Referee: Héctor Baldassi (Argentina)
LINEUPS:
Netherlands (451): Stekelenburg, van der Wiel, van Bronckhorst, Heitinga, Mathijsen, de Jong, Schnijder, van Bommel (de Zeeuw 62'), van Persie (Schaars 87'), Huntelaar (Elia 72'), Robben
Japan (433): Kawashima, Komaro, Nagatomo, Nakazawa, Tanaka, Abe (K. Nakamura 54'), Endo, Hasebe (Inamoto 62'), Honda, Okubo, Matsui (Yano 83')
When Dirk Kuyt limped off an hour into Holland's big win over Denmark few suspected the injury would be severe enough to put him out for the remainder of the tournament. Klaas Jan Huntelaar got the start in his place today, and he came the closest to scoring when in the 31st minutevan Bommel pulled the ball back to him but an excellent save from Kawashima foiled that effort. The Japanese goalie also stopped Huntelaar in the second half with van Bronckhorst following up to send the rebound a yard wide.
Stekelenberg had little to do at the other end. His biggest test came off the foot of Endo after an excellent feed from Matsui found him alone in the box, but the shot was too close to the Dutch keeper. Nigel de Jong put in a strong performance in midfield, breaking up attacks and making some impressive passes, but in the end the difference maker in the match was in the Japan goal.
Netherlands 0 - 0 Japan
Goalscorers:
None
Discipline:
NED van Bommel 34'
JAP Tanaka 71'
NED Robben 71'
JAP K. Nakamura 86'
JAP Yano 90'
Man of the Match:
JAP Eiji Kawashima
| GROUP E | ||||||||
| Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
| Netherlands | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | +4 | 4 |
| Japan | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Cameroon | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Denmark | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | -4 | 0 |
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