FIFA World Cup 2014

[Eraser]

If Holland can't put their chances away in the 120 then he's taking it to penalties, keep up slow poke.

What is "putting a chance away"? I don't know if me not understanding that sentence is due to English not being my native language or due to you speaking some blue collar English slang here.

To me it looks like you were saying in the other post that the Netherlands was intentionally trying to drag the game out to the penalties. That was certainly not the case, and anyone would've seen that. It was Costa Rica that played super defensive from the start, clearly with the intention to have the match decided in a penalty shootout, because they knew that penalties was the only tiny hope they had of winning.

Netherlands not being able to score a goal in the first 120 minutes really was down to Costa Rica's refusal to do anything outside their own penalty box. You can try any tactic you want, but if the opposing team is simply unwilling to try anything or even attempt to score a goal themselves, then you could have the all-star team of the world and you still wouldn't easily win. The stats are clear enough. 15 shots on target for the Dutch. 3 for Costa Rica, of which one was a long ball from their own half caught effortlessly by the Dutch goalkeeper. Netherlands had plenty of chances to score a goal, but most of the times bad luck was on their side. Three shots went against the goal posts or bar. If any of those three shots were goals, the game would've been broken open.

I would love to see the same match again, but with Netherlands scoring a goal in the first half, to see what would've happened. I'm sure that it would have forced Costa Rica to play more on the offense. I'd bet my left testicle that it would cause Costa Rica to leave gaps, make mistakes and allow the Dutch to score a second, probably even a third goal.

[MKJ]

13 offsides didnt help either.

[Ryoki]

NL didn't hope for penalties, clearly the plan was to score a goal - but the damn ball just refused to go into the net. And one can't really blame CR for playing the way they did, because what else were they going to do? If you give away space in the back you give away goals, the NL strikers are really scary. Don't think even CR was going for penalties though, i think their plan was to wait for NL to become desperate and make use of the space, as indeed happened in the last 15 minutes of gametime. They almost scored as a result of that...

The Krul sub was hilariously awesome - bluff he's a superspecialised penalty killer and it becomes true... what a clever trick. If it had failed van Gaal would have been crusified of course, but it worked.

13 offsides didnt help either.

CR made absolutely excellent use of the off side trap mind. Also, van Persie didn't have his night and started his runs too early too often. Van Persie is still my favourite player on the team, love to watch him do his thing... what a brilliant athlete. He's not a great goalmaker like Robben is though... more a maker of great goals. That flying header against Spain is still the most wonderful goal of the tournament i feel.

[losCHUNK]

If Holland can't put their chances away in the 120 then he's taking it to penalties, keep up slow poke.

What is "putting a chance away"? I don't know if me not understanding that sentence is due to English not being my native language or due to you speaking some blue collar English slang here.

To me it looks like you were saying in the other post that the Netherlands was intentionally trying to drag the game out to the penalties. That was certainly not the case, and anyone would've seen that. It was Costa Rica that played super defensive from the start, clearly with the intention to have the match decided in a penalty shootout, because they knew that penalties was the only tiny hope they had of winning.

Netherlands not being able to score a goal in the first 120 minutes really was down to Costa Rica's refusal to do anything outside their own penalty box. You can try any tactic you want, but if the opposing team is simply unwilling to try anything or even attempt to score a goal themselves, then you could have the all-star team of the world and you still wouldn't easily win. The stats are clear enough. 15 shots on target for the Dutch. 3 for Costa Rica, of which one was a long ball from their own half caught effortlessly by the Dutch goalkeeper. Netherlands had plenty of chances to score a goal, but most of the times bad luck was on their side. Three shots went against the goal posts or bar. If any of those three shots were goals, the game would've been broken open.

I would love to see the same match again, but with Netherlands scoring a goal in the first half, to see what would've happened. I'm sure that it would have forced Costa Rica to play more on the offense. I'd bet my left testicle that it would cause Costa Rica to leave gaps, make mistakes and allow the Dutch to score a second, probably even a third goal.

Putting their chances away = making use of their goal scoring opportunities, CR rewarded the dutch with oodles of possession but they couldn't do anything with it and unfortunately both teams were relying on the incisive breakaway which left the match a bit of a snoozefest, I think 7 of those 15 shots were on target with NED resorting to the long ball game aswell in response to such a tight defence from CR and Holland looking no more likely to score than CR in the first 90. 2 of those shots that hit the post were from freekicks I believe and the one that hit the crossbar was after a cross had missed 3 other NED players making late runs into the box, there wasn't a shot on target for the 1st 21 mins then the same in the 2nd half. Neither team were relying on penalties but both teams were trying to strangle the game and this is the risk you run, It was a response to you saying VG lined the team up tactful when in fact the game didn't open up until the final 15 which is when CR had their best chances also. You can't blame CR for having a well drilled defence when NED tried doing exactly the same thing, in this game but particulary against Mexico when they lined up with 5 at the back n all and failed, then when CR invited the dutch to play by commmiting more men forward they were rewarded the space they needed to create their own (slim) chances.

