NED: Jordi Cruyff (66), Dennis Bergkamp (79).

SWI: -.

NED: van der Sar; Reisiger, Bogarde, Blind, Seedorf (de Kock, 26); R. de Boer (Davids, 80), Winter, Witschge, Hoekstra; Bergkamp, JORDI (Kluivert, 83).

SWI: Pascolo; Hottiger, Vega, Henchoz, Quentin, Jeanneret (Comisetti, 69); Vogel, Sforza, Chapuisat; Grassi, Turkyilmaz.

REFEREE: Atanas Kozunov (Bulgaria).

AUDIENCE: 37.000, Villa Park, Birmingham.

YELLOW CARDS: Seedorf (Netherlands); Jeanneret, Grassi, Chapuisat, Turkyilmaz (Switzerland).

RED CARDS: NONE.

There are several trainers who claim that time-outs during the game are truly necessary to improve the quality of Soccer. Guus Hiddink is surely one of those, and yesterday he showed us there was something in his claims. The totally dull team of the Oranges after 3 halves (135 minutes) had magically changed after the break; they sparkled and scored 2 goals despite the great skill of Marco Pascolo and the wonderful acrobatic save of Arthur Henchoz. Jordi, Hoekstra, Bergkamp, Winter - where have they been beforehand?

As I said, the 1st half was pretty dull, and I shouldn't talk much about it. Pascolo saved the certain goal, blocking Aron Winter after Bergkamp's preparation (24), and Bergkamp himself shot to Pascolo's hands (38). All the other Dutch shots - of Cruyff (22), Bergkamp (29), Witschge (32), de Boer (44) - were imprecise. On the other hand, the opportunities of Turkyilmaz (38) and Chapuisat (35) were wasted, too. Seedorf got an early yellow card and was replaced after 26 minutes, narrowly escaping the red one after backfouling Turkyilmaz.

The 2nd half, however, was quite another story, with only the Oranges on the pitch. It still started with some Swiss attacks, but Grassi (49) shot high, Turkyilmaz and Chapuisat (51) were blocked, and Sforza tried his luck from 30 meters, away (55). However, Jordi Cruyff started the Dutch comeback. His shot after the preparation work of Bergkamp went high (52), and his wonderful header after a corner (59) passed the flying Pascolo, but saw the incredible back scissors kick of Henchoz to clear the ball from the goal-line. Pascolo performed a double-save from the shots of Winter and Hoekstra (61). But then, the goal came. A corner was performed (66), Pascolo fisted it away, and the ball went to Jordi Cruyff who cut to his left and shot from 17 meters between Pascolo and his left post. 1:0, and the Stadium was colored in Orange, ending the frustration of thousands of the Dutch fans.

Pascolo managed to make an incredible save in one-to-one with Bergkamp (76) after a great penetration of the latter. However, 3 minutes have passed, and the story was over. Hottiger shot to the hands of van der Sar, and the latter sent a wonderful keeper's ball to the penetration of Bergkamp, "The Goal Pass Of The Tournament" by now. Bergkamp overran the defender and stood in front of Pascolo. The first shot was parried by the keeper, but the second went in. 2:0, and this was the end.

The last attacks were also of Holland, but Pascolo managed to collect the scissors kick of Davids (86) and the ball of Bergkamp after a great preparation work by Kluivert (89). Holland is in the quarterfinals, and we hope that we'll see them playing from now on the soccer of their 2nd half. And Switzerland showed itself as quite a good team, but with a lot of experience still to collect.

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