Netherlands beats Spain in friendly, but Hiddink, Del Bosque still have little to gain

These are strange times for some of Europe's soccer powers. Spain and the Netherlands, finalists as recently as the 2010 World Cup, and in the case of the Dutch, semifinalists in Brazil four years later, are mired in terrible slumps.

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Ever since the Spanish started the 2014 World Cup with a 5-1 loss to the Netherlands in a rematch of the final they won 1-0 in extra time in South Africa, they have gone 5-5-0 before they faced off again on Tuesday. That's an abject .500 record for the country that won two Euros and a World Cup back-to-back-to-back and seems to have plenty more talent in the pipeline now that the golden generation is aging out.

The Dutch, for their part, had lost four of their first five games after the World Cup, including two losses in Euro 2016 qualifiers wedged around a labored win over Kazakhstan. Since then, a 6-0 win over little Latvia and a flattered 1-1 tie with Turkey have hardly soothed the fears that something's terribly amiss.

On Tuesday, the Dutch avenged that 2010 loss a second time by dispatching Spain with two goals by the 16th minute, which would never be answered, for a 2-0 friendly win at Amsterdam Arena. They dominated the first half and let the Spaniards make the play in the second.

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Because by then, they'd gotten all the goals they would need. A 13th-minute Wesley Sneijder cross in the aftermath of a corner was headed on by Stefan de Vrij, who beat goalkeeper David De Gea at his far post.

Then, three minutes later, the mesmeric Memphis Depay fed Jetro Willems at the top of the box. The left back, in turn, played in Davy Klaassen who got two cracks at shooting. The first was blocked by De Gea, but it rolled right back into his path for Klaassen to sweep home.

At length, some 10 minutes after the break, Sneijder teed up Bruno Martins Indi with another pinpoint cross. He headed the ball into the ground, as all young soccer players are taught to do, but watched as it somehow bounced over the bar.

David Silva had a goal disallowed in the 70th minute for offsides, and quite possibly for a hand ball. And from there on out, the game didn't offer up much else of note.

If the Dutch grabbed a quick lead and both countries controlled the run of play for long stretches, neither looked terribly convincing on the whole. Neither looked like their troubles are squarely behind them.

Managers Vicente del Bosque and Guus Hiddink, men with immense experience and resumes, are under fire. The media in their respective countries wonder how much they have left to offer, whether they are the right men to oversee the reconstruction now that their star players are beginning to sport a few gray hairs.

This game probably won't come as a respite to either man. The Spanish, who could once go an entire year without losing, are now 5-6 since the start of the World Cup. Hiddink bagged a win against a major opponent, but where he's from, the result never counts as much as the performance. And to have spent an entire half chasing the play probably won't win him any unqualified plaudits.

Leander Schaerlaeckens is a soccer columnist for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter @LeanderAlphabet.