All over, and Holland have made a suitably bright start to the tournament. Not nearly as good as Germany or Argentina, but plenty of promise, particularly from Eljero Elia, who will surely come into the team ahead of Rafael van der Vaart next time.
Into injury time. Game is up for Denmark, who’ve been clueless in the second half. The Dutch were lucky to be in front but they fully deserve the victory, if only for the paperweight performance of the Danes for the last 40 minutes.
Great goal-line clearance by Simon Poulsen, who redeems himself a bit for that own goal earlier. Only a bit, thought.
GOAL HOLLAND!
Elia put through on goal by Sneijder, Sorensen gets a fingertip on it to push it onto the post but Dirk Kuyt is following up for a simple goal. The Duracell Donkey just keeps on running.
Sneijder shot. Didn’t look threatening until it hit off Agger, looped high over Sorensen and came down on top of the bar.
Ten minutes to go in Jo’burg. Holland doing enough. Denmark doing nowt.
Shots of Platini and Zidane chatting in the crowd. Platini is all wild hands and arm gestures. He looks like he’s trying to impress. Zizou is … Zizou.
Christian Eriksen is on for Denmark. That’s two of the JOE team’s ones to watch introduced as second half subs. Elia has made the desired impact so far.
Another RIDICULOUS bit of skill by Elia. Ends up with a chance for van Bommel but Sorensen saves. Out for a corner and van Persie fluffs a free header. The Dutch should be home and hosed.
Van der Vaart is one of those typical Football Manager players. Highly-rated for a decade or so, gets a couple of big-money moves, but seriously, have you ever seen him play a good game? Elia did more in a minute than RVDV did in an hour.
The game’s best bit of skill, from Eljero Elia within a minute of his introduction. Skinned two not-so-great Danes down the left wing. Nothing came of it but he looks good this kid.
Denmark have shuffled things up a bit. Bendtner and Enevoldsen are off, Mikkel Beckmann and Chelsea legend Jesper Gronkjaer are on. Holland sub: Eljero Elia on for van der Vaart.
Fifa have “awarded” the own goal to Simon Poulsen. A justice of sorts. He won’t be smiling when he sees that in the papers tomorrow.
Van Persie is really lucky not to be sent off. He was flagged offside – he was miles offside – and chipped a pointless shot past Thomas Sorensen. He’s already been booked and the referee has a few stern words. Van Persie insists he couldn’t hear the whistle. Guess what he blamed?
The vuvuzelas, of course.
The Dutch haven’t done enough to deserve to be in front, but they are, and they seem to be happy enough to sit on it. And just as I say that van der Vaart forces Thomas Sorensen into a full length stop.
Another savage tackle, which looks bad in HD and which the referee fails to spot. It was van der Wiel, I think.
It’s a pity for Denmark, they had defended very well until then.
Yellow for van Persie for meeting Christian Poulsen in the mush. This isn’t a day to be a Poulsen by the looks of it.
Van Persie’s cross and it’s a double own-goal by Denmark. Left back Simon Busk Poulsen heads it against the back of Agger and it’s in. That will probably go down as an Agger o.g., which would be very unfair. Poulsen was grinning widely. That’s right lad, see the funny side of making a plonker of yourself in front of a worldwide audience.
GOAL HOLLAND!
We’re back on, and within 40 seconds Holland are ahead.
Didi Hamann is more positive. He has plenty of good things to say about Denmark. They’re defending well and creating a few chances. Both agree that de Jong’s yellow could easily have been red. Certainly looked a lot worse than Tim Cahill’s on Schweinsteiger last night.
Gilesy is disappointed. “Holland have made it easy for Denmark by being far too predictable,” he says. “It looks like they’re playing in Mexico in high summer.”
It’s 63 degrees, according to Yahoo! Weather.
The tournament has yet to catch fire. Five of the nine games so far have been goalless at half-time. This is decent, though. The Dutch were well on top for 20 minutes but Denmark have shown enough since then. Could still go either way. Back in a tick for the Gilesy verdict.
Yellow card for Nigel de Jong. Take that, Bendtner. I’ll bet de Jong gets booked every game he plays this tournament.
Van Persie twists and turns and twists again but Daniel Agger has every move covered. The Danes have struggled with the movement of the Dutch but they’ve been blocking and harrying pretty well.
Denmark haven’t beaten the Dutch since 1967. So says Jon Champion. He’s not counting the penalty shoot-out win at Euro ’92.
This is Denmark’s first corner, and I’m not joking. Seriously, I’m not joking. Kahlenberg, who has won every corner in the air at the other end, is TAKING this one. And he goes short.
If that’s not playing to your strengths, I don’t know what it.
Denmark getting into it a bit. The mountainous Kahlenberg can shoot too. Stekelenburg claws one out of the top corner and behind for a corner.
There are some ambitious lads on show. Wesley Sneijder has had a shot from 45 yards which was blocked – nay, controlled – by a one-man wall. And Kjaer tries a free from the same distance for Denmark. Doesn’t get past the wall, either. Uninspiring stuff.
And with that Denmark threaten on the break. Dennis Rommedahl finds himself one-on-one with Gio van Bronckhorst, takes on the shot but straight into the guts of Stekelenburg. Rommedahl is a flier (he used to be, anyway – it’s a few years since Charlton were in the Premier League) and he could have ran at the ancient Dutch skipper.
Holland camped in the Danish penalty area again. Forced a few corners but they’re getting nothing from them.
It’s Jon Champion and Craig Burley on ITV. A match made in Ireland. We can still claim Setanta, can’t we?
Don’t know what I was thinking watching on RTE. Now have ITV HD on the box.
