*Official* Netherlands vs Brazil (Quarter-Final One)

[Goughy]

Interesting reading this thread. I had to walk to the pub and got there after 30 mins. For the 60 mins I watched the Netherlands were clearly the better team. Interesting how a quick start (that I didnt see) can form an opinion on a game and vise versa.

 

[irfan]

Haha just reading over the thread after watching the match earlier.

Pretty funny.

AWTA, just waiting for the post where the tide starts to turn

 

[Burgey]

Wanted one more rant before I knocked off for the night, win

Bastard. You got me

 

[Furball]

Amazing how quickly things change.

Thought they were dire in the second half, totally lost their discipline and created nothing.

Yeah, thought about deleting that post, but it only looks stupid now, Brazil were excellent first half and I certainly wouldn't have expected them to collapse so badly.

 

[cover drive man]

Well, I didn't expect Holland to get back into it. Well done Holland.

 

[grecian]

Haha, my point is about the type people that call them 'assists' not related to the importance of setting someone up.

Yeah, agree with Goughy on this one, you can talk about a player putting in a great through-ball or cross, but when you start saving player x has 12 assists, player F has 8, my eyes glaze over. The fact is the great ball may have happened a couple of balls before the goal, or conversely there may be a misdirected ball that ends up setting up the goal, hopeful punts forward too.

It's pretty meaningless really.

 

[Furball]

Yeah, agree with Goughy on this one, you can talk about a player putting in a great through-ball or cross, but when you start saving player x has 12 assists, player F has 8, my eyes glaze over. The fact is the great ball may have happened a couple of balls before the goal, or conversely there may be a misdirected ball that ends up setting up the goal, hopeful punts forward too.

It's pretty meaningless really.

Where it becomes meaningless is in situations like Maradona's goal in 86 - whoever passed to Maradona before he beat half the England team would be credited with an assist - which is nonsense.

 

[G.I.Joe]

I told you all so!!! Holland will win!

Get in (btw weve been ****ed by divers in the past)

Haha, congratulations.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Fair play to the old tulip munchers. Didn't call it, but delighted to be wrong.

 

[Xuhaib]

btw South Affrica cricket team should go over and give company to Brazil both will hit off well I reckon.

 

[straw man]

Thought this match illustrated quite well why some other referees go around giving out cards like candy - if you take the softly softly approach like the referee did today then the unpunished fouls and hacks get worse and worse. Certainly spoiled the flow of the game a bit, especially second half.

Well done Holland though - you can't argue with beating Brazil to prove yourselves and will be expected to at least make the final now.

 

[Goughy]

Fair play to the old tulip munchers. Didn't call it, but delighted to be wrong.

Closest the Dutch will have to winning a WC at home. Huge Afrikaaner support and the largest Dutch Embassy in the world. I suppose they are the sentimental favourites now given their links to SA.

 

[vcs]

Reminded me of a typical Arsenal vs. Chelsea/Man U match. Brazil should have gone atleast two up in the first half, and then completely lost their discipline and conceded from a couple of set-pieces.

 

[vcs]

I would have preferred to have seen Brazil lose to a memorable performance... like Zidane toyed with them in the '06 quarters.

YouTube - Zidane ? All in the touch - Brazil 06



Robben and Sneijder didn't even have to do anything particularly special, Van Persie was terrible. I'm sensing a Ballon d'Or for Sneijder if the Dutch win the WC, though.

 

[Teja.]

I would have preferred to have seen Brazil lose to a memorable performance... like Zidane toyed with them in the '06 quarters.

YouTube - Zidane ? All in the touch - Brazil 06



Robben and Sneijder didn't even have to do anything particularly special, Van Persie was terrible. I'm sensing a Ballon d'Or for Sneijder if the Dutch win the WC, though.

Robben tbh, was German Player of the year, and is still incredible in the WC.

 

[vcs]

Robben didn't really do much today apart from winning some (admittedly productive) freekicks. He made a lot of selfish decisions in promising situations.

 

[DingDong]

the dutch should win an oscar for all the play acting last night

 

[biased indian]

hoping for a Germany - Holland final now

 

[vic_orthdox]

Not really. I just think that in this country, assists are massively under-appreciated, and I suppose it's a legacy from my playing days as a central midfielder, where I personally took as much pleasure from setting up goals as I did in scoring them myself.

My problem with the assist stat is that a good through ball is still a good through ball, whether or not the recipient takes the chance or not.

 

[Uppercut]

Football stats are useless in general, but number of assists is on another level of worthlessness. I might find it mildly interesting when someone mentions that a player, for example, has more assists than any other player in a particular season. But it says literally nothing about their ability as a player.