If you go by form, Robben is the best player in the world at the moment in my opinion. He's on fire and every time he gets the ball there's a threat.
I think it between Messi or Robben. They are playing just crazy great, especially Robben. Btw, how does a team with a rich soccer history has not even won one world cup yet is beyond me. You do not want to be known as the Buffalo Bills of soccer.
Robben has had the better tournament. I'm glad Arjen is on Bayern. But come on Arjen, you better not win the world cup against us .
what about this foul from Julio Cesar? (the GK from Brazil) he should've got the red car here, but only got the yellow card., he definitely goes for the leg of the colombian player:
I agree that this should have been a red card. Spoke to an experienced referee last night who said the same. He couldn't understand for the life of him how it wasn't a red card. Well...Brazil being without their top striker, their top defender and their goalkeeper would have certainly helped Germany. We'll see.
I'm looking forward to the final few games. I just saw the vegas odds. VERY even. Brazil, Germany, Argentina all at 5-2, Holland at 3-1. So it's really anybody's to win. Each team has a flaw and can be beaten.
Just as I had suspected. Dutch did their homework on the Costa Rican shooters and Krul was given instructions. "He has a long reach and we prepared Costa Rican penalties. He dove into the right corner time and time again. We are a little bit proud that this trick has helped us through." Van Gaal
well, the penalty in the 94th minute agains Mexico was exactly like that, Marquez barely touched him and Robben exaggerated with a dive. #noerapenal. :grin: but congrats to the dutch, I hope they beat Messi and company.
david_rocket, do Mexicans like Brazilians? I know they don't like Argentinians... Asking because the ref for the Brazil vs. Germany game is Mexican...he is the one that overlooked Suarez' bite attack and sent off Marchisio for almost nothing. Not sure how that qualifies him to be the Brazil vs. Germany ref .
well, the Suarez was away from the ball, and was only focused on the ball. some Mexicans do like them, but this mexican ref is not going to be impressed by the name, and believe me, he will not be afraid of showing cards, like the Brazil-Colombia match, so players have to be more careful.
So he has a good reputation in Mexico? Good to hear - I hope he will be as impartial and unimpressed by the crowd as Howard Webb was in one of Brazil's previous matches.
Argentians are opposite of Lannisters. They never pay their debts. Most Mexicans I know hate the arrogant Argentinians.
After spending a fair amount of time working in Mexico, I can say that Brazil is quite popular there. In fact probably the 2nd most popular team behind their own team. But surely that won't bias the ref, hopefully.
yeah, a lot people liked Brazil, but I think Spain was 2nd, and in this world cup, I was impressed that I saw a lot more people in social media rooting for Colombia over Brazil in the last match.
It really does not look like Suarez bit him from some angles if you watch it from different positions. It looks like they went up and they collided. Only in slow mo you can see him sinking his teeth into Chiellini. It is not so easy.
Yes We HATE PK since it has costs us so many tournaments. We lost by penalty kick in: 1992 EC semi finals (to Denmark) 1996 EC Quarter finals (to France) 1998 WC Semi finals (to Brazil) 2000 EC Semi Finals (To Italy) In 2004 we actually won a penalty series. So trust me nobody in the Netherlands is happy when a pk shootout starts. That being said I was surprisingly optimistic for a penalty series. I really got the feeling we would win it. Krul is a good keeper on the line, but he is less good in other parts of goalkeeping (and that are areas Van Gaal thinks are very important). That being said I think both goalkeepers are comparable. Thanks, I will be rooting for the Germany Netherlands finals (if that happens and we win we beat every team in this tournament that beat us in a final, Spain Argentina and Germany). I think every dutchman want a Germany-Netherlands finals Robben is really playing on a otherworldly level. When he is healthy he is amazing, and he is finally really healthy (mostly he wasn’t at big tournaments). Seeing how he played against Costa Rica really reminded me of the Robben when he played with Groningen, he was a young player who you could tell would be amazing. I think the speed of our strikers will be difficult for the Germans, on the other hand Germany is a great team. Van Persie is struggling, but he is always struggling when he plays for the national team. It is strange. Although without his goal against Spain I doubt we would still be in the tournament. That really changed the entire complexion of that game. Krul said something different. He and the goalkeeper coach (Frans Hoek, Who organised goalkeeper training days once a year when I was younger which I participated in every year) did do their homework on the Shooters, however he said they had little use for it. He just waited as long as possible to look for a tell, and then go all out to a corner.
I have been playing keeper so please elaborate on what is missing in Krul's game because a Keeper's most important feature is to be 'good on the line' Not good with high balls?(Butterfingers=Asik) not good dashing out? Slow reaction when defender passing back the ball, reading the game? Positioning? Not vocal enough, telling defenders where to stand?
Please note this is not my opinion. I have not seen enough of Krul at Newcastle united to have a clear opinion on who is better at these aspects. The main reasons I hear are: 1: Handling the ball with his foot (so helping us start our attack) 2: High balls Some people suggest that since Van Gaal is a Ajax person (Used to coach Ajax) and Cillessen is the Goalkeeper from Ajax he was chosen by van Gaal. Since there is no clear better goalkeeper. I think there is no clear favorite goalkeeper in the Netherlands, we do not have a goalkeepre like Hans van Breuekelen, Ed de Goey or Edwin van der Sar. We have 4 or 5 goalkeepers of the same level. No one is clearly better. My guess is that if you ask the Dutch fan before the tournement, about half would want Krul and half would want Cillessen). So it is kind of a coin flip who would start.
