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Netherlands outlasts Uruguay to reach World Cup final

06 July 2010 23:43 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The Dutch win, 3-2, putting them in final for the first time since 1978, but not before letting Uruguay cut their lead to one goal near the end. They play the winner of the Germany-Spain semifinal, APA reports quoting Los Angeles Times.
The agonizingly long wait is over. Not after a few months or even a few years. After decades.

It ended on a cool Tuesday night at Green Point Stadium in Cape Town, where the Netherlands finally fought its way back into a World Cup final.

The last time the Dutch reached these dizzying heights was in 1978, when they lost a nail-biting final, 3-1, after extra time, to Argentina in Buenos Aires.

This time they will play the winner of Wednesday night’s other semifinal in Durban between Germany and Spain for the world championship. The final is Sunday night in Johannesburg.

If the Spanish win on Wednesday, it would guarantee the World Cup a new winner. Neither the Netherlands nor Spain has ever won the quadrennial tournament.

On Tuesday, the Dutch won, 3-2, but they made it difficult for themselves in the final few minutes by allowing Uruguay defender Maximiliano Pereira to cut their lead to a single goal near the end.

That made for some nervous moments, but the Dutch survived.

Until Maximiliano’s strike, the game’s decisive goal appeared to have come on a second-half shot by Dutch playmaker Wesley Sneijder that clipped Pereria’s knee and went in off the right post. The deflection left goalkeeper Fernando Muslera stranded and there was nothing he could do about it.

The goal was Sneijder’s fifth of the tournament, tying him with Spain’s David Villa for the golden boot lead.

Just minutes later, Arjen Robben scored another for the Dutch, heading in Dirk Kuyt’s cross from the left in off the foot of the left post. Robben celebrated with a knee slide toward a bank of photographers before blowing kisses to the fans.

With about 10 minutes left in the match, Uruguay Coach Oscar Tabarez bowed to the inevitable and took off Diego Forlan, the team’s inspirational scoring leader.

It was an acknowledgment that La Celeste would not be going back to the World Cup final for the first time in 60 years.

The game was a strange affair, with periods of good play interspersed with flat, almost dull, stretches. It began on a lackluster note.

For 20 minutes, the Dutch and the Uruguayans just plodded along, moving the ball around the field but not accomplishing much of anything.

Then, out of the blue â€” or, perhaps better put, out of the orange â€” Giovanni van Bronckhorst found himself with the ball at his feet and acres of space around him.

Van Bronckhorst didn’t hesitate. Not for him the aimless passing and running. He let fly with a shot from perhaps 25 or 30 yards â€” straight as an arrow, too, all the way from his left boot to the top corner of Uruguayan goalkeeper Muslera’s net.

That woke things up.

Next thing you knew, Uruguay’s Martin Caceres had taken a flying bicycle kick that caught Dutch defender Demy de Zeeuw square in the face. It was not intentional. Caceres was going for the ball, but it got the two sets of players to exchange a few words before referee Ravshan Irmatov of Uzbekistan settled things down.

They stayed settled until about four minutes before the half ended, which was when the Dutch momentarily fell asleep and Forlan took full advantage.

Taking a page out of Van Bronckhort’s book, the Uruguayan hit man fired a swerving shot at the Dutch net from distance. The curve on the ball appeared to completely fool goalkeeper Maarten van Stekelenburg, who got a hand to the shot but couldn’t make the save.

At 1-1, the game was poised to go either way. But the second 45 minutes belonged pretty much to the Oranje until they became sloppy near the end.

Next for Coach Bert van Marwijk’s team, which is riding a 25-game unbeaten streak, are either the Germans or the Spanish..

An all-European final on African soil, with one of the team guaranteed of becoming the first European side to win the World Cup outside Europe.