The 2018 World Cup

I don't agree. I think we are somewhere around fifth or sixth place among the remaining teams.

 

Of the 8 QF, Brazil, Uruguay and Sweden have the best 3 defenses. Sweden may be 1 of weakest team on paper but it is well organized and disciplined team so I think England will have their hands full. I still think Brazil is the favourite based on what Tite has done. I like what Belgian coach did against Japan. When you could not penetrate try with cross and heading (and those subs paid off). I'm not surprised if Russia found a way to advance to the final 4 because they are the host and the home fans and possibly their president. I would not have guessed 1 of Russia, Croatia, Sweden and England will be in the final.

 

Same here to be honest. In fact, any other new team winning it before we do would be tough to bear, considering how close we came in 1974, 1978 and 2010. Really hope Brazil or France win it to be honest.

Guess it isn't all doom and gloom for Oranje after all. Outplayed Sweden over both qualifying matches and were it not for Lloris and Dost's disallowed goal we'd have finished above them. And now after knocking out Italy, Sweden have topped their group and are close to a semifinal or final appearance..

 

This seems to happen whenever Holland aren't there Like the last time in 2002..

 

It shouldn't be as big a surprise as it seemed. For Japan, a better showing than before in this World Cup is all that seemed to matter. They knew they'd get over the line in qualifying, just because they always find a way, and there is no need to expend unnecessary energy in doing so, especially when the core of your team aren't so young any more. What happened in the Poland match was clearly in order to conserve energy more than anything else. It really was the safest decision, because Mane and Senegal haven't looked so lethal as one might expect, and Colombia's physicality would have been a match for Senegal's - so it would not be so likely for Senegal to score with little time left. Japan after all was able to wear out Senegal in the latter stages of the match and Niang and Mane's influence faded as the match approached its end, allowing Japan to secure a draw. But of course I am sure the manager was having someone getting live status on that match to see whether Japan needed to go for an equaliser against Poland.

As for getting rid of their manager not long before this World Cup, It doesn't seem like a bad idea to distill all his ideas, and tweak them. Kagawa, Honda, Nagatomo, Inui, Hasebe and maybe others along with the technical director Nishino would probably have decided tactics and preparation by committee,

Martinez was clearly left with no options but to use Fellaini, and this was of course the obvious last resort. Martinez said that Japan's tactics were "perfect". I actually agree, but it seems clear that some of the details of situational execution important for seeing out the match might have been overlooked, and even Nishino admitted that the counterattack caught him by surprise. He was probably only thinking about what to do during the extra time.

As for the pretournament and prematch preparation, it seemed to me that they maximised all their resources and recovered as well as they could from their third group match, which was played in what was probably the hottest conditions in this tournament yet - 36 degree air temperature, and even hotter on the pitch. What some observers claim was a farcical approach in their trying to preserve their yellow card advantage was actually the only way to ensure that their physical state would at least give them hope against a side that was able to play a low stakes match in their final group match in 21 degree temperatures.

 

If KNVB, Hiddink, Blind, Advocaat did not mess it up then it could have been Netherlands in the 4th final appearance...

 

Although I of course wasn't at all happy with the 4-0 in France, I can't really blame Advocaat too much for our failure to qualify when compared to the others. He took over when we were already in an unenviable position in the group, and after his first match in charge the error from Lloris already screwed things up royally because it meant that we couldn't even safely play for a draw in France. (In retrospect a draw would have been enough, but it absolutely wasn't clear for most of the match because Sweden could have easily gotten a result in Bulgaria). And the surprising capitulations of Belarus and Luxembourg to concede a total of twelve goals against Sweden was also something he really couldn't control. The damage was certainly already done by Blind

 

Fingers crossed. Brazil should have enough to get past Belgium. But after Belgium's wake up call against Japan they'll be playing more defensively than they otherwise would have done. Will be an interesting game in any case.