we scored the first goal we just got better and better. People have criticised us for not playing attractive football but now we have beaten the favourites.’
Having won every competitive game since qualifying started, it is perhaps no surprise that the Dutch have such confidence. Nevertheless, the manner in which they started yesterday must have shaken them to the soles of their boots.
Having lost central defender Joris Mathijsen in in the warm-up, Holland had to draft Ooijer in and the uncertainty was immediately apparent as Robinho ran through an enormous gap in the Dutch defence to slam Juan’s perfect through ball beneath Maarten Stekelenburg in the 10th minute.
For the remainder of the first period, the pattern looked to have been set. With key players Arjen Robben and Wesley Sneijder unable to impose themselves on the game, Holland were poor and Brazil might have taken the game away from them had they cashed in on one of three subsequent opportunities.
Juan volleyed a low cross over the bar when he should have scored in the 26th minute, Luis Fabiano headed another chance wide and then Kaka was denied by a superb Stekelenburg save after curling a shot towards the top corner.
Apart from a Sneijder free-kick that was saved comfortably by Julio Cesar, Holland had offered virtually nothing. Robben was dreadful and spent far too much time on the floor and it was clear that something had to change early in the second half.
The equaliser in the 53rd minute arrived from nowhere and changed the game. Having drawn a debatable foul from Daniel Alves, Robben worked a free-kick to Sneijder and when the Inter Milan midfielder delivered the ball to the near post, Brazil defender Felipe Melo headed past his goalkeeper Julio Cesar and in to his own net.
As the Dutch grew, Brazil withdrew. Robin van Persie was close on the hour and then Sneijder coasted forwards at a corner to convert a flick from Dirk Kuyt in the 68th minute.
With the game now turned on its head, Brazil were being asked a serious question for the first time this tournament and it was the way they failed to respond that was so disappointing.
Their cause certainly wasn’t helped when Felipe Melo stamped on Robben’s thigh and was sent off.
With that, their challenge died.
