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Uruguay-Netherlands

Tuesday 6 July 2010 - 20h30 CET
Greenpoint Stadium, Cape Town
Referee: Ravshan Irmatov (Uzbekistan)

Tell us your views on this game

22h43 - So we're through to the final, we're proud of the achievement. Never impressive, but six games unbeaten, one more and we're World Champions

22h43 - Sorry for the delay. There was a little celebration here

21h32 - Van der Vaart will replace De Zeeuw

21h26 - Van der Vaart is warming-up during the break, as is André Ooijer. Van der Vaart for De Zeeuw seems a smart move, as they lack steadiness on the ball in the middle of the park

21h25 - It will be a difficult second half when Holland proceed the way they played the last 20 minutes of the first half

21h24 - But what happened after Gio's opener? Why didn't they keep on going with the same forward pressure? Why so cautious?

21h23 - But the goal is mainly a goal keeper's mistake though. No excuses for not stopping that ball

21h21 - The Uruguay goal is a bit of a disgrace for the Dutch defense though. They have been warned so many times about the qualities of this guy, but the way Mathijsen defended him on the goal was as if he he had never heard of Diego Forlan

21h19 - Again too many players in the Dutch team are primarily minding their defensive tasks, which leaves too few options when in possession

21h18 - So it's 1-1, and that score seems justified. Holland we're sitting back too much after Gio's amazing opener, and were presented with the check

20h27 - Okay, I'm going to get a seat in the room next door. Back at half-time

20h23 - The biggest problem for Holland will be the mental aspect. They can not underestimate Uruguay. Being the least bit complacent will mean certain defeat.

20h21 - Our predictions: 3-1, 2-0, 4-1, 5-1 and 1-0 - for Holland that is. The 1-0 is of our Turkish neighbor

20h20 - What a World Cup debut for Demy de Zeeuw! In the semifinal!!

20h19 - Mathijsen is fit enough to play

20h11 - Looking at all games Holland have played four times. Uruguay won three, Holland one. But... the first was at the Olympics somewhere in the dark ages, so that doesn't really count. Another defeat was in 1980 at an unofficial tournament called the Mundialito, which we didn't even have in our record of all matches the Netherlands have played. The one game that really mattered - in the group stages of the 1974 World Cup - was won by Holland: 2-0.

20h09 - He seems to have grown mentally

20h05 - Has Sneijder become a better player in Italy, under the guidance of Jose Mourinho?

20h01 - Italian TV is focussing on Wesley Sneijder as well. One newspaper dubbed him Sneijd'or (d'or meaning golden in Italian).

20h00 - Let's hope the pitch is not too dry. So far Holland have been playing on dry pitches, which is not to their advantage. Dutch players like wet, fast pitches

19h59 - The temperature is around 14°C in Cape Town and a little bit of wind

19h57 - Robben will be dealing with Caseres tonight. Caseres is a tough customer, so Robben will have be careful not to get a knock

19h56 - Joris Mathijsen seems again troubled by his knee during warm-up

19h55 - Franz Beckenbauer is convinced Holland will beat Uruguay and meet Germany in the final

19h52 - Cavani has scored 34 goals in 107 appearances for Palermo

19h49 - So no Abreu to replace Suarez. Tabarez has opted for Cavani , who plays his football for Italian outfit Palermo. Mind you, Palermo finished 5th in the Serie A last season

19h48 - The teams have come on the pitch for their warm-up

19h40 - We are amazed at that. Knowing how superstitious players and fans (we as well) are it's strange they would change something like the outfit at this point in the tournament

19h39 - Holland will play in all orange tonight

19h36 - And they have every reason to.

19h30 - Dutch pundits Piet de Visser and Hans van Breukelen are confident

19h29 - The lineups as shown below have been confirmed

19h24 - So far Jagger has expressed his support for the USA, England, Brazil and Argentina. All are of course already back home.

19h23 - Supporters of Uruguay have asked Mick Jagger to support the Netherlands tonight

19h22 - Semifinals are often the best games of the big tournaments, unlike finals that are often very closed games

19h21 - It had been expected, but it will still be a big blow for Uruguay. He was the captain and the leading man in the defense.

19h20 - Captain Lugano will definitely fail in Uruguays starting lineup because of an injury

19h18 - In 1988 the PSV players had one the European Cup before they went on to win the European Championship. But a World Cup is of course one step up

19h16 - What a season it has been for him. He won the treble with Inter, and if he were to win the World Cup as well he would be won of three players to have achieved winning the treble and the World Cup.

