England need to take a lesson from the Greeks in how to defend. That was some impressive stuff, even if France have looked a shade of their '98/'00 winning side all tournament.
Oh, and thanks Dex.
Well, it is quite likely that I won’t be back here again before Saturday’s match. I’ll restrain myself from any cheese names in the interest of sportswomanlike behavior (e.g., staying on Dex’s good side).
Coldie, et al Dutchfolk…may the best men win.
But lest you think that means I’m not 100% behind Sweden tomorrow, let me inform you that my mother-in-law is originally from Holland. 
Hmm…is “mother-in-law” against any board rules? 
So is there anyone here who doesn’t think it’s going to be a Holland vs. Czech Republic final? With the Czechs kicking dutch butt?
Yes, I’ll go for Sweden to win tonight.
ruadh, Why you Kerrygold Dubliner-cheese eating leprechaun, , we’ll see about that**!**
gouda [you Paneer eating …umm…gouda?] I wish. I don’t mind losing from the Czechs. To me, they are the true sportsmen of this year. But there are still the Blue Castello eating Danish and ofcourse the Vadenost eating Swedes.
I’m getting hungry.
Aha, did she ever fool you, gum! Ruadh’s actually a processed cheese eatin’ liberator monkey in a leprechaun suit. 
Lily, hope you enjoy the match - it’s going to be a tight one I think. May the best team win indeed! That’s us, you see.
Seriously - I’m looking forward to it. Two attacking teams, both with great strikers - it ought to be another treat.
gouda, you have the same predictions as me. Dutch-Czech final, with the latter winning. Given that the Dutch are the opponent, the match will probably be decided on penalties. That’s the historically accurate way for Holland to get kicked out of tournaments.
Actually, today I was eating Charleville cheese.
Not much attacking to be seen up to now though. I sure hope Oranje can at least score once before the end of the match and extra time, because penalties can be kind of a traumatic experience for the Dutch. 
Coldfire, she is? My apologies, ruadh. May the Charleville become you.
Mycroft, the TV is on, but I’m doing the “LA LA LA” thing - with my fingers in my ears. I believe I’m a jinx, you know. *Not * watching might help.
Does Advocaat want to win this game?
La La La La La La La -:eek:-
What a lousy way to lose. Sorry about that, Sweden.
…but…Woooooooooooo. :o) :o) :o)
Can we dispense with the spoiler tags now? I honestly believe we’d be doing anyone who was planning to watch this game later a favour.
There are some 0-0 games that are quite exciting, unfortunately this wasn’t one of them. Not that that matters I suppose if you progress to the next round.
Congratulations Holland.
Thanks, Low Key. I’m sorry it had to be this way - there are more heroic ways to win, or indeed lose a match. The minute it went to penalties, I pretty much gave up. I mean, we ALWAYS lose on penalties. It’s as sure as gravity and taxes.
Pretty psyched that we advanced, of course - I think on the whole, we were better than the Swedes, but certainly by no big margin. We got lucky a few times in the second half of ET, with the post and the bar being benevolent factors. Then again, we hit the post too, and then there was that chaos ball Van Nistelrooij almost put in. The disallowed goal Ruud scored, luckily, was indeed a case of offside - albeit by a mere 10 cm’s, but that’s enough.
The Swedes and the Dutch defended very well, today. Too bad that doesn’t make for a very fruitful match, goalwise. On the offense, I’d say that’s where we were marginally better.
It’s a horrible way to lose, Sverige - you had a great tournament, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching your play.
Portugal on Wednesday. Semi-Finals - I did not believe we could make it this far, on June 12th. It’s going to be another thriller, pretty much the clash between individual talent and regained confidence on the one hand, and individual talent and home advantage on the other. I have no clue as to how this one will develop, but I think it’s going to go down to the wire again.
I thought it was a pretty good match eventhough it ended without a goal. Holland did better in the 1st half though Sweden looked dangerous on the breaks and in extra time. Phew! This tournament has been pretty wild. It’s so far produced more drama than Euro 2000, IMHO.
Shall we say now that the monkey is off Holland’s back now as far as penalty kicks are concerned? (When was the last time Holland won in a penalty shootout in a competitive match?)
Robben is IMHO the man of the match (a couple of dives notwithstanding ;)).
In my (perhaps tainted) recollection, we’ve NEVER won a penalty shoutout. It’s probably less dramatic than that, but penalty shoutouts meant the end of our EC 2000, WC 1998, EC1996, and EC 1992 campaigns. That’s a LOT in a mere 12 years, given that we even failed to qualify for one world cup.
So yeah, everyone’s now talking about how the spell has been broken, and that we can indeed win on penalties now.
I’d say Van der Sar is the man of the match, much like Ricardo was on Thursday. 
I just wish there were a better way to decide these matches, rather than using penalties. They are a terrible way to lose, and not really a great way to win. In any case, it was a solid match by both teams, and it’s good to see Holland finally break their bad luck with penalties.
Originally posted by ruadh
Did you get heartburn from that Charleville cheese?
Low Key, thank you. I think there was no ‘better’ team. Just luck.
borschevsky, I agree about the penalty shoot-outs. Can you imagine what a player must feel when he misses, or when the ball gets stopped? I know: They make lots of money, but still; it must be a shitty feeling when you kick the ball à là Beckham.