Dirk Kuyt earns 100th Netherlands cap on day of his father's death anniversary

Netherlands’ Dirk Kuyt points to the heavens after Wesley Sneijder scores the equalizer against Mexico.

This was a special game for many reasons for Netherlands winger Dirk Kuyt. Not just because it was the World Cup, but two other special reasons.

Netherlands’ Round of 16 game against Mexico marked Kuyt’s 100th appearance in the Oranje kit. He is only the 7th player to get 100 caps for Netherlands.

And that’s not all.

Yesterday was also the seventh anniversary of his father’s death. Gerrit Kuyt died on 29 June, 2007 after a long battle with cancer.

Kuyt’s relief and happiness at not being knocked out was immediately apparent when Sneijder scored the equaliser in the 88th minute as Kuyt went down on his knees and pointed to the heavens in memory of his late father.

And Kuyt would have made his father proud after putting in an immense shift that saw the 33-year-old playing a majority of the game in the sun (and not in the shade) and showed no signs of tiring. It was he who earned the corner from which Sneijder scored.

NETHERLANDS PLAYERS WITH 100 OR MORE CAPS

RANK	PLAYER	CAPS
1	Edwin van der Sar	130
2	Frank de Boer	112
3	Rafael van der Vaart	109
4	Giovanni van Bronckhorst	106
5	Wesley Sneijder	103
6	Phillip Cocu	101
7	Dirk Kuyt	100