The Dutch national team took a step towards the 2022 World Cup in Qatar on Friday. The team of national coach Louis van Gaal booked a difficult victory over Latvia in Riga, while competitors Turkey and Norway drew 1-1 in Istanbul. With three rounds to go, the Netherlands now has two points ahead of number two Norway and a much better goal difference. The newspapers in the Netherlands agreed on Saturday: the duel on Latvian soil was a mandatory number, but one with a good ending.
‘the Dutch pale in Latvia’, as it reads above the match report of The Telegraph. Valentijn Driessen concludes that the Netherlands has done good business in Latvia towards the World Cup, but that the focus was missing for a goal feast. With Klaassen’s opening goal, Driessen’s thoughts went back to March of this year, to the first confrontation with Latvia. “Under the leadership of national coach Frank de Boer, the Netherlands then had no fewer than sixteen corners to take. The team scored a return of 0.0 (!). The staff and players were familiar with this dramatic statistic and so they practiced corner kicks last week,” writes the daily newspaper’s football chief.
GOAL – Davy Klaassen beautifully completes the 0-1 against the Latvians, after a sharp corner kick by Memphis Depay.#letned pic.twitter.com/THMzvMp17Z
— NOS Football (@NOS Football) October 8, 2021
“Louis van Gaal even admitted that his internationals had come up with their own variant. Or it had to be: the first corner was immediately hit for the the Dutch. The Latvians stood by and watched. Memphis Depay hurled the ball high in front and Klaassen shot it out of the air in one go with a half volley past the stunned goalie Roberts Ozols.” Driessen saw how the the Dutch then lost focus and attacked without being able to make a fist. “To the relief of everyone at the Dutch, the Balts lacked the coolness to finish the chances, although it must be said that the switch on the Dutch side was fine.”
The feeling of a snack
It General Newspaper has ‘Just good enough’ written in big letters on the front page and ‘Sufficient, but that’s about it’ above the match report. “A tight 0-1 on an unattractive bumpy field. In many ways it was a typical match against a former Soviet state, certainly not a match for eternity, above all a mandatory number”, says Sjoerd Mossou. “But the victory brought the the Dutch a little closer to the main goal: qualification for the World Cup in Qatar.”
“The Dutch national team had to recharge for ninety minutes in just about the least intimidating entourage imaginable,” he describes the atmosphere in the capital of Latvia. “The Daugava stadium not only had the appearance of a side field, the sparse audience also watched the match completely apathetically, so that you gradually got the feeling that you were watching a preparation game. (…) The the Dutch crowd clapped gratefully after the win, also satisfied with the result at Turkey – Norway, but what remained was mainly the feeling of a snack.”
Big boys from Barcelona, Internazionale, Liverpool, Ajax and PSV
Also with Fidelity the term ‘mandatory number’ is mentioned. “It was already clear in advance that the Dutch national team in Latvia would not write international history. Friday night’s performance in Riga against the world’s number 135 was a mandatory number where any result other than a win would have been an embarrassment. The the Dutch squad had little to gain and above all a lot to lose, playing on a glorified amateur complex in front of a few thousand spectators against a European football dwarf who was going to defend alone. But it worked, albeit with the heels over the ditch.”
“But how poor was the football that a weak Dutch team showed against Latvia in the Daugava Stadium. The big boys from Barcelona, Internazionale, Liverpool, Ajax and PSV had the greatest difficulty with players who mainly play in their own moribund competition (seven clubs). The most important pawn in the front was a striker from SC Cambuur”, John Graat refers to Roberts Uldrikis. “Of course, the Netherlands had possession almost 75 percent of the time, but it was much too sloppy around the overcrowded penalty area of the Latvians. It lacked the accuracy and creativity to skillfully demolish the two-layer wall of the Latvians. In the end it barely worked out, thanks to a goal from Klaassen already in the first half.”