Viva Espana!
I found the tactical battle intriguing, as Spain spent the first 45 minutes probing the opposition's well organised defence, only for Germany to actually look more dangerous when they had the opportunity to counter attack. In the 2nd half Spain upped their game & their football was a joy to watch, but still the Germans looked threatening when they could get the ball to Ozil & Klose.
In the end Spain's class told and Puyol's winner gave them a deserved victory, but Germany should feel very proud of their performance throughout the tournament. It was a fascinating battle last night, and I can't really see how anyone who loves the game could claim it to be dull - Spain's movement & passing was nothing short of outstanding and the fact the game remained on a knife-edge for so long, with so much at stake, meant it was never boring for me.
So it's Spain v Holland in the 2010 World Cup Final - I cannot wait! The Dutch will have seen that if you sit back against the European Champions then eventually they will wear you down (1-0 v Portugal, Paraguay & Germany), so they'll need to go for it and I think we'll see an open final. We also have Uruguay v Germany to play for 3rd/4th place, but I've always questioned the need for this play-off as it often feel like a glorified friendly, and I'd expect to see some squad players given a run out.
Anyway, in Fantasy terms I had another good round, with 100 points moving me towards to the Top 100 of the Blog League after sitting outside the Top 300 after Glastonbury. Not sure what changes I'll make for the final round yet, but It'll probably involve the loading of as many Spanish players as possible as I can only see them to winning it now.
Finally, good luck to JJOKBOB & LeoZabalet who face each other in the Blog League World Cup Final!
Cheers,
AM
29 comments:
i can hear crickets chirp it's been so quiet around here.
no way that match was boring.
i thought germany just played too deep and flat footed. there were multiple times where spanish players had all the space in the world right at the edge of the box. maybe winning 4-0 against argentina gave them too much psychological comfort. their tactics seemed totally different in the argentina match, seemed like they pressured really well against them.
anyway, should be a really exciting final..
i hope germany and uruguay play decent squads in the 3rd place match. I think Muller will play, and hopefully they'll give Klose a run out since it's his last world cup.
is it too early to start talking premier league?
@bean-give it to Sunday and then we can start talking EPL. ESPN has an article on Klose that he has picked up a knock and may miss the 3rd place game.
As I said in the last thread, and will say here again, since its at the top of thread, I really wish we would all refrain from taking players in the 3rd place game. This throws, imho, strategy to hell, but there is an opportunity for someone to rack up a lot of points by gambling on bench players, and getting a weird result. I really can see Germany up 4-0 with Muller getting a hat trick. His absence was the difference I think in Germany's loss. His presence while not necessarily leading to victory would have been good for a goal and more drama.
So I promise I will now shut up about the third place game.
That said, is there anyone here that will have a forward line different than Villa/RVP/Robben for the final and not have xavi/sniejder/inestia/? in the midfield. We are all going to field the same team-unless someone throws in Muller or Forlan from the 3rd place game. Don't see much movement in the table. Sorry AM I think you are stuck where you are.
cheers
Haha I also heard it was boring from friends, family, girlfriend but I was screaming and jumping the entire time. I had money at the start of the tournament on 2 teams. Holland and Spain. Now that both are in the final im ecstatic and I will have half litres of Carlsberg in my hand the entire time. Also I had money on Villa before the tournament started to finish top scorer. Hurray for money!
Bean im with you, already scouting fixtures and scanning transfers daily getting ready for the epl season. I think I have got 2-3 players picked haha.
and for the record I disagree with chrism...:) cheers
@chrism - i would love to have the entire spain and netherlands team, but i don't want to take the points hit after my 4 free transfers. so i'm stuck with a lot of germany/uruguay players, but have 6 from spain and 4 from netherlands. doesn't hurt to have some playing saturday, see how they do, or if they play, and then move on to the "real" match of the final.
here's what i have:
07/10
Muslera
M.Pereira,Lahm
A.Pereira,Rios
Muller(C),Klose
07/11
Casillas
Ramos,Capdevilla,VanDerWiel
Iniesta,Alonso,Sergio,Sneijder
Villa,Robben(C),Kuyt
i still think there's chance for differential even within the Dutch and Spanish sides, just because you can only select 3 or 4 in each position.
