[el-capitano]

Well the magic of Guus has rubbed off yet again. This man has the lives of ten cats!

Will the dream run continue?

[Black Label]

Nice match-up, Russia played pretty impressive last night. They resemble the Dutch style in a way, flowing attack with an open defense.. I'm still confident we'll be able to beat them though. The Dutch should have enough experience to deal with this.

[blueguitar322]

Two very similar styles of play (at least when both teams are running on all cylinders) - fast, sharp, beautiful soccer, the way it's meant to be played. Overall the Dutch have been much sharper with their finishing and have played much stronger opposition, so they're rightfully the favorites and I can't really see them losing outside of a "blue moon" type of game.

But with Guus, who knows Netherlands as well as anyone, you never really know...

The one thing I think is most important for Russia is to not fall behind early. They played Spain hard for 20min or so until David Villa scored, and then they basically folded. This can be a weakness for a young side.

The important thing for Holland, I think, will be not turning over the ball in the midfield during the early stages of buildup. Sweden did this repeatedly and this type of situation leads to fast breaks where a lack of numbers (say 3 attackers vs. 6 defenders) can be overcome by space and movement. Russia thrived on this vs. Spain.

[Joep]

We've had some terrible news this morning. Yesterday, Boulahrouz left the training early because of family issues, and today it was announced that his new babydaughter passed away during childbirth

quarterfinals dont seem so important right now quite frankly

[Black Label]

It definately puts things in perspective..

[fh 1]

Hiddink has taught Russians to play Dutch-style football. And they're very good pupils, but also very young and inexperienced on international level (all play in Russian league but one). So I would put the masters above the pupils.
Holland wins 3:1.

[Dutch Treat]

I predict a craaazy scoreline like 4-3 with not so much defense, and a lot of offensive footie, and hopefully in the end we'll advance.

[1shot1kill]

I have a bad feeling about this, Hiddink has managed to get the Russian team back up and running and the entire Dutch team is hit by the loss of the prematurely-born daughter of Boulahrouz, if you look how close the team have gotten and how all of them treated each others kids after the games when celebrating with their families it seems it really has a big impact on the entire team.

Originally Posted by Dutch Treat

I predict a craaazy scoreline like 4-3 with not so much defense, and a lot of offensive footie, and hopefully in the end we'll advance.

Is this you?


(The guy on the picture is Hugo Borst, who said the exact same thing as Dutch Treat on Dutch TV last night. )

[Dutch Treat]

Originally Posted by 1shot1kill

Is this you?


(The guy on the picture is Hugo Borst, who said the exact same thing as Dutch Treat on Dutch TV last night. )

Haha. You probably won't believe me but I didn't catch the post-game show. Anyway, it's not hard to say things along those lines since it's pretty obvious that both teams strenght lies in their offensive play, and a defense like gatenkaas.

[glennaldo_sf]

This should be a good game. But I don't see the Russian defence handling Holland attack. Russia got wins against ageing Greece and Sweden but this Holland side are a completely different proposition. I think the Spain game was a blueprint for what is to come.... 4-1 Holland I say