World Cup 2010 Final - Holland vs Spain

After the exciting 3rd/4th place game, many people were looking forward to the finals hoping for better game and excitement. Unfortunately that was not meant to be, what we got was a game of pure aggression. In the end the right team won. Spain got the cup with their usual 1-0 score.

Spain played their usual short but quick passing game. The quirky Jabulani ball really suited the Spanish gameplay. To play against Spain, three strategies can be used.
One is pure defense and then strike Spain during counter attack as was shown by Switzerland. The other strategy is aggressive football where every ball is fought over and no space is given to the Spanish players. This was shown excellently by Paraguay, who nearly won the game against Spain. This strategy requires a lot of stamina and strong upper bodies to wrestle the ball away from the Spanish players without committing hard tackles.

Another strategy is to use long passes across the field, which is quite popular in English football. This strategy is not recommended since the Jabulani ball is difficult to predict for long passes as was evident throughout the championship.

The wily Dutch used another strategy - controlled violence. This strategy requires the expectation that the referee will be inclined to keep same number of players in the field for both sides for the game. The strategy worked. The Dutch managed to rattle the Spanish game and managed to be dangerous in the later parts of the game.

The Dutch also used similar strategies against Brazil especially in the second half of the game and managed to escape caution from the referee.

The game was ugly to watch. There was so many fouls committed. Initially it was the Dutch who did most of the fouls but soon the exasperated Spanish followed suit. The karate kick given to Xabi Alonso deserved a red card but the perpetrator escaped with only a yellow. The referee had a hard nite but did admirably for most of the game. It was impossible for the ref to look after the game if one side is determined to foul no matter what the consequence.

The game would have gone to penalties if not for the strange substitution of Giovanni Van Bronkhorst, who was the best player in the Dutch team. After he was out, the Dutch defense turned into a joke.

It was the comedic multiple pinball clearance by the Dutch defense that handed the ball to Cesc Fabregas who nicely passed it to the onside Iniesta to score the decisive goal. The Dutch have themselves to blame for this and instead went after all the officials on the field.

The football authorities should come up with a new foul card - ideally orange in color - to commemorate the ugly game provided by the Dutch. This card will be in between the yellow and red card and will force the player who received it to be out of the game for 15 minutes or so. This will reduce the burden of referees who may be unwilling to spoil a game by giving a red card early on.

So congratulations to Spain for winning the 2010 tournament. The Dutch should go back to the drawing board and relearn the beautiful football they have created but abandoned in this World Cup.

World Cup 2010 - 3rd/4th Placing - Germany vs Uruguay

What an exciting game this was! Both teams have nothing much to lose except for pride and they showed it with an attack based strategies. In the end though, the Germans were slightly better than the South Americans with a 3-2 result.

From the start the Germans attacked while the Uruguayans defended lightly. Early on, the Germans put the ball in to the opposition net but was declared offside, which does not seem to be the right call. The Uruguayans also had a chance to score from a free kick twice but Diego Forlan could not convert that into a goal.

The Germans struck soon after with a goal from Thomas Muller, who had a lucky bounce off the Uruguayan goalie from a thundering shot from Schweinsteiger. The Uruguayans picked up their game after this goal and they were rewarded a goal before half time.

After the break, both team came storming into the field with the Germans taking the early initiative but it was Uruguayans who struck first. Diego Forlan hit a wonderful shot into goal to get them up 2-1 in the 51st minute.

The Germans then struck back 5 minutes later. Jansen headed in the ball when the Uruguayan goalie mistimed his clearance. Both team now played more aggressively with the Germans rekindling their style which got them so far in this tournament. They finally struck again in the 81st minute when Sami Khedira headed in a arcing header from a melee in the Uruguayan goal area.



Forlan could have leveled the score in the final minute of the game but the free kick he took hit against the top post and hence ended the game with a victory to the Germans.

World Cup 2010 - End of Semi-finals

So we have the two teams for the finals of the World Cup this Sunday in South Africa. Both Holland and Spain were deserving of their places in the finals. Their losing opponent were actually lost just by one goal and could have had their places in the final if luck served them on their semi-finals.

The Holland-Uruguay game tilted in the favor of Holland in the first part of the game. Only when Uruguay was down by 3-1, did they suddenly rise their games to be slightly better than Holland's and looked very dangerous. If there was another 5 minutes or so, Uruguay would have levelled and the game would have gone into extra-time. But Holland kept their nerve and deserved their victory.

Germany on the other hand played a very measured and respectful game with Spain, almost like a training game. There were almost no tackles of any sort in the first half and Germans were happy just to defend. Spain on the other hand looked imperious but the German strategy seemed to work since after the close probes of the earlier parts of the game, Spain were left to firing blanks from long distance.

For some reason, Germans did not have the confidence of their earlier games. Their passing was weak and not accurate, as if players forgot their movement strategies in the field. They also sorely missed the brilliant run of Mueller on the right. The game itself was lacked any fast action but was quite mesmerizing to watch the passes of the Spain against the blocks of Germany.

So in the end, the German-Spain game was decided by a rude header by Puyol, the most German of the Spanish players, quite ironic!