The unofficial World Cup Thread,

[Husar]

I am very glad the Ducth didn't win that, they should have had at least three red cards. Disgusting to watch.

3? They should have also gotten a penalty but Spain was lucky that Robben didn't fall, failed foul of sorts.

I kinda expected van Pummel to pummel the Spanish a bit, usually it's not too bad it seems, de Jong and Haitinga were somewhat extreme/stupid though IMO, that either/both of them would get red sooner or later was kinda expected.
What I liked was that Sneijder helped out the defenders now and then and did it with less fouling than the defenders, looks like he's a bit of an allrounder.

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

I examined closely every slomo repeat of that supposed penalty situation but failed to see the foul. In such a close situation, it was correct that the referee didn't call imho.

[Myrddraal]

I thought the foul (if foul it was) occurred outside the penalty box anyway?

[naut]

The one time Robben doesn't take a tumble is the one time he should have, Puyol would have got a red, and the Dutch could have won. Robben was trying to win the Cup for Robben, not his teammates, he didn't pass to RvP once! Between Iniesta-Xavi diving and vBommel-de Jong fouling that wasn't very kosher. In fact, until Cesc came on and gave the Spanish some spark it looked set for penalties. An underwhelming final for an underwhelming Cup.

[Louis VI the Fat]

The one time Robben doesn't take a tumble is the one time he should have, Puyol would have got a red, and the Dutch could have won. Robben was trying to win the Cup for Robben, not his teammates, he didn't pass to RvP once! Between Iniesta-Xavi diving and vBommel-de Jong fouling that wasn't very kosher. In fact, until Cesc came on and gave the Spanish some spark it looked set for penalties. An underwhelming final for an underwhelming Cup.

Ah, at last somebody who saw the same WC final that I did!


I must say though that if I were Robben, I wouldn't have passed to Van Persie either. What a dismal tournament by him. Although cause and effect are difficult to see here: did Sneijder and Robben ignore RvP because he was rubbish, or was he rubbish because he didn't get involved?
Del Bosque was muh better with his substitutions. He dared to let go of Torres against the Germans, and bringing on Cesc won him the final. The Dutch substitutions in the final were incomprehensible and ineffective. Why no Huntelaar?



Spain has been good this tournament, but not great. Four 1-0's in a row and a loss against Switserland. Pff....

A deserved if somewhat underwhelmingly performing champion, all in all a slightly disppointing final to a lacklustre tournament.

[Fragony]

The one time Robben doesn't take a tumble is the one time he should have, Puyol would have got a red, and the Dutch could have won. Robben was trying to win the Cup for Robben, not his teammates, he didn't pass to RvP once! Between Iniesta-Xavi diving and vBommel-de Jong fouling that wasn't very kosher. In fact, until Cesc came on and gave the Spanish some spark it looked set for penalties. An underwhelming final for an underwhelming Cup.

Robben is the end of the line, if he gets the ball he will try to score, he's like ghazi infantry, fire and forget. And agreed, mediocre world cup. Hoping for the pool of death next EC, we didn't play enough good teams to be ready for Spain. And no Brazil doesn't count, what a disapointment they were.

[Ferret]

3? They should have also gotten a penalty but Spain was lucky that Robben didn't fall, failed foul of sorts.

I kinda expected van Pummel to pummel the Spanish a bit, usually it's not too bad it seems, de Jong and Haitinga were somewhat extreme/stupid though IMO, that either/both of them would get red sooner or later was kinda expected.
What I liked was that Sneijder helped out the defenders now and then and did it with less fouling than the defenders, looks like he's a bit of an allrounder.

Van Bommel, Heitinga and de Jong. Actually Robben should have been too, he kicked the ball in the net after the whistle whilst he was on a yellow and Xavi got booked for kicking the ball away later so why wasn't Robben?

Puyol's challenge was outside the box anyway, it wouldn't have been a penalty and van Persie would have skied the resulting free kick.

Sneijder was good though I'll agree on that.

[Secura]

No referee wants to have to send a player off in the biggest game of their lives, do they? I think that goes someway to explaining Webb's leniency for challenges that might have been worthy of a red card, and he only sent Heitinga off when there was simply no other option left; how much of a warning did he need when the majority of his team were on the verge of the long walk as well?!

Webb was trying his hardest to allow the game to flow without constant stop-starting for dead ball situations, and I think he did a darn good job considering the overly-aggressive style the Dutch had adopted for the game and the tendency for the Spanish Barcelona players to hound and harass him for any decision that didn't go in the way they wished.

[Husar]

Van Bommel, Heitinga and de Jong. Actually Robben should have been too, he kicked the ball in the net after the whistle whilst he was on a yellow and Xavi got booked for kicking the ball away later so why wasn't Robben?

Van Bommel seems to foul a lot but I didn't think it was too bad usually, red is usually for situations where you intentionally keep hurting people, or that's how I understand it; didn't see that with van Bommel.
I'm not sure about Robben, being sent off the field in a finale for complaining and kicking the ball is a bit harsh, no? It's not like the Spanish never complained.

Puyol's challenge was outside the box anyway, it wouldn't have been a penalty and van Persie would have skied the resulting free kick.

You're right about it being outside the box but you also know that Sneijder would have scored.

