Well that was unexpected. Brazil were lucky to have made it to the Semis but still, that was a spectacular implosion. It doesn't bear thinking about if Germany don't win the tournament now.

 

Side note: Spain scored 8 goals in their successful 2010 world cup campaign, Germany have so far scored 17.

 

Also congratulations to Klose for becoming the top scoring player in World Cup finals history.

[bleep]ing Neuer is a madman

Another step towards that 1974... I guess Neymar can feel a little better now knowing that he didn't really miss out on the final. Klose, that was very professional, the way he responded in the post-match interview.

 

The death of Di Stefano (RIP my 2nd favourite player), might fire up some of the Argentines. Also, Di Maria will be a big loss. Dutch were not particularly convincing judging by their performance against Costa Rica, regardless of how well you rated the Krul penalties. They can do without RVP, but definitely not without Kuyt. What they say about Feyenoord and total football, Kuyt really did prove them wrong.

Wow...that match against Brasil was unbelievable. I did expect Germany to win clearly because of Neymar and Silva missing but I did not expect that. Well, I guess nobody did really.

 

The finals are still another matter though. Germany played great, but Brasil allowed them to. We're definitely not invulnerable (although Neuer gets us close :P).

 

I expect the Netherlands to go through today. Playing against them will be much tougher than Brasil

Arg-Ned has been a terrible match to watch.. PENALTIES looming

I was scared that once it got to penalties Argentina would not have what it takes. But it seems i was wrong. I almost cried when the game was over.

I was scared that once it got to penalties Argentina would not have what it takes. But it seems i was wrong. I almost cried when the game was over.

Luis Suarez style?

Very disappointed Argentina have got to the final, they've been poor throughout the tournament. In theory they should be easy pickings for Germany, but anything can happen in this world cup.

 

In stark contrast to the records broken by the Germany - Brazil game, this game was the first time ever a semi-final was won on penalties.

Was a horrid game, tbh. Total of what, 3 or 4 shots on goal in 120 minutes? No aggression aside from Robben in the last 15 minutes.  Sad. Here's to the final being something better.

Very disappointed Argentina have got to the final, they've been poor throughout the tournament. In theory they should be easy pickings for Germany, but anything can happen in this world cup.

 

In stark contrast to the records broken by the Germany - Brazil game, this game was the first time ever a semi-final was won on penalties.

I don't think you can really say that. From all the teams that had the chance to get to the finals, i think Argentina is the only team that kept a consistent performance throughout the tournament. They didn't 5-1 a team one day then struggle to stay alive the next. Their games might not have been the most action packed but it was always consistent. I'm not expecting them to beat Germany, but anything is possible. No one really expected them to beat the Dutch, and here we are.

Argentina is the only team that hasn't trailed in the tournament.

 

Very disappointed Argentina have got to the final, they've been poor throughout the tournament. In theory they should be easy pickings for Germany, but anything can happen in this world cup.

 

In stark contrast to the records broken by the Germany - Brazil game, this game was the first time ever a semi-final was won on penalties.

I don't think you can really say that. From all the teams that had the chance to get to the finals, i think Argentina is the only team that kept a consistent performance throughout the tournament. They didn't 5-1 a team one day then struggle to stay alive the next. Their games might not have been the most action packed but it was always consistent. I'm not expecting them to beat Germany, but anything is possible. No one really expected them to beat the Dutch, and here we are.

 

I expected them to beat the Dutch :D

I think van Gaal either should have left Cillessen as the keeper in penalties against Costa Rica, or should have saved the last substitute to bring Krul again. A keeper that was substituted for penalties just one match ago will a) be under even more pressure to show he can do it too and b) not be as intimidating for the opponent and c) not be as much of a morale support for his teammates.

Easy to second guess. His hand was forced on 2/3 sub's due to injury/fatigue. (De Jong, RVP) And the other sub was used on someone who got a quick yellow. (Martins Indi) plus, Cillessen has NEVER saved a penalty in a competitive match, so blame his ineptness, not van Gaal. W/O van Gaal the dutch are nowhere near as successful in the tournament. End of story.

