Thought we'd sneaked a draw at the death but then conceded another poor goal. Our defence was shaky and Dylan Levitt, many pundits' MOM against Poland, seemed to be on a one man crusade to give the ball away in midfield. And our keeper could take a share of the blame for both their goals as he was far too slow to anticipate where the ball might go and get his feet moving that way.
We did okay in the first half but fell away in the second as the Dutch took control. Like the Swans we had far too many players on the pitch who were just there but making no significant contribution. We lacked a player who could take the game by the scruff of the neck anywhere on the pitch but Norrinton-Davies had a decent game and took his goal well. And Dan was always looking to use his pace but, as usual, had bugger all end product.
It was a bit of an ask to start without Bale, Ramsey, Allen, Moore, Neco and Ampadu but the sub-titles said that Holland had made ELEVEN changes!! God help us had they fielded their best team. All in all our unbeaten run at home finished with a whimper and this lot had better be a whole lot fitter in Qatar if they have to play three games in a short period. Why do I say fitter? Well it's quite obvious that we don't have the skill, the technique or the class to match most other teams in the finals. But what we can offer is 100% effort, attitude and running, which will be an asset in the temperatures over there. When legs turn to jelly, skill disappears at a rate of knots, so I figure that some intense training before the event just might work for us.
... I'll tune in
