In the world of the blind 1 eye is king, as they say in the Netherlands. 3 poor teams in Netherlands, Argentina and Brazil with Germany looking pretty complete except the coach. That might actually cost them. Can't stand that arrogant looking face from Low. Has done nothing impressive at club level and is now living off the talent from one of the biggest football country's. Can't wait when he returns to club level coaching and see what he is really made off.
Low is idiot. I said before the tournament - As long as he is the coach Germany would not win the WC. 4 CB's, 3 slow non-creative CM's, 2 CAM's at the wings and a 2nd ST playing as ST. They have all the the talent in the world and the idiot chooses this formation. He has not gone 1 original idea and copies club coaches ideas like that of Pep, Klopp and previously LVG. If he has suddenly has 1 own idea then that original idea sucks and involve Kroos playing RW. I would be more confident facing Germany and I am sure LVG can out-coach him. With Brazil it will be more difficult despite Neymar as the ref will be in there side and there could be questionable calls which can decide the match
Though I see so many problems with this team, I do think we deserve a pay out in karma. First game Costa just creates a penalty by stamping on de Vrij's leg, simulating like his foot was taken away under him. Costa should have been sent of for the headbutt on BMI Second game that nonsense penalty vs Australia. Red card Cahill, BMI got a concussion from his hard tackle. In the Mexico game we deserved a penalty before half time. This game one of the CR players Diaz should have had his second yellow for a ruthless attack on Robben. I am also pretty sure one of the off sides was wrongly called, though most were right. 3 times now we had to come from behind because of bullsh*t. That costs so much energy and the key for winning a tourney is conserving energy. We have not done that. Add to that the CR player should have gotten a red card and we might have won early. So actually in 4 games we had to tap into our reservoirs due to ref mistakes. Absolute outrage. That, as much as our poor quality will cost us the game with Argentina, or in any case the final/3rd place game. We have thrown with energy. The ref's almost killed us this tournament and probably already did.
1 thing I want to touch on. If we separate the game vs CR from the shoot out, then I have to say what a perfect shoot out we played. We, with Dutch NT's history in mind should be thrilled with such a master class. Remember 2000? Does it get any sillier? Now we got this. What an improvement. Really proud about that aspect as it has haunted us for so long and CR looked so good vs Greece.
It might be wise to start Clasie since he's still fresh. Maybe in place of Wijnaldum. But of course the real problem is that it's the players that make the biggest difference who will be most exhausted. Robben has played balls to the wall in every game so far. Though fortunately he has yet to show signs of slowing down. In this game the strategy should be to go balls out from the start to get a goal, so we aren't forced to draw on reserve energy that might not be there at the end of the game. If we play the attrition game with them, we lose.
Their shooters looked good, but I thought Nevas looked like a joke with his stupid little flailing arm dance before every shot.
Low is the weak link that prevents the Germans from really dominating international football like Spain did. He makes the Germans likable though, who doesn't love a team that plays beautiful football but comes up short to win the trophy . I don't like Scolari's win whatever the cost approach at all. His team betrays everything jogo bonito stands for. I would love The Netherlands to win this, simply to finally grab the holy grail and as crowning achievement for Van Gaal. Still if we can't win it, I wouldn't mind Argentina to bring it home. It would cement Messi's legacy as one of the all time greats.
One game at a time...the Netherlands are more than capable of defeating Argentina! And Germany looked absolutely beatable vs Ghana & Algeria and they have not gotten past host Brasil just yet. Brasil has lost Neymar and to date have not faced a team as good as Germany or Holland so we shall see who wins this matchup. If LVG & his staff can get RVP back playing in top form as he was vs Spain and Australia (3 goals) the Netherlands can beat all 3 of these teams. And even if RVP is benched or subbed off in favor of Huntelaar the Netherlands playing their best and capitalizing on their chances can still beat any one of these 3 teams. The Netherlands can win WC2014 go to twitter and read the comments from the players they believe in themselves and the team they believe they can achieve their goal of winning this tournament!! GO HOLLAND GO!!
So Aguero appears back to full health (I'll believe that when I see him on the pitch). Argentina's previous matches with Aguero, Higuain and Messi all on the field at the same time were less than successful. I still think the loss of di Maria really hurts them. We need to pepper Romero with shots as he's really dicey.
I have seen all of Argentina's matches to date and have not been impressed and they have not even faced and beaten a top team. Bosnia Iran Nigeria Swiss & Belgium are all nowhere near as good as the Netherlands team they will face in the semi finals. I think the Netherlands deserve to be favored in this matchup i think overall they are the better side and will win this semi final game. What are the latest lineup/formation rumors for Holland?
Most of Argentina's opponents were parking the bus. Aside from the late goal Iran for example did it almost perfectly. Expectations are always too high at a tournament because people expect that the big nations will beat everything less with 3 goals difference. But this is not club football. I predict a 2:1 win for NL. I'm hoping that Sneijder will become the star in these last two matches.
In the first game vs Bosnia they changed Maxi Rodriguez for Higuain with great improvement and success. 'Maxi' hasn't seen minutes since.
Maybe Clasie is an option. Seriously. He is short, can tackle. But is he explosive enough. Just a call.
In Argentina v. Belgium, there were only 3 shots on target, the lowest tally in a World Cup knockout game since the 1990 final (which also featured Argentina) ... Robben ram de eerste kans er gewoon in.
I feel ok about this game, this isnt the best argentina team ive ever seen (i would have to go with 98) but they have been very effective in their business. We have to get at their defence apart from zabaleta is pretty weak. I reckon if we dominate midfield messi will have to come deep to get the ball and we can crowd him out, we cant let him cut in from the right. RvP we need you, the best you!!!
http://www.telegraaf.nl/telesport/wk-voetbal-2014/22824524/__Wilmots_ziet_kansen_voor_Oranje__.html http://www.telegraaf.nl/telesport/wk-voetbal-2014/22825950/__Coach_scheldt_Messi_de_huid_vol__.html http://www.soccernews.nl/news/26188..._blijven_liggen_en_willen_het_spel_niet_maken
http://www.voetbalzone.nl/doc.asp?uid=218745 Unhappy with Wilmots though ... his comments during/after the match are only a drop in the bucket ... Belgium deserves a better T1.
Article doesn't mention Van Gaal explicitly said he only saw the first half of the match... Inexplicable the article leaves this out.
Interesting read, I didn't know that semi-final was the objective set by KNVB when Van Gaal was hired - which of course is now considered achieved. I wonder how this would change Louis' (and the team's) mindset. Hopefully this works out for the best... i.e. the team can be more relax, playing their element without taking foot off the pedal. I, for one, am happy if/when Netherlands enter the pitch as the underdog, which seemingly is the case with Argentina playing nearby their home soil and the Messi-factor. This is a rather strange Netherlands unit.. when they were doubted (vs. Spain, Chile), they did fabulously well. When they're expected to kick some butts (vs. Australia, Costa Rica), they did it in a hard way. It's almost like they're getting physiological boost for being discounted, and turning this into a show.
Oddly enough, it was Argentina´s main objective as well. I guess nobody would dare set a goal beyond semis as it would be unrealistic.
Hmm, Spain (2010) group stages, Argentina (1978) semi finals, Germany (1974) finals. Seems like the Netherlands can deal with all the ghosts of the past in one tournament.
Win or lose on wednesday, I'm already proud to be Dutch and proud of Oranje for making it this far into the tournament. Its amazing how well we do for such a small country