Match 64 (Final) - Netherlands v Spain - Post-Match Thread [R]

good post!

many ppl have also forgotten to mention that the dutch gave the spanish team the guard of honor in the end.

Yes!, Thanks for remaining me about that.

Great post! Can we close this thread now?

Not without you the Lego Summary you can't...


[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzMSdGrQqzk"]YouTube- Spain vs Holland /Netherlands 1-0 Full Lego Highlights 2010 World Cup FInal[/ame]

Some final thoughts on the final and tournament:

Aside from the fact that Holland chose to physically bring down Spain, I feel their biggest mistake was not involving Van Persie in this WC. They had a great team but if their best striker is not the main target, something is fundamentally wrong. In the final, Van Persie had virtually no shots.

Robben's one on one breakaway was the most exciting moment of this game. When I saw it live, I truly thought it was the end of the game. I couldn't believe it when it was blocked/he missed. Also on his second chance, I found it amazing that this infamous actor chose not to dive. He played a fantastic match. Just no goal.

There has been some talk about Iniesta being the best player in the world ever since he won 09 CL. Eto and Rooney stated publicly that he is the best. Did anyone else notice Iniesta just took over this match towards the end of regulation? It was no accident he scored the final goal. It is amazing how such a small player can survive such a physical game but also take it to another gear in overtime.

Sergio Ramos rocked in this tournament. Too bad he didn't score any goals. He was dismayed when his header was blocked in the beginning of the match. Anyways, I thought Kuyt was playing great until the final. He was simply schooled by Ramos. Kuyt was non factor in this match.

The final was an extraordinary match. Not too entertaining for viewing sake, but most interesting since 2 powerhouse nations without WC trophy collided with 2 very opposite approach.

Finally, Spain winning the WC scoring the least amount of goals was amazing. four straight 1-0 wins says something. All goals scored towards the end of the match. Another historical fact is that they were the first team to win WC after losing the first game. I suppose not scoring against Swiss who now holds the new record of not conceding a goal for 550 some minutes is nothing to be ashamed of. Swiss showed how to beat Spain. DEFENSE + one lucky goal.

All in all, I think with healthy Torres, Spain would have done a little better. And maybe Holland did them a favor by knocking out Brazil.

Good post, but you're probably right in what I bolded, maybe if Brazil beat the Dutch and made the final it would've been a more interesting game.

I haven't seen this mentioned too much, but was the foul committed on Elia that led to the free kick with the incorrect goal kick really a foul? There were never any repetitions given on it, but if there was any contact, it was very soft. It seemed like it could have been a dive from Elia, but without any close up shots and different camera angles you can't really tell.

Van Persie never looked like he was really in shape. Just came back from an injury, you know. He never looked great

It is incredibly amusing how bitter people can get when their side loses or even when they win it seems. I am watching from a completely neutral perspective and that game was probably the hardest match to ref that I have ever witnessed. If he would have followed the strict rules of the game throughout we could have ended up with 7 or 8 dutch players vs 9 or 10 Spain players and the result of that would have been that everyone would now be saying he ruined the final. The simple FACT is that the players ruined the final. The ref gave the players the best chance to have a flowing game but they would not let it happen. I wonder when you look back at each yellow card if there are any which should not have been given?

For Dutch people complaining about the ref you should have been down to 9 players by about 60 minutes so this totally negates the lack of giving a corner!!! How you can blame an honest mistake of not giving a corner on scoring a goal at the other end is beyond me.

I am just wondering how he could have ref'd it better I am sure a ref from spain would have finished the match with 7 players on each side and a ref from Holland would have finished with 11 for both sides by the look of it. Oh and don't forget there is absolutely no way he would have missed giving a corner!!

The ref did an excellent Job and should be praised for handling a Dutch side that were like the dirty dozen and a Spanish side who fall to the floor and pretend to have broken legs every time you touch them.

In a word he had an impossible task!

By The way for those of you moaning about the quality of the final you have to go back a long way to find a decent one so it was to be expected. You could argue there has not been a decent final since 1986.

2010 - Netherlands 0 V 1 Spain - Just awful
2006 - Italy 1 V France 1 - best moment was when ZZ heatbutted that bigot)
2002 - Brazil 2 V 0 Germany - Khan Blunder in Drab game
1998 - France 3 Brazil 0 - France Dominated it was nice to see a new Champion on home soil.
1994 - Brazil 0 V 0 Italy (PK's Brazil win) - Rubbish
1990 - W Germany 1 Argentina 0 (late penalty decides it)
1986 - Argentina 3 W Germany 2 (Great Game with ebbs and flows)
1982 - W Germany 1 V Italy (AWESOME - who can forget that celebration)
1978 - Holland 1 Argentina 3 (AWESOME)

sorry got bored of doing all of it

I agree entirely with your post about the game but just a couple of things on finals. I actually thought 2002 was not such a bad game as Germany played above themselves and did give Brazil a lot of problems. I love Materazzi being called a bigot. You mean defenders never insult other plyaers to put them off their game. If the Algerian had not completely lost it then no one would have been any the wiser. I thought 1998 was ruined by teh fact the French won it.

I see what you are saying and to be honest about Materazzi I am just being inflamatory!!

