Begone, little man in blue who is in the midst of losing embarrassingly!!
Did you see? I saw because I took a two hour holiday at the end of Friday to ensure there was no way I would miss it. I didn't wear orange and I drank German beer but I was back in the arms of the great liberal republic, home to me and my walkman and backpack back in Fed to April 1986.
The Dutch were utterly amazing. None of the foolish argie-bargie of World Cup 2006 due in large part by the strong hand of the ref, well described in the photo above. Despite France being on the of dominant teams of decade, when Arjen Robben is the half-time sub for a team you know you are a powerhouse. His eviserating goal just seconds after France drew close at 2-1 was one of the best goals I have ever seen with exactly 1.1 soccer ball widths worth of space to put the ball in the net with .00001 seconds to get the shot in. That is a screen shot of the very moment of execution. Just to be clear, he made the ball ("B") go in the available space ("A") with one man on his back and the keepr blocking 107% of the available space. Stunningly good fitba.
Comments
Hans - June 14, 2008 10:18 am
It was a powerful display. In watching international soccer, I'm often amazed at how often these guys miss, but the Dutch side were impressive in their marksmanship against France.
Matthew Fletcher - June 15, 2008 6:51 pm
I also took a two-hour vacation to watch the game in full live.
I don't want to detract too much from the Dutch display because they were fabulous and I love the football they are playing, however, Coupet really let France down on the second and third goals - either van Der Sar or Bouffon or many other international level keepers would have had both of those shots covered.
I was also surprisingly impressed with the performance of referee Herbert Fandel. He consistently gets assigned the top Champions League games and regularly lets them get out of hand; he kept good control of this game though.
The Dutch have put together a great young side. They and Germany are going to be the European teams of the next eight years.