[Lucika]

Wednesday's match seems promising.

Indeed. Wanna bet that Spain will get their asses handed to them?

[Mobius]

I see a total lack of comments regarding yesterday's match...

Holland may have deserved to win, true, but judging from that match Uruguay seemed a hell lot better. Afterall, they won thanks to Lady Luck.

[QuantumDelta]

Pfft.
That ref was full of ****.
I wonder how much Uruguay paid him.

[Mobius]

I wonder how much Holland paid him, to be honest. Remember that one of Uruguay's valid goals has been nullified by the referee.

Holland was lucky, that's it. They didn't play very well and seemed even tired near the end, but still managed to win thanks to a mix of negligence (yet another reference to the referee) and luck.

[Mura]

when the ref blows and the fat lady sings, at the end of the day
the one that wins, is the one with the largest score, doesn't matter who played "better", what good are a bunch of pretty plays if they don't score more? NOTHING, that's what it's worth

[Mongoose]

when the ref blows and the fat lady sings, at the end of the day
the one that wins, is the one with the largest score, doesn't matter who played "better", what good are a bunch of pretty plays if they don't score more? NOTHING, that's what it's worth

Speaking of, why the heck did that injury time thingy go way past the three minutes apparently prescribed to it?  It was something like 94:30, and they were still letting Uruguay get another chance in there.

[TopAce]

I can't believe this.

Germany is OUT

More precisely, they're staying in SA for one more match.

[mister J]

OMG. The octopus SPEAKS THE TRUTH 

[Angelus]

I can't believe this.

Germany is OUT

More precisely, they're staying in SA for one more match.

Yeah, too bad.
I wish they had played the same way they did vs. England and Argentina.  
Excuse me now, i had to write a hate letter to Löw, and to crush my neighbours party.

[Mura]

All glory to the octo-Paul

[QuantumDelta]

Bye Bye Germany.
Spain nor the Netherlands have ever won the World Cup.
There will be an 8th world champion this year.


As for you mobius, can I have some of what you are smoking please?

I don't agree. At all.
A few dodgey calls in Uruguay's favour and stopping play on the ET second half end during the middle of an in-possession non-loose ball, non-deadball Dutch attack where they were 2 on 1 (which, is against FIFA rules by the way), and then leaving play to go on for a further 2 minutes with over a dozen loose balls and three or four DEAD balls and lots of challenges.

Also, valid offside goal, uhm, what game are you on about?
Uruguay had so two major decisions go in their favour that wasn't actually in their favour the first half (Holland had none), and one minor (throw in)
In the second half Holland had one lucky free kick decision at 53~ minutes at about the 40 yard mark.
Uruguay had one at 55~ minutes in about the same spot.
Uruguay had another one at 56~ minutes, getting a corner instead of conceding a foul.
Uruguay didn't get an offside for the obvious offside at 57~ minutes.
Uruguay get another questionable freekick at 58~ minutes, and the player that was 'fouled' questions the ref as to why it wasn't a booking (a bookable offence in itself).
Uruguay foul again at 60 minutes 38 seconds, not penalised.
Uruguay get a free kick for a non-foul (in fact in terms of the rules laid out by FIFA Holland should have had a free kick for this offence if anyone, but realistically it was a non-incident), at 65~ minutes.
Forlan spends 2 minutes piss assing around with the ball like a fairy then asks the ref to move the wall back (the wall is far enough back(10yards) first time in my estimation but it's kinda hard to call) the ref happily obliges and moves the wall back another yard or two.
Boulahrouz gets a yellowcard at 77:40 for a tackle that took the ball, free kick at the most here.
Uruguay foul again at 81 minutes but actually get a throw in in their favour, for it.

Watching the replay really highlights how holland were the better team for much of the 97 minutes of play.
The ball went out of play(dead) at 93 minutes (stoppage time).
It was being held defencively/dead at 93:10 by the Uruguayan keeper.
Play was loose at 93:20.
Play was loose at 93:30.
Play was stopped at 93:33 in Hollands favour for a free kick (hand ball).
Van Bommel gets RANDOMLY booked at 93:42 for an "offence" no one sees and still hasn't been explained in the English coverage of the World Cup, while play is stopped I might add.
Play stopped at 94:24.
Play was loose at 94:43.
Play was loose at 94:51 where it was finally called.

Any single one of those lines the RULES state that the game should have ended.

Next time you wanna spew your bluebull****, don't do it in my presence.

[Mobius]

My opinion is based on my perception of the match. Holland started the match quite well and almost overwhelmed Uruguay: the first goal, in fact, was amazing. But what happened after the first goal?

Before the 2nd goal that team looked tired. Many of them didn't even run unless it was necessary and allowed Uruguay to take the initiative more than once. Judging from what I've seen during that part of the match, Uruguay would have won. It didn't happen because Holland was lucky, and turned the only good move they could come out in 30 minutes into a goal.


And yes, I'm pretty sure that was a valid goal which got nullified, ergo the real outcome of that match at min. 90 would have been 3-3.

EDIT: Just checked, it was one of Snejder's goals to be invalid. Nevertheless, that would have changed the final result.

