And it is finally over. Fortunately, Spain took home the prize and gave a little bit of beauty to this tragic tournament. As a synthesis of it, the final was a really bad display of football. Hopefully, next time in Brazil we get more “samba” to it.
But, of course, there were those players that tried their best and produced some moments. Among then, I’d like to highlight the following: Read the rest of this entry »
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Hello! Thought that it would be nice to make an analysis of how both Spain and Netherlands got to this surprising final. Will try to point as well weakness of both teams, key players and their opponents strength. So, let’s roll!
Group Stage
Theoretically, the Dutch group was supposed to be far more difficult than the Spanish one but it proved to be as weak as the other. With Denmark, Japan and Cameroon, it was expected that this group had exciting matches and both qualifiers would be unpredictable. What it was showed instead, was a lost Denmark, a good Japan and a messy Cameroon. None was a real threat to the Dutch.
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Last post I wrote about the disappointment of “favourite” European nationals, being Germany the only one to save with a very good match against the Aussies. This time, not even them saved the day. Their lost to Serbia was pretty surprising and they actually fought hard to score, but they didn’t manage to put the ball in the net. In this case I believe it was more a matter of luck, since they deserved at least a draw.
England, and Italy had a hard time (again) and were lucky to draw their matches. England then, they escaped from being massacred by Algeria. With a little more organization, the Africans could have netted at least a couple shots. Spain won against the weak Honduras, but I have my doubts if they will be able to beat Paraguay in order to qualify.
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