Holland seeks team unity to beat Brazil

Holland is in for a tough enough time as it is when they face Brazil in the World Cup quarterfinals at Port Elizabeth on July 2. The last thing they need is some more of their infamous infighting to make things even harder.

However, reports out of South Africa suggest the squad may be suffering from some ego problems as striker Robin van Persie was upset after being substituted in the team’s 2-1 win over Slovakia on June 28. Dutch manager Bert van Marwijk tried to nip things in the bud by holding a team meeting to calm things down after van Persie reportedly said teammate Wesley Sneijder should have been taken off instead. The two players have a history of public disputes dating back to the 2008 European Championship when they argued over who should take a free kick in a loss to Russia.

Van Persie denied making a comment about Sneijder, but van Marwijk said he talked to both players and then called a team meeting to make sure everybody’s still on the same page. The Dutch camp has often been divided over the years with players being unhappy with each other and/or their managers, but they need to come together if they aim at beating Brazil for a semi final spot and then going on to win the country’s first ever World Cup.

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Holland hasn’t been lifting fans out of their seats with spectacular play, but has been solid so far and has put the ball in the net when needed. Their four wins means only Argentina has equalled their record of winning every game so far. The return of forward Arjen Robben has been a big boost to the already potent attack and the injury-prone winger opened the scoring against Slovakia.

Brazil, as usual, seems to pick up its play as the World Cup progresses. Even though they topped Group G, they didn’t play with the swagger of a fluid team. They improved against Chile in their 3-0 playoff game, but the Chileans, also exploited some of Brazil’s weakness when they produced quick attacks on the ground.

However, that’s the problem when playing Brazil. If you sit back and defend you can often frustrate the five-time World Champions, but they usually ending up scoring at least once and that’s often enough. When teams attack them, Brazil can often be lethal on the counter attack. So, that’s the quandary facing the Dutch squad, deciding which approach to take.

Robben, Sneijder, van Persie, and Dirk Kuyt will be relied on to lead the Dutch attack while goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg will need to be stellar in net to keep the Brazilians at bay. The Dutch back four is relatively strong, but the team has given up two penalties in the tournament already. This could lead the Brazilians to attack with fervour in hopes of exploiting the defence. Robben and Steklenburg need to be careful as they both picked up yellow cards in the last game.

Brazil has a lot of power up front with Luis Fabiano and Robinho and they usually get excellent service from the midfield by Kaka. However, Kaka, who has already been suspended for a game against Portugal because of yellow cards, received one in his first game back against Chile.

The two teams have met nine teams with Brazil winning three, losing two and drawing four. They have outscored the Dutch 14 to 13 in those games.

Brazil v Netherlands Odds and Predictions

As the past matches show, this is a very tough game to predict and it could go into extra time. But if Holland can keep the ball in Brazil’s end of the pitch and attack instead of sit back, they could pull off a 2-1 win. Get 13 times the money at Sportsbook.com for a 2-1 result.

Ladbrokes has Brazil listed as favourites with odds of 21/20 for a win. The odds of a Dutch victory are 3/1 and a draw after 90 minutes is listed at 11/5.