They think it's all o-Vlaar, it is now!
10/07/14 03:05
Day 22 in the Footcall house...
The day after the night before (brace yourselves folks there could be a gratuitous amount of puns in this report), what can I say after last night's German Lord Mayor's Show, this performance was most definitely in need of a little blue pill to get this semi motivated! What a difference a day makes in the World Cup schedule, the ink was barely dry from the column inches written (mostly by me) about how wonderfully Germany dismantled the Brazilians and us pundits wanted to see how The Netherlands got on against Argentina. Well that's just fish n' chip paper now and the true Footcallers were waiting in pensive anticipation to see how two of the players of the tournament, Robben and Messi were going to stack up against each other, surely it would never be as good as last night?
Well in word; No!
It was about as far from being a comparable as Blackpool is to Las Vegas! That's not to say that, like Blackpool, this match wasn't without a certain charm or quality. Mr Messi had a free kick in the first half saved by keeper Cillessen and fast forward 91 minutes of pretty dull stalemate footy and Robben could have sealed it for Holland as he broke through into the box. Not for the first time in the game was the Dutch attack snuffed out by Mascherano who was arguably the man of the match despite being momentarily knocked out in a head to head collision.
Into extra time loomed (just what we needed) and this game was really proving to be one for the purists. Last night I couldn't keep up with the texting as the Wagon Wheels fell off the Brazilians, twenty-four hours later my O2 daily text quota was, just like the Argentinian goal mouth, never under threat! However Higuain went close for the Argies although I might have been dozing through that, I probably even dreamt it. Fortunately I had a supply of Stroopwafels to keep me going in support of Holland but couldn't source any Argentinian confectionary so I just opted for a Tunnock's Tea Cake. Time was running out and as much as I'd like to say it was a game of two halves it felt like one long never ending episode of Triangle! I certainly never remember Jossy's Giants being this boring.
If you had told me there would be eight goals in the two semi-finals I would have got all excited at the prospect of a thrilling two all draw and a maybe an exciting three one. Little did we know all the goals would come in the one effing match. So if you were still awake, it was crystal meth time once again... penalties (or pen-arl-tees, if you're Fabio Cannavaro) and this time van Gaal had blown all his subs on outfield players so poor ol Timmy Krul had to sit on the bench and watch Cillessen man the barricades. This really could go either way and neither team had really done enough to deserve the place in the final.
Any football manager will tell you, the first rule of spot kicks is get your goals in first and put the pressure on your opponents. Well van Gaal likes to do things his own way as he sent up right back Ron Vlaar. Maybe now was the time for a hero once more and yet again but that was not the man in orange but the be-gloved man between the posts, namely, Sergio Romero. The Argentinian keeper saved the first penalty (it wasn't that good if we're being honest) and the pendulum of pressure swung the way of the blue and white stripes.
The Argie manager did not Messi about as he put his captain up front to enforce their dominance. A lovely strike made the net bulge for the first time in the match and we were underway. Next up was Arjen Robben, unquestionably the Dutch player of the tournament, who looked cooler than a Jaffa Cake in the chiller cabinet as he slotted it left footed in the right hand corner from the shortest run up since Socrates for Brazil '82. Garay put the Argies two one up with net buster and then Wesley Sneijder failed at the hands of Romero - I think Wesley Snipes could have made a better effort!
Now the Dutch were really under the gun and this was compounded as Aguero made it three one. Dirk Kuyt got one back from Holland and as Cillessen looked longingly at his helpless colleague on the bench, Maxi Rodriguez stepped up to put the tin lid on it. The keeper got his gloves on it but just wasn't strong enough to stop it slipping through.
Queue the Argentinian celebrations, Romero was the rock and he certainly played a lot better in yellow shirt than anyone did last night. Now they set up a rematch of the 1990 final (a real shocker if my memory serves me right) against their old adversaries, Germany. Let's hope it reflects the dynamism of the former semi not the latter.
I guess there is one thing to be thankful for, this match wasn't on BBC. If it had been, we would have had to endure Phil Neville's sparkling commentary for 130 minutes and I think I may have slipped into a coma!
And so to the Footcall league...
Stuart Acott has kept his clean sweep going and still leads Matt Clark by a solitary point. Dan Wilks is hanging in there as too is Amaia Borges Clark (Matt's daughter in case you were wondering). Richard Goodwin has bobbed back up again and Jack (the Beast) Wakefield and David (I told my Mum I'd be good at football one day) Ginger are in the money bracket.
Mark Paver has just appeared from outta nowhere as too has Mike (Footcall noob) Davies. John (hey Neil I'm in 19th) Dawson, Gary Thorp, Alex Smith and Paul (yes it's about time I had a mention) Firmston have all performed impressively over the semis. Rachel (I'm off on holiday don't you know) Rowland has not dropped a single point in the KO Stages nor has Harry (yo Daz, where is you at?) Whitehouse, Andy Booth, Keith (wasn't I in 182nd two weeks ago) Reynolds and Tony (I still believe, just not sure what in) Gardner.
Now we have the pointless third place playoff where Brazil will face Holland, maybe FIFA will make it an under 11s match with rush goalie? Even in Footcall terms this is literally pointless as there is nothing riding on it.
The big one is just left for us to savour on Sunday night, the final. It's worth a whopping eight Footcall league points and it will decide our winner for 2014, can Stuart hang on to the top spot, don't ask me, I can't bear to look!
Until Sunday,
David