Again, the Dutch never seemed to be at 100% for any extended stretch of the game. It took one brilliant master-stroke from Gio van Bronckhorst to break the deadlock, and after that, Uruguay never really looked to have the class to threaten the Dutch. They did, however, have Diego Forlan, and the man as no doubt shown he is still one to watch on the world stage. You cannot mitigate against moments of 95% class, and 5% goalkeeping dodginess, and you had to accept that Uruguay deserved it.
Second half, and the Dutch again were looking comfortable but unspectacular. Of course, up stepped Sneijder who with his usual mix of class and luck, managed to find the net with a dribbly effort. RVP looked decidedly non-plussed that he didn't get his toe to it. Lucky there, yes, but Robben's third was as classy as Gio's. With his head too. Not bad at all.
From then, they really should've added a fourth - with the best chance coming to Robben right at the end. That's when things started to get iffy. In my mind, it started with Robben getting substituted in the 90th minute and looking like the game had already been won. I mean, yes, soak it in, but I think it did the team no good to be strolling and grinning to themselves with the Uruguay team still on the pitch.
So it happened - a goal to get things really dodgy in the 92nd minute. And the extra minute and a half of added time played didn't help. Van Marwijk's gonna have to knock a few heads together to get that out of the way for Sunday.
Full credit to Uruguay too - but you had to feel that this was probably it, and the team knew it. With no Suarez, quality was lacking - but they more than made up for it in terms of graft. Hats off, but it's now Europe all the way through to the finals and the eventual winners. Who would've though going into the final 16 right?
I was just having a think about the many things I like about the Dutch team. And you know what? Here's one:
Tonight's starting 11: Not a single player who plays in Spain. In fact, you take the entire squad, and methinks only van der Vaart can claim the honour of being paid by Real Madrid. Pretty clean if you asked me.
And what more - Germany. Not a single player in the entire 23 plays in Spain too. Sweet. You always knew who I'd be rooting for in tomorrow's semi-final anyway.
So, with the semi-finals out of the way, the next step: finals. But before that, the dudes have gotta go get themselves a hotel. Uh-huh. No hotel booking it seems. Booked till the 5th. How stupid is that? Anyways, I'm sure Brazil freed up some rooms. And Spain probably will too.
On the Arse front: Barca have reportedly refused to cough up the 50 million quid we've supposedly asked for Cesc. Well, first, I don't think we'd have asked for that. But if we did, and they really have refused it, then perfecto. FOAD too. Unfortunately, don't think there'll be any FO-ing nor any D-ing involved here. There'll be more to come.
Next report's going to be on Iniesta and his conversations with Cesc standing by the urinals.
Our spending spree (ha!) on defenders continues with some dude called Serdar Tasci. Sounds like a disease. Anyhows.
Back at the Emirates, the Arse are back at training. All sorts of nice and distubing pictures abound. First, Samir Nasri looks more and more like someone I could like. Must be nice hanging out in London, away from all the you-know-whos. And Chamakh too. Jack Wilshere's back training at home at least. And Kieran Gibbs isn't covered in plaster cast, which is good.
But alas. There's Almunia. Saw Mannone too. But get this. No Fabianski. No sir. This is real Sovietology, I tell you. Checking out who appears in what photo. No Fabianski. There's even Sczezecezeny. Maybe he was just getting the water. Oh yeah. There's Theo training too. With his ear-stud on. Typical English muppet.
Ciao then. More happiness tomorrow, hopefully.
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