Aaaaaaarrrrggggghhhh. One drawback of HD – Dirk Kuyt close-ups.
Just flicked over to ITV because Gabriel Egan’s commentary is half a second ahead of the play. That’s my number one pet hate about RTE’s coverage.
Nicklas Bendtner with a very Bendtner-like header – weak and wide. That was the best chance of the game.
We have our first Mexican wave. There’ll be a lot of bouncing about in the stands at Soccer City. The game’s not been that bad, but attention spans these days…
Actually, maybe it’s just Enevoldsen. He’s just hit a diagonal pass straight out of play. I define the word “pass” loosely.
First real shot in anger by Denmark. Enevoldsen it was, but it sailed five yards over the bar. “They’re struggling with these balls,” says Rico. There certainly haven’t been many good long shots so far this tournament.
Kahlenberg is the main man for clearing these corners. Next corner Holland get, I bet Sneijder goes short. Great one-touch stuff from Holland but van der Vaart can’t control it in the middle. They’re looking good, the Dutch.
Van Persie and van der Vaart combine well but Agger blocks it out for a corner. Only a matter of time I’d reckon.
Think it was Kahlenberg with a big clearing header for Denmark. He ate his greens that boy.
Mark van Bommel with a mazy dribble. You don’t see that every day. Sneijder is doing a Xavi, albeit about ten yards further forward. The Dutch have been way on top without posing any real threat to Sorensen’s goal.
These two sides are feeling each other out. Which I always felt was a strange expression. Makes me think of the girls above and below.
We see stuff like that in the Premier League most weekends of the year. A scuffy shot from Dirk Kuty, and a fluffy bit of goalkeeping by Thomas Sorensen.
Good work by Gregory van der Wiel. The 22-year-old from Ajax is supposed to be an attacking right back, so that’s why he popped up running straight at the heart of the Denmark defence. The Danes got away with it.
It’s a big pitch and a hot afternoon in Soccer City, says Rico. Mightn’t be as flowing as we might like, so. First nice touch from Wesley Sneijder, who looks to be the main man in this Dutch team. Hopefully they rest of them will get along with him, but being the Dutch you never know.
The square numbers on the Dutch shirts are very Atari.
Gabriel “Ego” Egan and Damien “Rico” Richardson in the commentary box. I made up the Ego bit. I’m sure he’s very modest.
We’re off. Holland resplendent in orange, Denmark in white. What way do you see this going? Get in touch at the email or Twitter addresses above…
No Kevin Kilbane in the studio by the way, so not sure how his hair is today. It’s Johnny Giles and Didi Hamann, who surprisingly doesn’t seem to hate Dutch guts. Maybe that one’s a one-way relationship – Edgar Davids on ITV last night seemed to be firmly in the anti-German camp. “Because they’re always good,” he said.
We believe you, Edgar.
Right. Where was I?
We’re halfway through the anthems, which have been lacklustre affairs, at least compared to Australia’s rousing effort last night. Given how the Socceroos performed afterwards, maybe the quieter the anthem the better.
The game hasn’t started yet but I have the Dutch ahead. She’s my favourite:
Looking forward to this one. The tournament has been peculiar so far. Lots of disappointing games, but then again we have seen some of the worst teams in the tournament in Algeria, Slovenia, South Africa, Australia and England.
Argentina and Germany have been excellent, and Holland will be expected to get close to that level today. Stick with me to find out if they do.
Leaving the World Cup for a moment, and bad news for Adrian Mutu. He has lost his final appeal against his sacking by Chelsea in 2004 and has been ordered to pay more than £14million in compensation.
That should bankrupt him. Definitely won’t have many notes for cubicle roll-ups, anyway.
If fumbling for change in a grubby bookies is your thing, you may want to check out JOE’s Daily Double today. It’s here.
Also, no place in the Denmark side for Jon Dahl Tomasson, who has scored 51 goals in 110 internationals and is just one behind his national record.
Holland look to be well set up. Two good defensive midfielders in Nigel de Jong and Mark van Bommel should give them a platform (I’ve been listening to a lot of Graeme Souness) and they have plenty of creativity from Sneijder, van der Vaart and van Persie. Creative isn’t a word I’d use to describe Dirk Kuyt, but every cart needs a donkey. He’s certainly effective enough.
As for Denmark, there’s no place in the starting XI for Christian Eriksen, the 18-year-old who plays for Ajax and is regarded as One to Watch by one of the JOE team. Never seen much of him myself.
Teams are in:
Holland: Stekelenburg, van der Wiel, Heitinga, Mathijsen, van Bronckhorst, van Bommel, De Jong, Sneijder, van der Vaart, Kuyt, van Persie.
Denmark: Sorensen, C. Poulsen, Kjaer, Agger, L. Jacobsen, Jorgensen, Kahlenberg, S.B. Poulsen, Rommedahl, Enevoldsen, Bendtner.
Referee: S. Lannoy (France).
And another thing, before I nip off to “get in the zone”, we have a regular World Cup vault section, looking back at memorable moments from previous tournaments.
Today, it’s Jairzinho.
If you’re in work without a TV, and afraid to chance the RTE Player at your desk, let us be your guide.
I’ll be here for Game 1 from around 12 noon and I’ll try to keep you up to speed with everything: what’s happening in Soccer City, whether the Dutch are a team of happy campers or a collection of squabbling plonkers and what way Kevin Kilbane’s hair is flopping.
Meantime, why not check out our World Cup In Pictures galleries?
Laters.
Team news will be on the way. If you want some reading material to bring your knowledge of Denmark and Holland up to speed have a look at our profiles.
