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!