[Spoon]

Terrible match. Neither teams really *deserved* to win with this level of play and the referee was calling a lot of bull. At times he was way to happy giving out yellow cards and then at other times it was 'just' a yellow card. The missed corner and Robben who was held by his defender not getting a referee call are both major wtf.
**** match made ****tier by a ****ty referee.

[Snail]

Well, it's over.


I feel that the buzz of recent months has ceased.




see what i did thar

[NGTM-1R]

see what i did thar

YOU HAVE REDUCED ME TO IMAGE MACROS. SUFFER MY WRATH.

[chief1983]

I feel that the buzz of recent months has ceased.

Yeah, we can all go back to being busy little bees.

see what i did thar

You don't need to toot your own horn.

[Grizzly]

I am glad we placed second .

But I do not like it that the Telegraaf decided to photoshop their front page again and show a picture of two shadowless mourning dutch footballers. A picture of just Robben would have been awesome in a tragic kind of way.

It was an rather awfull final. The Uruguay - Germany match was waay more interesting, probably because the dutch and the spanish were playing with the idea of: "WE HAVE TO WIN THIS!", while the Uruguayas and the Germans were playing much more relaxed.

[QuantumDelta]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/world_cup_2010/8810629.stm
Enough said.

[Mobius]

It was an rather awfull final. The Uruguay - Germany match was waay more interesting, probably because the dutch and the spanish were playing with the idea of: "WE HAVE TO WIN THIS!", while the Uruguayas and the Germans were playing much more relaxed.

I'd put an emphasis on the differences between this final and 2006's. Both us and France had a "We have to win!" approach on the match, but the celebrations at the end show that the Spanish kind of expected it since the very beginning even if Holland turned out to be a tough opponent. Even if it was the first World Cup they ever won, they acted as if winning World Cups is part of their daily routine.

[Lucika]

This WC was generally pretty bad apart from a few team's performance, wasn't it?

I'd reform the system, actually. To be honest, I am generally not interested in the 150th or so team on the ranking list. Instead of holding the usual qualifiers, simply hold a bunch of international tourneys that the teams are free to join if they want, to rack up points on the FIFA ranking list until a given date. Then, the best 32 goes to the WC. How does that sound?

[QuantumDelta]

Quite a lot of international teams couldn't handle that sort of schedule, about the only countries that could are Asian and north American (aussieland included) everyone else has continental tournaments and stuff to do during the other even numbered years, the vast majority of international players who are worth mentioning also compete in leagues like the prem and champs which are much better organised and refereed and at a significantly higher level than this wc at least

[iamzack]

BBZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZTTTT

[Lucika]

Quite a lot of international teams couldn't handle that sort of schedule, about the only countries that could are Asian and north American (aussieland included) everyone else has continental tournaments and stuff to do during the other even numbered years, the vast majority of international players who are worth mentioning also compete in leagues like the prem and champs which are much better organised and refereed and at a significantly higher level than this wc at least

Well, the big teams rarely have their top players on the field (because of the clubs, obviously mentioned above) in the qualifiers, same would happen here. Plus a team like Brazil or Argentina wouldn't even need to participate in this sort of a qualification, their spot on the WC would pretty much be guaranteed.

[The E]

Which would instantly suck the challenge and excitement out of this "Nations League".

[Lucika]

Which would instantly suck the challenge and excitement out of this "Nations League".

Let's face it: the qualifiers are not that important.

[karajorma]

What seems strange to me is that I seem to be the only person who caught a Spanish player knocking a Dutch player over when the game wasn't even active. That's a definite red card offence right there.

[Nuclear1]

I'm still gonna walk around town blaring those ****ing horns until the next one.

It's gonna be a LONG four years for Omaha.

[Lucika]

I'm still gonna walk around town blaring those ****ing horns until the next one.

It's gonna be a LONG four years for Omaha.

LOL, I accidentally read Obama.

[QuantumDelta]

Not the only one kara but the ref team didn't see it, the ref was facing completely the opposite way even cuz the ball had already left the area where it happened. I totally agree that he should have been sent off, but the puyol offence is the one most dutchies are whining about, they played on to create a half chance though. You cannot have it both ways, if it were like that the game would keep going everytime ..  Give people an inch...