By Tom Kando
Ouch! Holland lost the world championship to Spain. I have nothing against Spain. Lovely country, lovely people. My sister and her children live there. But hey, I was rooting for “my” Holland, naturally.
It was tough to watch: Holland lost in overtime, during “power play,” to borrow a term from ice hockey: They only had 10 men, against Spain’s 11. Is this fair?
Actually, I had predicted the final score correctly (see my recent post about the Tour de France) : 1 to 0 - just the wrong way around. Go figure.
As always, there were many questionable penalties called, and some missed calls too. But I am not going to be a sore loser. The bad calls and the missed calls went both ways. Except the last one, which reduced the Dutch team to 10 men.
It was a defensive game, played cautiously and a bit roughly, especially by the Dutch. The Spaniards were probably slightly better. They took more shots, had more ball possession, and passed better. So I guess they deserve the win.
The Dutch soccer team reminds me of the Minnesota Vikings in the 1970s, with quarterback Fran Tarkenton at the helm: They went to the Super bowl 4 times, and never won. Similarly, this is the 3rd time the Dutch go to the world final, and come out 2nd best.
Oh well, I congratulate the Dutch team anyway. Thanks for the joy you brought to millions. You are a great team, great athletes, among the world’s very best.
Someone said that soccer is a game for 4-year olds, which the rest of the world takes seriously. I must be a 4-year old. leave comment here
2 comments:
"The Dutch soccer team reminds me of the Minnesota Vikings"
That's pretty severe!
At least they aren't like the American World Cup team,which reminds me o fthe Packers from the same period. Maybe they should hire the soccer equivalent of Bart Star to coach the team. Then you could look back on these as the Golden Years.
Cher Thomas
La Suisse a battue l'Espagne 1 à 0. Donc c'est l'équipe suisse qui est meilleure que celle de l'Espagne et le vrai champion mondial.
En outre le match entre l'Espagne et les Pays-Bas était horrible.
Hans
(Swizterland beat Spain 1 to 0. So the Swiss team is better than Spain's, and the real world champion.
Besides, the Spain-Netherlands match was horible.)
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