On July 6, the First Semifinal of World Cup 2010, Netherlands vs Uruguay, was played and it went down to the wire again. However, before the smoke was over, there was only one team out there to rejoice, the Oranje. They won the game 3-2 in what was yet another good performance by both the team’s best players.
Van Bronckhorst, playing in what would be his last appearance at the World Cup Finals, opened the scoring in the semifinals for the Dutchman. However, Uruguay quickly leveled through Diego Forlan.
The game could have gone either way. However, once the deadly duo of Sneijder and Robben scored one goal each within 3 minutes of one another, it was all but over for the South Americans.
Maximiliano Pereira did struck a goal late into the second half to bring the deficit down, but there was very little time left for the Uruguayans to produce the equalizer.
With this victory, Netherlands have become the first side to qualify into the final of the World Cup 2010. Now, they will wait for the winners of the second semifinal, Germany vs Spain.
It will be the third final appearance for the Netherlands (1974 and 1978), who would hope to change their fate and handle the pressure well to win their first World Championship.
On the other hand, the dream run for Uruguay was over. They did have their moments, but failed to rise to the occasion at the right time in the semis. Now, it would be interesting to see, who they face in the third-place game (amongst Germany and Spain). With both the teams being quite strong, the South Americans will need to produce a good performance to finish third in the World Cup 2010.
