I hope somehow Netherlands upsets the balance and win the final. Er.....no, ok let it be Spain only. Fine fine, its to be Argentina. What!? They have kicked out? Well then we will all cheer for Turkmenistan! Go you babies kick some ass.
Damn I am going bonkers:D

Hey Griff, Thats bloody good one! :rotflol:

Thanks.

Where is Lookouts breakdown on this game?

Not a great final but the better team won. Comparing them to the US side, we still have a serious skills gap but we are closing it. I missed the beginning of the game, I'm assuming the Spanish attack came out strong is why Netherlands went punk? I like good hard football but that means tough ball first tackles not cleats in the chest (final or not that's a red card). Nice goal play on both sides. Too much referee chatting for my taste, go play the best game you can within the confines of the way its being called.

Breakdown? Nah, too depressed to bother. That was a predictably horrible final. For the last few years I've supported Spain and Netherlands in international football. Mrs L thought we'd won the lottery when Spain won the Euro's in 08. Their flowing football is what dreams are made of most of the time, but imo they've become too cocky. They've slowed their play down too much and have basically just become a slow motion version of Barcelona. Eh Whatever.

Netherlands were the underdogs and the Dutch invented total football. I liked that over the last year they had continued playing their fast attacking game but had managed to set some of the egos aside and get a bit tougher as well. Unfortunately going into the final they decided they couldn't compete with Spain's passing unless they played physical and defense (how Inter beat Barca in the CL) but they failed to notice that van bommel and De Jong don't have the skills to play that game without getting carded. Van Marwiik got the tactics and line up wrong, imo.

Once Robin Van Persie received a yellow card (unwarranted imo) early in the game the die was cast. When you give a yellow for something that soft the ref MUST throw cards the rest of the game just to be consistent. netherlands had no chance of finishing the game with 11 players on the field. Between Webb(generally a poor attention whore ref) stopping play every 3 seconds, Van Bommel plowing through everyone, and Iniesta and a few other spanish players diving like the prima dona queens they've become the final was a painful game to watch. Exactly what the US budding enthusiasm did not need to continue growing.

Spain was by far the better team but Puyols should have been red carded early in the first half for his two footed studs up lunge, and Iniesta could have seen red for retaliatory shove and certainly should have seen a couple of yellows for his playacting and general cuntishness. I've never wished ill on a player but I'd have a hard time feeling bad if someone were to snap Andres Iniesta in half in Barca's season opener.

Ah, well it's all over now. Germany were the best team in the tournament but their youth were a bit intimidated by Spain early in their game and they lost out to a more talented, less cohesive Spanish side.

Have I mentioned yet that Iniesta is a worthless piece of shit who should be cuntpunted every hour on the hour for the next 25 years? I don't like him much and this game just reinforced my distaste.

I understand that fouls can be useful by breaking up the momentum of the game and possibly intimidating opposing players so they aren't as aggressive in the future, but when someone does a clear intentional foul like that Dutch guy kung-fu kicking the Spaniard in the chest, how does that happen? I mean, is he instructed to by his coach? Does he just see the opportunity to kick some dude in the chest and take it? There is no way he could have thought that a ref wouldn't see that and call him on it, so it was clearly with forethought. But I just don't understand what that thought process was. Any insights?

Carpe Kick 'em!

Nigel De Jong is a vastly overrated player known for his physicality and not known to be the sharpest knife in the drawer. This was a brutal foul but I've seen the exact same thing done by better players. It really isn't that unusual and wasn't necessarily an actual attempt to kick someone in the chest. I've been kicked in the face simply because I got to a ball the other player didn't think I could get to. For me this was a yellow card offense in the context of this game. Puyols two footed lunge was far more dangerous.

Looking back I could have summarized my thoughts better. - Dutch were disappointingly cynical

- Dutch might have won if Robben wasn't such a glory chasing prick. He didn't complete 1 pass to RvP, his lone forward, the entire game.
- Spain, being the better team deserved their win even if they played poorly.

- Howard Webb is a pisspoor ref and attention whore in England and he lived up to his standards in SA.

- Iniesta is a highly talented piece of shit and it saddens me that kids will look up to him as a player for his winning goal.

- If Iniesta spontaneously combusts - I'll be the guy calling for marshmellows.

Depressing: North Korean football team shamed in six-hour public inquiry over World Cup

If they follow their own guidelines, FIFA will now ban North Korean teams from international competition for two years as punishment for the government getting involved in the sports program.

It is so hard for me to wrap my brain around this.