Match 64 (Final) - Netherlands v Spain Pre-Match Thread

oranje notable victory..

over spain, come sunday

 

Everyone needs to chill out in this thread. A little back and forth between posters is fine but make sure you are responding to the post, not the poster.

 

fyp

 

I like him, he takes his chances and doesn't wait for the perfect pass.

 

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Wo...y-Will-Be-Third/Article/201007215661945?f=rss

Paul seems to be very sure that Spain is gonna win again ... but there's some hope left for the Dutch, since his last prediction for a final was wrong (he predicted a German win over Spain for the EC 2008 final)!

 

This is a very tough one, but I'll go for the Dutch and I'd also like to see them winning. They have good scorers, if anything can be their undoing, it's their defense. As for Spain, they should do better without Torres, he's not himself yet after the injury. Pedro seemed good through the tournament, but that selfish move did make him somewhat less likeable to me. Silva is good, and Villa is great. Still, their firepower is worse than the Dutch, but their defense, with Puyol as it's center, really is better.

 

Will King Juan Carlos be at the match? According to the Dutch anthem, they have to honor him. What if he tells them to lose?

 

It should be a very exciting game and most likely a high scoring one. If Spain can match their semi performance then they shouldn't have much problem taking this game. I doubt they will be able to dominate the game like they did against Germany. Holland is quicker and matches up well against Spain in the midfield. Comparing the best shown by each team so far, there is no doubt Spain's best has been by far the better side. Good luck to both sides.

 

I love guys who just assume that this outcome must happen this way, and they don't consider what possibilities and probabilities may lead to a different outcome.

For all of their so-called ball control prowess, How is it that Spain has only scored 1 goal per game, if you throw out the Chilean goalkeeper's boneheaded clearance that he didn't put well into touch? I suspect that after a thorough dissection of the Germany tape, the Dutch will be sure to make the Spanish do their own fair share of chasing the ball to regain possession. Given that the Netherlands has shown the ability to score multiple goals in all but one game, I don't see how anyone can be confident that Spain will defeat them. If Villa is shut down, who's going to score for them?

That said, ESP is a very good team and could well win the match. If you've played the game, you know there are days when you get lots of chances and none or only one end up in the back of the net. I could also see the Dutch dropping into a more defensive posture early on and springing Robben & Robin on fast counter attacks. I'm sure they'll be well aware of how Switzerland and the USA accomplished their defeats of Spain in the past year.

I can't see Spain winning in any style other than ball possession leading to 2 or 3 run of play goals.

 

Also, don't forget the Dutch connection to the settlement of South Africa and the expectation that most of the SA citizens will be rooting for them. Wikipedia also reports that there are 7 million Dutch descendants in South Africa.

 

Saying that Spain's play creates dull matches is perfectly fine. Your post is not. You have to be a damn idiot to think Spain passes the ball around for the sake of passing (at least while the game is tied. They have done that while ahead in the scoreline). What matters is what kind of defense shows up against them.

If the Dutch defense creates any holes, the Spanish will undoubtedly exploit it. In fact, they are one of the best at exploiting such gaps (which tends to happen less during Spain matches precisely because teams hold back more than they normally would). Keeping them to one goal is a credit to the defense they face. It has nothing to do with the incredibly stupid notion that Spain doesn't try to score.

 

So dangerous he doesn't square the ball to Torres. What a tit.

 

For those that follow Spanish soccer, why does David Silva not get more playing time? He looked very smart on the ball when he came on against Germany.

 

That's true, and even after that Germany didn't look like scoring, but you'd have loved that safety. To break their spirit and put the game to bed.

 

No, I mean in the national side (unless I am mistaken, he came on against Germany and looked fast and dangerous). Looks like a good late sub.

 

No. They do so trying to find to best way into the opponent's area. At times you can argue that they might be better off trying to throw a high cross into the area, but when defenses are as tightly packed in as most are against Spain, such crosses tend to have a low percentage of success (though at times they fail to cross the ball from the wings even when a rare empty opposing area presents itself, the one major argument against their attack against Germany).

Most teams try them, but Spain prefers to run into the area to raise the percentage of success (of course, with tightly packed defenses, it doesn't raise the percentage by much). Many prefer to see a direct, fast approach through the wings. But as is often the case, that isn't even possible for Spain. Teams know what's coming, and know that trying to control the midfield for the entire match is impossible (Chile tried it, and if it weren't for Torres being pure, consistent crap would have paid terribly for it), so they immediately plant defensive tactics, which most of the time consists of crowding in their own area, often giving up heavy defending the wings.

It isn't that Spain isn't trying to get into the area. It's that they meet tightly packed defenses that most other teams never run into. Every time their players get into the area, they aren't allowed to turn and shoot. Such a situation presented itself countless times in the Germany match, but unlike other teams that choose to spin and shoot blindly at the defender and quickly lose the ball (practically every damn team in tournament has done this quite a number of times), Spain chooses to pass it back, or to the side, to another player facing forward.

Of course, for matches before the Germany one, there was an extra problem, namely Torres. Second viewing of Spain's matches show that he was even worse than you would have originally thought. I can't believe how many times he lost the ball and/or missed clear chances. That never happened anywhere near as much against Germany.

 

Okay, I have to say, when he came on and the way he was on the ball, he gave me a jolt and looked like what the brilliant side needed to finish the brilliant build up. I don't here his name often, so it must have been me. Should have been 4-1.