Who wins the final?

[SlavikSvensk]

i don't think the refereeing was partisan, i just think it was bad. while there were some beastly challenges, even these were often not called right. think we can all agree de jong should have been sent off for the kung fu kick. but he wasn't. then, perhaps because the ref was making up for this mistake, we saw yellow cards given out for several challenges where the player was clearly going for the ball...a few to the dutch but also a couple to the spanish. it not only makes the sport too dainty, but it breaks up the pace of play and turned the match into stop-start-stop-start. if i want that, i'll watch baseball.

then we had the yellow for arguing, which was the second worst officiating moment after the kung fu kick. puyol had grabbed robben's shirt and tried to pull him back from behind. that is a mandatory yellow, and possibly even a red card. robben, to his credit, decided not to dive on this one and continued on to the goal, where he missed what would have been a goal, had spain employed a different keeper. but the penalty still should have been called. congratulations, ref, you've told every kid out there that diving works.

so, as i see it, the ref gave out perhaps 6 undeserved yellows, and missed a clear red and a clear yellow/red, both of which would have changed the course of the game.

that's just very bad quality officiating.

[SlavikSvensk]

btw anyone else notice that someone voted spain after the final ended? lolz...

lol now it's 3 johnny-come-latelys for spain.

"i always knew they'd win, once the final whistle blew"

[C.O.Prodigy]

Holland had to score in order to win.

[SlavikSvensk]

holland lost because spain were better, and because they put 1 more in the back of the net than the dutch did. criticizing the officiating doesn't HAVE to be the same as questioning the result, you know.

though some dutch are grumbling about it, i think it's a separate issue. the better team did win, but in a match marred by some awful officiating decisions. they negatively affected the quality of play for both sides, and probably in roughly equal measures, and really dragged down play.

the two semi-final teams were much better. the ref in the uruguay-netherlands match kept signaling for the divers to get up and wouldn't give out cards unless it was obvious the player was not playing the ball. but when needed, he handed out the correct card. that creates an infinitely more agreeable game than giving out cards for playing the ball and failing to give the right ones for those who don't.

[Jay Pace]

Argh, again with the ref! Know it sounds dumb, but its just part of football. Overall I thought he got the balance right. Some cards got given for fair challenges, and some terrible challenges were overlooked. Still think the balance was right overall. They deservedly lost a player, their nasty challenges caught up with them and spain started acting up on it more in the 2nd half. So really the dutch got caught out by their own nastniess. If they benefitted from leniency in the first half, they suffered in the 2nd. And the right team won.

I really wanted spain to win, which made it a great game to watch from the tension point of view. But if I couldn't have cared either way, would have been a miserable way to finish a world cup thats had some really dramatic moments.

Vamos España. Alaba al pulpo.

[C.O.Prodigy]

Vamos España. Alaba al pulpo.

:lol:

Ole

[djfase]

I thought webb had a decent game, it would have pillorised for a sending off in the first half.

However i wanted the dutch to win before last night, until i see the way they played. Brutal.

As for spain, i couldnt care less. If you want to see a team pass sideways and back for 90mins its up to you, but id rather see Brazil, Argentina or even Germany for that matter win it.

Spain for all their so called 'beautiful football' didnt exactly score for fun did they? And 1 up front?

[SlavikSvensk]

i didn't feel like the dutch deserved to win, based on what they put on the pitch. the only ones who really put in final-worthy performances were robben, van bronckhorst and stekelenberg. van persie and kuyt were non-factors and sneijder below his usual standard. de jong and van bommel were abysmal, hack-machines. had they played like they did against brazil, that would have been another story. but they did not.

spain, by contrast, were generally better, though i thought pedro was awful, puyol had an uncharacteristically bad game and villa was a bit off. but xavi, xabi alonso, iniesta, etc. were predictably good. they didn't put in the performance they did against germany, but they were clearly better.

webb and his team were goats. another officiating FAIL for fifa.

[C.O.Prodigy]

Spain for all their so called 'beautiful football' didnt exactly score for fun did they? And 1 up front?

Brazil 2014 in 4 years. I think they won't be playing with 1 up front. Different fixture different ballgame.

Defenses win championships. Spain allowed 2 goals, 1 swiss and 1 from Chile, I know Chile played really well and they showed their strength scoring against this Spain with 10 men. Casillas and Puyol.

They are on a 50 of 55 games winning streak. It's interesting also that Spain changed coaches and won with 2 different ones. The players alone posses quality. One of those 5 loses is against the USA, that's why I knew that the USA is a contender.

And I agree, Spain - Brazil final would have been fitting.

With pressure on them as the European champions, Spain delivered. I think they didn't score more goals because of the same reason many teams went out, because it is a tough tournament with bad officiating making it tougher.



Spain are worthy champions. I would like them to play Argentina, Brazil, Germany,

As for that 1 up front point, after Fabregas, Torres and Navas came into the game Spain attacked with 3-4 up front. In that build up play to the goal Torres and Fabregas were involved before Iniesta got the ball and Navas before that. Iniesta continued the build-up with a back heal before entering the box and scoring. 4 men for a superb volley finish to end the World Cup.

The way he passed to himself and finished was pure football and Casillas defending with his foot to stop the ball from going in the net. Pure football.
Futbol!

In the Holland team only Sneijder was at a world class level.

At the end of the day Spain scored an undisallowable goal.
If Spain's play can be called tika-taka then Xavi is the metronome.

Players who weren't in the Spanish winning squad in SA :

Santi Cazorla
Albert Riera
Marcos Senna
Joaquin

with quality subs Spain sealed the deal the Netherlands couldn't answer and when Kuyt and van Bronkhorst were out of the game Spain become much stronger with 11 men.

[SlavikSvensk]

your dislike of the dutch team is clouding your analysis, C.O. robben was the single best player on the pitch, by a mile. none of the spanish defenders could deal with him; if it weren't for casillas, he might have singlehandedly won the game. too bad for his country that he was the only one doing anything attacking-wise. sneijder and the others couldn't do squat against spain's defenders. that doesn't mean they were bad, it means spain's defense is good. really, really good.

[C.O.Prodigy]

Yup really good.

Casillas is a spanish defender.

And please don't jump to conclusions slav, I don't dislike the dutch I just don't appreciate reckless tackles. Holland is the same squad that lost to Russia last Euro08 but at least they played futbol. I would have respected Robben if had scored, too bad.
In all seriousness Holland will be back in the final again, I just hope they are braver next time around.

ps.

a cure for that WC withdrawal, watch a replay of that Russia - Holland match in 08 some of the best football I've seen in the last 10 years in that game

[teknorich]

I watched the match with some Spanish folks, and spent all day yesterday in work nursing a rotten hangover. Why don't they put the final on a saturday?!

Casillas was man of the match for me. He was rock solid, which was definitely a contributing factor to Spain's victory.

[SlavikSvensk]

Casillas was man of the match for me. He was rock solid, which was definitely a contributing factor to Spain's victory.

he was amazing. but i think the way iniesta turned it on in extra time was also quite remarkable. and sergio ramos had a quiet but highly effective game shutting down van persie

[C.O.Prodigy]

http://www.e-novine.com/fotogalerija...vak-sveta.html



Good point about Iniesta.