Brazil V Netherlands World Cup 2014 3RD/4TH PLAY-OFFS

Brazil V Netherlands Fifa World Cup 2014 3RD/4TH PLAY-OFFS

After match synopsis in red!!

Pregame bets:

One pound left!
W Sneijder to score direct from a free kick in 90mins play @ 20/1

Odds with PP

Read here for full betting history

Not likely as he was benched in the warm up after pulling his hamstring, ha!

Beers: Beer 3rd/4th place play off:

http://thisdrinkinglife.com/world-cup-beer-2014-final-n-3rd4th-play-offs/

Who is set to win the battle of the beers? Nomade from Chile has done surprisingly well to get to the last four of our beer World Cup and was unlucky in its endeavor against a formidable German trio of beers, but today it might have a chance of getting third place when it goes up against Samuel Adams, from Boston, who have made it this far by beating beers from Portugal, Korea, and Nigeria, but were unlucky to lose out narrowly to England’s London pride in the other semi finals. Who will quench the thirst, set the mood, get me in the right spirit? Click on picture for a preview of the beers. Get the beer result after, much after!

Nomade V Samuel Adams, 2-1 to Nomade: I went with the Nomade Blonde Ale this time around and boy I wasn’t disappointed. It was tasty and sweet, very sweet. On pour there was quite a large head that settled very nicely with some lacing. The colour was golden and the aroma had a very strong sweetly smell of yeast and some fruit, particular orange. The ale had a very balanced taste that included grains, yeast, citrus and fruit flavours. Quite an interesting mix for an ale but it was damn easy to drink and overall a very enjoyable ale experience. Recommended. Samuel Adams Lager, was also a great drink that scored well on taste, smell and appearance. The appearance was great, a brilliant dark golden colour with a good sized frothy head that hangs around a while leaving decent lacing. It has the look of a real beer. I got faint smells of malts and a bit of floral hops. The smell was pleasant and not overbearing. The Samuel Adams taste had a variety of strong flavours from the hops and malt which were well balanced, all tingling away at my taste buds. Caramel was one taste that stood out. The finish is strong with a long lasting heavy aftertaste. Overall a nice solid beer and a great delicious taste. Samuel Adams is a beer that you will remember. Two beers, both recommended, but I give the victory, just slightly mind, to Nomade for having really good fruit flavours that stuck out in an ale that surprised.

PreGame:

Brazil have a chance tonight to restore some pride for the nation in a game that few really in their hearts care about. Brazil will have captain Thiago Silva back from his suspension to marshal a defence where he was so badly missed against Germany.

Luiz Felipe Scolari, in what could be his last game as manager, is expected to make several changes to the Brazilian team. I’d expect that Jo and Bernard will start up front, while Paulinho and Fernandinho will feature in the centre. It remains to be seen if Brazil will once again revert to attack from the off. Its what undid them in the last game, since their defenders attacked but didn’t cover each other or track back, or defend. They played like 10 forwards and no defenders. Schoolboy stuff. I do feel a little sorry for Luiz and Marcello as they cant be expected to attack on one hand and defend with the other, while there is no midfield or forwards to chip in and hold up the ball or help them out in defence when under pressure.

At the end of the game against the rampant Germans, the Brazilian team were roundly booed off the pitch as you would expect and Fred, in particular, got a good bit of abuse as he was walking off. I don’t know if I should feel sorry for Fred. I mean its not liked he even moved or worked up much of a sweat in any of the games I have seen, but surely Scolari must also accept some blame for assembling such a rubbish squad of Brazilian players. Surely down on Copacabana beach there would be a better 11?

While Brazil hope to restore some teeny bit of pride against the Dutch for the 3/4th place play off, Fred probably wont be seen tonight, or ever again in a Brazilian shirt. Pity for him.

Netherlands: Dutch coach Louis van Gaal believes the fixture is an irrelevance. Nice to get that in just in case he loses. He is right that in the grand scheme of things its a nothing game, but I would have thought he might like to exit the tournament with a win against Brazil? Since his ego was deflated I guess he doesn’t care any more.

It is worth remembering that the master tactician set up a Dutch team against a not so brilliant Argentina where in 120 minutes of pretty dour football they only managed ONE shot on target!! So it remains to be seen what team will enter the pitch today. Will he go with a Robben and van Persie attack force, or try out a few of the lesser known players? Who knows what the grumpy o.b will do.

I don’t generally find these games interesting but it will be worth a look to see if Brazil have recovered to at least claw back some respectability. Will the Brazilian public even turn up in big numbers to cheer them on? I do expect a lot of goals though, these games generally are goal fests. God couldn’t Scolari just bring on Fred for at least one goal?

So much for Thiago Silva’s great return. The game barely lasted three minutes and he gave away a silly penalty, and was lucky to only get a yellow card, after dragging back Robben who was clean through on goals. Van Persie scored the penalty to put the Netherlands one up, as the Brazilian fans had just enough time to recover from another rousing anthem rendition. Maybe the players should reserve their energy for the actual game?

Fifteen minutes later it was 2-0 as a very weak header from David Luiz went straight to Danny Blind who had all the time in the world to pick a shot to the top corner of the net, for his first international goal. This was beginning to look like another meltdown by Brazil, letting in two goals under twenty minutes.

Brazil did rally for a while, but also it could be said that the Netherlands played out the rest of the game at half pace. Oscar was bright in periods, but I was astonished to note that Jo was playing all game, and Paulinho had just under an hours football, both players not mentioned once in commentary. Were they actually playing? I am still not sure.

The referee gave Oscar a card for diving which was a shock to everyone considering not one player all tournament got a yellow for cheating (not “simulation”, call it what it is!). Not sure if Oscar did dive as well, wasn’t clear. How did Robben manage a whole tournament without getting a card for diving!

The game went flat in the second half but just before it was all over, Wijnaldum got a third goal for the Dutch in stoppage time. Nice goal and all but if Wijnaldum can score against your defence then you are in real trouble!

So overall Brazil conceded 10 goals in two games and 14 all tournament, which is an embarrassing stat for any team let alone from a team of expensive players as Brazil. I have already listened to commentators suggest they might struggle for qualification for Russia 2018 if they don’t quickly sort out the mess that appears to be Brazilian football at the moment. Luiz Felipe Scolari wont be around for that, as he lost his job as coach of the team, and it remains to be seen what Brazilian players in this world cup will we ever see again in the future in a yellow shirt of the Canarinho’s. And it all started with such optimism……