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Louis van Gaal

RIO DE JANEIRO. — Another ragged defensive display by Brazil allowed the Netherlands to stroll to a 3-0 victory in the World Cup soccer third-place play-off match on Saturday as the hosts ended the tournament in depressing fashion. The Dutch had failed to score in the four hours of their previous two knock-out games, but were gifted two goals in the opening 16 minutes. The first came when Thiago Silva, back from suspension, was lucky to escape a red card as he pulled back Arjen Robben in the area and Robin van Persie converted the penalty after three minutes.

A terrible clearance header by David Luiz then dropped invitingly for Daley Blind to hammer in the second and Brazil, with six changes to the team humiliated 7-1 by Germany in the semi-finals, rarely looked like getting back into the game with another disjointed performance.

They did exert some pressure in the second half but still failed to seriously test Dutch keeper Jasper Cillessen and the boos rang out when the unmarked Georginio Wijnaldum turned in the third goal in stoppage time.

Having gone 39 years without a competitive home defeat, Brazil have now suffered two in five days.
Meanwhile, the Netherlands far exceeded expectation in finishing third at the World Cup in Brazil, tearing up not only up the form book but their own rules on how best to play the game as their coach provided a talismanic touch.

They also set a new record for themselves by going through the entire tournament without losing a match in regulation time.
A relatively young and inexperienced squad were given little chance of emulating the achievement of four years ago when they reached the final in South Africa.

But with the canny coaching of Louis van Gaal they came mighty close once again, missing out after a semifinal penalty shoot-out defeat by Argentina and comfortably beating hosts Brazil 3-0 in the third-place playoff.

“It was a big honour for us to be here and a once in a lifetime experience,” Dutch winger Arjen Robben said.
“Today’s match I think for us was the best way to end this tournament. We also fully deserved this third place the way we played. Nobody expected us to be in the last four.”

Van Gaal raised the wrath of footballing purists in the home of “total football” when he said he was dispensing with the 4-3-3 formation which had taken the Dutch successfully through qualification for a more conservative approach, with an emphasis on quick counter-attacks.

The reason, Van Gaal insisted, was that he had lost the balance in his midfield because of the long-term injury suffered by hard man Kevin Strootman a few months before the tournament.

It was a virtually untested approach which looked set to backfire in the opening half of their first game against Spain in Salvador.
The Dutch were trailing 1-0 and struggling until a swift counter led to wingback Daley Blind hitting a long cross from the left which Robin van Persie leapt salmon-like to head home the equaliser.

The delight shared by coach and captain in a sideline high-five spoke volumes of the satisfaction of a plan coming together.
The subsequent mauling of the defending champions left the Dutch oozing with confidence and they topped their first-round group, although not in a very fluent style. Van Gaal proved the talisman on several more occasions with tactical switches that kept the Dutch on a winning path.

The Manchester United-bound coach brought on 20-year-old Memphis Depay to score the come-from-behind winner against Australia.
Leroy Fer broke the deadlock with his first touch in their last group game against Chile and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar made one goal and scored the next after coming on for the last 10 minutes when the Netherlands snatched a late last-16 win over Mexico.

Switching goalkeepers just before the penalty shoot-out against Costa Rica in the quarter-final in Salvador proved the ultimate masterstroke as Tim Krul came on in place of Jasper Cillessen to make two saves.

Van Gaal had only told Krul of his plan a few hours before The game and a clearly irritated Cillessen had known nothing about it. Robben emerged as the pick of the Dutch players with his powerful running and mazy dribbling, although he continued to sully his reputation with a predilection for diving in the opposing penalty area.

The unsung heroes of the team proved to be defenders Ron Vlaar and Stefan de Vrij whose profiles were greatly enhanced by effectively snuffling out the threat of Lionel Messi in the semifinal. —AFP.