[QuantumDelta]

My opinion is based on my perception of the match. Holland started the match quite well and almost overwhelmed Uruguay: the first goal, in fact, was amazing. But what happened after the first goal?

Before the 2nd goal that team looked tired. Many of them didn't even run unless it was necessary and allowed Uruguay to take the initiative more than once. Judging from what I've seen during that part of the match, Uruguay would have won. It didn't happen because Holland was lucky, and turned the only good move they could come out in 30 minutes into a goal.


And yes, I'm pretty sure that was a valid goal which got nullified, ergo the real outcome of that match at min. 90 would have been 3-3.

EDIT: Just checked, it was one of Snejder's goals to be invalid. Nevertheless, that would have changed the final result.

While I tend to agree letter of the law Sneijder's goal should have been invalid, it was one of only three decisions the entire night that actually 'went unfairly' in Holland's way, compared to Uruguay, who's play mostly came from mistakes due to Holland being the more aggressive team and their MASSIVE number of ref-decision advantages allowing advanced play that they had simply not earned.
You live in some cloud cuckoo land, I know, that's fine, but don't subject me to your tosh.
Considering you couldn't even remember who's goal you were talking about I have to seriously doubt your grasp on the match.
Considering my list above your initial statement is invalid too.
The only part of the match where Uruguay were in any way dominant was the last 5 minutes (of 3 minutes) of play, and that was dragged on by the ref much to Uruguay's favour.

Sneijder's goal was allowed because Van Persie didn't interfere with play, though I personally feel that kicking at (even if missing) the ball, made him active.
Regardless of this for the entire second half bar two moments (read; 45-90 minutes) Holland were a class above, and then they were struggling after about the 30 minute mark in the first half, so Uruguay 'dominated' (not really), 16 minutes of the first half and 5 minutes (that should have been 3) of the second.

I ask again for your supply of whatever it is you smoke, it HAS to be good stuff.

[Mobius]

Sorry but no, Holland got tired after a while and started the match with arrogance. The result may have been easily predictable but I would never say that Uruguay didn't play well and deserved its defeat. It was the last South American team left, and I would have loved to see them in the last match against Spain.

Next time you wanna spew your bluebull****, don't do it in my presence.

I ask again for your supply of whatever it is you smoke, it HAS to be good stuff.

Very kind of you.

[QuantumDelta]

Uruguay isn't a team, it's results are almost entirely based on one persons performance.

And even if Holland had been arrogant (which, in comparison to failan they weren't), they had every right to be, they hardly played their true potential and still schooled Uruguay for a huge percentage of the game.
They have twenty-eight percent more possession than Uruguay for crying out loud, how blind ARE you?

[Spoon]

Mobius, you are Class A amusement 

[Mobius]

Uruguay isn't a team, it's results are almost entirely based on one persons performance.

And even if Holland had been arrogant (which, in comparison to failan they weren't), they had every right to be, they hardly played their true potential and still schooled Uruguay for a huge percentage of the game.

Sorry but numbers aren't enough. Possession does not represent the quality or effectiveness of a team; it's just a statistics thing which almost certainly has little importance over the outcome of a match.

Numbers or not, you can't deny the fact that Holland had poor stamina near the end of the match. They were waiting for Uruguay to make mistakes rather than take the initiative themselves and it also became pretty obvious at some point. Had not been for the second goal, Holland would have remained a bunch of zombies until the end of the match.

They have twenty-eight percent more possession than Uruguay for crying out loud, how blind ARE you?

I see you have a particular habit. Ending each post of yours with an annoying phrase.

[Colonol Dekker]

I think Spain can win this.

 
Yep.
Well i'm happy whoever takes it now as I look more knowledgable on the subject

[NGTM-1R]

Sorry but numbers aren't enough. Possession does not represent the quality or effectiveness of a team; it's just a statistics thing which almost certainly has little importance over the outcome of a match.

How does possession not represent the quality of the team? Seriously, describe unto me a situation in which a team that does not have possession can score without their opponents doing something completely face-looking-out-of-one-leg-of-the-underpants-on-your-head stupid.

Now you may or may not be able to use it advantageously, that's true. But regardless of that if you don't have the ball, you don't have the ability to do anything that will positively influence your chances of winning. Lacking posession means your only hope is negative, to deny goals. Having possession means you can do that and positively influence your chances of winning by scoring. By any possible measure, possession is almost literally control of the game.

Numbers or not, you can't deny the fact that Holland had poor stamina near the end of the match. They were waiting for Uruguay to make mistakes rather than take the initiative themselves and it also became pretty obvious at some point. Had not been for the second goal, Holland would have remained a bunch of zombies until the end of the match.

Because, you know, they were actually making an effort. The fact that Uruguay were not zombies after playing for as long as that game ran means that something was seriously wrong.

[Mobius]

You're throwing yet another statistics thing, just like QuantumDelta did before you. Even 10% of possession may lead to victory as long as it enables a given team to score 1 or more goals. Also, please note how possession is totally unrelated, for example, to the ability of the keeper and many other things; it helps, true, but it isn't enough.

I've seen teams with a possession percentage of 65 losing.



Back on topic, Zapatero claimed he would like to save the octo-Paul from the Germans' "rage"...