What a day, what a game, what a victory!
Simply incredible, the turn around that we witnessed. A slow, ponderous Holland struggled in the first half, and were clearly lucky to get into half-time only one goal down. You had to fear for the the worst, as Brazil came out firing, and even by the 8th minute, were deservedly through following a simple through ball cutting apart the Dutch defence. This was the plodding Holland of games past, and it was clear that if nothing changed, they would finally get punished for it.
Sneijder was off it, RVP too, and Robben was at his most frustrating best, with his mazing runs being nothing better than mazy runs to nowhere.
1-0 at half time, and things didn't lok good. Still didn't look good 10 minutes after the re-start. And then, all of a sudden, from a nothing ball into the box, the until-then immense Julio Cesar and Felipo Melo contrive to gift the Dutch a goal. Totally un-Brazilian, and they seemed to come off worse for it. Shell-shocked, and they never looked the same after that.
The Dutch must've sensed it, as they upped the tempo finally and pressed forward. The Brazilians? Nowhere. From Kaka to Robinho, the best seemed to wilt with the equaliser.
Brazil - were remarkable, both in terms of their dismal efending in the lead up to both Holland goals, and in their response to the first. You could see it, and even feel it - the Brazilian deflation after the fiasco of letting in the softest of equalisers. From then, it was almost inevitable that they would let in a second, and again - defending. Sneijder, with miles of space right in front of goal, with a rare header.
Self-destruction is not something you would normally associate with the Brazilians, but shit, this was precisely what they had done. Felipe Melo adding to the joke with a pathetic stamp on Robben.
All in all, though, the Dutch showing up for half an hour did more damage than the Brazilians did in their better half and a bit. I'm glad to say things are looking super good for Holland. Tomorrow's going to be "Wear Your Orange Jersey" Day for me!
A word on the absolutely crap playing surface. It was bad the last game was played here, and it was unacceptable this time round. It was pathetic. It was almost Wigan, and there must be something said about how the slow, unpredictable surface made for painful watching, and also very difficult playing. Don't know if it was my imagination, but there were tired legs all over the place by the time Holland got their equaliser. Of course, the more tired legs seemed to be Brazilian.
I'm not even going to go into the Uruguay-Ghana game. What amazing drama right at the end. Suarez with a brilliant save (with his hands) in the last second and Gyan missing the penalty with the last kick of the game. Bizarre! Never quite seen anything like it.
At that point, you really couldn't see the poor Ghanaians picking themselves back up immediately. And while Gyan did the amazing thing by putting away the first penalty in the shoot-out, the eventually crumbled. It was sad to see. Ghana should rightly have gone through, but for the illegally denied goal.
Ah well. Suarez will miss the game v Holland. Perfect. And the gods will have their revenge.
There was some funny news today on Nigeria and FIFA (again). FIFA's becoming quite reliable as a source of entertainment. Merci beaucoup!
This time, it surrounds Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan's decision to ban the team for two years from international competition following their performance at the World Cup.
The response is classic. How I see the whole thing, in lay-man summary is like this:
Nigeria: We're banning the team for two years from international competition.
FIFA: That's political interference. You can't do that. You'd better rescind that. Or we're going to suspend you. Yes, we're serious. We will, you hear? You don't lift that ban, we're going to suspend you. Only we are allowed to suspend you, you can't suspend yourself, you hear!!??
Arseley Hole as always also provides some entertainment. There's that story about his text, talking about how he hates England and the people. Funny. Trust Arseley Hole to not realise that the "people" somehow includes him too.
But hey, the English people are nothing if not toughies, and I'm sure they'll deal with Hole as appropriate. Hey, you built him up, up to you bring him down too. So much for the Three Lions. Wonder how he felt during that photo shoot for M&S.
"I hate M&S. Stupid M&S. Stupid suits. Stupid people. Stupid place. I hate England!"
Alright. Nighty night.
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