My support for the Dutch was waning the longer I seen van Bommel stay on the pitch then this happened.

The best team of the World Cup won, well done Spain. Now if handing over the prize was conditional on the World Cup being worthy of it’s name…

Onwards to Brazil. The Draw will be made on 31st July 2011…

Betfair stepped in with a free fiver bet offer on the football so I came out of football betting hiatus to stick on my score predictions double. Obviously getting the margin of victory correct isn’t enough so that’s that. Best quote from the reaction to German victory goes to

“We have a young team and set an exclamation mark here and can reach more.”

It really does take a German to reduce their impact at this world cup to a grammatical punctuation metaphor.

And in the time it’s taken to write this another two yellows have been handed out. The Dutch are using the physical game that has characterised their tournament so far and it appears Spain are attempting to match it. They’ve 3 more yellows to go mind.

It also appears to be a battle of the breaks. That reduces Spain’s chances to evens in my opinion so the 5/1 on Betfair for the Dutch has value.

And Robben should have proven me correct there ffs…

World Cup Final: Netherlands 0 Spain 2

Although I’d much prefer a bit of drama. Desperately hoping the Dutch get wired into them.

Germany did everything they could have done apart from score. A Spanish defence well warned against strong counter-attacks in numbers snuffed out the danger for most of the game, and indeed as the Germans pressed for an equaliser late on the Spaniards should have scored on a break of their own and with it Torres should have had a hat trick. Normally this is where the Germans excel at stealing victory from the jaws of defeat but not to be this tournament.

Remains to be seen whether the Dutch will out-muscle the Spanish flair on Sunday. They’ve done it for two knock-out games now and for one the Spanish will be wise to it if not the refs. Ultimately the Germans just ran out of steam last night and if anyone could provide a more energetic game than them it’s surely the Dutch.

6 More Days of Mark Lawrenson

First off it might be wise to identify where on the pitch ‘the hole‘ is. Having scientifically tracked all mentions of playing ‘in the hole‘ by the footballing wunder brains that grace our TV sets, I have narrowed it down to a position somewhere in front of Hansen’s famed ‘2 banks of four‘ but not so far up the pitch as to be labelled a striker, nor wide enough to be called a winger.

So an attacking midfielder then.

Quite how these enquiring minds believe that playing ‘in the hole‘ will all of a sudden fool their opposite numbers into believing they’ve fallen off the edge of the world and thus no longer need to be marked is anyone’s guess. But don’t tell commentators that.

The simple answer is that not all managers at this world cup have played someone ‘in the hole‘. Since they have real and workable experience of other tactics then it’s also likely they won’t be changing anytime soon. And for those that do, well an attacking midfielder normally contributes to a game by creating chances/scoring goals. Pretty much what Strikers and midfielders tend to do anyway. But when they play ‘in the hole‘ the mazy dribble around 6 opposition players ending with a 128-yard screamer into the roof of the net it apparently is all done to this player being played ‘in the hole‘ and not their inherent attacking ability with the ball.

So the clueless wonders then can continue to wax lyrical about playing ‘in the hole‘ and who should be in it and we’ll never be any the wiser because in reality it’s just another nothing statement from Townsend and co.

So, er yeah apart from that massive overanalysis of Townsend’s crapchat last night the match pretty much lived up to expectations. The Dutch really do seem to be making a point of niggling the opposition (well, at least the South Americans anyway) as a kind of distraction while their hard working attacking play and adeptness at long range shooting put them ahead.

Netherland’s successful breakdown of a defensively orientated Uruguay team will make for an interesting comparison with tonight’s match and the Spanish if they are to progress against a German team well used to destroying hopes on the break.

The Boers have been met temporarily with modern day reinforcements in SA as the Dutch attempt to stake their claim in the World Cup Final.

After their solid display against the South American Galacticos of Brazil, it’s only right that Netherlands are hotly tipped favourites going into this game. Uruguay don’t forget will be without impressive striker Saurez – he of new ‘Hand of God‘ fame and will surely need to grind the Dutch down in order to get a result.

They could well go for a very defensive line up tonight and attempt to knick something on the break. I don’t think they’ll have much chance if they do, but it hasn’t stopped quite a few teams – Portugal and South Korea two who spring immediately to mind – playing quite unadventurous stuff in the knock out stages of this year’s tournament.