Holland toyed with a hapless Malaysia, playing at an easy pace and yet dominating the proceedings to win 4-0 in its opening Pool C game of the World Cup at the Birsa Munda International Stadium here on Saturday.
The Dutch, finalists last time, were all over the place, running at a speed that the Malaysians could barely keep pace with and passing the ball around with minimum challenge. It was a masterclass and Malaysia would take back valuable lessons from the game.
Thijs van Dam put the Dutch ahead in the 20th minute and Jip Janssen made it 2-0 four minutes later, slotting a penalty stroke for an unnecessary tackle from Amiruol Azahar into the bottom right corner with ease. At halftime, the scoreboard may have read 2-0 but for most of the first two quarters, the ball barely crossed into the Dutch circle.
Malaysia finally began showing a semblance of structure on resumption, holding on to the ball longer and trying to push ahead with small passes. There wasn’t much the 11th-ranked team could do, though, against a side it had lost 0-7 four years ago for a 15th-place finish in the 16-team tournament in 2018.
With even the crowd – it was a near-full house even for the two-day games and without India playing – getting restless and asking for some attacking play from the Asian side, Malaysia even managed to earn a couple of penalty corners in the 3rd quarter, only for the Dutch to clear it away with ease. Once the initial momentum was lost, it was back to playing in the Malaysian half for extended periods of time. In fact, even on the few occasions that the Malaysians managed to get the ball into the Dutch circle, it barely crossed in front of the goal.
Instead, the Dutch added two more in the final quarter, the last one 14 seconds from time as The Oranjes came away with the perfect start to their campaign
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