FIFA World Cup 2010

Unknown Soldier said:
Heard that too today.
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Right now it seems a good choice, as Spain seems far superior in all but those last 11m. Scoring currently seem their only weakness.
 
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Also cleanest match...not a single card (or was it the ref ? lol)
 
Mariner I miss your Spain lives or dies with Torres comments ;) haha. Dominating performance from Spain and I believe their best game is still yet to come.
 
perfect game (for me, no villa goal, thank god I listened to the octopus)
I love how the octopus has a better trackrecord than the "experts" just like the old experiment with a monkey vs top (highly paid) share traders
 
You wouldnt believe it (*) you can now bet on whether or not the octopus picks the winner (though I thought he only done the matches germany plays in)

Option 496 Paul The Octopus-Neth v Spain
1 Paul's Pick Wins $1.75
2 Paul's Pick doesn't Win $2.00

I believe we've found the true star of this world cup and its not villa,ronaldo,rooney etc its paul the octopus

btw early odds
1 Netherlands $2.35
2 Spain $1.57

(*)actually you would, since you can bet on nearly anything nowadays
 
Fully deserved win by Spain. Germany was too defensive, too far back.

Now if only Fernando Alonso can concentrate this Sunday and win the race. Good thing the finale is after the race. :)
 
Amazing game of ball control by Spain. Two good teams in the finals, but I give a slight edge to Spain. I think either team could win it at this point. While Spain might be the better "team," I think this final is going to be all about which team wants it more.

Whichever team plays with more fire and determination is going to win it.

Regards,
SB
 
Yeah, the ref was the star of the match as much as anyone else I'd say ... he only got one bad call that I could see at least. I was getting the idea though that the line referee was getting information from the cameras in his earpiece on one or two off-side calls.

Anyway, Spain completely dominated the field play, just as the Netherlands has managed to do in matches like those against Japan. When Germany didn't manage to be more agressive in the first 10 minutes of the second half, I figured that this was a structural problem and Germany has been overrated so far as I was discussing with others at work here yesterday, simply because they had defeated a number of big 'names', that despite their big names, just weren't good at all this year (plenty of examples of those I think in Argentina, England, Italy, France, etc.).

I hadn't been following all matches, and hadn't seen Spain play a lot, so I wasn't sure if the problem with scoring was limited to this match or a general issue with the Spanish team - but they've barely won a match with more than 1-0, so it's a structural problem. This is good for The Netherlands I think. If Spain were better at scoring, they'd have the potential to be as good as Brasil, but now I'm not so sure. The Netherlands has a good goalkeeper as well as a knack for scoring goals.

I'm going to be very interested to see the final now, and see how well The Netherlands stack up against Spain. I'm giving them a good chance, but it will be hard work and much will depend on which team can keep their nerves in check better.
 
Arwin said:
Anyway, Spain completely dominated the field play, just as the Netherlands has managed to do in matches like those against Japan. When Germany didn't manage to be more agressive in the first 10 minutes of the second half, I figured that this was a structural problem and Germany has been overrated so far as I was discussing with others at work here yesterday, simply because they had defeated a number of big 'names', that despite their big names, just weren't good at all this year (plenty of examples of those I think in Argentina, England, Italy, France, etc.).

I hadn't been following all matches, and hadn't seen Spain play a lot, so I wasn't sure if the problem with scoring was limited to this match or a general issue with the Spanish team - but they've barely won a match with more than 1-0, so it's a structural problem. This is good for The Netherlands I think. If Spain were better at scoring, they'd have the potential to be as good as Brasil, but now I'm not so sure. The Netherlands has a good goalkeeper as well as a knack for scoring goals.

I'm going to be very interested to see the final now, and see how well The Netherlands stack up against Spain. I'm giving them a good chance, but it will be hard work and much will depend on which team can keep their nerves in check better.
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The flip side of that also is that noone has been able to score many goals against Spain. Only 2 so far this entire match. And while the German's may not have had the greatest defense, they did have a fairly potent offense and didn't manage a single goal.

I don't think the Dutch have faced a potent offense other than perhaps Uruguay this entire match. Traditionally Brazil would have been considered a potent offense but this team that Dunga fielded this year was almost entirely defense oriented and trained with defense first mentality.

Neither team so far has shown a desire to "finish a team off" though. It'll be interesting to see which one gets really fired up for the finals and if one of them finally shows some "killer instinct" in the final.

A couple of teams with big potential that I don't think have played at their best.

Regards,
SB
 
According to a report, Sea Life is going to let Paul predict the final (the Netherlands vs Spain). Also, one guy who didn't listen to the Octopus bet (and lose) 500K Euro on Germany last night, which seems to be the largest World Cup bet ever.
 
Dr Evil said:
Mariner I miss your Spain lives or dies with Torres comments ;) haha. Dominating performance from Spain and I believe their best game is still yet to come.
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Well done to Spain, sneaking through to the Final managing with the help of several 1-0 victories.

They may be dominating possession but still aren't creating many chances and this can come back to bite you. What might have happened if Paraguay had scored their penalty in the Quarter-finals? Luckily, Villa has been in fantastic form for them so they haven't missed the unfit Torres too much but the physicality of fit Torres offers them a Plan B which they don't currently have.

Not sure how highly I rate the Dutch defence but they certainly have more creativity in attack than the Germans with both Sneijder and Robben in excellent form. I think it will be another tight game - the Dutch are pretty decent on the counter-attack so it will be interesting if anybody can get an early goal to liven things up a bit. Extra time a distinct possiblity, I'd have said.
 
Mariner said:
They may be dominating possession but still aren't creating many chances and this can come back to bite you. What might have happened if Paraguay had scored their penalty in the Quarter-finals? Luckily, Villa has been in fantastic form for them so they haven't missed the unfit Torres too much but the physicality of fit Torres offers them a Plan B which they don't currently have.
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Apart from the goal in the final Torres wasn't much more important to spain in Euro 2008 either. He's a very good player, but in the national team he's not that important. He should have scored against Germany though, if only that friggin Pedro would have passed the ball to him.

I think Spain is going to school Netherlands in the final. I think their team is superior compared to Netherlands.
 
Heh with so many guys from Netherlands, I thought someone would have got pissed about my previous post :)

I already won the bet with my friend (Spain vs Brazil), so I wouldn't mind if Netherlands win, I just don't see it happening... Well hopefully it's a good game
 
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