Thursday, July 15, 2010

Review revue

So, Holland did land up losing to Spain in the final as I first thought.

My second guess of Holland winning 2-1 was wrong.  I should stop second guessing.  Trust my first instincts.

The final was garbage, absolute crap and if it weren't for some late game heroics from Robben and Fabregas.  A few things to note:

- Holland came to outmuscle Spain with tackling, fouling, pushing and kicking.  They were largely successful, but eventually Fabregas came on to give Spain a new dimension and punish Holland.

- Spain came to outpass and outplay Holland.  They were largely unsuccesful in that, but eventually found space and took the game home.

- Despite Holland's cynicism, let's be honest, Spain embellished a fair bit and were guilty of some classic diving.

- Del Bosque corrected his obvious error of not starting Fabregas by bringing him on late. As soon as he came on, Spain pushed higher, were more physical and had a playmaker up the pitch who can take punishment, since Cesc gets kicked all game long in the Premiership.  It was telling that in a copy of the game against Paraguay, Cesc was involved in the winning goal.  This time it was his pass to Andres Iniesta that won Spain the World Cup.

- For all their domination, Spain only found space once Holland had a man sent off.  BTW was Wesley Sneijder even playing ?

- Holland should have been a man down early when Nigel De Jong launched himself studs first at Xabi Alonso.

- Dutch captain, veteran and all around good guy legend, Gio van Bronckhorst had a great game.  The stupid substitution that took him off for Edson Braafield was crucial in opening up space on the left, exactly where an unmarked Iniesta scored the winner from.  He was full of running, passing and not once did he resort to cynical play.

- Both Robben and Fabragas had chances to score goals earlier, when in on goal and in space in the box.  Whereas Fabregas's rustiness can be attributed to his overall lack of minutes, Robben should have done better and Iker Casillas pulled off another saintly save.

- How fitting that in two of Spain's closest games, Fabregas came off the bench to turn the game on its head.

- David Villa was more or less quiet but could have scored an early goal with a point blank shot and has gotten Spain to the final on his own.  Diego Forlan may have won the golden ball but Villa was arguably as important to his team.

- Is Fernando Torres done ?  Will he ever regain his form of 2005-2008 ? Will he ever regain full fitness ?

- Honestly, how overrated is Pedro for Spain ?

- Holland should have picked Orlando Engelaar, he adds a dimension to the midfield and is excellent with the ball at his feet.

- Spain were the best team and Holland were now the third best team after Germany.  Holland looked like true challengers but have tarnished their legacy both at this world cup and tournaments past with this scrappy cynical performance.

- Other than Barcelona, did Udinese have the best World Cup with: Mauricio Isla, Alexis Sanchez, Antonio di Natale, Gorkhan Inler, Simon Kjaer all having good World Cup campaigns.

- Finally, why is it that when Spain get kicked, everyone (rightly) condemns the opponents but when Arsenal get kicked, it's okay.


Roll on the domestic season.


No comments:

Post a Comment