Bulgaria – Holland 1-1

Before the match against Bulgaria everybody wanted to talk about one thing only. Marco vs Mark and Ruud. A couple of days before the match, Marco took the blame for not calling the chaps post-WC and in that same press conference declared: but now we close that book and focus on the matches to come!

And, as these go in sports, the team seemed to be spiced up by the whole situation. After a lack lustre start, Bulgaria was played off the pitch, and Oranje was the moral winner, as we say in Holland.

For the first time in a long while, Holland dominated, played offensive, fought, pressured and overcame to big setbacks in the start of the game. And all that on a very tough pitch, all wet and muddy due to heavy rainfall. Not a good surface for a passing and combining kinda gameplay…

A quick rundown:

11th. Petrov combines on the right side of the Bulgarian side and can freely run in the box. Ooijer is too late and Petrov leaves Sar without a chance with a fierce and precise shot in the firs/short corner of the goal; 1-0
14th Van Bronckhorst passed the ball to Kuyt in the Bulgarian box. Everybody expects the draw to be scored, but Kuyt hurts his ankle and is out for the game. Babel replaces him. Van Persie moves from the right wing to the center strikers position.
18th Arjen Robben misses the goal by inches.
22nd Robin van Persie hits the cross bar with a deflected shot
29th Babel crosses the ball in to Sneijder, whose shot is blocked by a defender
38th Landzaat crosses the ball in after a cornerkick. Everybody misses and the ball almost bounces in the goal. Ivankov can barely push the ball on the cross bar.
42nd Babel finds van Persie whose shot just flies over the goal
60th Van Persie finds Babel who is free to score, but the winger fumbles and can’t control the ball
61st Robben finds Boularouz who crosses the ball to van Persie at the far post who heads the 1-1 on the board.
64th De Jong passes to van Persie who frees himself from his guard and fires the ball in the upper corner. The referee is the only person on earth who saw van Persie foul the Bulgarian defender and cancels the goal.
70th Babel dribbles into the box and aims for the first corner. Ivankov saves.
70th Ooijers’ shot is cleared from the goal line, Sneijder’s rebound is blocked.
79th Ooijer can score from close range after a corner kick but he lifts the ball too much
84th Iliev can head the ball freely on goal after a corner kick. Sar shows why he is one of the best in the world.
93rd Bohzinov gets a free chance to head the ball on goal, but the ball goes wide.

After the match, van Basten was clearly relieved. Losing Kuyt after 14 minutes was a bit of a drama, but lucky Marco was saved by the improvisational move of van Persie to the center striker position. Van Persie was the man of the match, he didn’t lose any heading duel, was constantly on the move, did not make a single mistake and was an inspiration for all. Sneijder proved why so many see him as the best midfielder we have today. Like a little general he was everywhere, dictating the pace and rhythm of the game. Van der Vaart will have to work very hard to regain his starting position in the team.

Landzaat played his normal game. A bit invisible for the regular fan, but important for the team. A bit like Cocu in the past, but lacking Cocu’s scoring abilities. De Jong played a tough match and was happy to have left the field without a booking.

Amongst all the broo-ha-ha of this match, we do have to acknowledge that Bulgaria – even under Stoichkov – is a mediocre team, at least. They tried to attack, but they will not be a threat to Holland in this qualification. Particularly physically, they were poor. After 70 minutes they were clearly at the end of their powers…