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Reply With Quotectw01 (12-07-2010), HeroesComesandGoes (12-07-2010), Javi (12-07-2010), JiraiyaTHFC (15-07-2010), Rev John Ripsher (12-07-2010), RiverWire (12-07-2010)
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A disappointing end to a slightly disappointing tournament. Can't think of too many games or incidents, which will make me look back, in years to come, and say: "WOW".
In fact, the only legacy of this World Cup may well have been left by England and the disallowed Frank Lampard goal. Because of this, FIFA will now consider the idea of goal-line technology - and that's a huge step forward.
I went into last night's game with mixed feelings. Spain, whose passing game I have so much enjoyed watching, over the past few weeks, against The Netherlands, with whom I have a lot of history!
Holland is my second home. I have lost count of the number of times I've been there. My 'Sometimes Significant Other' is Dutch and lives in Amsterdam. He was a small child, during the days of "Totaal Voetbal", Johan Cruyff and Rinus Michels, but became a devoted Ajax fan and was always proud of his team and the style in which they played.
It was 1996 before I got interested in Dutch football. Back then, watching Ajax play was a bit like watching Spain now. They'd pass and pass the ball around so much that sometimes, you'd be almost frantic, wanting them to play the killer ball, for a striker to put it in the net. It wasn't like the English game, full of excitement, action, blood and guts. It was slower; neater; often frustrating, but could occasionally be quite beautiful.
What I saw last night was ugly. Men in orange shirts, behaving in a way which would have made Rinus Michels turn in his grave. I'm sure many people started watching the match, favouring Holland. (Come on, EVERYONE likes the Dutch, don't they? They're open-minded, free-spirited, chilled-out, party animals). But, like me, those people probably ended up wanting Spain to win. No! They wanted FOOTBALL to win. And the Spanish seemed to be the only ones who wanted to play nicely.
Had The Netherlands won last night, I'm sure fans would have been celebrating in the streets of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Eindhoven. But it wouldn't have sat easily with the Dutch football purists of the 70's - Ruud Krol; Rob Rensenbrink; Johan Neeskens; Johnny Rep; Willem van Hanegem and, of course, the magical Mr Cruyff - if the trophy that their total football couldn't secure was won by late tackles and dangerous play.
Congratulations, Spain! Football won!
ctw01 (12-07-2010), HeroesComesandGoes (12-07-2010), Javi (12-07-2010), JiraiyaTHFC (15-07-2010), Rev John Ripsher (12-07-2010), RiverWire (12-07-2010)
I'm sorry but i'm getting fed up with all this "football won/victory for football" bollocks.
Spain were as much of a disgrace as Holland were last night. Their diving and imaginary card waving was unbareable. Neither side deserved to win it.
OzSpur (12-07-2010)
Ajax are one of my all time fav's back when both of the de boar's , Kluivert , davids, finidi George , danny blinde , bogarde , van der sar ..................what a team that was.
As for this world cup....... ill keep it short , i dont think ive ever been so bored from a world cup or euro competition in my life like this year. Maybe it was because i didnt spend every match in a pub with the lads im not sure but i really really lost interest this year , where normally im a over all football fanatic where if there is match on ill watch it , i just really couldnt be bothered. Very sad
But it was a final! Somebody HAD to win it!Originally Posted by ...And Justice For All
Robben dived just as much as any Spaniard. And imaginary card waving is, unfortunately par for the course in the game, these days and, if the referee is good, will be punished.
But kung-fu kicks and Mark van Bommel's thuggery? That's NOT what Dutch football is all about. Seriously, if they HAD won that game, their sports writers & football pundits would have really let the team have it, World Cup winners or not. The Dutch are very honest, often outspoken people. Many of them truly believe that it's better to lose in glory than win ugly.
Justice (12-07-2010)
good post brum but spain were not angels, they can cheat just as well as anyone else. i think if webb had the balls to give a red in the first half then we wouldnt have seen so much dirty tackles from both sides..... the expression football won in the end i dont get.... if it had been a great world cup and great final then yes but sadly so called superstars from all teams failed to shine and officails were overall pretty poor so for me football failed badly
Here here....couldn't agree more.
Sorry, when I said that, I meant 'out of the two finalists, football won', rather than the tournament as a whole, which, I agree, was a bit of a let-down.
Don't get me wrong, I agree that the way the Dutch played was unacceptable I'm just getting annoyed at not you but the way the press are acting as if Spain are angels and that they could do no wrong.
BrumSpur (12-07-2010)
Thought this World Cup was by far the most boring of my 21 years so far. 3 weeks have gone by and I'm like "was there just a world cup or something".
Well done to spain though, a good year in predictions for me to get league and world champions correct.
apology accepted
I can understand the negative reaction to this WC and in some cases it may well be justified, personally I really enjoyed it all.
