itsbeautifuloutside

Match Report

Which teams will turn up here? The Holland team that slaughtered Spain in the Group matches or that which was held 0-0 by Costa Rica? Argentina have had their drab moments and have relied on flashes of brilliance from Messi. Pre-match, Holland appear full of confidence, as usual; Argentina, believe that Messi will make the difference that will get them through to the final.

With so much at stake, I don’t suppose that it was a surprise that both teams didn’t want to lose the match, but this was at the expense of not looking to win it, so a drab affair with little or no goal action was the result. A mis-directed shot from Sneijder, a Messi free-kick hit straight at Cillesen and Garay miss were about all the excitement in the first half. Well, that and the sight of a dazed Mascherano after a pretty severe clonk on his head!

The second half wasn’t any better; after the goal-fest of Germany and Brazil the previous night this match was a real anti-climax. If you wanted to look for some clever play you had to concentrate on the defensive play, notably Vlaar, Mascherano (once his head cleared), De Jong (shackled to Messi at times) before he was subbed by Classie and, of course, Zabaleta. Little or nothing happening with the ball gave this watcher a chance to see how teams operating at this level use movement off the ball to drag their opponents around and so make space for teammates.

Messi was, mainly, a disappointment it has to be said. But he wasn’t the only one. Having seen all of the Argentine games in the tournament, I thought that this was the most cohesive their defence had looked all month - they brought Palacio and Aguero on with ten minutes of normal time remaining to add some guile and hope to their attack but with no success. RVP was a disappointment too, Robben only threatened occasionally - once drawing a marvellous tackle from Mascherano. But overall a very disappointing 90 minutes with few redeeming features.

30 minutes of extra time didn’t improve matters - Palacio could have scored, so could Rodriguez and Kuyt too; but they weren’t edge of the seat misses; just predictably dull, off-target, weak or shambolic attempts.

And so to penalties; Vlaar and Sneijder missed for Holland but it would be harsh to blame them for the Dutch defeat; Holland hadn’t managed a shot on target for 120 minutes of the match. Van Gall pondered on the fact that he taught Romero how to face penalties when they were both at AZ Alkmaar; newspapers reported on how two Argentinian supporters had died watching the match in their home towns. The match itself wasn’t likely to make any headlines.

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