Monday 12 July 2010

Well done Spain. Shame on Holland

I wore an orange shirt and for the first time supported a national team other than England. This morning it's difficult to talk objectively about the way Holland played the game. Most Dutch people will admit that Spain were the better side, but they prefer to blame Webb for giving a goal kick to Spain, from which they started the move that led to the goal and for sending Heitinga off and not Puyol. They don't want to hear that Holland tried to kick Spain out of the game, or that De Jong and van Bommel should have received red cards. De Jong's assault was shocking. Webb was on a hiding to nothing - it's not possible to control a team that only wants to foul. Fair enough to recognise that you can't beat Spain by trying to out pass them, but this was not the way to do it.

6 comments:

  1. I was astonished by the violence exercised by Holland. I haven't seen anything like this for quite a while... And Van Bomel and De Jong shouldn't have finished the first half, let alone the second. I read what the Dutch coach complained bitterly about the ref, but... I'm involved in the match and everything, but no fuckin' way. Yeah, it should have been a corner, and instead he gave the ball to Spain and then we scored, but the rest of the match was...

    Anyway, WE ARE THE BLOODY CHAMPIONS!!! I can't believe it!

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  2. Didn't Holland have an even more bad-tempered match against Portugal at the last world cup?

    Given that anti-football can cancel out football to such an extent, I'd like to see draws being settled not with a penalty shoot-out but with a fair play decision based on the number of yellow and red card offences. That might go some way to removing some of the professional thuggery and giving real football the advantage. As it is, after getting a card out some 14 times in the game, the ref looks as though he'd been excessively lenient.

    That said, well done to Spain for a merited victory.

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  3. Ah yes, the Battle of Nuremburg...

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Nuremberg

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  4. Yeah, that match was impressively violent. But for both sides. Portugal were really hard too, so that's when it became a battle. This has been different, as I can see it...

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  5. From the fiver's readers' letters

    "I was on a date last night and my companion asked me if I wanted to 'go Dutch' on a restaurant bill. So I raked my studs down her chest, harangued the maƮtre d' and then left in tears"

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  6. I read it and I couldn't stop laughing

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