Yippeeee. Another rubbish game by Holland. It really is frustrating to see such nice flashy game being played in the qualification and the friendlies and then seeing them move like a bunch of snails. Van der vaart being a horrible player in the field, Bronkhorst being too oldand not able to follow the quick movements. Japan also blocked the whole defense so nobody got through.
Holland has 3 points I think I will forget the match as soon as possible.

Cameroon Denmark was a game I quite enjoyed... Specially from Cameroon. They played completely different compared to their first match. And they played offensive as well. It was a bit of an eyeopener. Holland Cameroon will be an interesting match. Which Holland will loose if they play like today.

Australia and ghana congrats with both a point Pitty Kewell was send out but the Socceroos still managed to hold the line.

I have heard it before about Podolski's intelligence. Some German friends of mine often make jokes about him. But as long as he does his work by making goals nobody complains. Don't expect him to have a administrative career after he quits playing

"Yippeeee. Another rubbish game by Holland. It really is frustrating to see such nice flashy game being played in the qualification and the friendlies and then seeing them move like a bunch of snails. Van der vaart being a horrible player in the field, Bronkhorst being too oldand not able to follow the quick movements. Japan also blocked the whole defense so nobody got through.
Holland has 3 points I think I will forget the match as soon as possible."


An interesting kind to celebrate that your Elftal is the first team which has been entering the Round of 16.

Congratulation!

"Cameroon Denmark was a game I quite enjoyed"

Jau, IMO the most attractive match I have seen during SA '10.

Congrats to Holland for getting through by whatever means possible... Better to have your lacklustre matches still get you to the next round where the real football can begin...

As for Australia well... We seem to attract the poorer decision making referees, compounding not getting the rub of the green! And before it is mentioned, the Kewell sending off is not my bone of contention but more the lack of consistency. We later have a Ghana player slide tackle and take the heel but is shown a yellow only, whereas a not disimilar tackle by Cahill in the opening match against Schweinsteiger was red carded, yet he managed to pull his studs out of contact? Got me stuffed. Ruined what could have been a beautiful match with Kewell raring to go, 1 goal up, instead a red card and a penalty? I really don't like that ruling. Take Vidic who received a yellow for deliberately throwing his hand up to block the balls path. Sure it was no guaranteed goal like Kewell's would have been, but a yellow for a deliberate handball versus a rd for accidental? FIFA needs to ort this rule out. Needs refinement.

Thanks for the congratulations guys. Hmmm I probably will go down in History as the man who is never satisfied. Of course we are happy with the result... We did celebrate it quite a long time I only have problems with the game Holland played to get there. It was a boring, bad, horrible match. When teams play soccer like that the game really lasts 90 minutes too long.

Another interesting day of Football yesterday.

Paraguay placing themselves neatly in the top of their group with a 2-0 victory over Slovakia. Not the most impressive of games but still... Good result for the South Americans. If the Paraguayans stay first in their group they probably will evade playing against Holland... something which I understood is a prospect they do not look forward to. When looking at what the Dutch have done so far I would say... why the heck not... would love to play them now.
It all depends a bit on what the italians are going to do...

Speaking of which

The Italians again disgraced the field with their 1-1 draw against New Zealand. I thought that was even a worse game then Holland Japan. I really wonder how the Italians ever made it to the tournament. Absolutely no creativity, no speed, no surprise. It really was a bunch of old men. I thought the Kiwi's were doing their best... and sadly the score did not become higher in favor of the New Zealanders as you were very close to the 1-2 and god knows you deserved that. Because your play was so much better then that of the Squadra Azuri.
I actually heard that in all of New Zealand the white players shirts are completely sold out.. I actually would love to see pictures of the parties in Wellington following the second WC point for NZ ever.

Brazil vs Cote Ivoire. I think the biggest schmuck from this match was the referee. They could have just as well put Stevie Wonder in that role on the pitch and still come out with the same result. First goal by Luis Fabiano was a beauty would not say anything bad about that. Second goal was hands.... TWICE!!!!! First catching up the ball with his hand, Picking it up the head, around another player and eventually again with his upperarm. And the ref had to ask Fabiano himself if he made hands or catched the ball on his chest. Fabiano obviously said that there was no foul play commited while the whole world saw it with the help of like 300 camera's.
The goal from Elano was a beauty. Pitty the guy had to get out of the field after that bad accident... of which I really think it was an accident. It looked really horrible on the slowmo. My god that was an impact.
Also the little fight at the end... I kinda missed the commotion at first as I was getting something to drink but saw it in the replay later. When Kaka got red. Am I the only one (aside from the ref) who saw that Kaka actually moved his elbow backwards to the Ivorian player while blocking him the path? I'm still convinced he did this, which makes the Yellow card not only very stupid but also deserved.
Still a top result from the Brazilians which no doubt will be extended with becoming group winner. A draw is enough against Portugal.

Let's see what the other matches will bring today. Again some interesting matches on the Program. Portugal - North Korea, Chile - Zwitserland and Spain Honduras and then we start all over again for the last round in the groups.

Haven't seen much of the coverage but it's good to see the US put forth a decent effort.

Don't know much about all the rules but I find it weird that a referee can disallow the goal against Slovenia without saying why. Would seem that it leaves the door open for fixing a match.

