World Cup Miracle

[torrence]

Well, Hardy, 4 goals in game correct, but they all belong to Germany! Great game for Germany (and well-refereed thank God).  Clearly the England result was no fluke.  Young team, well coached, playing as a team.  And credit to Klinsman for starting the rebuilding four years ago.

Cheers,
Torrence

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

... the game gets more likely ...

[Avi]

The machine is working (and fast).

Guess which song is on the radio right now.

We may see the 74 final again.

(and well-refereed thank God)

It was easy game.

[Will]

The song they're playing here at this bar is "Don't cry for me, Argentina" (grin)

[Shiv Mathur]

" Argentina-Germany 1 - 3 "

Now I'm worried about how inaccurate PSX will be.

Seriously, good call, Hardy.

[Avi]

The song they're playing here at this bar is "Don't cry for me, Argentina" (grin)

If only it was a prize winning contest ...  :mrgreen:  :mrgreen:  :mrgreen:

[Mariano]

As an Argentine national, my sincere congratulations to all Germans in this forum.
As an Argentine national who deeply dislikes Maradona (and always has) thank you Germany for cutting him down to size. He seriously needed a reality check. I would love to see him explain a 4-0 loss.

Mariano

[Phil Bunch]

Some commentary from the US sports media, Wall Street Journal (Associated Press sports writer).  

I thought it might be of interest, or at least entertaining, to see how this is being reported here.

Best wishes to all,

Phil Bunch

---------------------

Dutch create euphoria back home with World Cup win

By ROBERT MILLWARD,
AP Football Writer

JOHANNESBURG (AP) The win over Brazil touched off wild celebrations, and left only Uruguay standing between the Netherlands and the World Cup final.

The Dutch have twice reached the title game and are considered the best team never to have won it. Now they face a Uruguayan team hit by suspensions and injury problems after a penalty shootout victory over Ghana.

"The euphoria back home is incredible," Netherlands coach Bert van Marwijk said. "It's a shame that we cannot experience it."

The Dutch may a little taste of it when they arrive in Cape Town for the semifinals, because about 20,000 of their citizens have settled in the southwest coastal city over the years.

The South Africa-based fans will surely swell the Dutch cheering section to more than the 5,000 who were at Friday's quarterfinal win over Brazil at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.

Between now and then, many of them will be sweating out the health of striker Robin van Persie.

The Arsenal forward injured his left arm against the Brazilians and went to the hospital on Saturday for a scan. He was joined by defender Joris Mathijsen, who injured his right knee in the warmup ahead of the Brazil match and had to pull out of the game.

"They are both at the hospital to have a scan," said Van Marwijk, who hopes to know the results on Sunday. "Robin has an arm problem and Joris a knee problem. I don't know what it is, that's why they are at the hospital. I don't think it is serious."

The victory over the five-time champion Brazilians has given the Dutch renewed hope that they can finally capture the prize they came so close to winning twice in the 1970s.

The Dutch lost to the Germans in the 1974 final in Munich and to Argentina in '78 in Buenos Aires, but played with a style that rivaled the brilliant Brazilians.

Although Van Marwijk has a wealth of attacking talent in Arjen Robben, Wesley Sneijder and Van Persie, he is not trying to emulate that style.

"Why does everyone want the coach to make changes all the time?" Van Marwijk said Saturday. "You have to have more courage not to change. Yesterday I told the players, 'You have to be yourselves, play your own game.'"

Even if Van Persie and Mathijsen come back, Van Marwijk will be forced into some changes for Tuesday's match against Uruguay. Midfielder Nigel de Jong and defender Gregory van der Wiel are both suspended for the game after collecting second yellow cards of the tournament.

While Van Persie and Mathijsen went for their scans Saturday, the rest of the players who beat Brazil practiced in a gymnasium away from the eyes of the media.

Uruguay will be missing at least striker Luis Suarez, who was sent off against Ghana for handling the ball on the goal line in the final minute of extra time.

Even though Uruguay came through a long and tough quarterfinal match, Van Marwijk doesn't think his team has an easy route to the final.

"I think the next game will be very dangerous," he said. "This is the moment we have been waiting for two years. When we beat Brazil we were in the last four of the World Cup. Coming up next is Uruguay.

"Uruguay is a strong side and we will have to be very concentrated. They are fighters, survivors."

Updated July 3, 2010

[Will]

Great game just now.  Uruguay kept fighting to the end, and the Netherlands looked great.

[torrence]

Yep - the Netherlands just keep getting the job done, although they had an exciting final 3 or 4 minutes   .  Hope our Dutch colleagues don't suffer any permanent hearing loss from celebrations.  Should be an interesting final no matter who wins tomorrow.