I found it refreshing as well as interesting to see the different styles and attitudes of players from different continents, and was particularly impressed with the South Americans like Uruguay, Chile and Mexico whom I didnt know so well previously. It also gave me the opportunity to see so many of the players that have been linked with spurs, some of which I hope will one day come to us sooner rather than later.
Last nights final was not the best by any means, and I have to say I was shocked by the way the Netherlands approached the game, they were more like a pub team on a Sunday morning than potential WC winners, so Im glad to see Spain won the day for that reason alone.
Its a sad state of affairs but the fact is there is a lot of "cheating"within the game , and though it could be said its always been, I believe its worse now than ever before, so lets hope within the next four years FIFA get their act together and implement the changes required to improve the tarnished image the game has.
Yes the dutch played a physical game and were lucky not to have De Jong and Van Bommel sent off early in the game. But let's not pretend Spain did not have their fair share of niggling fouls and dives from Iniesta, busquets, Ramos and Capdevila.
They were the better team on the night, BUT they were no angels and certainly do not have any moral high ground to lecture the dutch on fair play. They played better football, but they were in no way innocent.
It was a dreadful game that Webb lost control of and he made mistakes in both directions, by not sending off De Jong, and Van Bommel, by not sending off the last defender, Puyol when Robben for once stayed on his feet when through on goal, and by being fooled by Iniesta's dive into sending Heitinga off.
It seems clear he was instructed to keep all 22 men on the pitch if possible, there's no conceivable reason De Jong was not sent to the showers. Had that happened, the game may not have disintegrated the way it did.
As for whether this physical style is part of the dutch game, it has been creeping in over the years, in the shape of players like De Jong, Van Bommel (who to be fair can play a bit) and Boulahrouz. Edgar Davids was no shrinking violet either. And the battle of Nuremberg with Portugal was a foreshadowing that they can be dirty if pressed.
opps, double posted this by mistake
Last edited by luminoir; 12-07-2010 at 01:34 PM. Reason: accidental double post
Spain were no angels, but to equate what they did- diving, imaginary card waving, etc, with what the Dutch did from the outset is not fair in my opinion. Spain came to play, the Dutch came to break up play. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, but they shouldn't have been surprised to end up with 10 men on the pitch. They were lucky to have that many, De Jong clearly should have been sent off for his spearing of Xabi Alonso, and Van Bommel got away with murder after his foul on Iniesta.
But like others have said, Webb obviously had a mandate to keep the teams intact, and to be fair to him, I don't think I've ever seen a game that was harder to officiate, especially on the occasion.
It was an ill-tempered, dirty, stop-and-start match, and I don't think anyone can seriously believe that it was Holland, not Spain who wanted it to make it that way. And the Dutch did their share of diving, surrounding the ref and imaginary card-waving too.
I have been a lifelong admirer of Dutch football- I was a teenager when Van Basten, Rijkaard, and Gullit were in the national team. We tend to idealize that group- I remember them being about as negative against England and especially Germany (the Rijkaard spitting game) in the 1990 WC as their counterparts were last night. And to stretch Luminoir's point back a little further, Dutch football has a long history of hatchet men-the Koeman brothers were maybe even worse than Van Bommel and De Jong.
But even though I understand, I hate to see a talented team play the way the Dutch did last night, especially on the occasion. And like Brum, I'm glad that in the end, Spain's technical ability, even if soured by some bad sportsmanship, won over a team with no shortage of technical ability themselves who nevertheless seemed determined not to use it.
well here is what i'm going to take away from this game and it harps all the way back to November. it finally took for one of Fifa's favourites to get screwed on a goal before they thought about putting some possible form of video replay/goal review. All of these would have taken 5 seconds of watching a replay to see the call should have been reversed and order restored properly.
France's handball to get into the tourney - When you have 8 players on one side running and yelling it's a handball replay shows it was done with purpose which should have given free kick to Ireland.
US goal called offsides against Algeria - once again with replay it would have taken 5 seconds to see Dempsey was onside. now this didn't affect the game as US won anyway however clearly wrong call.
Argentina offside against Mexico - Tevez's goal should not have counted as he was easily 1 yard maybe 2 yards offsides when he got the ball and had a pure empty net in front of him.
Finally England getting hosed - Finally you have one of the "big boys" of FIFA getting screwed on international TV by such a horrible objective call. So yeah FIFA will of course say "we should look at the possibility of this now".
Not even going into the "subjective" call of the US getting a goal taken away to beat Slovinia when the only people getting fouled were the US. there still is no reason what the foul was that apparently denied the goal!!
As for this WC i thought it was okay and the aura of the event was always keeping me attached with it. Now we just need Spurs to come back on!! atleast i have MLS until that time.
Sexiest Spurs Fan!!!
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