Okay, maybe that too.
Have they announced the referee for tomorrow’s game? Let’s hope it’s not the Spaniard from Brazil-Colombia.
Nicola Rizzola. Matches were Spain vs Netherlands, Argentina vs Nigeria, and Argentina vs Belgium. So this will be the third time he referees the Argentina team.
.
I think the ref is now actively trying to get a holiday in 4 years time; it is difficult to get every single decision wrong.
ps He isn’t favoring any team in particular, he is just very, very wrong… pretty much all the time. So happy he isn’t deciding who wins the whole thing.
Nicola Rizzoli, it should be.
3-0 for The Netherlands, at the 90th minute.
Ow. The Brazilians must be hurting right now…
Second goalie substitution this tournament. I can’t believe we’re beating Brazil 3-0 and I don’t feel particularly exhilarated about it.
So true, it seemed like an easy game. First time a squad has used all 23 players during a tournament!
ps also imprressive as Holland (we) had 1 day less to recover and played two extra-time games, opposed to Brazil being done in 90 minutes.
Apparently that keeper is the only player on the roster that hadn’t played in a WC game. I think that’s a good move.
I imagine that after this debacle in their last two games, the Brazilians are going to give a long, hard look at their soccer structures and the way they play.
It feels as if the Brazilians had been “coasting” on their reputation for a while, and this has ended up biting them in the ass…
Do not want to be in the shoes of the Manager of Brazil.
Well, Scolari already won one World Cup. Sure, he’s going to be fired immediately, but you still have to respect his past accomplishments.
The only way this game could have been worse is if it went an extra 30 minutes.
Pshaw. When Chuck Norris heard that Mascherano was infringing on his territory of biggest badass in the world, he tore him a new asshole with his bare hands. Literally.
OK folks, the game is over so it’s now Silly Hypothetical Time.
It seems pretty clear, to me at least, that the referee made two separate fuck-ups on the foul that led to Holland’s first goal. The foul occurred outside the area, so it should have been a free kick instead of a penalty kick. And because Robben would clearly have been alone against the keeper, the Brazilian defender should have been given a red card, and not a yellow.
OK, so imagine this scenario: You’re Brazil, and this game is really important to you. Would you prefer that the referee got both of those decisions right, or both of them wrong?
That is, would you prefer to concede a penalty, but keep all 11 men on the field (which is what happened in the game), or would you prefer to concede a free kick and lose a player for 87 minutes?
Basically, what’s worse in an important game? Going down 1-0 after three minutes, or losing a player after three minutes?
I would think one leads to the other. If Holland played longer games and had less time to recover, it’s more likely that they went through more of their squad, but not more impressive for that reason. It may be impressive for other reasons.
Except that that’s not really what happened.
Trying to decide if Djamel Haimoudi eclipsed Carlos Velasco Carballo for worst referee performance of the tournament. That 2nd minute decision was completely awful. There is no way in hell that was only a yellow, Thiago Silva should have been sent off every day of the week for clear DOGSO (denial of goal scoring opportunity). I suppose you could argue PK instead of FK if you thought the holding continued into the box, which I’m not sure it did, but that’s a red either way. The yellow on Oscar for diving was a penalty, and it seemed that he was so convinced that Robben was diving every time he went down that he didn’t even bother to contemplate the idea that there might have been actual fouls, which there were. Robben was getting hacked to bits.
Really awful performance.
What really happened?
I think it was any 2 goals or more lead at halftime, not just 2-0. That’s quite a remarkable stat.
Here’s a semi-related question: In World Cup play, what percentage of the time does the team that scores the first goal win the game?