The reason the Dutch sucked was what they did when they were on the ball, when frankly Messi wasn't at all involved in the game. Kuyt with probably 99% of touches took the ball towards his own goal, breaking... pass to Kuyt, attack stops in it's tracks and he finds a backwards pass. Sneijder could pass someone in behind... but wait, he can see the goal, he'll shoot instead. Robben was poor but he only had 6 touches of the ball in the first half and attempted 1 shot. RVP attempted no shots... this is classic signs of the midfield failing miserably to actually get the ball to the attackers. RVP did nothing wrong, but was not given any chance to do anything right all game.
Robben's movement wasn't poor, but the delivery to him was almost non existent, though he had a few chances to pass RVP in instead of trying to run through 4 players. He got a bit "this is my chance to win it" and fluffed a few key moments, like his best chance to shoot he took like 2 extra needless touches.
Messi had nothing to do with why the Dutch were poor, utter lack of quality in Kuyt, Sneijder being poor as he had been throughout the tournament. RVP/Robben of course were up against decent(ish) defence but given delivery they would have scored... you can't do anything without the ball. Kuyt/Sneijder don't have that excuse, plenty of the ball and chose the wrong thing on almost every occassion over 120minutes.... the result is almost no meaningful chances to score.
I honestly don't know how LvG failed to see how completely awful the team was looking since he was starting Kuyt. Guzman's energy, pace and significantly more quality than Kuyt WAS much more effective in the first game, yet doesn't get a look in. Depay looked so much more dangerous and direct than Kuyt, again, no where to be seen. Nothing like changing one striker, for another striker, when the midfield is incapable of getting them the ball.
