Spanish Yawn

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gavintc

Guru
Location
Southsea
Dreary game. If it was not the final, I would have turned off by now and headed for bed.
 

longers

Legendary Member
"Sounds" like it's getting better. Spain aren't using the left of the pitch much are they? There's loads of space over there, or it sounds like it anyway.
 

mangaman

Guest
Hard match.

I'd like to see the Dutch win, they're playing to their strengths and giving Spain some real stick.


Thugs. Cruyff would be turning in his grave if he was dead.

Too right and get in there Iniesta!!!!!! best player in the tounament scores with 4 minutes of extra time left - superb

The Dutch were a disgrace and still had the gall to end the game whinging to to the ref? Especially the "likeable" Robben (those were ironic quotation marks) :rolleyes:

There were at least 3 clear red cards they should have had.

Shame to see Torres at the end - looked like a serious injury (torn hamstring or something).
 

postman

Legendary Member
Location
,Leeds
A Final to forget .But justice was done .Total football from the Orange .I don't think so .Nasty game plan .
 

Debian

New Member
Location
West Midlands
The Dutch were just stereotypical uncouth, nasty, knuckle-dragging thugs, they deserved to lose. Indeed, Howard Webb was being very lenient and trying to keep a game going, otherwise the Dutch should only have had 7 or 8 players left on the field!

Nasty, nasty team and I hope they don't qualify for Euro 2012 or Brazil 2014!
 

Flying_Monkey

Recyclist
Location
Odawa
That was just about the worst final ever. As a result, the whole event has gone down significantly for me... the right team won, but not in a way that would have made anyone outside of Spain happy.
 
OP
OP
Smokin Joe

Smokin Joe

Legendary Member
I think you are all being unfair on the Dutch. They were clearly playing a much better side, and had no option but to put themselves about a bit. There is a strange kind of beauty about violence in sport, it can occassionaly add to the spectacle. Who could fail to be moved by the Leeds/Chelsea FA Cup final replay in 1970, where X-rated tackle followed X-rated tackle in what was probably the hardest match ever held on British soil. Not one of the players whinged about it either.Or the Italy/Chile World Cup game in 1962, which saw more than one uppercut to the jaw of an oppossing player.

The reason international tournaments can now be rather sterile is the blanket clampdown on physical contact. No one wants to see career threatening injuries, but the good old shoulder to shoulder contact did no harm to anyone, and the days when a forward could challenge the goalkeeper for a cross without automatically giving away a foul are greatly missed. A shame Holland lost, we need a return to a more robust style of play and not all this non contact keep ball we get now.
 

Flying_Monkey

Recyclist
Location
Odawa
I think you are all being unfair on the Dutch. They were clearly playing a much better side, and had no option but to put themselves about a bit. There is a strange kind of beauty about violence in sport, it can occassionaly add to the spectacle. Who could fail to be moved by the Leeds/Chelsea FA Cup final replay in 1970, where X-rated tackle followed X-rated tackle in what was probably the hardest match ever held on British soil. Not one of the players whinged about it either.Or the Italy/Chile World Cup game in 1962, which saw more than one uppercut to the jaw of an oppossing player.

The reason international tournaments can now be rather sterile is the blanket clampdown on physical contact. No one wants to see career threatening injuries, but the good old shoulder to shoulder contact did no harm to anyone, and the days when a forward could challenge the goalkeeper for a cross without automatically giving away a foul are greatly missed. A shame Holland lost, we need a return to a more robust style of play and not all this non contact keep ball we get now.

Sorry, that's balls. The Italy/Chile game is remembered only for the violence, not for the game, and shoulder to shoulder contact it still absolutely fine. The Netherlands were not trying to play football, they were playing what Cruyff has called 'anti-football'. He BTW thinks that they deserved to lose and probably should have had two other players sent off. And as a former winger who used to play at a reasonable level and got targeted by big idiots with no skill, for me this idea that violent play is somehow more 'honest' is quite frankly idiotic unless you want to have snapped ankles and broken legs. What needs to be sorted out is the faking, but that's a different issue...
 
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