I don’t have ties to either of these countries, but I’m routing for Spain. Better food, wine, and climate. Not to mention the Spanish legacy in CA.
Watching on the Spanish language channel, too. Much better announcers.
Wow, that should have been a straight red. No doubt about it.
That’s gotta hurt!
Dutch were lucky to get away with a yellow card there; as Efan Ekoku said, it probably should have been a red on De Jong.
One thing i think that FIFA should really crack down on, though, is the way that players mob the referee whenever there’s any sort of incident, trying to intimidate him into giving (or not giving) a card. I think players who do this should be carded.
I’ve seen worse in MLS. In the New England - Real Salt Lake game Espindola of RSL straight up headbutted a NE player and only got a yellow.
Haven’t seen either team play so it’s hard to root for one but Spain is playing a better zone and also look like a bunch of pansies so I’m conflicted.
Does anyone know where I can see the match online? (I’m in the US.) Thanks so much.
If you have a TV, it’s on ABC.
Depends how the ref sees it. He stopped short of kicking him in the head. It was a hard call to make.
World soccer is certainly not as aggressive as when I played it in the US. Not having anything to do with this call but if you touched the ball with your foot first you could pretty much cut your opponent in half. If you weren’t bleeding at the end of the game you weren’t playing it right. Nobody on the teams I played on wore shin guards.
Very ugly game so far.I wanted to scream:“Hey boys, this is the fucking world cup final. Play some football!”
Not a great half but at least there were two serious shots at goal which is probably more than the 90 and 94 finals combined.
Appreciate it.
Just in time for halftime.
I’m a football newbie here, and I’m really confused about a play in the first half - the Spanish keeper had almost let a ball bounce in over his head (luckily it went wide). Netherlands got a corner, and their guy just tapped it to the Spanish keeper, and the announcer called it good sportsmanship.
What happened there?
I’m at the Samsung store in Clumbus Circle and it seems to be mostly Spain fans. Watching on a gigantic ten by twenty foot screen, altho mostly I can see on the dozens of smaller but hider screens all around. Some idiot moved at halftime but he’s skinny and I can see around him. Got. BBC and you guys open on different windows here on the ops.
As for the game, looks like there’s a fight going on win soccer occasionally breaking out. Having no dog in this fight I’ll take Holland because they founded my beloved city, but their strategy is kicking their way out of the game. Fun atmosphere and people are largely behaving themselves around all the expensive Samsung toys.
Hup Holland Hup!!
When two teams are very good in all areas, it’s a battle at the limits which often doesn’t look pretty. It’s very tough. Dutch team is too eager and nervous, hopefully they calm down, and I hope van Bommel is exchanged for De Zeeuw. Kuyt is very nervous, and van Persie should only be in the field if van der Vaart is as well. If it continues like this they’ll lose, but I’ve seen them come inyo the second half better in so many games, they still have a good shot. If they don’t change one of the defenders with yellow though, I’ve seen that end badly too often.
The Dutch player was returning the ball to Spain after an injury, in keeping with the long standing sporting tradition. But he overhit it, and it bounced surprisingly high, causing Casillas to touch it out for a corner. Since the intention had merely been to return the ball to Spain, Van Persie sportingly rolled the corner straight to the keeper.
I don’t understand the defensive strategy of deflecting balls for a corner kick when outside the penalty box. The risk should be trading an attempt to regain the ball versus the threat of a corner kick. And I’m annoyed that goalies would kick the ball rather than pick it up and place it somewhere useful.
Wow, huge chance for Robben.
Wow, that was close!!!