The World Cup Final Thread - Holland V Spain

[philipl]

The Spanish beat the Dutch rugby team tonight!

Webb did incredibly well to keep the lid on that

[Tim Southampton Rover]

Meh, one day it'll be England.

[Tom]

Right team won for me even if they were boring at times

[brfcshabba]

The Spanish beat the Dutch rugby team tonight!

Webb did incredibly well to keep the lid on that

Really, I thought he got worse as the game went on. Booking Xavi for kicking the ball away yet Robben gets away with it

Never mind Webb - Time to cook the Octopus

[Tim Southampton Rover]

The Octopus is now on par with Stephen Hawking in my opinion.

[MarkBRFC71]

Well done Spain - a victory for proper football, how it should be played. In Xavi and Iniesta they have the two best midfielders in the world by a country mile. The Dutch tried to kick the s**t out of them but to no avail.

They might overcook it sometimes but it's a joy to watch players with such technique, poise, skill, class, guile, flair, imagination and ability. A far cry from the kick and rush of the vastly overhyped Prem, and the overrated primadonnas of the England team.

Not a brilliant tournament by any means, but the best team won in the end.

[JAL]

Saving their best till last.. Spain.

[Rovermatt]

I was glad to see Spain win. The Dutch tried to kick the tar out of them and were nearly successful but the footballing prowess of Iniesta, Xavi and Fabregas finally opened up the stubborn defence. I thought some of the Dutch tackling was pretty x-rated and it's a pity that a side containing some truly wonderful players conducts itself in such a manner.

[BPF]

The Dutch were disgraceful throughout. Their tactic was obviously to try and stop Spain playing football at whatever cost. It almost worked! Awful stuff.

[thenodrog]

Best team won but overall it was a victory for divers and cheaters imo.

[Baz]

The dutch played as I expected, they were never going to win in a game of tipty-tappy football, so played to their (physical)strengths. That said yes the dutch were lucky to only have 1 sent off, but Spain also were pretty effective in the early foul in a dutch break situation. On the night despite the Spanish playing the better football the dutch had the better chances and if taken could have won by a couple. Webb showed what a poor referee he is all night I thought - he looked like he was determined not to send anyone off, despite the evidence - and the dutch do have a valid claim for a free kick in the build-up to the goal too. He never got control of the game and I was appalled to see the gamesmanship and whinging by both sets of players in trying to get their opponents booked and sent off, something FIFA said they were going to stamp out - remember the pre-tournament hype surrounding Rooney and the referee in the friendly.

The shame of the matter is that a poor world cup was finished by a poor final. However the better footballing team won.

[Commondore]

An excellent tactical final that opened up with some end to end stuff for the last 20 minutes + extra time. Chilling drama and flaming passion, all in one serving.

Also, I don't think the Dutch deserve all the criticism they are getting for their tackling, they had to play rough to have a chance of disrupting and breaking up Spain's short passing. What were they supposed to do, act nice and let Spain pass their way to goal undisturbed? How anyone can lament Holland's tackling and still say that Suarez handball against Ghana was the right hing to do is beyond me.

[The1mattjansen]

Doesn't look like my flag made it onto the telly. Anyhow, seated 2 seats from where Beckenbauer was reporting live for Germany Sky Sports, I managed to give the old dog some stick.

A very poor game in a blerry freezing stadium. Strange situation with Mandela who didn't speak and apparently didn't want to be there. Still, a great spectacle with the ceremony and all, probably worth the two hundered and fifty quid, if any game is.

[ben_the_beast]

An excellent tactical final that opened up with some end to end stuff for the last 20 minutes + extra time. Chilling drama and flaming passion, all in one serving.

What game were you watching. That really was a woefull spectacle and in my opinion has typified much of this world cup. Most probably the worst in my living memory. Personally I am just glad to see robben not win anything as he really does typify all that is wrong in the cheating side of the game with hos diving and whining. I for one would have been delighted to see him given his marching orders.

[Rover4ever]

Also, I don't think the Dutch deserve all the criticism they are getting for their tackling, they had to play rough to have a chance of disrupting and breaking up Spain's short passing. What were they supposed to do, act nice and let Spain pass their way to goal undisturbed? How anyone can lament Holland's tackling and still say that Suarez handball against Ghana was the right hing to do is beyond me.

It wassnt "breaking up" Spain's play that the Dutch were doing; it was just plain thuggery from De jong adn Van Bommel.

What does Suarez have to do with the Dutch playing violently ?

[Bobby G]

Dutch really shamed their previous legacy in the first half. Dirtiest midfield duo I have ever seen are Van Bommel and De Jong, and they sometimes make Paolo Montero and Materazzi look like angels.

Spain didnt hit 5th gear in the whole tournament but I am glad they have won and not the Dutch. At least not this Dutch side.

