A High Five for Holland As They Rout Spanish Bombs

It was a night of high fives all round for the Dutch.

Henry, Shearer, Ferdinand and Lineker would make a a fairly decent Masters team compared to Dixon, Vieira, Canavarro and Chiles. Even though ITV have two World Cup winners in their studio punditry team, the fact that they have a man so bereft of people liking him that he's not even in Christine Bleakley's friend zone anymore, means that the others efforts would surely be wasted if they happened upon Braehead Arena at some point.

The BBC's approach to their coverage looks to be far superior than their rivals in the early part, despite insisting on having Mark Lawrenson and his beige can't be arsedness for his so called colour commentary. However, Thierry Henry and his insight, especially when analysing the forward play of the Dutch, actually made it feel like you were learning things. Whether he'd have been as enthused if the Spain v Holland game had been a dud remains to be seen, but with five goals to analyse, the Frenchman certainly knew his onions.

In all honesty, they couldn't have asked for a better game to cover as their opening match. A crushing 5-1 victory for Louis van Gaal's Oranjemen had the lot. Bags of goals, and great goals at that, energy, fluency, passion, possession, flair. Everything you want from the World Cup. It also had one of the biggest WC shocks in modern history.

Written off by their own media in the run up to the games, the Dutch weren't fancied at all to take anything from this opening game against the reigning World and European champions. A strong looking Spanish side looked to further that feeling as a mix of Champions League finalists, La Liga winners and the good Barcelona players from last season lined up against Aston Villa's Ron Vlaar and one of five goalkeepers who have failed to settle as the Dutch number one.

Diego Costa's inclusion for the Spanish, raised eyebrows and a lot of boos from the home crowd, denigrating the new Chelsea man every time he touched the ball, for turning his back on the Selecao. Those boos grew louder when he went down in the box to win a first half penalty for his new home land. His trailing leg was given away more than taken away, but there was no doubt about the execution of the spot kick from Xabi Alonso.

Despite their 1-0 lead, the Spanish had looked out of sorts, looking unsure about playing with Costa up front. Where in the past Xavi and Iniesta and co have prevailed with Torres and Villa, Costa's running and spacial awareness didn't look to be favoured by the Spanish midfield, frustrating their new spearhead. It didn't help much that the Dutch never let them have any peace on the ball, hsutling and bustling for the full ninety minutes. 

However, that penalty was about their only effort on target, as a spectacularly special header from Robin van Persie tied and turned the game. Daley Blind's passing and deliveries had been a threat all night, but his sight to pick out RVP's run between Pique and Ramos was exquisite. A 51 yard grenade exploded off the head of the unmarked van Persie, past the rooted and isolated Casillas to give an early contender for goal of the tournament.

RVP's header was magnificent in every way.

The replays show just how perfect the ball, the vision, the timing and the finish were, with RVP's realisation that he'd scored a worldy captured in fantastic slow motion. That goal set the precedent for a stunning second half from the Dutch.

Ten minutes in to the second half the cliche of Total Football was actualised as Holland took the lead. A string of patient passes sped up as the ball reached Blind on the left. His lofted ball was expertly controlled by Arjen Robben, who came inside before drilling past Casillas, a slight deflection taking it past the Real Madrid keeper. It was wonderful to watch as the ball pinged about from player to player before being deployed in to the net by the vital Robben.

Having gone behind, the Spanish looked bereft of ideas and their frustration looked set to boil over, when Diego Costa dropped the smallest of heads on Martins Indi. The behemoth defender went down very easily, to draw attention to it, but as the referee (a doppelganger of Stephen Craigan) saw neither the butt or the theatrics, a soft word was the only action, as Martin Indi's eyes threatened to bulge out of his head as he accepted Costa's apology.

He was soon subbed along with Alonso, as del Bosque looked to get his team back in the game. However, it was the Dutch who would add to their tally to end the match as a contest.

With goalkeepers given far too much protection in today's game ( see Olic's disallowed goal against Brazil) it was somewhat refreshing to see Casillas given no protection whatsoever, as RVP  bundled in to him. The least the Spanish goalie could have expected was a nice seafood dinner, such was the extent that van Persie took him out. Instead, he received a booking for his complaints and another marker in the goals against column, as de Vrij's back post header put the men in blue further ahead from Sneijder's set piece from the left.

From there on in, it was all Dutch pressure. David Silva did have the ball in the net briefly, but a correct offside decision saw normal service resume before a catastrophic clearance from Casillas resulted in a second of the night for van Persie. A poor back pass led to a poorer first touch from the rarely faulted keeper, which RVP gleefully pounced upon to net his side's fourth. This came after he had scudded the bar with an audacious volley from the right hand side of the box earlier in the half.

It was now an onslaught from van Gaal's side and if not for Casillas making a smart double save, blocking from close range before elbowing out Robben's powerful volley from the edge of the box as a follow up, it could have been 5-1 sooner than it actually was.

He didn't have long to wait to see the ball in his net for a fifth time though, as Robben began a foot race with Ramos at the half way line, teasing Casillas out of his goal. Doubling back on himself, the Bayern Munich lynch-pin made a mug of the Spanish keeper and his defence once more, before blasting in to the left hand corner of the net.

Iker Casillas has had better nights.

When people talk of the night that TikiTaka truly died, they should now be able to say that Total Football came back from the dead to kill it.  

While it's not inconcievable to think that del Bosque and Spain can bounce back from such a humbling defeat, the implications of it could derail the confidence and abilities of a number of their players. Casillas looked shaky at times in the Champions League Final and probably had his poorest game ever for his country last night. Ramos and Pique weren't on the same page at all, and at times looked like there was a whole pitch between them. For all of Costa's bluster, there wasn't much brilliance, while Torres' miss at the death was another on his seemingly unending conveyor belt of gilt edged chances that he's failed to take.

For the OranjeBoom, they have proved their detractors wrong with a blistering start to the finals and sit atop their group. Chile did the business with a 3-1 win over the expected whipping boys of Group B, Australia, and will prove a stern test for Spain while the Dutch could seal a place in the next round versus the Aussies. The confidence of their destruction of the World Champions shouldn't be misplaced though, but will likely be the impetus to keep up that tempo against Tim Cahill and co.

Until then, they can be happy with the revenge they dished out to the men who nabbed the World Cup away from them in 2010.