WC2010 Final and third place play off..

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41

What is the matter with you man, they didn't win. They didn't even qualify for the final.

You need to pipe down and get over it. :p

It doesn't matter which margins they lost/won by.

Spain won.

End of.

Gosh!

42

di hai k maanta hee nahin :(

Spain hardly convincing winners today. The Dutch created the two best chances in the whole game before that 'lucky' goal, lucky because the Dutch were denied a corner just before then by that blind and biased english referee and who knows...

A team that beat Japan 1-0 (so Japan almost as good as them!!) infact Spain won almost all of their games by the narrowest of margins....and results suggest that Japan, Paraguay, Germany and Holland are as good as Spain!!

Remember Brazil beat Chile 3-0 :D When Brazil win they usu. win convincingly. That is the difference between Brazil and the rest of the teams..

And yup agree Pakistan were not deserving semi-finalists in World T20 this year

But as I said above

....the last three cricket world cups in 1999, 2003 and 2007 were also won by the best team (Australia) in the world. same was the case in 1975 and 1979 when Windies were head and shoulders the best team in the world.

However there are exceptions

Lucky Winners:
1983 (India) - Windies were the best team in the world
1987 (Australia) - Windies were still the best team in the world
1992 (Pakistan) - no team overwhelming favourite, though NZ were the unbeaten team of the tournament, i.e. unbeaten before they met us!!
1996 (Sri Lanka) - Australia were the best team

43

Re: WC2010 Final and third place play off..

^^ Have you watched the match rightly?

I think there should be more red cards offered to Dutch team for playing such a kung fu game, and you are asking for one corner not offered to them?

Should I say that there were continuous 3 foul within penalty area in favor of Spain and not a single of them was given?

Have you saw the total foul game played by Dutch as they were hitting the players directly? but yet one red card?

I do agree with you that this WC didn't went as expected regarding the teams but still it is as it happened.

44

Re: WC2010 Final and third place play off..

I reckon you should stick to watching cricket pet.

Luck and margins? Come on man.

Spain won as they scored a goal and the Netherlands didn't.

Simple as.

It isn't really that tricky to understand.

45

I think there are just too many teams in the Football World Cup

32 is just way too many...

I appreciate that FIFA is trying to promote and market the game but a world cup should only involve the best teams in the world

My suggestion have a maximam of 12 teams, split them into two groups of 6 each with the top two in each group qualifying for the semis

5 best teams from Europe
+
3 best teams from South America
+
2 best teams from Africa
+
1 team each from Asia and North America

i.e.

5 games each for every team in group + SF + Final i.e. the eventual finalists w'd still have to play 7 games in all

No last 16 or QF nonsense

46

winning every single game by the narrowest of margins...c'mon man

47

Ignorance.

Especially your previous comment. Every country has the right to participate in the WC. Just look at what hosting the WC can do for a country.

48

OK let's agree to disagree

You stick to watching and admiring Premiership

49

When have I mentioned the premiership?

Why the need to respond without thinking about what you are saying.

You are annoying me.

:)

50

Re: WC2010 Final and third place play off..

Nimboo sharbat aaleeeeeeeeeeeey, mitha sharbat aaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

8 Rs ka glass aiiiiiiiiii

Cool down guys :D WC is over and results are done :D nothing can happen now..

51

I just want to say the QF thing is the most best and fair system.. as you can never know who are the BEST TEAMs in the world until you play against each other at country level :D

52

Dutch didn't squander anything, Casillas made a terrific save off Robben.

[QUOTE]

winning every single game by the narrowest of margins...c'mon man
[/QUOTE]

Purpose of the cup...the winner goes through, so according to you it'd be better to go out then win and win by the narrowest margins?

They beat all, deserve it!

53

OK whatever makes you guys happy but I am glad that we do not have such a format in the cricket world cup

imagine Kenya or Bangladesh (somehow beat England the other day) beating Australia in last 16 and knocking them out of the tournament. That w'd ruin the world cup for me

And remember Switzerland beat Spain...that could so easily have happened in last 16 or QF...

Yes the goalie saved one but Robben's other try missed the goal by a whisker

54

the reason Spain have only won by narrowest margins isn't because they are a poor team, but rather because they are so good that other teams defend with 10 men. And taking down a wall of 10 players is very difficult (just ask the teams that played against Inter Milan this season); so in the end even if you win by 1 goal that's good enough.

Just look all opponents of Spain's:

Switzerland were defending 90 mins and got one lucky break.
Honduras were playing only to defend, same holds for Chili.
Paraguay were the only team that played with attacking incentives, and this is the only game where Spain got lucky not to lose.
Portugal were defending all the time and hoped for something special from Ronaldo
Germany weren't able to get a touch on the ball and kept 9/10 players back.

And now in the final Holland too - despite being the only team that could match Spain on paper - played with the intention of breaking up play and rough tackling and hope for Sneijder/Robber/vPersie to do something, and they almost succeeded.

this goes to show you how afraid all teams were to play against Spain and employed a tactic of 'not losing' rather than 'trying to win'. Your example of Brazil crushing Chili is because Chili played a bit more attacking against them than against Spain, because they sensed chances against them which they didn't against Spain.

So in the end, winning by a small margin in football is something totallyyyyy different from winning with a small margin in cricket.

Btw, Holland never won by a big margin either (apart from against Denmark, where one of the goals was an own-goal):

Demark 2-0
Japan 1-0
Cameroon 2-1
Slovakia 2-1
Brazil 2-1
Uruguay 3-2

55

Re: WC2010 Final and third place play off..