All I remember about 2002 was the Germany got to the final with arguably the easiest set of fixtures in WC history. I think there hardest game en route was Ireland in the group!!! Imagine that. I think in that game had they played some tougher opposition en route to the final they may have been better prepared for a superior Brazilian Team.

1998 - I agree to an extent but you cannot deny that teams ability and the fact they were a team who was class (add Euro 2000 crown).

All I know is that as more and more money goes in to the game it seems team play with increased pressure and negativity over fear of conceeding a goal and going out. Having said that the 2002 tournament overall was very good.

All getting worrying as I keep agreeing. The problem with France, apart from being married to a french woman, was that until the SF the French population, except in Paris, seemed to be very ambivalent about the whole thing but then overcome with emotion when they won it. Also they must be the only team in history to win the WC without a forward line. Apart from the genius in midfield it was entirely down to Balnc, Lixarazu, Thuram, Desailly & Barthez. Two years later they had the perfect mix with Henry & Trezuguet and a great team. So that was Algeria, Senegal, Ghana, Argentina etc. bit like the germans now!

Taken from another forum-

Just taking a look back, for those who haven't already read the article, De Jong tells Sky Sports:

"Yes, I was concerned it might be worse than a yellow," said the Manchester City midfielder.
"It looked worse, although to be honest I didn't see the opponent coming in from the side.
"I was really focused on the ball and I caught him on his chest. It was a bit curious but he gave the yellow card so for me it was a little bit of luck."

Could he truly not see Xabi Alonso? Looking at replays it really seems unlikely. Not sure what to think after his statements other than doubt at this point.

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,12040_6257692,00.html

Oh, please stop exaggerating! But well, even the deserved world champs from Spain are considered by many to be "boring", so I wouldn't care much about such "experts" if I was Dutch...

No team makes it to a WC final just by playing boring football and being lucky (even though the factor "fortune" is always playing a certain role during such a big tournament) ... so I don't think it's fair bashing Holland now for not having played as attractive as some might have expected (they already started playing more rational football under Van Basten - except for the EC 2008 - after noticing that beautiful football alone often isn't successful)!

Maybe we Germans know how you must feel getting bashed after reaching a WC final (2002). )

Yeah, he didn't "see" him. He just doesn't "see" people when he does all of his studs up challenges. He didn't "see" Stuart Holden when he broke his leg either I bet.

Nah some of the bashing is correct, and a lot of Dutch people join in it. It was just what many expected. A somewhat disgraceful, uninspiring, tactically disrupted tight (final pressure on) match-off with not many great scoring opportunities and a lot of tactical fouls, some rough ones. De Jong is an idiot player. He plays great sometimes, but every now and then he does these careless stupid stunts like that, that can easily get him redded and injure people for months. Van Marwijk is a total douche for fielding an unknown quantity like that. He did it also in a previous match, i believe against cameroon, where he could've been redded instantly. (and part of me was wishing he got redded). The Problem is, a team that keeps winning isn't getting enough criticism.

Ofcourse the disgruntled fanboys have a point when it comes to the roughness of Van Bommel and De Jong, but their "lucky" argument is just total BS.

If they can't see this Dutch squad is deceptively shrewd, always dangerous when lurking for opportunities and very decent at neutralizing the strengths of opponents, they are blind. You don't beat Brazil by just being lucky, and you don't win 14 matches in a row by being just "lucky" [period].

I think the Dutch did very well at neutralizing the Spanish attack, (which once again failed to be efficient) and disrupting Spanish build-up in this match, however, that came at a cost of not being able to develop much opportunities and exerting less pressure by themselves. Spain could've lost this if the Dutch attack would have been just a tad more efficient. Think that was Van Marwijk's gamble here, try and win it ugly, like Switzerland did. Spain is a great side that is hard to dominate on the pitch. They are not impermeable but they are a great team to face as a test. We almost pulled it off....That strange corner not being called probably decided it. (half the Dutch players still in disbelief it wasn't called) But that having said, kudos to Spain for having played dominating soccer this tourney, all in all, they were the best team around this year imo, a deserved win, i do hope in 2014, you will field better strikers though, something in your offensive apparatus is just crap.

I think it's true. I was rewatching parts of the game today and I also came to the conclusion that he did not see him. He was trying to intercept a ball that came from the left of him, he never looked ahead of him untill a split second before he hit Alonso.

I don't know...the ball and Alonso were very close and he was still far off target from the ball. No reason to take such a dangerous approach without precaution anyway.

BULLSHIT!

1. Look at the location of the ball
2. Look at where De Jong is looking.
3. That is dangerous play and he should not have his foot that high.

Don't be an idiot. That's a 1.3 second replay in slow mo. I told you he didn't look at the player till a split second before the kick. So what are you going to proof with this gif??

Try watching a 1 minute replay on a 1080p. The ball comes from Heitinga who heads the ball forwards. I see De Jong looking at Villa, Iniesta and Xavi. But not for single moment do I see him looking at Alonso. Also, right after the foul he seems surprised and makes a gesture to the Spanish that he didn't see him.

I guess you think it makes more sense that he just wanted to try his new Louis van Gaal karate kick.