The Official World Cup 2010 Thread

[Purple Cow's Ghost]

Sorry boys, but I'm afraid I have bad news.

Paul the psychic octopus has tipped Spain to beat Oranje.

It's all over - I'm really sorry for you, but it's been a great run.

Your boys may as well come home today, save on hotel bills.

[Venezuelan Ajacied]

Well its not the end of the world....the only game he missed in euro 2008 was the final....he said Germany would be the champs we all know how that ended : Spain are the favorites though but anything can happen...go oranje !!!!

[666]

Octopi are intelligent animals. The spanish eat tons of squid, the average dutchman would rather eat rubber bands. Paul the Octopus will never predict a spanish defeat, just like a dog would never predict Korea to lose.

[Purple Cow's Ghost]

The sickest I've ever been in my life was after I ate octopus in Croatia.

Nobody told me that you are not supposed to eat the purple bits.

I sincerely hope it was Paul's mom.

[Purple Cow's Ghost]

I just thought you guys should know that this evening in a double-blind scientifically impeccable study in the Purple family living room, 'Chico the Psychic Cat' chose Holland as winner of the 2010 World Cup.

Entering the room he was faced with two identical pieces of A4 paper, each with one single example of his favorite cat treat, placed centrally upon it. Chico chose the left-most piece of paper, and boldly ate that treat first, before going on to eat the right-most treat a few seconds later.

The ceremonial revealing of the other side of the left-most piece of paper revealed the name 'Nederland'

So relax one and all, the truth is no longer in doubt.

Chico the Psychic Cat has spoken.

[ajaxusa]

I just thought you guys should know that this evening in a double-blind scientifically impeccable study in the Purple family living room, 'Chico the Psychic Cat' chose Holland as winner of the 2010 World Cup.

Entering the room he was faced with two identical pieces of A4 paper, each with one single example of his favorite cat treat, placed centrally upon it. Chico chose the left-most piece of paper, and boldly ate that treat first, before going on to eat the right-most treat a few seconds later.

The ceremonial revealing of the other side of the left-most piece of paper revealed the name 'Nederland'

So relax one and all, the truth is no longer in doubt.

Chico the Psychic Cat has spoken.

You've inspired me. I'm going to conduct my own tests with my dog, my son's pet boa constrictor, and my neighbor's severely senile granny. I'll report back post haste.

[Van basten]

A small final preview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxCaIrG- ... r_embedded

[SPL]

A nice article in my paper Mail, sorry I cannot cut and paste, about the influence of one club on todays final . 5or 6 of the Dutch starters and some subs come from its academy . 7 of the Spain team come from Barca , a club whose academy and style of play has been heavily influenced by players and coaches of AJAX. I had a similar chat with a fan of Barca the other day and he agreed the hugh influence of Ajax on his club ,so it was nice to read this in the paper.

Our little club has had a lot of influence in soccer.

Today's match should be dedicated to the man who started it all Rinus Michels.

[aveslacker]

A small final preview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxCaIrG- ... r_embedded

Very nice!

[aveslacker]

A small final preview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxCaIrG- ... r_embedded

Very nice!

[Orange14]

The Zonal Marking tactical preview is here: http://www.zonalmarking.net/2010/07/11/ ... l-preview/ Nothing surprising. It will be interesting to see how Howard Webb, the match official handles things. He is solid but does permit a rougher style of play since he's an English ref. This could help out van Bommel and de Jong in their attempts to control the midfield.

[Amol]

A small final preview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxCaIrG- ... r_embedded

Nice

[Orange14]

Forza Olanda!!!!! I think we can win this sucker!

[Purple Cow's Ghost]

Christ, that was arguably the worst 90 minutes of football I have seen since Ajax v. Macabi Haifa.

Tedious, fractious, at times vicious, and desperately lacking in imagination.

[paladinby]

Cheaters from Spain win due to brutal refering. Both Xavi and Iniesta should have been sent off for persistent fouling, diving, pushing from behind and talking to the referee. And Robben must learn to fall down when needed. Xavi falls and Heitinga is off, it was a moment of the game when Robben didn't stop to play and decided to continue after being held by Puyol. It's very sad that you must cheat to win.

[Orange14]

Sad end to the match. Probably one of the most poorly officiated finals that I've seen. Lots of diving on both sides. I guess we can now focus on the club season.

[Van basten]

shit.. those finals are cursed!

[SE6Ajacied]

Bloody rubbish from the ref - that's all I can say! As BBC Commentator said "He should have gone to Specsavers" (Not sure if that's a UK only advert or not).

P poor anyway and I'm going to bed.

[Cedric]

I find it rather strange to whine about the referee when you have Van Bommel and De Jong in your team...

That said, I'm disgusted that Spain won, especially with such a dubious goal, but somehow I can find some satisfaction with the fact that this Dutch team didn't win. Van Bommel, Van Persie, Ooijer, De Jong, etc. World Champions?

Maybe better that Spain, but not nice either, sadly.

[Purple Cow's Ghost]

Holland deserved to lose though, guys.

At least Spain tried to play football, albeit not very well.

I've never been a huge fan of Howard Webb, but I think he did ok tonight. Neither team made his life easy, you could argue that four players should have been sent off, in particular De Jong for his first half karate kick and van Bommel for persistent assaults on Spanish players.

Oranje didn't cover themselves in glory. I would rather Oranje lost in the semi-finals as usual, than win a World Cup playing as a bunch of vicious thugs like this.

Oranje looked for all the World like Feijenoord tonight.

[SPL]

For 36 years there has been a myth about the beautiful game played by the Oranje, sadly that died tonight with a bunch of thugs attempting to play. Sorry but de Jong and the chief thug V Bommel
both should have had reds.

If Ajax , god forbid played like that, I am sure the supporters would burn the Arena down !!

I am not saying Spain were great but they did try to play.A horrible game of football and not worthy of a world final .

[Tom_]

Meh, it was a tight game, I wouldn't really say one team was dirtier than the other. Tactics seemed fairly similar to me, Spain's individual players may have been slightly better. Could have gone either way but you always need a bit of luck to walk off with the World Cup, Spain had it tonight...

[rjf1]

Maybe after this Holland will stop playing like Italy and go back to playing like Holland. If you are going to lose, at least do it with a little class.

[Venezuelan Ajacied]

Heitingas red card was the key, tactically speaking that broke the dutch down, van Bommel had to move to centerback and the oranje were left without their two pitbulls in midfield. A quick counter is all the spaniards needed against a dutch team that became disorganized in the final ten minutes. That was it....this team really did look like feyenoord but to be honest i would have loved to see the oranje lift the trophy....god knows when the netherlands will have another crack at the cup.

[aveslacker]

For 36 years there has been a myth about the beautiful game played by the Oranje, sadly that died tonight with a bunch of thugs attempting to play. Sorry but de Jong and the chief thug V Bommel
both should have had reds.

If Ajax , god forbid played like that, I am sure the supporters would burn the Arena down !!

I am not saying Spain were great but they did try to play.A horrible game of football and not worthy of a world final .

Sad to say, but I agree with this. De Jong is easily my least favorite ex-Ajacied and should have been sent off. Webb was pretty bad, but the teams were too cynical for such an event, and Holland was, sadly, the more cynical of the two teams.