Humiliating match. Don't feel taken serious. This is why starting slow is so important. Nobody was able to reach his own level. Sneijder, a player I love, I wanted to strangle him. Has he ever played a worse match? Never mind.
Well they did just enough to win it. Nigelinho had a monster match on defense. Sure he's not great looking up the field but look at the tackles and box defense in the last 30 minutes, just immense. Bit of luck on Memphis's goal as the keeper should have saved it. Huntelaar or Lens will be in the middle against Chile now since van Persie drew a Yellow which was not a good call by the match official. Not sure about Cillessen today as he had to do as much kicking as he does with Ajax. Maybe Krul starts against Chile? de Guzman again did not impress. Sneijder has lost a crucial step and this is probably his last international duty. We'll see what happens with Spain/Chile now.
maybe it's just me but i found it a bit classy by wijnaldum to not press and take the ball away from the gk who ran nearly to the middle of the pitch to kick it onto the dutch half. he could have been selfish and taken the ball away to add a 4th goal.
Whew! What a match. Made complete sense to me now. I'm really beginning to believe in vGaal. To start with 4-3-3 is to underestimate Australia's intent. Socceroos showed up fighting for their lives, while it was obvious that contrary to what each player claimed, they were quite clearly still on Spanish cloud nine. It was only in 2nd half vGaal went in for the kill with the 4-3-3, when AUS is slightly spent. Very exciting game. I'm very, very satisfied. I'm also very happy we got a tough opponent like this. I hope BMI is ok
As a side note, my wife is now a Daley Blind fan I suspect it's not because of his footballing ability
I was thinking after the first half that Wijaldum should come on for him but then we would lose some creativity.
Only second half, also he misplaced a vital pass for a dangerous turnover. Actually wakie wakie time only came after the Depay goal. So also he could not reach his own level by himself. Charging up mentally is probably the most important quality a player must have. The whole team failed in this respect.
Ronaldo injured in training. Out of world cup: http://metro.co.uk/2014/06/18/crist...portugals-world-cup-with-knee-injury-4767002/ Cristiano Ronaldo ‘ruled out of Portugal’s World Cup with knee injury’ Cristiano Ronaldo’s World Cup dream was left hanging in the balance after rumours surfaced from Brazil that the Portugal star will miss the rest of the tournament through injury. The Real Madrid forward, who came into the competition nursing a knee probelm, withdrew from Portugal’s training session today with half an hour still to go. Ronaldo sat on the sidelines with an ice-pack on his troublesome knee alongside the team’s physio after doing some work with his teammates. Reports from Spain this morning claimed Ronaldo had ignored doctors’ advice to play in Portugal’s defeat against Germany on Monday, and is now being warned his career will be in danger if he does not rest for two months. Following news that Ronaldo pulled out of training, news started emanating from Rio that Portugal’s worst fears were being realised
Just reviewed the scenarios If Chile and Spain tie today then the standings look like this Spain 0-1-1 Chile 1-1-0 If Chile loses to Holland and Spain beats Aussie then both are tied at 1-1-1. It would come down to goal differential. If both teams tie against each other, but Chile wins next week then it doesn't matter what Spain does. If Spain wins then Spain 1-0-1 Chile 1-0-1 If Holland loses and Spain wins Holland 2-0-1 Spain 2-0-1 Chile 2-0-1 It would come down to goal differential, in which case the Dutch should win. They are +5 right now. I doubt Chile blows them out. Chile is +2 and Spain is -3. Spain is in deep trouble. I don't think they are capable of blowing anyone out. They don't have the clinical finishers that Chile and Holland do.
The 5-3-2 system didn't work when the opponent pushed so much high. First half was terrible. Good recognition by Van Gaal and the coaching team, and they surely brought the right player in to the mix. So glad that Depay made a difference, 1 assist and 1 goal. Deserved MoTM. Productive movements without stupid running into a brick a wall. RvP and Robben showed their class, once again. As did Nigel. A beast. The rest of the team was mediocre. Sneijder and Janmaat were probably the two weakest links. Misplaced so many passes, and got always a step or two slower than opposing players. De Vrij caught ball watching in Cahill's goal, but what a shot that was. Overall, quite a bit of a letdown after a flying start, but not unexpected. Australia came out strong and played with guts. Hopefully this match brought the team back to earth, and they recognized they can no longer be complacent.
Agreed. I remember that failed pass. Almost stopped my heartbeat. Yes the team failed, in many regards. But they fought back, and they were unjustly awarded against a Janmaat penalty.Luck was also on our side. If down 3-1, I would not be too sure. But they needed exactly a match like this. A stern reminder that in this world cup, intensity and determination has to be of the highest order, if you really want to win.
De Jong was IMO fanatastic in the last few minutes but he was poor in the 1st half. He has 0 attacking qualities which always get exposed. In the 1st half he did nothing. As a non-footballing DM it is expected of him to be atleast be availaible for a pass, maintain possession and try to control the tempo, but he failed IMO in the 1st half and was only good for a tackle. The midfield battle was poor. Oranje played like San Marino to Australia. There is nothing to rejoice when your midfielders cant play football and freaking Australia makes you look like a joke. RVP out means Lens or Hunter starting. I hope a 4-3-3 is tried against Chile. 4-3-3 being offensive puts the opposition on thea back when helps to soak up pressure otherwise you're always against an attack in 5-3-2
Strootman has slow handling speed; that doesn't favor when playing against Spain & on the counter-attack. It would create a different set of problems.