Argentina 0-0 Netherlands

Argentina were the better side in this encounter which ended up in a 0-0 draw with the Netherlands on Wednesday.

Both had already qualified so the stalemate simply meant the Argentinians finished first with a better goal difference. They will now meet Mexico while the Dutch will play Portugal.

Lionel Messi and Carlos Tevez of Argentina were a constant threat to Holland in the opening exchanges. In the 27th minute, Juan Riquelme almost opening the scoring with a vicious inswinging corner but Edwin van der Sar repositioned himself quickly to tip it over the bar. Riquelme and Rodriguez had good chances in the first half to put Argentina ahead but the Dutch defence survived the onslaught.

In the second half, Argentina kept up the pressure on Netherlands. Tevez was a livewire down the flanks as he created openings for Riquelme, Messi and Rodriguez (which they did not convert) and he himself had several good shots on goal.

Until the 69th minute when Phillip Cocu shot narrowly wide from 20 yards out, the Dutch were simply going through the paces and happy to defend, with hardly any forays into the Argentinian defence. When Messi was substituted, Tevez continued to be a threat and he had several more chances to snatch the winner but it was just not his day.

The Dutch looked somewhat sharper in the closing stages of the match and started to attack more but the Argentinian goalkeeper was not sleeping (even though he might be excused for doing so).

Soccer Pundit can see the game plan of the Dutch was to rest their key players, especially Arjen Robben, and to try out the B team, hopefully to uncover new talents. Well, Soccer Pundit saw nobody rising to the occassion and they are simply not ready for the big matches yet, maybe they will be ripe for the next World Cup but not now.

Argentina was also experimenting by leaving out strikers Hernan Crespo and Javier Saviola but their B team performed considerably better. The Dutch backline did ok but their attack seemed clueless and nobody knew how to unlock the Argentinian defence. Had Argentina been more clinical in front of goal, this would have been an embarrassing day for coach Marco van Basten...