19h15 - Wesley Sneijder is of course the man on form for Holland. If the little man would win the World Cup with Holland he will be s serious candidate to be 2010 World Footballer.

19h15 - And: he is on form

19h14 - He is very smart positiional, knows how to move in between lines and doesn't stay in one position. He is especially dangerous from a distance.

19h13 - Yet the player to watch for Holland is Forlan

19h12 - Abreu is a lot more static than Suarez. Yet he is also a lot taller, which will give Uruguay more possibilities with the long ball from behind.

19h11 - It is expected that Abreu will replace Suarez

19h10 - Suarez is of course suspended after his red card against Ghana.

19h10 - Their game revolves around Diego Forlan, who will be without his partner Luis Suarez

19h09 - Uruguay can not be expected to come forward like the Brazilians did.

19h09 - What type of game can we expect?

19h05 - Holland felt robbed after that game, as Van Hooijdonk should have had a penalty late in the game

19h04 - In 1998 it was of course a real semifinal, in which Brazil beat Holland after penalties

19h03 - In fact the last group game against Italy was sort of a semifinal as the winner would progress to the final. Holland won 2-1 by a magnificent distant shot of Arie Haan and went on to lose the final against host Argentina.

18h59 - In 1978 the system was the same. But then Holland were in a group with Austria, Germany and Italy

18h58 - Holland won all three matches and went on the final, which they lost 1-2 to Germany

18h57 - Holland were in a group with Brazil, East-Germany and Argentina

18h56 - In 1974, after the first round of 16 countries the top 2 of the four groups were put in two groups of four. The winners would play the final

18h53 - But in a way those of '74 and '78 don't really count, as the semis were then decided in a sort of second round group.

18h52 - Of course they were in the semis in 1974, 1978 and 1998

18h51 - The Netherlands will be looking for their fourth semifinal tonight

18h41 - There was draw against England (2-2) and a draw against Italy (0-0). But are they still big teams? Of course there was the 2-1 victory over Brazil. That's big

18h40 - It must be said that there were few very big opponents among the teams they played

18h40 - Holland won 19 of those 24 games

18h39 - That's 24 games unbeaten. Let's hope they can make that 26!

18h38 - The same goes of course for Holland, who have gone unbeaten since September 2008

18h38 - They have played seven games this year, and one five

18h37 - Uruguay have gone unbeaten for all of 2010

18h36 - For all in blue it will be the game of their lives tonight

18h35 - But that will matter very little if Uruguay win tonight

18h34 - Uruguay won 25 of those 53 and drew 17

18h34 - Only two times was there a big defeat 3-0 against Peru and 4-0 against Brazil

18h33 - Of the 53 games played under Tabarez Uruguay lost only 11

18h32 - Uruguay have a very decent record under coach Oskar Tabarez

18h31 - It was like that when Gullit's team won the 1988 European Championships as well. Those over 30 will remember Holland were extremely fortunate in their last group game against Ireland. Their only goal was offside and went in with the strangest of bounces.

18h29 - Ruud Gullit says Holland have been lucky in just the right moments at this tournament.

18h28 - What can go wrong with fans like that?

18h24 - Natalja Makova sent us a pic of (I guess) her little one. Already a fan of the Netherlands. You can't start too young. Thanks Natalja.

18h20 - That translates (I think) into something like, "Good luck and I hope you make it to the final and win the cup."

18h19 - Rudolph from George in South Africa writes us in Afrikaans: "Baie sterkte vir vanaand, ek hoop julle gaan deur na die finaal, en ek hoop julle wen die FIFA 2010 World Cup"

18h18 - Let's hope tonight we will not see the first real upset of the tournament, huh...

18h18 - Italy against Slovakia was perhaps the only one?

18h17 - How many times did we see the best team not win the game?

18h16 - Apart from that there have been few real upsets this tournament

18h16 - Looking only at the quality of the players, Holland are the better side. Yet in football it's so that - on the day - the better team doesn't always win

18h15 - We know plenty of reasons why Holland should win this game, and only a few why they could lose it.

18h11 - For it is that: the semifinal of the World Cup. It's the second most important game for this generation (the most important of course being Sunday's final).

18h10 - Perhaps almost as much as we want to see Holland beat Uruguay tonight, we are hoping they will finally show us and the world just why they are in the semifinal of the World Cup

18h08 - We'll be with you until right before kickoff to give you the latest on the match that could see Holland move to the final on Sunday

18h06 - So here we are, 2½ hours before kickoff in Greenpoint Stadium in Cape Town.

Cards
21' M. Pereira
30' M. Caceres
	30' Sneijder
	78' K. Boulahrouz
	90'+2 M. van Bommel