Great game. Surely the goal of the tournament - what a belter!

The Netherlands - Germany would be an absolute cracker of a final.
Still, Holland does not look like true world champion material. There weaknesses at back, a certain fluidity up front is missing, and Van Persie's main contribution today was to get in the way of the others again. Quite literally so, with his blocking a Sneijder shot. It is not working, put Huntelaar up front.


I am soooo looking forward to Spain - Germany tomorrow. Will Spain solve the Torres riddle?

Torres, Van Persie, Tevez, what is with coaches clinging on to strikers that don't perform well? Yes, each player is worldclass in his own right, but they don't function at this WC, in these teams. Just put a Klose up there - the least talented of them all, on the bench the entire season, but the most succesful of the lot.

Spain should be warned - replace Torres for Fabregas or face the fate that befell an Argentina that refused to replace Tevez for Veron against the Germans, and got ripped apart:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
In Maradona's case, he allowed himself to get carried away by euphoria. As he will surely be reflecting on the plane home, back in March his side won away to Germany with a cautious 4-4-2 formation. In South Africa he went with something more expansive and refused to change back, even when the warning lights were flashing.

After 20 minutes of the second round match against Mexico it was obvious the team was not right. The Mexicans could have been two goals up and Maradona was in earnest conversation with his assistants. There was, as German coach Joachim Loew said after the quarter-final, no balance between attack and defence.

Against Mexico two mistakes got Argentina out of jail - one by the linesman, allowing Carlos Tevez's offside goal to stand, the other from Mexico's Ricardo Osorio, who gifted Gonzalo Higuain the second - but they were not going to get away with it twice.

This is not hindsight - it was clear as day before the game against Germany began. With the same starting line-up that played against Mexico, they were inviting a rout.
The big change that Maradona had made since March was to include Tevez in place of Juan Sebastian Veron, a switch made largely on emotional grounds.

Tevez is key to the soul of Argentine football, even more so than Lionel Messi. His upbringing in the poor outskirts of Buenos Aires, his time with Boca Juniors, his never say die spirit - it is reminiscent of Maradona himself. The two of them have a bond.

But despite the glorious finish Tevez came up with for his second goal against Mexico, his inclusion in the team was a huge mistake.
Messi's best football in the tournament came while Veron was on the pitch. They formed a partnership which looked like being the central axis of the team. No Veron meant that Messi had to drop deeper in search of the ball, but Messi setting up play for Tevez made little sense, especially in the light of the latter's poor international scoring record.

No Veron also meant no raking diagonal passes to bring Angel Di Maria into the game and left Javier Mascherano desperately overworked with the defensive midfield duties.
All this was apparent before the Germany game. But to act on it, Maradona had to first recognise it - and with Argentina's campaign riding on a wave of optimism, there was no place for a dose of realism.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/timvicker...ickery_17.html



Quote Originally Posted by Rhyfelwyr View Post
Oddly, the Jabulani didn't seem to float around like a beach-ball tonight.
I think I've noticed the players getting more used to the ball as the tournament progressed.

There was an odd curve in Forlan's equaliser, but that could've been intentional.



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