What a shower of yellows. De Jong should have been red carded. I mean I support Holland over Spain in this but that challenge was ridiculous.
Spain for me. Holland have far too many Arsenal players, Spain are playing better a Paul the Octopus picked the Spainards.
Webb is being a terrible ref, stunned at De Jong still being on the pitch after doing that Cantona Kung Fu kick, and the games in danger of turning into a fight with every bad tackle. Holland should be down to at least 10 men. Casillas is playing out of his skin though, two cast-iron goals saved.
Ugly, ugly football...Yellow cards flying all over the place, should have been a few red in there. That flying kung-fu kick to the chest by De Jong looked like something out of the Matrix!
Told ya so. I only saw the last 15 minutes but there could be no debate about this - the Netherlands is just not going to win anything.
They played a great game today. The Netherlands were doing there best to counter by being very aggressive but the refs kept the yellows coming. They were lucky they weren't down another player by the end of the game. Spain outplayed them technically and only some bad shots kept it from being won in regulation time.
I wanted Holland to win at first, but after seeing how dirty they were that quickly changed. Anyhow, that's just [-]under £112[/-]over £138 won Would've been closer to a grand had England and Italy not proved to be fuck-ups in the group phase and topped their bloody groups
Damn, really wanted the Dutch to win. They were pretty rough though, hate to see that sort of behaviour. Equally I despise the Spanish antics of crying foul everytime they're tackled and demanding the ref to show a card. Can't even say Spain have been the best team, they scraped through a very easy group and despite dominating possession, didn't really have the most threatening attack. But not surprised to see them win the tournament, On balance of the entire tournament, Germany would have been the most worthy winners IMO!
Ah well, it turns out my tip on Holland to win the cup wasn't too far out. At least I had it each way so made a decent return on it. Spain were better lastnight but I think Holland had the better chances. The ref was abysmal, how the beeb commentators can only praise him because he is English is beyond me, yet berate the official who chopped off Lampards goal. Holland should have been reduced to 10 men in the first half, but also it was a corner and it was a foul just before Spain scored. In fact, the commentary teams for the full weekend in Britain at least was a joke. How many times did we have to hear about Suarez?? To be fair to the guy, I think he did what he had to do. I would imagine 99% of football managers would expect there players to have done the same thing in the last minute of a world cup semi. It was good to hear saturdays ITV commentators berate both suarez and the german goal keeper for their acts of cheating, and not even notice that it was a different goal keeper playing. Decent world cup, I moved into my new place and had the 42incher set up with Sky hd in time for both semi's and final so that was quality. Bring on Thursday when Motherwell begin their European adventure! Oh aye, I see I won the Wordforge fantasy world cup competition!
The BBC were shocking last night, their unashamed bias for Spain almost made me vomit. Hansen was totally off his rocker too, his anti-Dutchness and arse licking off the Spanish was pissing me off no end. I couldn't believe how far Hansen had his tongue up Iniesta's arse. Man of the tournament? Fucking hell. Yes the guy has scored the winning goal but what did he do in the previous games? No goals and no assists unless I'm mistaken. His other contributions to the tournament were constant dives and pleas to the refs to book or send off opponents. That pasty-faced, horrid little bastard! Good player though.
Andres Iniesta was fantastic in the World Cup tournament. He scored two goals; the World Cup winner, and Spain's second goal in their 2-1 win over Chile. He had one assist; the magical back-heel that set up David Villa's winning goal against Portugal. His pass set up Pedro's shot that hit the post, and fell to Villa, for the game winner against Paraguay. Iniesta does not dive. He takes a lot of hits, and just keeps playing. He is one of the very best, and most respected players in the world.
Nope, that was Xavi who created that goal for Villa. As for your second point, sorry but that's laughable. He IS a diver, he exaggerates a foul, he will fall over at the most minimal of contact and cries at the ref, and demands they show a card. A fantastic player but very unsporting, and frankly a bit of a cheat. By no means the only player, Spain are riddled with talented but obnoxious footballers, but if you're going to appreciate his talent then you should also be pointed out the cynical side of his character.
I would suggest Xavi is a more complete footballer than Iniesta. Iniesta is fantastic, but he is more than happy to take any opportunity to make the most of any foul or attempted foul on him. It was quite noticeable that Robben, for all that he really is a diving bastard in the mold of Drogba and Torres, didn't go down when he really could have and instead stayed on his feet in an attempt to score. Puyol should have seen a second yellow right there.
Just fixed that typo of yours, old boy. But I agree, if anything Robben should have gone down, god knows he's never needed an invite for a dive before! Puyol would've been off and Holland would probably gone on to win. I would have loved it, if only to see the look on Hansen's face, Spain's number 1 fanboy.