World Cup 2010 Match Preview Uruguay v Netherlands

Venue: Cape Town
Date: Tuesday, 6 July 2010
Kick-off: 1930 BST

TEAM NEWS

Uruguay’s defence is missing the suspended players Luis Suarez and Jorge Fucile. Suarez hand balled Dominic Adiyiah’s now famous goal bound header in their quarter final match and was subsequently sent off and Fucile also received his second yellow card of the tournament during that match. The midfielder Nicolas Lodeiro has broken his foot and will be out of the rest of the tournament whilst the captain Diego Lugano is having problems with his knee injury.

The Netherlands striker Robin Van Persie has had his elbow scanned in hospital and has been cleared to play in the match. Their defender Joris Mathijsen is also due to be returning from a knee injury. They have two players suspended Gregory van der Wiel and Nigel de Jong.

MATCH PREVIEW

It is expected for this to be an exciting match as the winners of the first ever World Cup take on a country that many consider to be the best team never to have won the title.

At the moment the Netherlands have the World Cup within their reach, the side playing today is not the most spectacular ever but it has proved to be one of the most effective. On Friday, their win over Brazil saw them extend their run of unbeaten matches to 24, they have also won all five of their games in South Africa which beats their previous best run of four back in the 1974 World Cup. 

In 1974 the Dutch brought Total Football to the world stage, they opened the tournament with a 2 – 0 victory over Uruguay in West Germany. They made it through to the final with ease but then lost to the Germans; four years later they had a similar tournament and were beaten by Argentina in the final.

Uruguayan’s former football glory years are fast fading memories, they won in both 1930 and 1950. The last semi final they were in took place 40 years ago and they have only been in two of the last five World Cups. But since they’ve had Tabarez as coach the team has looked renewed and cannot be discounted.

MATCH FACTS
Head-to-head

Back in1974, the Dutch beat Uruguay 2 – 0 in the opening game of the World Cup. Johnny Rep scored both goals for the Netherlands and Uruguay had Juan Montero Castillo sent off. Playing in the match was Pablo Forlan, Diego’s father. Since then they have only played once, a friendly in Montevideo in 1980 which the home team won 2 – 0. Uruguay also beat the Dutch on their way to winning Olympic gold in 1924 and 1928.

Uruguay
This is the first time since 1970 that Uruguay have made it to the World Cup semi finals, the last time they lost 3 – 1 to Brazil. In their five games in South Africa so far they have only conceded two goals. They haven’t lost in their last seven World Cup games, which includes their last two group matches in 2002 in which they drew.

Netherlands
This is the first time that the Netherlands have won five consecutive World Cup matches, their previous record was four which was back in 1974.  At the moment Van Marwijk’s side are on a 24 match unbeaten run, a Dutch record. They haven’t lost since September 2008 when they were beaten 2 – 1 by Australia in Eindhoven. The last three matches they have won 2- 1. Their player Wesley Sneijder has scored six goals in his last seven international games.