wandeljw wrote:Nimh can console himself by cheering for England.
Oh I will dont worry.
I got my colleague here, two even wacthing along tonight, Hungarians they are, and who did they support? Portugal. Hell, homegirl has supported about every team we played against, Ivory Coast, Argentine...
But tonight a gang of Brits behind us, who riffed on in hilarious rapid spitfire,
they were cheering on Holland, going off about those Latino diving donnas (they used different language...)
I'll definitely return the favour. F*cking Portuguese.
Holland played tough, very tough, its true. But so did Portugal. One didnt let the other be the tougher one, each upping the ante of dirt. The ref was all over the place, but then how could he keep track. There were at least two times when a Portuguese made a really foul attack on a Dutch player, and we got nuthin, not even a free kick. Then again, shortly after that second instance, we got a free kick pretty much gifted, close to their goal. And what was that with one of them, like, hitting one of ours in the melange after a foul, outside the ref's view??
Some game, tho. Most exciting game I seen so far, and of course I
would think so, but the Hungarian girls thought so too (and homegirl's seen about every game). Damn, what a mess in the second half! Seriously, any moment I expected them to call in the UN. Blue helmets to physically keep the teams apart. But not just that. Lots of good goal opportunities. The one of ours that went against the bar, f*ck. Some spectacular shots. Kuyt was good, everpresent, fanatical. I think it was him who totally wrongfooted two Portuguese in almost cartoon-like manner near their goal, tho it didnt yield anything.
Holland was far more in ball possession, the TV said 60/40 somewhere in the first half, even 63/37 somewhere in the second. Thats an extreme disbalance on this level. But they often didnt seem to know what to do with it. Lots of passing to and fro midway through the field, back again, on again, stasis.
Then again, they ran into a wall, with the Portuguese playing like f*cking Italians. Massing in front of their own goal, 8 of em to 5 of our adavance men. We kept stranding in their massed-up defence, until finally the ball would catapult out, and one or two Portuguese players spurted after it and ran with it. Boom dangerous situation in front of our goal. They played purely on the counter, grrr.
I realise it didnt make us popular, but I for one was kinda glad to finally see the Dutch play physical powerplay, for once. We always get the critics' plaudits for having played "the most beautiful" football, the footballers' football, the sophisticated strategies. But it doesnt usually do us any good. For one because we always have infighting in our team by prima donna artists who just dont seem to really
want to win. Spoiled egos.
That was different this year. You cant say Holland played beautiful football. It didnt. But they wanted to win, in this game here they really gave it their all, they were fighters. In the first round, twice they didnt really deserve to win, but they did anyway. I dont mind that for a change, usually its the other way round.
But what a game. The onlookers, most neutral, were steaming, torn between absorption and hilarity at the sheer chaos. Boring it was not. The Hungarian football commentator, somewhere on three-quarters of the second half, exclaimed: "already ten minutes without a yellow card!" The funniest shot musta been near the very end, when mayhem ensued on the field and the camera panned to the dugouts - where red-carded Boulahrouz and one of the Portuguese who'd been sent off with a red card were sitting side by side, in animated discussion gesturing at the field, like mates bitchin' at the others.
But. Shite. Thats it for us.
I wonder how much flak Van Basten will get for not fielding Van Nistelrooy. Sending in Van der Vaart and then Vennegoor of Hesselink as replacements and still leaving him out was like adding insult to injury. Who knows whether it woulda made that one needed difference.