Paul

Dont know what you were drinking Robert, but thats not the way I saw it. If you look again, Keita ran at Kaka, who reached out his arm to protect himself, meeting with Keita´s chest. Keita fell down holding his face. The thing you obviously missed ... Keita ran at Kaka, who was facing the other way.
The tackle on Elano appeared malicious to me, as was one other tackle where the Africans went in studs first. Not a pretty sight, and removing any sympathy I had for them.

On the bright side, Portugal had a stormer today. What s econd half. It really makes the third game ... Portugal V Brazil mouth watering.

Finally. Spain, put in a good performance although the final score line should have been much greater.

On the debit side, Spain were a little more 'vertical' than usual, although Honduras were dumb enough to move their lines forward in the 2nd half. Torres? Should have been a substitute rather than in the initial line-up. He isn't even close to 100% yet.. Man of the match was without a doubt, Busquets although Sergio Ramos was VERY impressive. The first goal of Villa was almost as good as Maicon's.

The referee? Jesus, where the hell do they come from? Bus Stops?

You think you got it bad? Not only did our ref in the last game suck but tomorrow's game will be handled by Carlos Simon who was suspended for 6 weeks last year by the FIFA due to him allegedly being involved in the manipulation of certain games. I just hope he's being payed by Germans.

I haven';t visited this thread for a few days. Busy with a lot of things.

Yesterday Holland Managed to get a round further by winning 2-0 against Slowakia. Again not the nicest football allthough we did saw some nice actions we love to see from the boys. Also it kinda showed that our real weak point is the defense... with Slowakia Forwards cutting trough them without too much troubles.
Next up is Brazil.. Nice match I hope. Not the easiest of opponents... but if you aspire to become world Champion you have to be able to win from everybody. Still we probably will fly out

Hey Robert
Well I think firstly you'll find that Slovakia snuck in a penalty as the last kick of the game... so 2-1 it ended...
I think Brazil will obviously be the test of the Oranje men, but I have no doubt that Brazil would not want to have ecountered Holland at this stage and in what seems to be such 'reserved' form... Should make for a great Q final.
Brad

@ Bradley ... you are absolutely right... I noticed my own mistake just after the edit fuction dissapeared off the screen. I know the motive behind the decision to skip this button after an hour or so... I only think it is hugely annoying.

I too think it will be a test for both teams. But specially for our Defense... as that is really the weak part of our team. A blind child in a wheelchair could go trough it without any major problems. But we'll see... I'm definately looking forward to Friday..

Woooohooooooooo the best result possible... Goodbye BRazil...

Just returned from the bar and my goodness the party was good. The last minutes of the game were pretty much the most exciting for holland in the whole tournament so far. First half was rubbish of Holland with the easy goal from Brazil but after half time the first goal of Holland and the lions were let loose. Finally we saw a bit of what they really could do. And in the half final we encounter Uruguay who won in quite a crazy game in penalties.

Very curious what tomorrows matches will give for result. Specially Germany Argentina is a match I look forward to. 2 Powerhouses in footballworld. And also the match of Spain against Paraguay should be an interesting match.

For now I will sleep calmly with the knowledge we did well and are another round further. See you guys in the half finals

well, Ghana is out. I was hoping for the best for them. Only African team

Now I'm behind Uruguay and Paraguay

I think what this world cup teaches us best is that the better TEAM always wins and yesterday Germany was a better team than that pile of well payed Argentinians. And that sums up why we won.

Well there was much talk about the Germans and their win over Austrailia ... were the Germans that good or were Austrailia just poor? That question was answered yesterday. Has to be the single most impressive display in the WC so far. Its funny how at the start of this week it was going to be a "south-America world cup". A few days later it looking more European again. Excellent results for both Germany and Holland. Spain just keep doing enough to win and Uruguay were lucky to get there. With Ghana´s penalty on 31 minutes of extra time, I thought it was over for them, but sometimes you need a bit of luck. Should be two exciting semis now.

well put. The Germany Spain match is going to be spectacular!
The next two matches will be at lunch break from work, where I am, so I can watch the first half anyway.
Then the Final match will be on Sunday.

Well I now have to throw my support behind my German ancestors! US was outclassed by possessian skills and superior team speed of Ghana. Really like everybody left in this.
A great Cup it is!
Rick

Funny to mention that. I was thinking exactly the same after the quarterfinals the South American part of this WC was pretty much gone. Only Uruguay to keep the honor of the South Americans high. Let's see how it will go tomorrow against the dutch. I really hope we can have a nice party again. As we were already lucky to have nice parties 5 times before.

For those interested. I have made pictures during every match. My dad played around with them a bit and made some picture slideshow movies with a little music under it. And we uploaded it to youtube. This is a bit of an insight on how the Dutch experience and celebrate the attendance of the Orange 11 in South Africa. And this is absolutely no exception... the rest of Holland is pretty much the same
Holland vs Denmark
Holland vs Japan
Holland vs Cameroon
Holland vs Slovakia

We are currently working on Holland Brazil. And tomorrow I will also make pics during Holland vs Uruguay

"SPAIN CHAMPION!"

Keep on dreaming...

Congratulation Spain.

The better team has won; Spain has been by far more offensive and ruled the whole match which has been their best one at this tournament.