FIFA World Cup 2010

[sanblaster]

Originally Posted by chuck

Plenty of it san - plenty of it - and the arm-waving - I thought some of the Spanish were trying to take off and fly out of the stadium.

Hah - if that was a club side playing like Holland - it would have been hailed as a "tough uncompromising" performance.

Like I said - congratulations Spain - it was a cracking finish from Iniesta. But it's not a great advertisement for the sport - at least not in my country.

I know, I know - who cares right - we're just New Zealand. But it's not in our sporting culture to fall over and roll around - you can see that watching the All Whites games - they prefer to play the ball and the game. Unlike the Italians who were grabbing their faces, and falling to the ground anytime we got close.

I know - it's part of football - and you know what - fair play to you. You won - you are the world champions.

But until the officials actually start to officiate the foul play as demonstrated by Holland - and the unseemly diving and milking (did you see the Spanish #8 kick himself - and fall over????) - football will never really take off here.

I love football - I do - it's just that the World Cup - which produces superb games - also produces ugly, unsatisfying performances like this final. The ends justify the means - and so it should.

Anyway - did I mention NZ were undefeated?

Congratulations again Spain!

We might be talking about different plays and correct me if that's the case, but doesn't Xavi kick Heitinga's calf then falls over?

The arm waving, I take it you don't mean when Van Bommel was hanging on the backs of whoever worn a blue tshirt. I'm positive this might be one of the games when there's been less diving and cheating - just watch the replays again.

The way Spain played, enhancing what Holland did in the 70's, in the middle of the physical era with the Capellos, Domenechs and Mourinhos.... this is just something else. I couldn't care less if it wasn't Spain - I obviously am delighted it was my country who made it -, talking about diving and waving after how this final was played sounds absolutely ridiculous, sorry about that.

And congrats New Zealand! Why not!

[King of Snake]

haha, we lost but i had a great evening anyway Now let's get all this orange shit out of the way... I'm going on holiday tomorrow \o/

[cured]

There was a lot of milking it on both sides...you expect it from Robben and perhaps even Iniesta but it was just too much. Having those fake death injuries rewarded by the English ref didn't do much to help as players just started diving to see if the guy marking them would pick up a second yellow. The Hungarian ref should have been the one calling this final. In the end, the calls sort of evened out. De Jong didn't get booted in the first half for his cleats-to-the-chest play (he got a yellow like everyone else did. Seriously, if you didn't get a yellow in this game, you weren't on the field) and Puyol didn't get a second yellow for his near-tackle of Robben later on in the match.

Anyways, it was sort of an ugly game, you'd expect that since Spain's opponents aren't stupid enough to go toe-to-toe and leave their backs open. Holland, for their part, did a great job of challenging the Spanish midfield and if Robben had knocked that chance in at the 63rd minute, perhaps the Dutch are partying tonight. Maybe Casillas' right shoe will end up in a museum somewhere. Holland played tough and would have been deserving champs. Gotta wonder where Wesley Sneijder was tonight, though.

I'm glad it didn't go to PKs as that's a horrible way for a game like this to be judged but it almost came to that.

Good year for Spain: Rafael Nadal took Wimbledon, Pau Gasol won his second NBA title with the Lakers, and Spain ends years of misery with clutch play to take out Portugal, a tough Paraguay team, Germany, and the Netherlands all by 1-0 scores (all scored in the second half or overtime?). Their defense held strong even though they were opened up by every team on occasion.

Germany is obviously going to be super strong in 2014 but I wonder if it doesn't matter given that Brazil is going back to joga bonito and they are hosting the tournament. Whatever. I'm 33 now and who knows what life will look like at 37 but I already can't wait for my next serving of this awesome tournament.

last, more stats:

•Spain is the eighth country to be crowned World Cup champion, winning its first title and becoming the first European country to win outside of Europe.

•Andres Iniesta scored his second goal of the tournament in the 116th minute, the latest game-winner in a final.

•The 14 total yellow cards are the most ever in a final, more than doubling the previous record of six set in 1986 (Argentina-Germany), and third-most in any game (cards began in 1970).

•Spain's eight total goals scored are the fewest ever by a champion, three fewer than the previous mark.

•Spain is the first team since 1970 Brazil to win the title after winning all of its qualifiers.

•The Netherlands' 10-game winning and 25-game unbeaten streaks were snapped, as the Dutch lost for the first time since September 2008.

•Spain controlled possession with 59.3 percent of the touches. That's the highest total by a team in a World Cup final since the stat was first tracked in 1966. Spain controlled 60.9 percent of the touches in its seven World Cup matches, the only team ever to control over 60 percent for an entire World Cup.

•The Netherlands had its worst-ever passing day in a World Cup match -- completing a paltry 69 percent of its passes. Since 1966, the Dutch had completed fewer than 75 percent of their passes just twice.

•The goals per game finished at 2.27, just ahead of the 2.21 at the 1990 World Cup, the lowest of all time. Goals per game in the knockout stage of this World Cup were 2.75, the best since 1998 (2.81).

[cured]

by the way, there's good discussion/commentary on the match over at BigSoccer.com, a great place to talk about the game if you can get over the name

http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/blog.php?b=9531

[//\/\/]

Originally Posted by BrotherLovesDub

you mean sports where the athletes aren't diving/crying pussies who play for a tie?

indeed. ones where they're not covered in armour in case they get a scwatch on their weg...

[Jason Roth]

[BrotherLovesDub]

Originally Posted by //\/\/

indeed. ones where they're not covered in armour in case they get a scwatch on their weg...

American football players NEVER fake injury. They get hit every single play. The pads make sense. Soccer players wear shin pads but one tiny touch to their foot and they roll around on the ground like their leg has been bitten off by an alligator. Put them in full pads if it means they'll stop faking injury and wasting time.

Just admit that your precious footballers are a bunch of faking, whining, pussies.

[Jason Roth]

Originally Posted by BrotherLovesDub

Just admit that your precious footballers are a bunch of faking, whining, pussies.

Thanks, Italy!

[BrotherLovesDub]

Also, play stops all the time and then some time gets added on arbitrarily. If someone would be in charge of stopping/starting the clock after celebrations, arguments and fake injuries, the game could be played 90mins without some bullshit 'stoppage time'.

[BrotherLovesDub]

Basically, every argument about why football is a superior sport has been proven to be bullshit by this World Cup.