Amazing. Just amazing.
Van Persie for golden boot?

I love that Busquets (cunt) went missing in the 2nd half.

Slow it down, a bit early for all that?

i don't think so, the way they are playing they're a strong candidate for the final. even if they somehow don't make it and go for 3rd place that's the top # of games to play. forlán made golden boot with 3rd place.

BUT i'd add robben to the pot. holy fuck it's great to see him play outside of pep's boring shadow. he was ON FIRE. a joy to watch.


you can't phrophesise the past though. everybody knows this team is old and can be beaten.

what we didn't know is that they could be beaten THIS FUCKING HARD.

tikikata is over. fast transitions are on the rise.

(and fucking del bosque a dunce for insisting on keeping javi martinez out.)

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A QUESTION FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO KNOW VAN GAAL:

is this a signature system for him? or has he been klopp-inspired?

ps- GET READY FOR CHILE, MAN.

maybe they'll knock out spain haaa haaa haaaa

The aussie cpt is a palace player so I have to support them
(But c'mon Chile! )

Props to Australia they didn't let Chile totally beat them up and more or less competed until in the final minutes of injury time they just couldn't keep it up! Oh to be sure, they were down, and very likely going to lose, but 2-1 meant they had a miraculous chance, 3-1 meant its over. While they should be proud of their showing, they know more than anyone that moral victories are not necessarily actual victories.

I was really looking forward to seeing Chile and I loved watching them attack but I can see better quality forwards running their defence ragged. And as the game went on I actually started to want Australia to do it. In terms of chances, they deserved at least a draw. Cahill was great and probably deserved man of the match despite being on the losing side.

Yup


me too!!


Exactly.

i'm going to take that back.

they disappointed me. in spite of the 3-1. i expected more but after 20 minutes they went awry.

their 3-man defense is like an exposed jugular and they didn't have the creativity i was hoping for.

chile: you shall not pass

Agree. Assuming tonight wasn't just a blip and even if Holland don't make the finals, if Van Persie's in the mood and can stay fit, he's guaranteed to score goals. But I've lost count of seeing Holland blow teams away in early rounds then suddenly come up short when it mattered. Take nothing away from what they did tonight, though, albeit against a truly shocking Spain.

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Not sure how Klopp plays or if Van Gaal even has a signature tactic but I know the system we saw tonight was introduced quite late in their build up to the tournament after Strootman got injured and Van Gaal effectively had to create an entirely different set up. There were serious doubts as to whether they'd even qualify out of the group because of it.

it was like watching dortmund on hypersteroids! fast, aggressive, amazing--but a lot more talent.

sublime.

i screamed like i was dutch.

Haha. I suppose I was concentrating more on how bad Spain were than how well Holland were playing. It was the same for me when Bayern beat Barcelona. I defended Del Bosque for sticking with the old guard but have to admit now that it was probably a mistake.It definitely feels like this could be a tournament too many for Xavi.

spain had a good first half though-- it's easy to forget that. i was going to mention how silva had shined (except for his missed chance at a goal, but still, he seemed to be having a good day). AND THEN…

not sure if fatigue or fouls or what, but i do believe holland gutted them actively-- spain's defeat wasn't all that self-inflicted, except maybe for san iker's mistake.

spain should react and make 2nd place though. and javi martinez needs to be there because he's young, strong, fast, and a fucking champ. also, bring back villa-- he always scores. unlike silva.

Netherlands did to Spain what Spurs did to Heat, they simply outplayed a team that was clearly fatigued for whatever reasons, be it physically or even just mentally. Athletes are human too and none of us are immune to the self-defeating feeling of, "Fuck its just one damned thing going wrong after another.." In the realm of theology we'd call that a Divine Reality check, even if God is merely a construct to define the bigger picture in a longest term sequence of events. If we flip a coin long enough, we get to 50-50, even if for a long run it keeps flipping one way for a long sequence, the math will even out with a string of opposite flips. So in sports, which is really just a matter of chance, we can make the same simple prediction. If the ball breaks a certain way for a team for a long time, we can easily predict that at a certain point all their lucky breaks will reverse and suddenly everything that can go wrong, will go wrong. This is what is happening to Miami Heat, and it could be what is happening to Spain if they don't get a hold of it at take a gamblers' chance that the odds just might flip their way if they are dedicated enough to a longer sequence of events ;)

Missed the best part where he busted a Ray Allen/Kobe Bryant fake and totally slipped by the defender to make himself open!

Something a pundit said which echoes Suchfriends point is that Spain simply lacked energy. It may not be fatigue in any physical sense but just a group of players who've lost some of their drive. They were ok in the first half but even then there wasn't really any spark there, nothing that reminded me of why I started loving Spain in the first place - which was probably more evident in Chile's first half than Spain's.

Well I missed a lot on here!

Here's my tuppence.

You talk abut how Ramos was awful etc. Honestly, Pique did the job of making them BOTH look bad. He was awful. Like, really bad.
As for Casillas you could't help feel bad for him. This is one of the best keepers around and he chooses today to crumble? Shame.

For a one footed donkey Robben still manages to get the better of defenders. God knows how though.

My FB feed was clogged with people saying Netherlands to win etc. How short are their memories?! They'll crumble just as a hard as Liverpool always do.

Not sure I understand the point you're making there. Are you saying Spain simply ran out of luck?

well done, colombia! it was not an easy match, and yet they won 3-0. greece maybe deserved a goal, but instead got only a goalpost… oops! still a lot to happen in this group-- curious about japan and ivory coast.