Just finished watching the game so I'll add my thoughts below: This was a fine performance considering the opponent. Where was this Depay vs. Turkey? He looked smooth, had good link-up play, and didn't look nearly as clumsy with the ball as he did vs. Turkey. Blind was good as well in his more natural DM role. He and Sneijder work well together. Vermeer saved us quite a few times, most notably vs. Pedro where I don't think Cillessen would have reacted as quickly. The only real negatives to me were Narsingh and BMI (how does he continue to get the starting position after making an error almost every game? There's better options out there like Kongolo and Rekik, and they haven't been given a chance under Hiddink. We've seen what BMI can do, let's see what those two can offer).
Great result. It was refreshing to see guys like Klaassen and Janmaat instead of Afellay and Van der Wiel. Their mentality is so much better it seems. Also compliments to Vermeer. He really had some world class saves. Now we have something to build on in the next qualifying matches. We don't have to change much I'd say. We can only improve when Robben plays again instead of Narsingh, who just lacks quality to be dangerous on the right flank.
I have my doubts about Hiddink criticizing the crowd for booing Iniesta. Iniesta wouldn't care less anyway, and IMHO Iniesta fully deserves it. He's a persistent diver and whiner (no shortage of GIFs to show); he shouldn't have scored the World Cup winning goal in the first place (foul Elia); he should have been sent off in fact at the time he scored the goal, which he himself spontaneously said in the official FIFA World Cup documentary. And he was the one who embellished the contact with Heitinga, that got Heitinga off with a second yellow. It is not crowd behavior that should be applauded, sure, but should the manager criticize? To put it in a bold way: if the latins do it, it is called 'passion' and part of the attraction.
Bold: What did he say exactly and why should he been sent off? Other than that, I agree. Hiddink should shut up and concentrate on the lousy job he is doing.
Sorry, I was a little bit confused but in the end it comes down to about the same thing though. Iniesta was the first player in the match to retaliate. He pushed Van Bommel on his blind side after the game was paused and the whistle had been blown. Iniesta said about the first half: "There was a time when I lost my head [...], but they did not give me a card." With a different referee (opponent?) it could have been a red, and it is at the least a yellow. The referee did not exchange words and ofc it did not help to calm down the match. It was Puyol in the documentary who literally said that he escaped on a few occasions a sending off in the final.
^^Haven't we beaten the 2010 WC final to death? I was reading a quote from Howard Webb, the match official, on one of the pregame stories yesterday and he said that he pretty much got all the call right but probably would have given de Jong a Red card for the early kick out.
Those two quotes specifically are here at 50:55 and 56:26 In any case, I found that Hiddink should have been bothered by other things, and if some other countries are jeering players it is suddenly called "passion" and such like.
If he had given him red the whole world wouldve been pissed off and wondered if Spain wouldve beaten NL without that one-man advantage. In the end was the right call, 11 Spain vs 11 NL, and we still couldnt beat these c*nts. Oh well
Webb is an idiot. There were 3 Calls which he got horribly wrong at the very least. If he is not a retard he will accept atleast 1 or 2 of those were wrong. Iniesta made a bad tackle on Bommel + playacting more than once. Heitinga 2nd Yellow was completely ridiculous. Puyol 2nd Yellow should have been 1000% given for tugging Robben's shirt, pushing and kicking him all the way to Robben's 2nd miss. Just because Webb makes idiotic statements does not mean we have to a accept it. Webb has a history of making stupid and partisan decisions in the EPL as well