^ Nescio Spain won the world cup - good for them

Read my post above (#5) and I still maintain that Football world cup is not always won by the best team in the world (cf. 1990, 2006 and 2010). I think Brazil (Spain never met them), Germany and Holland can all beat Spain and will beat them on another day. One game is not enough to say that Spain are head and shoulders the best team in the world. Winning the world cup and being the best team in the world are two different things.

It is just unfortunate that in football because of so much emphasis on bloody (excuse my french) club football we hardly ever get to see bilateral games between top sides other than in the main tournaments

56

Re: WC2010 Final and third place play off..

Riotous celebrations as Spain wins first World Cup
**MADRID: **Riotous celebrations spread across Spain on Sunday after the national football team won its first World Cup when Andres Iniesta scored an extra-time goal in a 1-0 win over the Netherlands.

An estimated 300,000 people forming a sea of red and yellow packed Madrid’s downtown Paseo de Recoletos boulevard to watch the final from Johannesburg on giant TV screens and erupted at the final whistle as Spain became world and European champions.

“It had to be (Andres) Iniesta, the field marshal of Spanish football,” said the 19-year-old Marcos Domenec.

The celebrations were easily the biggest ever held in living memory in Spain.

Fireworks lit up the city sky as people herded out onto the streets to celebrate. Television shots showed exuberant partying in jammed town squares across the country, from Zaragoza in the northeast to Seville in the southwest.

Spain, long tagged a perennial underachiever before winning the 2008 European Championship to end a 44-year title drought, had never before gone past the quarterfinals. The team finished fourth at the 1950 World Cup when the playoff system was different.

A deafening roar rose from Madrid, including the sound of blaring vuvuzuela horns imported from South Africa, when captain and goalkeeper Iker Casillas lifted the World Cup trophy at Soccer City.

Tens of thousands of people had put up with near 40 degree temperatures Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) from early in the day to claim the best positions before the giant screens in major plazas in towns and cities.

In Madrid, emergency ambulance services treated dozens of people who had fainted.

Marta Seco, 22, was overcome with emotion.

“This is the greatest sporting event in the history of the country,” she shouted with tears in her eyes.

Fans watching from a patio bar in a working class neighborhood of Madrid whooped in joy and yelled “Spain! Spain!” as they danced on bar chairs and hugged each other. Others yelled “Yes! Yes! The Cup is now ours!”

The night sky of the Alcoron suburb was lit up by fireworks and the bar patrons toasted each other with beer and sangria on a sweltering summer night, dancing in the streets and dodging firecrackers tossed by other fans.

“It’s just amazing, I almost don’t believe it,” said a beaming Feliciano Hernandez, a 25-year-old electrician. “I’m so proud, totally happy and living for the moment and not thinking about anything else right now.”

Nacho Moreno, a 23-year-old waiter, danced in the street waving the Spanish flag he had kept wrapped around his head for luck during the game as cars drove by, honking their horns in salute. He said he would probably drink until dawn to celebrate.

“It’s phenomenal! Spain won. I was real nervous but I knew it was possible,” Moreno said.
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/sport/08-riotous-celebrations-as-spain-wins-first-world-cup-ts-02

57

Re: WC2010 Final and third place play off..

Congratulations to the new World Champions Spain!

Even though my team didn't win I'm still very proud that they gave us such a wonderful WC :-)
I'm glad it was an all European Final and pleased that Spain took it home first time ever. Had Robben scored his 2 major goal chances then it would've been a different match, but alas that is football!

Highlight for me was the win over Brazil.

And secretly very pleased that England was crap!
At least we played the final!

58

note the bold part: I think this pertains to any other sport, that's why it is sport and not a science: the very unpredictable nature and the fact that one lapse in concentration can cost you the whole tournament.

I'm not sure whether your criticism of the football WC is justified, because that criticism pertains to any other sport.

e.g.:
- inter won the Champions League while Barcelona were overall the best team in the tournament
- Schumacher won 1994 title, whereas probably Hill was the better driver that year.
- Hakkinen won the title in 1999 whereas Schumi was probably the better driver.
- Bangladesh won from England the ODI only a couple of days ago, whereas England are by far the better side.
- Ivanisevic won Wimbledon in 2001 (?) whereas Tim Henman was probably the better player in their semi-final match, as a matter of fact any other player was better than Ivanisevic at the time who was ranked 100+
- Pereiro won the 2006 Tour de France (after Llandis was banned), but that was due to one stage in which he gained 30 mins over the rest. Probably Kloden was the better rider over the four week course.
- etc etc etc

59

Re: WC2010 Final and third place play off..

^ dude what is ya day job?

60

Re: WC2010 Final and third place play off..

coming back to your comment that Spain and Holland were not deserved finalists, I'm not sure who is.
The only two other contenders were Germany and Brazil. Let me analyze both teams on why they were NOT better contenders than Spain and Holland.

  • first and most important of all, they simply got beaten by Spain and Holland If you are the better side and deserve to progress, just simply win the match.
  • Germany played indeed attractive football, but theirs was not better than Spain's. Just look at the match and you'll see they were clearly the inferior side to Spain. Even on any other day Germany would have lost. Spain had too much quality. The fact that Germany beat Arg and Eng comprehensively doesn't mean that they were also better than Spain, it simply means Arg and Eng were really pathetic teams.
  • Brazil didn't play good football either; perhaps only slightly better than Holland. Hoever, Brazil had received more booking (incl two red cards: Kaka and Melo incl that match); so you can't simply say Brazil were a better team; you can also argue that they played rougher and therefore won their matches by greater margin. I'm sure Brazil would have stood no chance against this Spain.