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Rijkaard 47, Van Basten 53, Gullit 84, Milla 87
MADRID - Bernabeu
Cameroon were already out, but their hopes of a morale-boosting upset with hampered by the suspension of several key men. They clearly felt they had no choice but to defend in numbers and then look to hit Holland on the break.
Holland knew only a win would guarantee qualification, but were strangely subdued in the first half. Rumours had spread of dressing-room rows after failing to win either of their first two games. Coach Michels had never got on particularly well with winger Piet Keizer, but gave him the start here, perhaps to keep him quiet.
Keizer is seen by many Dutch fans as being as good as Cruyff –or as good in terms of talent, but with a more tempestuous personality. Here, he spent the first half tormenting replacement right back Lauren, but was unable to pick out Bergkamp or Van Basten in the middle. They were always being out-muscled by the centre backs.
Cameroon’s defending was often last-ditch. Their way of coping with Holland’s movement rotation was to almost ignore the ball and just follow their respective opposite numbers wherever they went. It was crude, but surprisingly effective.
After half time though, Holland clicked. Just two minutes in, Rijkaard stooped to meet a Van Hanegem corner with a powerful diving header. Six minutes later, Rijkaard was again forward, knowing Neeskens would cover for him at the back.
A battling run into opposition territory, followed by a slick phase of one-touch passing that moved the ball at lightning speed from Rijkaard to Gullit, to Van Hanegem, to Cruyff, to Keizer, back to Cruyff, who finally fed Van Basten who made no mistake. Two - Nil.
With the game won, Michels could afford to give some of the bench a run out. Lenstra came on for Van Basten up front, Ronald de Boer replaced Cruyff and flying winger Marc Overmars replaced Neeskens, with the versatile Ruud Gullit switching from the wing to cover Neeskens’ midfield role.
The changes had little effect on Holland’s confident possession football, but there was no longer the hunger to press for a goal. Instead the players could afford to take turns giving little exhibitions of skill.
Late on, Gullit got his dreadlocked head onto a long, looping cross from Krol to power the ball past Joseph-Antoine Bell, who had been given a chance in goal by Nepomniachi. Dutch dominance looked as ‘total’ as their football.
Cameroon were to have one final flourish however, to send their fans home with a smile on their faces. Cyrille Makanaky combined with Mbouh-Mbouh down the right and pulled the ball back for Roger Milla, who delighted the neutrals in the crowd by beating Hulshoff with a drag back before firing home.
As he ran to the corner flag for his trademark dance of celebration, the whole squad including the subs ran to join him. Cameroon thus exited the tournament on a high. Holland were through, but in enigmatic fashion. At times their football had been sublime, but there had also been spells where they had not gelled as a team and had conceded sloppy goals.
Would the famous Dutch lack of a German-style ‘tournament mentality’ come back to haunt them in the knock-out stages?
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