That Russian Ashton Kutcher dude is giving Dutch a lot of problems. Russia has been the better side and deserve to win.
What a horrible, horrible, horrible non-call! That was a PK all the way, the guy was literally shoved down and tackled to the ground...it doesn't get any more obvious than this. The Russians may have been screwed out of a win here...
Told you guys that Ashton Kutcher guy is giving Dutch problems.... He supplied the fantastic cross for second goal.
Yeah, what I said. Russia has really dominated this game throughout, their biggest weakness, IMO, will continue to be lack of 'finishers', they just seem to always miss a lot of opportunities near the goal...that will bite them in the arse one of those days. #10 was the MVP, hands down...
I don't know about Kutcher (face-wise), but he's a dead-ringer for Kyle Korver. He's been fantastic, an energizer bunny for the Russian side. I like the Dutch team and love the way they play soccer, but to me they've always been the 'pretender' of this tournament. The Russians have simply dominated them in this game in terms of applying the offensive pressure all game. The Dutch are just pretenders, IMO...
3-1 Arshavan drives the nail in the Dutch coffin. 3 of the 4 group winners will have been eliminated, I hope Spain can buck the trend tomorrow.
HAHAHA Ashton Kutcher killed them with the 3rd goal!!! You cant stop Ashton Kutcher, no matter what nationality. You can only hope to contain him!!!!
Arshavan is great, skill and pace and creativity. Man U should go after him if we lose Ronaldo. Game over, the better side won today. DD
Ok it was fun while it lasted Russia was much better, Hiddink destroyed us. Arshavin (Aston kutcher) is amazing. This russia team is completly different from the team that lost to spain. I disagree we are pretenders. I think we played great in the group matches. We are a great team. But we have some major weaknesses. I believe we got outcoached, Hiddink knew the weakness of our team and exploited it (Put pressure on our defenders and defensive midfielders when we start an attack, make sure the ball does not get to our attacking midfielders). The well known team didn't adjust to the Dutch team, and got beaten. Hiddink realy knew how to beat us, and it is obvious that he did it very well. I hope Russia will do well in the semi finals.
This is most certainly not the same team that faced Spain in the opener. I wondered what happened to them since I watched quite a few of their qualifier group matches since they played against England and Israel. They were always high energy and decisive passing, that seems to be back now. Very impressive win today.
For a good 20 minute, Snejder went crazy and you don't see other mid-fielders touching the ball at all. I don't know if there is a chemistry problem, which has always been a problem for your team in the past. In the extra time, your team simply ran out of gas, and just played for the PK shootout. After a goal down again, unlike Turkey, you were just flat out couldn't gather yourself anymore. The third goal was a chain of errors starting from Van Da Sar's kick.
Not exactly news. His star has been growing for a while. The dutch did not deserve to win this match at all and that's an effin shame because I think the dutch have more supporters around the world than any other team in the tourney. As classy a bunch of supporters you can get imho. WTF happened to the dutch backline??? Arshavin and his mates ran them ragged, mostly Arshavin. I told my mates while France were still in the tourney that Theirry,Anelka, Benzema and co. would have loved to play with Arshavin because he is the consumate playmaker or trequartista in the role he plays. And is there a better magician on the international level than Guus? The guy simply has the magic touch.
Got some luck too. But Russians psychically were much more fit, which was shown in the extra time. Maybe that could be attributed to his rigorous physical training. Also those long distance shots by Russians, that's Guus.
It was definitely fun, I credit the Dutch team with making this tournament that much more entertaining. So hats off... Yeah, they were pretenders. You started strong, blew away two of soccer's perennial powers in two straight matches, which in turn set the bar pretty high as far as where this team was expected to go. Unfortunately, they end up losing to a heavy underdog that no one expected to do much in the tournament. That's pretty much what being a 'pretender' means. You have to actually be good enough to win it all in order to be a pretender (or at least arouse such 'illusions') and for as far back as I can remember the Dutch team has always been good/talented enough but could never actually make a breakthrough when it counted. I guess they're the Phoenix Suns of European soccer! Well, look on the bright side: you won't have to relive Holland's decades of futility against the superior Germans yet again.
No i doubt that. Hiddink is worshipped here. I think most people are proud of him. To bad he had to beat us, but if anybody beats us it is best it is him. I doubt that. the chemistry this tournament has been amazing. At least that is what we have been told, and usually if the chemistry is bad our media will defenitly tell us (they love stories of trouble in our national team. Russia was just the better team, there is no question about that,And like i said they really used our weaknesses against us. Our backline is not that good to begin with. But for some reason Italia and France couldn't use it against us. We have Van der Sar he makes our backline look much better than they are. Some luck, but not in this match. like i said before he just outcoached Van Basten (not that i hold it against Van Basten). it is amazing what Hiddink has done for South Koreo, Australia and now Russia.
I think we just have a different defenition of Pretender. I'm used to having the dutch loose when we were the better team (mostly by Penalties). But I cannot be that upset with this loss, since i never got the feeling during this match that we had a chance. They were just that much better. It is to bad, i really got the feeling we had a chance to win it all this year. But unfortunatly we didn't. I prefer to loose from Guus than from The Germans, or Italia
There were alot of good looking women in the stands for that Holland vs. Russia game. Very entertaining game.