I'm hoping Xabi Alonso gets calibrated and puts a few of those chances he had on target this time..
I'm interested to see if Pedro gets the start again, or if Torres comes back. If Villa plays down the middle again as opposed out to the left, he may not get many points.
Think I'm trying Muller then Robben as captain
for me, german went with wrong tactic against spain and spain were in total control of the game and deserved to go through, it was good match in my eyes.
in the final i hope holland can beat spain, but im very concerned about the defence, i hope for a great game, but i think both will caucious and i hope for a early goal for one team.
i think both uruguay and germany want the third place, it's for the honor and i think they will play their best players, because germans need experience ang uruguay has gone so far and will try to win it.
i'm bringing in few germans, it might pay off.
ToffeeDave - I also plumped for Spain to win/ Villa top scorer double at the start of the competition, so I'm in for some pretty hefty winnings if he can add to his 5 goals in a Spain win on Sunday :)
yeah I have great odds as I bet early. Spain at 6-1 to win Dutch at 11-1 along with Villa who I got for roughly 8-1. Great odds considering where everything stands right now. Oh hey I've started a blog of my own its gonna be on betting and fantasy epl stuff, not so much players though but correct picks and outcomes.
@ Bean:
Captain Klose on the first day! he's still looking for that goal to tie Ronaldo!
I feel like if the Dutch win it will be Kuyt scoring the winner!
Klose has a back problem..maybe he won't play ?
http://www.skysports.com/football/world-cup-2010/story/0,27032,12023_6253585,00.html
I actually support Holland in the final, and not just because I want them to win, but also because I want spain to lose. I don't like their style as it's very arrogant in my opinion - they're always playing as if they are leading by 2 goals, even when they're losing. Someone wrote after the match against Germany that during the first half they seemed to do nothing but try and break an impossible record of ball possesion by passing the ball from one to another with no purpose what so ever.
They had a very easy way to the semi-finals - they had the easiest group after Italy's, and were very lucky that Chile beat Honduras only 1-0, because if they had beaten them by more they would have had a better GD than Spain, and Spain would have met Brazil in the first round. Instead they met poor Portugal (beated them by a goal that was scored from an offside position) and weak Paraguay (beated them after conceding a goal that was clearly legal, and after Paraguay missed a penalty). I actually think the reason the beat Germany was the low speed of their attacks, because they attacked so slowly that when Germany won the ball back they couldn't break with a counter attack as they were still 4-5 Spain players defending.
But the main reason I want Spain to lose is the media. I don't really know how it is in other places, but since last year the Isreali media fell in love with Spain and Barcelona. Now, every time Spain or Barcelona win a game, they are the rulers of the planet no matter how small was the opposition or the win, and when they lose it's always the fault of the referee, the pitch, the crowd or the defensive style of the oppositon, because we all know "there isn't a way to break bunkers". Just for an example - when Inter qualified to the CL final after defending for about 85 minutes, the reporters were so angry at Mourinho and co for ruining the beautiful game and stealing the deserved win from Barcelona. They have easily forgot that the same Barcelona won the same cup by beating Chelsea with a much worse show of justice as Chelsea deserved about 4 penalties throughout the game.
So for the sake of healthy football and healthy media, that will finally get what it deserves, I will support Holland in the final, as they were the far better side in this World Cup compared to Spain.
SF
SF theyre style isn't arrogant at all, it's in fact the most defensive style possible. Spain play a brilliant 4-2-3-1 system which relies on them holding the ball as much as possible. With Spain in possession how can the other team score? Spain keep the ball, pass it around, tiring out the opposition by making them chase the ball while they stand and reap the benefits later in the second half. Is it any coincidence that Spain score most if not all their goals(as i remember) in the second half? Spain are simply fresher at this point in the match and thats why when Spain substitute attacking players late in the game, they are so much more effective. I will be cheering for Holland to win, but Spain are most definately favourites.
