After the praise lavished on the Dutch football team after their 5-1 win over Spain, the papers are critical in the wake of Holland’s second victory against Australia.

According to the Volkskrant the Dutch ‘hardly deserved’ to win.

‘Oranje was cowed by what in football terms is a developing country, bulldozed in an at times fascinating and rumbustious match. But almost every opportunity turned into a goal, or almost. That is what happened against Spain and it happened again against the Socceroos.’

In spite of Holland’s six points ‘Holland are a wobbly, creaky vehicle which depends on the sudden actions of Robben en Van Persie,’ the paper writes.

Rising star

In the AD the only players who score an above average mark are Nigel de Jong and rising star Memphis Depay who scored the winning goal. The paper asks: what will Van Gaal do next?

‘To play the 4-3-3 system in every game is not an option because of muddled defending in the face of strong opposition, as the warm-up game against France proved. But a 5-3-2 system wouldn’t be a solution either because it would put Oranje largely at the mercy of whatever the other team is going to do,’ the AD agonises.  

Group

In the Telegraaf, player Daley Blind said the Dutch ‘did not underestimate the Australians for one second.’ ‘There’s not much you can do against a shot like Tim Cahill’s. That was a great shot.’

Memphis Day, he said, turned the game around. ‘This proves that we need each and every one. We’re all keen to win. We haven’t given much away and as a group that makes us feel extremely good,’ the paper quotes him as saying.

Reality check

 ‘Totally uncoordinated’ Trouw calls last night’s match. Van Gaal is confronted with the first ‘reality checks’, the paper writes.

‘It was obvious from the beginning that the Dutch had far more trouble with this less talented but very energetic opponent than with clueless Spain. The main problems were the clumsiness of the Dutch defense and Sneijder’s continued lack of finesse,’ the paper writes.

With Van Persie on the bench during the final group game against Chile as a result of a second booking, Trouw thinks another ‘reality check’ is very likely.

Nu.nl reports that the game gave rise to 3.2 million tweets worldwide, the most re-tweeted tweet being singer Rihanna’s ‘Van Persie doe’.