Even though the other matches were all decided by one goal, they were decidedly lacking in excitement. France seemed thoroughly bored with the whole thing and didn't even mount serious challenges in the final minutes despite being down just 0-1. Are the Germans that good?
Brazil - Columbia was a thugfest that featured 31 fouls by Brazil and 23 from Columbia. Spanish referee Carballo came under heavy fire, for any number of transgressions - allowing Neymar to get hacked, allowing Rodriguez to get hacked, not issuing yellow cards sooner to possibly stem the hacking. Laura O. offers a FIFA conspiracy explanation: the referee was informed by FIFA officials before the match to be careful with the yellow cards because so many Brazil players were carrying a yellow card and another would put them out of the semi-finals. FIFA and conspiracy? I would be shocked. Shocked. A touching, literally, moment afterwards as David Luiz consoled a distraught James Rodriguez.
A BFS disgression. My first reaction to the Neymar foul was to yell at him to get up. I felt bad for a few minutes after he was carried to the lockerroom on a stretcher and later when the news came out that he had a fracture vertebrae. But here's the thing. Neymar (and many others) react the same way to phantom fouls or trifling contact. Sure he's rolling on the pitch in agony but how many times do you see him limp off only to reappear - fresh as daisy - as soon as play restarts? Here's my ranking of injury-related misbehavior:
1) Grabbing a body part in agony that clearly wasn't contacted (i.e. contact on the shoulder grab the face)
2) Grabbing any body part in agony when there clearly was no contact
3) Grabbing any body part in agony when the force of the contact was no stronger than a six month old baby could deliver
When these practices stop, we might be more sympathetic to your plight. We now return to your regular programming.
Ah, Belgium. They did not go down as meekly as the French but it was close. Perhaps nothing exemplified the Belgians' disappointment more than the substitution of Eden Hazard in the 75th minute after another less than overwhelming performance. Much credit to Higuain for the winning tally; unlike many others in this tournament, he was unafraid to fire away as soon as the ball was on his foot. If he had taken a touch to assess the situation, the opening would likely have disappeared; he knew where he was, the goal is where it always is, no need to calibrate, just shoot.
In the closing stages of the second extra period in the Netherlands - Costa Rica match, the camera showed the Dutch back up keeper warming up on the sidelines. Surely, van Gaal is not going to substitute Krul for the impending shoot-out. Except that he is. Dennis wonders if he's overthinking this. I wonder why he still has a substitute left; might not have a set of fresh legs provided the extra edge for a goal in the run of play? The announcers note that Krul was 0-5 last year in the EPL and 2-20 in his career at stopping PKs. Okay, he's two inches taller than Cillessen. But Cillessen had just made a game saving stop and Krul was coming in cold. The cons seemingly outweigh the pros by a wide margin.
Then of course, Krul goes the right way on every attempt, saving two, at pretty much full horizontal extension. So much could have gone wrong but it didn't and van Gaal looks like an effing genius. The web is full of additional reasons why the Dutch manager did this and some of them make sense.
A. Any Costa Rican preparation for a shoot-out would have likely been based on videos of Cillessen. This moved might have rendered the scouting information useless.
B. The switch might have surprised the Costa Ricans, possibly creating uncertainty in their minds.
C. By making such an audacious move, van Gaal was trying to take the pressure off the players - if we lose it's because of this crazy tactic.
D. Krul is better at the mind games during a shoot-out
E. Krul speaks better Spanish than Cillessen and would be more effective in his trash talking.
Okay, I made the last one up. Doesn't mean it might not be true though. Krul is taking some heat for his behavior. I was a bit surprised that the referee allowed him to get so close to the players. But it is standard practice for keepers to have a some antics to distract the shooters and, though I didn't notice it, some observers said Navas tried similar, if not as bold, tactics on the Dutch.
The puns are flying but I will leave you with just one: I have always maintained that shoot-outs are a Krul way to decide a winner.
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