Germans too strong for the Dutch

June 13, 2012

KHARKIV, Ukraine – The Netherlands hardly needed extra motivation heading into Wednesday night’s encounter with Germany at the European Championships. The countries have plenty of footballing history between them – as the saying goes, there’s no such thing as a friendly between these two nations, let alone in a big tournament. More importantly, the Dutch flopped against Denmark in the "group of death" opener and desperately needed all three points. They didn’t get them, losing to Germany 2-1.
If a few members of the team were lagging for whatever reason before the match, they would have been pumped when Portugal scored a late winner to beat Denmark 3-2 in the other Group B match. It meant that no matter what happened on the pitch in a hot Kharkiv, the Oranje couldn’t be eliminated – yet.
And in the early going, the Dutch, as they did against Denmark, pressed, probed and seemed in the mood. Three times within 10 minutes, a ball over the top caught the German defense napping.  
However, as the minutes unfolded and no goals came, memories of Saturday’s defeat to the Danes surfaced. The Germans, even more of a contender than the 2010 World Cup finalist when the tournament began, started dominating proceedings, especially for the first 60 or so minutes. If anything, it was almost too easy for Die Mannschaft, and the Netherlands closed Germany’s lead. Proving that a two-goal lead is always tricky (stick or twist?), Germany settled after Robin van Persie’s goal and saw out the game comfortably to reach the quarterfinals.
SUPER MARIO:  Germany manager Joachim Low admitted this week he didn’t discount the possibility of tinkering with his lineup, even though Germany downed Portugal 1-0 on Saturday.