[Ferret]

It doesn't matter if it's harsh it says clearly in the rules that kicking the ball away is a yellow card offence, Robben knew what he was doing and knew he had already been booked, if Xavi had done a bad tackle after he got the yellow for kicking the ball away you wouldn't say it was harsh but it would still be two yellow card offences. Players wont learn if they're not punished.

And I know Webb was reluctant to send anyone off early on but I think that by not punisihing those bad tackles early on he set the tone for the rest of the game as the Dutch thought they could get away with it. But yeah I thought he did alright apart from the red cards as it was a very difficult game for any ref, and I really can't see how the Dutch media are blaming him, he helped them if anything.

Oh and Sneijder wouldn't have scored either, he's better from further out where you don't need so much dip.

[Sarmatian]

You guys are analyzing too much - it's simple, the country that didn't recognize Kosovo won because of their pure heart and unblemished record :D. That's why Germans and Dutchies had no chance...

Viva Espana!

[edyzmedieval]

The final was a disaster. Spain and Holland were equal in almost every category.

De Jong deserved to be red carded immediately, I agree. Van Bommel stopped after he got the yellow card, no red there. But Heitinga? Uhm, Heitinga did not deserve one single yellow card. The second one was a blatant dive from Iniesta that put Ronaldo to shame.

Iniesta might have scored, but he's a cheat. The second dive against Van der Wiel was even worse, VdW did not even touch him!
But the Dutchies had their own mistakes too. Van Persie was USELESS. They played in 10 men. I never liked the guy, he was never an efficient striker. Where was Huntelaar? Kuyt was useless as well, but Elia was a mistake. It should have been Babel instead.

[Gregoshi]

They really have to address the diving. Aside from the vuvuzelas, the dives were the most annoying thing about the WC. "The beautiful game"? Not with all those ugly death grimaces. Overall, it was pretty enjoyable - more so than I expected. Wish I could have seen more of the games.

[naut]

Van Persie was USELESS.

Again. It's not his fault if no-one passes to him. He's effective at Arsenal, where he gets passed to. Don't blame him for the deficiencies of Rob Schnieder and Ball Hog.

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

You guys are analyzing too much - it's simple, the country that didn't recognize Kosovo won because of their pure heart and unblemished record :D. That's why Germans and Dutchies had no chance...

Viva Espana!

This is about football and not about your pathetic Kosovo.

Where have you been the last three weeks btw? First you were so excited cause Serbia won against Germany, and then they were eliminated, and you vanish from this thread. Instead you appear to the final poll to root against Germany. I take it that you're angry now that the Mannschaft came further than Serbia? What did you expect anyway? This is not the finest sportsmenship.

The final was a disaster. Spain and Holland were equal in almost every category.

I tend to disagree. In fact, Spain is way ahead of most other teams, in technical ability and collective intelligence. Only in individual class the Dutch were equal, but then again not in the midfield. In strikers the Spaniards lack somehow, it's a bit frustrating to see a WC won with so few goals.

[Ser Clegane]

This is about football and not about your pathetic Kosovo.

Where have you been the last three weeks btw? First you were so excited cause Serbia won against Germany, and then they were eliminated, and you vanish from this thread. Instead you appear to the final poll to root against Germany. I take it that you're angry now that the Mannschaft came further than Serbia? What did you expect anyway? This is not the finest sportsmenship.

I think Sarmatian's comment might have been "tongue in cheek".

[Sarmatian]

This is about football and not about your pathetic Kosovo.

Where have you been the last three weeks btw? First you were so excited cause Serbia won against Germany, and then they were eliminated, and you vanish from this thread. Instead you appear to the final poll to root against Germany. I take it that you're angry now that the Mannschaft came further than Serbia? What did you expect anyway? This is not the finest sportsmenship.

What do you mean no one cares? It showed that God cared, he gave us this message through his cephalopod messenger...

Seriously, though, this is the frontroom, so I'm going to ignore rather insulting tone of your post and give you a normal reply. Work related issues prevented me from watching most of the games, so I limited myself to reading this thread instead of actually participating in the discussion. If it wasn't clear enough, my previous comment was a joke. Smiley ":D" should have been a dead give-away, or so I thought.

I generally root for the weaker team if I don't have a personal favourite, so I naturally hoped for Uruguvay win, but I don't have anything against Germany (some of my brest friends are Germans and I drive a German car and all that...). In fact, Germany was another team that pleasantly surprised me, the other being Uruguvay obviously and I wanted Urus to get that 3rd place because Germany will be there or thereabouts in 2014 and Uruguvay probably won't.

I'm not angry Serbia got out when it did, it was bad luck and poor refereeing. After being of the receiving end of two penalties because because of handball in the box, not getting one for what Cahill did was a bit of a kick in the teeth, especially since it was clear that it was an accident in both cases with Vidic and Kuzmanovic while Cahill's was intentional. What made it worse was the referee must have seen it as he was close. It might have been ignored on purpose though, so as to have at least one African nation in the knock-out phase. On the other hand, we have only ourselves to blame. We shouldn't have lost two Ghana and we should have finished off Australia in the first half.

So, overall, Germany was the most enjoyable side to watch. Traditional German discipline coupled with creativity and flair of Ozil and Muller was a sight for sore eyes in this underwhelming world cup.