After the ” No Era Penal” incident back in Brazil this summer for the round of 16s of the World Cup, Mexico had a chance for revenge. Not only does that make the match interesting, but also Mexican fans were waiting to watch Carlos Vela play, who agreed to play with Mexico’s National team after three and a half years.
Mexico started dominating within the first few minutes. At the 5th minute, Mexican manager Miguel Herrera sets a strange tactic and adjusts his midfield with a line of four by pushing Diego Reyes to a center mid.
At the 7th minute, Hector Herrera got a ball on the right wing and cuts in and beats his opponent, puts the ball at Vela’s feet outside of the eighteen-yard box. Vela gets a touch to his left and places the ball at the back of the net.
Mexico kept pressuring to look for a second goal. At minute 17, the Netherlands attacked through their left side and a dangerous ball went across Mexico’s back line. Guillermo Ochoa dove and got a hand on it. The ball rebounded to Arjen Robben, who only had to tap it in. But the left wing back, Adrian Aldrete, slid and blocked Robben’s shot. Netherlands’ at this point was dominating the game.
Then came a dangerous corner kick for Netherlands in the 42nd minute. Robben put the ball across, Stefan de Vrij flicked the ball and Huntelaar came from behind but kicked the ball out. One of many wasted opportunities throughout the game.
Netherlands began the second half dominating and in the 48th minute, Robben put a ball across and Aldrete made a childish mistake by heading the ball away to the middle of the field where Wesley Sneijder was standing. Sneijder controlled the ball with the inside of his right foot and got a banger from about 30 yards away from Ochoa. The ball dipped and touched the back of the net. Tied game at this point.
In the 55th minute, Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez received a ball to his back towards the goal by Hector Herrera and opened it wide to Andres Guardado. Guardado put the ball to second post where Vela made the run and rescued the ball from going out. The ball was re-centered back in to Chicharito, who hit it first time. The Netherlands’ goalie dove and made an important save with his face.
Six minutes later, Miguel Herrera made another tactical move and subbed out center back Miguel Herrera and brought in center-mid Jesus Corona. With this sub, he moved back Diego Reyes from center mid and put him back as center back. Jesus Corona would try and control the midfield with Jose “El Gallito” Vazquez. A minute after Corona got subbed in, he got a ball in the middle of the pitch. Took two players and put a phenomenal ball across to Vela, who controlled with his left and shot. Folded Tim Krul’s hands, Mexico was now back in the lead 2-1 and Vela had now tallied 2 goals.
In the 68th minute, Guardado gave Chicharito a ball, splitting Netherlands’ back line as they were coming out. He controlled and beat Krul to his left and tapped the ball in to make it 3-1.
Five minutes after Chicharito’s goal, the “red devil”, Daley Blind, hit a banger that got deflected by Reyes and put the ball in the back of Ochoa’s net.
Ten minutes before the game was over, Netherlands got their last dangerous opportunity via corner kick. Ochoa made a phenomenal save to seal the victory in Amsterdam, 3-2.
Photo Credit: EPA