Cheers,
Torrence

[Phil Bunch]

From the Wall Street Journal's sports blog pages - "The Dutch are living dangerously"  (grins)

----------------------------------------------------

July 6, 2010, 6:50 PM ET

Dutch Allow Another Late Goal in Win

The Dutch are living dangerously.

Uruguay's Maxi Pereira became the second player to score in second-half stoppage time against the Dutch in the knockout rounds of the World Cup.

The Netherlands advanced to its third World Cup final by beating Uruguay, 3-2, on Tuesday. But what had been a comfortable, two-goal lead since the 73rd minute became quite perilous in the final minutes, after Uruguayan defender Maxi Pereira scored two minutes into stoppage time. The next few minutes featured fierce attacking from the underdogs, and the Dutch could only breathe easily after the final whistle.

Conceding a goal so late in a knockout-stage victory is a rare occurrence in the World Cup — and yet the Dutch now have done it twice in this tournament, yielding a penalty goal by Slovakia's Robert Vittek four minutes into second-half stoppage time in the round of 16 that halved the Netherlands's 2-0 lead.

Since the World Cup began in 1930, 90 elimination games have featured a goal by the eventual losing team. Just four have come in the 90th minute or later in the second half: the two Dutch gaffes this year, plus Germany's 3-2 defeat of Belgium in 1994 and Spain's defeat of Ireland on penalty kicks in 2002, after the Irish tied the game in the 90th minute. Another five winners conceded goals in added extra time, though none in the final five minutes.

Overall, just 27 losing teams in knockout games have scored in the 80th minute or later — three times since 1978 the Dutch have been the late scorers on the losing side — and it's happened just four times since 1994 as winning teams have gotten stingier on defense. The winners in those games may have gotten sloppy late, but here's good news for the Netherlands: Such errors haven't boded ill for the teams that let up late in the game. Ten of the 27 teams that conceded goals after the 80th minute were the champs of the tournament in which it happened.

The bad news for the Dutch: Germany, which leads the World Cup in goals scored with 13 and would face the Netherlands if it beats Spain on Wednesday, has scored eight goals in the 60th minute or later.

[Hardy Heinlin]

[size=8]I hate to say this, but we should be careful and not overstress the copyright of those newspapers.[/size]

[torrence]

Most of the daily news stories are free on many newspaper websites - a link would work in this case for breaking news.

"It's not over 'til it's over"

Cheers,
Torrence

Note Jeroen still not commenting - probably still deciding on
whcih  Dutch/Belgian beer to have next  

Cheers,
Torrence

[Phil Bunch]

[size=8]I hate to say this, but we should be careful and not overstress the copyright of those newspapers.[/size]

Would occasional excerpts, say less than about 25% of content, be OK, or is surrounding added commentary about the excerpt also required?

[Hardy Heinlin]

I don't know. Well, if the news story is free, then it's OK anyway.

...

I have a question regarding the Dutch tactics: Whenever Robben makes a solo run into the opposite penalty area he stops shortly before the goal and doesn't shoot. Why?

:-)

[Will]

I would recommend cutting and pasting the first 100-200 words, and then linking to the rest.  Agree that Jeroen is deciding on his next beer. This might be true for many hours yet.  Also, if he mocked vuvuzelas before (I can't remember), I bet he's pricing them on eBay right now for a FIFA 2010 souvenier... And something to blow at the finals. (grin)

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

Uh?

Did they win?

Was that the noise on the street last night?

[frumpy]

i think so.
can pleez spain or the netherlands kick germanys butt? :-)
so many stupid people out there are getting drunk, doing
other stupid things like dressing in their flag.. when the
team wins, its germany who won. when the team looses,
its the team who looses. in my eyes, the mob running around is
similar to the mob of the reichskristallnacht, just give
them a few stones and they are having fun.
i dont like all that, do something peaceful, like learning
to cook without meat or so   is that so hard?

[James Lacey]

The Dutch have looked very classy (although I still think the 1988 team was better...and van Basten was one of the greatest forwards ever) and have looked potential winners throughout the tournament.

Hoping for a cracking game tonight and I'd like to see Germany win if only to see them play the Netherlands in the final. Der Mannschaft have really played some wonderful football (shame Mueller is out tonight).

In bad news for Germany, Paul the octopus has tipped the Spanish to win...and this boy is rarely wrong!!  

http://www.smh.com.au/world-cup-2010/world-cup-news/psychic-octopus-tips-spain-to-beat-germany-20100707-zza5.html

[Peter Lang]

In bad news for Germany, Paul the octopus has tipped the Spanish to win...and this boy is rarely wrong!!  

Here in the web people already are discussing about cooking receipes for fried calamaris if the German team should loose tonight  :mrgreen:  

Peter