Of course, I'm not blaming van Gaal nor implying I could do a better job (not even remotely). But I think this particular decision may have backfired. I was only wondering what might have happened if he had not used his last substitute to replace RVP with Huntelaar and instead brought Krul again.

RVP couldn't have played any longer. He was totally gassed and had no impact on the game whatsoever.

True, but how much of a difference would it have made? They didn't get many chances either way, and having RVP essentially not playing for the last 20? minutes would probably not result in a goal against them either. LVG obviously didn't want to rely on penalties, and I'm not saying that was wrong - But purely from hindsight, I think the other option might have worked better. We'll never know of course.

 

Also, just watching Brazil - Netherlands. The very first attack from the Dutch and Silva already needs to foul to stop Robben from freely shooting at the goal. And the referee only shows a yellow card, but gives a penalty although it was outside the penalty box. What?

The early goal won't make things easier for the Brazilians....

 

Edit: And just as I posted this, the second goal by Blind for the Dutch, standing completely free to shoot 10 meters away from the goal. (Preceded by an unseen offside though). Let's hope this doesn't get too devastating...

Edited July 12, 201411 yr by Jonanananas

He gambled on De Jong and it backfired. The formation is built to not concede and to break on counter. Argentina played very cautiously and conservatively - which left no room for any wingers/Robben to run into. Higuain found a few gaps due to positional error on the left - including that incorrect offside call later in normal time. Irrespective of what changes LVG makes, it would not have made a difference to the scoreline on the Dutch side.

 

There's also a limitation to the movement of players out of their position, given the solo potential of Messi - we could see that in the Brazil game, without this 'burden', everything was back to normal, of course, not helped by the still stunned Brazil side. This is a meaningless game nonetheless, as LVG have said, it should have been abolished long ago.

 

Hope this raises the profile of the Eredivisie. Perhaps someday I won't be ridiculed as much for following the league or for saying things like x team should get De Vrij.

 

 

slightly off topic.., ~75m is quite a bit less than what I expected. He is a much better player than Bale even with his discipline problems. For a players who has played for Ajax, the Barca style should be like second nature. It's just down to how Enrique fits him in with Neymar and Messi in October. Of course, it could also turn out like Ibra, who unsurprisingly has also played for Ajax.

Eredivisie, in my eyes, is probably the 6th best league in Europe. You could make a case teams like Ajax, PSV, AZ could compete with the big boys, but it's poor teams really are pretty bad from what I've watched.

 

As for Suarez, I think it's about right.. While I agree he is slightly better than Bale, he is also older and has obvious image problems.

 

Regardless, Barca needs to change how the play.. As even further evidenced by how Spain did in the World Cup.. Thank God tiki taka is phasing out.

That was so heartbreaking...

I'm gonna go crawl up i a ball and cry for a bit.

I didn't think you were Argentinian?

He isn't.

 

I am really happy with the result. And a bit amazed by how much punishment Schweinsteiger went through.

That was a thrilling match to watch :)

 

Schweinsteiger looked battered even before the face wound. Incredible that he kept going even with the last substitute still available.

 

The Argentineans did play a great game as well. They were slightly superior for large portions of the game, but thankfully not enough to score a goal. In the end the win is still deserved I think. The referee did a rather poor job, but there were controversial decisions on both sides.

Schweiny is a warrior. I was pleased with his play in the final, he dove quite often in the quarters. He's too good to fall into that trap. Same with Robben.

I didn't think you were Argentinian?

I'm not. Argentina was just the first team i really started following when i first started watching football back in 2002. Iirc that's the year Veron played and i remember him being one of my favorite players mainly cause he was one of the only names i could remember playing FIFA 10 on PS1, haha. So Argentina was kind of the team that really got me into football. Was really sad for me to see them lose, especially in such a fashion. I had a feeling Germany would win from the start, they just looked so much better than Argentina did this whole WC. But i always had my hopes up, especially when there were only 10 minutes of extra time left. Even though i think if it went to penalties Germany would have still come out on top. I don't know, was just a bit devastating seeing them concede 8 minutes before end of extra time.

But big congrats the the Germans. Like i said, i think they fully deserved it.