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A misfiring Dutch side wreaked havoc in the Canadian circle for the better part of the match and romped home with ridiculous ease in spite of some wayward shooting which may not have please Max Caldas much.
The Canadians were never really in the contest and spent three-quarters of the match attempting in vain to keep the Netherlands strikers at a safe distance from their citadel without displaying much urgency or creativity up front.
David Carter in the Canadian goal had a lot to do and pulled off some remarkable saves but the Dutch themselves were mostly to blame for seeming to forget exactly where the posts where positioned.
At the end of the day though all that matters is that the three-time World Cup champions have set up a date with India and the Kalinga Stadium will be packed to the rafters for Thursday's quarterfinal.
We take a look at 3 factors that may have influenced the final outcome of the match that ended with a 5-0 scoreline in favour of The Netherlands.
#3 Dutch players in ominous form despite shooting circle woes
The very fact that the Dutch had to wait until the sixteenth minute to open the scoring after having stormed the Canadian circle eight times in the first quarter was proof enough that the orange army was struggling a bit to find the back of the net.
An ominous statistic that presented itself at the end of the proceedings revealed that the Netherlands strikers had ventured into the Candian circle no less than thirty-eight times but had only five goals to show for all their efforts.
Twenty shots on target were unleashed by the Dutch out of which David Carter saved eleven - but the manner in which the Netherlands strikers strung up the attacks with three players moving in tandem, with one making an overlapping run down the center to latch onto the final pass will have the Indians worried.
It would indeed be a near-impossible task to single out a livewire in the Dutch forward line as all the strikers look to be at their very best and will surely up the ante and iron out several flaws before taking on the hosts in the big quarterfinal.
#2 Canada disappoint after promising much
The South Africans would have fancied their chances of making the crossovers but failed to earn full points against the Canadians in their pool match and had to head home mainly due to the fact that they conceded a lot more goals than they scored at Bhubaneswar.
Canada qualified for the World Cup after beating India 3-2 in a classification match of the Hockey World League Semifinals in London last year and was deemed to be a team which could cause a few upsets, but the manner in which they caved in against the Dutch was disappointing, to say the least.
Ho-Garcia was the only Canadian who looked to move upfield often enough and Paul Bundy's side failed to test the Dutch defence. Six circle entries and two shots on goal were all that the North American side managed while failing to take the fight to the opposition camp thus making things a lot simpler for Max Caldas' side.
#3 Are the Dutch saving the best PC routines for the knockouts?
The Dutch have not yet mastered the PC routines
Mink van der Weeden who was all set to take Bhubaneswar by storm after making a grand return to the big stage following a surgery which kept him out the Champions Trophy has not been at his consistent best - at least, not until now!
The ace drag-flicker scored his first against the Malaysians but failed to get going in the match against Germany which his team lost. Against Pakistan, Van der Weeden missed a few but finally managed to deliver a flick that was powerful enough to beat Imran Butt in the last minute of play.
All five goals against the Canadians were scored from open play - and while that may augur well for the Dutch ahead of the knockouts, they failed to get four of their drag-flicks right, shooting a couple of them wide off the post and messing up another completely.
It remains to be seen, however, if the Dutch will spring a surprise or two in the crucial knock-outs by exhibiting a few slick variations which could well catch the opposition unawares.
Head to Sportskeeda to check out the schedule for the upcoming matches.
