As others have said, this wasn't as painful a defeat as some other defeats like 2010, 2008, 2006, 2000, 1998, 1992. It is eventually a fair result. What bothers me the most after two days is how Demichelis, Garay and Mascherano announced before the match that they would roughen up Robben and Van Persie (before the ball reaches their vicinity!!). I cannot escape the thought the worldwide media would've exploded if Nigel de Jong or Vlaar had said similar things, about roughening Higuain and/or Messi. Esp. sour taste since both yellow for Indi and Huntelaar were quite soft cards.
Indi's card was for persistent infraction and he should have been carded on the first challenge, Huntelaar's was soft. The bigger complaint that I have is how we are being treated in the world wide press as sucking the life out of the match. I've hardly read anything about Argentina playing with similar tactics. I guess we are destined to live out the 2010 final for lots of years to come. van Persie got bumped lots of times just before the ball got to him, proof of what the Argentina plan was. To a point I don't blame the tactics as the officiating in this WC lets them get away with it. You would never see this kind of behavior in the Eredivisie. I was reading an article in the New York Times today about how lots of goals were scored in the group play but except for GER/BRA, very little in the KO round (we didn't score in the last two matches!). I think this can be blamed on the energy sapping climate and the short turn around between matches (you cannot expect good performance with only four days rest after a 120 minute match with penalties) and the conservative tactics as teams want to progress. In addition, I think FIFA have to address the persistent fouling tactics that were adopted by some teams, most notably BRA.
It was only the second foul by Indi really, and it was even doubted by the international press whether that was a foul at all. Did the first foul warrant a card? Maybe, but in that manner I've seen a couple more this tournament and at the very same match (Demichelis on Sneijder was worse for example). Many ankle chops at this tournament passed by without notice. FIFA their replays are really crap and inconsistent by the way (for example at offsides), but since they insert randomly pre-recorded images, nothing surprises me any more.
^^The officiating in the tournament has been not good as lots of chops only received a wave of the finger from the match official. BRA were the worst in this respect as their play was very cynical throughout until they were humbled by GER. I had no problems with the YC on Indi.
I agree one can give it, certainly. But it wasn't for persistent fouling. It was his 2nd and last foul (and like I said, probably it wasn't even a foul). Regarding further inconsistency: Aguero did something on Cilessen for which Thiago Silva saw a match suspension (hindering a goalkeeper while bringing the ball back into play).
I thought it was more Cillessen running into Aguero but it would have only been a Yellow were it the other way around and not impacted the match.
Yes, a yellow (like Silva). On the ref board everyone said so. Aguero got later in the match a yellow for a different move.
He is fully fit, and has been since January. He's just been ignored at Barca after playing one game. I've never liked Ibi on the wing. He's never been a great crosser, and while he has speed, it's not enough to get by elite RB's. In the midfield is where he needs to be. You should watch his last NT game vs. Germany in November 2012, he was the only player who made things happen in the 1st half, and he gave Schaken two clear passes to go at goal, and Schaken fumbled them both. Had that been Depay or Robben on the end of them, they could have gone in the net, which is why I'm very high on putting him in that position.
I wonder....I saw virtually no opening passes from the mid field in the 90 minutes part. Wouldnot it have been better to take the risk and let Clasie play instead of Wijnaldum? Then we could have told Dirk not to pass long balls, but give it to Clasie.
I don't think we really have been like that since World Cup 2006. Guess who was our manager? Scolari, we saw what kind of behaviour the Brazilians had in this cup. but that reputation still follows us around. Of course, Muller is seen as a hero for his antics.
That would have been one approach to try. The problem, and I think I posted a link to a film analysis, is that our backline players were just too slow in switch the ball. de Jong is not the kind of player who has good handling speed. We saw when Clasie came in that he was really getting the ball moving. I've always been a fan of his abilities and suspect he will play an important role going forward.