Quote:
|
Originally Posted by !@#$%!
i was just coming in to post this. he was IMMENSE. when nobody could contain robben he was there to stop his shot.
|
Robben impressed me in this match because he was so hard to contain even after Argentina refused to concede any spacing. Dutch gave it their all but Argentina's defense stepped up big. However they should be very concerned going up against a German side who has proven time and time again since their first match in this Cup that (a) they came to to play to win and (b) they can defend as well as any team in this Cup but they also have the most potent scoring offense. That is a lot for the Argentinians to handle if they aren't scoring well themselves..
Quote:
|
not sure what the dutch will be after but damn they're going to be tired.
|
I think fatigue defined this match. While Holland had an unimaginable amount of energy left in the tank to increase their attacking in the final minutes of regulation and the first overtime 15 it was very clear around the 111' that they were just out of gas and that all the extra mileage from their previous overtime and shootout matches finally caught up with them. Respect to Argentina, they clearly scouted their opponent better than Brazil did and it showed.
What have we learned about this World Cup now that we are at the Final?
1) Fucking shit, Germany is THAT good. Since they annihilated Portugal and haven't allowed more than THREE goals in five matches meanwhile they've scored SEVENTEEN (repeat 17!!!) goals!! A 14 goal differential has to be a record!! I think they win on Sunday and win easily, and I don't say that based solely on the Brazil stinker, but rather their cumulative performance. They shut out great teams while scoring massive goals..
2) Spain really was THAT bad. They overly inflated Holland's numbers to wrongly persuade us that maybe the Dutch were that good, but back-to-back shootouts clearly suggest otherwise. I like the Oranges, and its been fun following them in this tournament. They humiliated Spain, they pissed the fuck off out of Mexico, I say they had a great run worth celebrating even if they just can't get over that hill to win it all! I really really really thought they could win after their wins against Spain, Chile, and Mexico BUT I think we've discovered that those teams were more flawed than we realize. The Semi-Finals of any tournament reveal just who a team is and what they are really made of, and we found out the Dutch were great, but just not that great!
(3) Fucking shit can we officially say USA had the third best showing in this entire Cup? Look at how Germany feasted on Brazil's mistakes meanwhile could barely score against USA. They eliminated Ghana who played well. They almost managed to hold out 3 of the best teams in the Cup to just one goal (aside from that damned miracle by Ronaldo being Ronaldo) and only allowed Germany to score one, and Tim Howard had an ALL-TIME match against Belgium. Behind the two Finalist I dare say USA was the third best team looking at their opponents strength.
(4) Brazil sucks, and they knew it, but they had a lot of homecooking with the officiating that totally and artificially inflated their performances. In hindsight we knew they were getting really lucky, but Germany utterly exposed them as frauds.
(5) Costa Rica IS that good, and how the fuck they lost to Honduras in the knock out stage of the Gold Cup last year is mind boggling. It should have been USA-Costa Rica for the Gold Cup Final last year, and we know realize how lucky Panama got..