Hey A.M. I was hoping you could show me some love and get the word out that my new betting blog is up and running. http://toffeedave.blogspot.com/2010/07/welcome.html would be much appreciated as I know some fellow gamblers are in here as regulars. Cheers.
Wow, what a match between Germany vs Uruguay. I think Forlan is the best player in this 2010 WC.
Captain Klose but...
great first day.. got a decent 59 points with me climbing up few position in my private league and up to 36 in AM league.. now the big question for today is about my strikers villa and kuyt.. got both of them to play today but my current strikers is forlan(9), suarez(8) and muller(capt-18).. very tempted to play and capt villa because i got a feeling spain gonna beat netherlands and villa will be in the scoresheet today.. any thoughts?..
Asher_MaXTeN
A M w t f
this is the hardest match to ever predict!
Sadly, I predict boredom and penalties.
Spain can't seem to score more than one goal and the dutch have conceeded very few goals and a couple of those were in garbage time at the end of the game. I would love to see a game similar to the Urg v Ger or Bra vs Net games which were the best so far but I see it going more along the lines of Por vs IvC
Also, I'm happy to be proved wrong on this one!!!!
@ maxer. I did the same thing and had Muller at captain and Forlan. I have either Robben, Villa, or RVP to put in. I am going to stick with the pts from Muller and Forlan. And choose Robben. Just a hunch, but I have picked the Dutch from day one, and I think Van Bommel is just going to kick the crap out of Villa today.
thanks chrism.. i've made up my mind and sticking with what i got now.. villa and kuyt will remain sideline for my team because i think that both team will be playing very extra careful today and some key players might will be heavily guarded by their oponents.. but i do have stkelenburg, heitiga, mathjisen, sneijder, puyol and sergio to play today..
anyway, good luck to everyone for this final game.. and see u all for the final discussion tommorow before the EPL season.. cheersssss.. :p
Asher_MaXTeN
chism, i did the same thing, i kept forlan and muller and brought in robben, instead of villa.
3-2 holland wins. spain gets goals from pedro and villa, the dutch get goals from sneijder, van persie and robben
the bitter thing is that it had to be iniesta to get it. he should have been expelled for his retaliation on van bommel. the announcers, down here, in brasil are very pro spain and they even agreed that he should have been thrown out. only the dutch lose under mitigating circumstances. elia is brought down outside the box and no call, then spain race down, get a lucky deflection then bury it. bitter
damn...was hoping the dutch could win it, but no :/
after 90 minutes both had good chances, spain was better in extra-time and deserved to win, one-goal wonderboy goes two, celebration was a deja vu.
damn you robben, should've scored :/
forlan golden ball winner
müller golden boot winner.
forlan win was deserved 100%, for me also best player of the world cup, goal against germany favourite goal of the tournament, along with bronckhorst screamer.
A little gloating. 622 pts. # 17 in the AM league. 4102 of 907,406 overall, and what i really like, 146 in the US. Key was as noted above, keeping the pts from Muller (capt) and Forlan. Had Iniesta. Bingo.
@ Bean now we can start talking EPL
I think this outcome keeps my rep intact.
chrism
velvet underground allstars
that was a disappointing match. i guess we should always expect the final to be so, but was hoping for an early goal to open the match up a bit. i really don't think either team deserved to win, lots of terrible fouls, terrible calls by webb, lots of diving, and not a whole lot of going for it..
pretty funny that torres pulls a hammy after about 10 min of play.
on to the EPL is right chrism, should be an interesting flurry of transfers coming up here.
anyway, see you guys in the comments here and elsewhere..
so the door is closed for South Africa 2010 WC.. congrats to the guy who won the car.. :p..
next up.. the EPL.. anybody knows any fantasy game with prizes?.. with so many followers, i think yahoo should make one.. :p
Asher_MaXTeN
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