On a side-note, Howard Webb completely screwed up last night. In wanting to "avoid" giving a red card and ruining the game, he pretty much ruined the game and players knew he was avoiding it and took advantage. Not to mention twice missing clear corners for Holland when it came off Spanish players/keeper.

[Iceman]

sorry, but all this talk of this being the worst world cup is just ludicrous. There were no easy teams out there as in previous world cups. There were upsets, and surprise packages and for once no Brazil in the final. The fact of the matter is, that its people who have had negative comments even before the world cup started, that are saying its been a crap world cup. Imo(im not being biased, because I live in SA), but its been a brilliant world cup in terms of organisation, Stadiums, hospitality, and the people of SA coming out in numbers.

Just because there were not many goals scored, doesn’t mean it was a boring world cup. the games were fiercely competitive, and showed that even teams like New Zealand, Slovakia and North Korea(apart from the Portugal game) were not here just to make up the numbers. We were told we wouldn’t be ready, we were told our stadiums wouldn’t be completed, and that the stadiums would be empty, well we just put all that to bed with a very good hosting of the tournament. If this was anywhere else in the world, there would not be talk of it being the worst world cup, but because its in Africa its deemed just that.

If there is something to moan about, then look no further than the English team, because yet again they failed miserably to give you guys what you wanted and that’s to win the world cup. South Africa were knocked out early, but hey we didn’t let that spoil the party :-)

[ultrablue]

Iniesta was lucky to be on the field to get that winner - some cynical diving, faking, rolling around - and he was lucky no one saw him leg up Van Bommel in retaliation. Don't care how often you are kicked, if you do that off the ball, you should go.

No surprises it was an awful final - that was inevitable the moment Puyol scored against the Germans. For all their "skill and technical prowess" Spain won all 4 knockout games 1-0. Boring boring boring.

[RibbleValleyRover]

Boring game- I thought it would be a dull game after the Germany v Spain performance, i should have not bothered with the final like i said i would.

[thenodrog]

Iniesta was lucky to be on the field to get that winner - some cynical diving, faking, rolling around - and he was lucky no one saw him leg up Van Bommel in retaliation. Don't care how often you are kicked, if you do that off the ball, you should go.

No surprises it was an awful final - that was inevitable the moment Puyol scored against the Germans. For all their "skill and technical prowess" Spain won all 4 knockout games 1-0. Boring boring boring.

You can't say that ultrablue! Dull as dishwater or not Spain are the fashionable club to support don't you know?

Boring game- I thought it would be a dull game after the Germany v Spain performance, i should have not bothered with the final like i said i would.

Always too much at stake. Probably why the 3rd /4th place match was so much more entertaining.

[thenodrog]

What game were you watching. That really was a woefull spectacle and in my opinion has typified much of this world cup. Most probably the worst in my living memory.

N.B According to your profile ben you are only 22. You will therefore only be able to rem 3 World Cups and formulate a valid judgement on 2!

Personally I've enjoyed it. Played in proper temperatures with plenty of upsets and with only the teams that wanted to progress getting through to the latter stages. Those that simply went through the motions were soon on the plane home.

If I have a criticism of football nowadays it is that it is too fast with an over emphasis on speed and 1st touch. It'll never happen for obvious reasons but the best way forward for entertainment value imo would be to make pitches just a few yards bigger and wider.

[ultrablue]

Spain are like a big red and yellow monster that swallows up the ball, rolls it round its mouth with a smug grin on its face, before occasionally spitting it out, just to suck it in again. Germany tried to wait and time it right so they could pick up the ball and run away with it as fast as possible. That failed miserably. Upon seeing this, Holland did exactly what most people would do, and kicked the boring monster hard in the stomach.

[Rover4ever]

Holland did exactly what most people would do, and kicked the boring monster hard in the stomach.

Substitute "most people" for thugs masquerading as footballers, and you would be almost right

[thenodrog]

Substitute "most people" for thugs masquerading as footballers, and you would be almost right

You could be talking about BRFC there rover4ever. Most of the countyry does. Do you not rem the bad publicity that we have suffered from since the Hughes era from the press and media? We've been publically savaged for years simply because of a few malicious remarks from poncy foreign managers. You'd think we were the new Wimbledon!

With a boardname like that I'm suprised that you give so much credence to the jaundiced opinions of that lot.

[MarkBRFC71]

Reality check people - Rovers football last season was boring - the way Spain play is most definitely not. They might be guilty of overcooking it and trying to score the perfect goal sometimes but that is how football should be played, not by lumping it forward, trying to win free-kicks/throw-ins/corners and hoping based on percentages that the ball will eventually drop our way and we'll scramble a goal. I know we don't have the players to play with anything like the same skill and technique but really, given the choice who wouldn't rather see us play like Spain?!