It was a turgid performance from both teams, stats are dependent on the way they're analysed, 15 shots and +70% possession looks good on paper but in reality the game was dead for both teams, just look at how penetrating Holland actually was -

[lvlshot]http://images.cdn.fourfourtwo.com/sites ... ge_148.jpg[/lvlshot]

or

http://www.fourfourtwo.com/statszone/4- ... per-anchor

[saturn]

You should be manager of the English national football team :lol:

[seremtan]

if only he wasn't Welsh...

[LawL]

:lol:

It's not '99 any more.

[menkent]

the paltry scorelines of the 16 and quarters compared to the luxurious win margins in the group stages tells its own story

surely at least part of that story is that in group stage there are a bunch of shit teams that give up 5 goals per game and don't advance. the good teams playing more conservatively because goal differential isn't a consideration is also real, but it's hard to complain about quarterfinal matches being between relatively evenly talented teams. and i thought only us americans whined about low-scoring matches.

[losCHUNK]

You should be manager of the English national football team :lol:

I know I said it before about other managers and I was talking through my arse with some (Capello / Sven) but when it comes to Roy / Mclaren I reckon I could do a better job. I'd atleast pick a formation that suites the players and give them the correct instructions. I doubt I'd be able to break down other teams tho, or be any good, analysing a match after the fact is pretty simple if you sit down with the numbers.

Looking at the passing stats again you can see a lot of that game was played just outside CRs defensive 3rd which is where you want it if you're planning on soaking up pressure and hitting their highline / space on the break. They rarely had to defend from inside the 18 yard box with NED playing the majority of their game just outside their defensive 3rd n all, CR just didnt wanna bite or close down and why should they ?

[seremtan]

i thought only us americans whined about low-scoring matches.

your idea of low scoring and everyone else's idea of low scoring are wildly different

[Chupacabra]

The Krul sub was hilariously awesome - bluff he's a superspecialised penalty killer and it becomes true... what a clever trick. If it had failed van Gaal would have been crusified of course, but it worked.

I don't agree with the thought that he would have been crucified for it. I think people would find it an odd substitution, but the headlines and stories would be dominated by the cinderella story of Costa Rica and how incredible their defense is. Maybe in Holland there would be a different story...but maybe it would be more about how many times the dutch strikers were caught offsides.

[PhoeniX]

Maybe it was a tactful decision given that everyone who had done their research on Cillessen and how he handles penalties had their world turned apart

Certainly worked anyway.

[Eraser]

There was talk on Dutch television about how Krul went too far intimidating his opponents,
coming close, talking to them, making gestures and even touching them. Dunno if that discussion was just an isolated case of that inflated ego of Hugo Borst, but I strongly disagree. I thought it was fantastic to see how Krul did all that. Psychological warfare is part of taking penalties. It's certainly better than those spasms the CRI keeper had right before diving for the shot.

[fKd]

maybe robbins could fall over more?

[Eraser]

Robbins. Oh yeah him.

[Ryoki]

His reputation for diving is largely based on bullshit - the man is so incredibly fast he simply gets fouled very often... If Robben is in your 16 at the very least he's going to get a corner out of it - he's just that dangerous. As a defender you either take him down or it's a good chance he scores.

Here's a fun challenge if you can be bothered; watch CR - NL again and try to find a case of Robben diving. Just a single one will do. Because as far as i could tell he took just one real dive the entire tournament, against Chile in the first half - and after the match he admitted as much and apologized for it.

Haters gonna hate and all that jazz i guess.

[U4EA]

So fast!

[youtube]jwkh5BTwXZQ[/youtube]

[Ryoki]

Excellent, that last one is a good example. Notice how that one Mexico player attempts to go for the ball but is just too slow, Robben is already gone. He ends up slightly touching (and blocking) Robben, who promptly falls down.

Overly dramatic, oppertunistic and possibly gay? Sure. A dive? Shit no, them's the rules.

[Eraser]

lol, that's a lot of butthurt crammed into one video

[Eraser]

Awesome, even more Mexican butthurt in the comments. Torn sphincters all over the place

Look, Robben is crushing egos all over the place, so these babies can only resort to crying boo boo.

[seremtan]

american football commentators

also, why does every football compilation video on pootube always have a soundtrack stolen from a video game or from Banging Techno Mega Mega Faggotry Vol 12?

[PhoeniX]

We'll we're now one step closer to an all Euro final

[PhoeniX]

..two steps, Klose.

edit: 3-0 in 24 minutes?
edit 2: 4-0 in 25 minutes?

[Tsakali]

holy shit

[seremtan]

holy fucking shit

i didn't bother tuning in until 27" because i thought it was going to be a 0-0 slugfest. goddamit