Argentina V Netherlands World Cup 2014

Argentina V Netherlands Fifa World Cup 2014

After match synopsis in red!!

Pregame bets:

If the Dutch play it right tonight they can do to Argentina what the Germans did to the Brazilians, albeit with fewer goals. Argentina are a very poor team, and with di Maria out of action and Messi their only player of true class, I cant see how they can get to the final. I hope they do but I cant see it.

Messi to score a/t and Holland to win 12/1
Robben a/t scorer 13/5
Holland to win 9/4
and a cheeky bet Holland to win 4-1 80/1

All odds with PP

Read here for full betting history

Well got that one totally wrong! Oops

Beers: Semi Finals Beer World Cup:

http://thisdrinkinglife.com/world-cup-beer-2014-semi-finals/

Who is set to win the battle of the beers? London Pride from England has made it to the last four beating beers from Italy, Costa Rica, Colombia and Australia. LP now goes up against a an American craft beer specialist, Samuel Adams, from Boston, who have made this far by beating beers from Portugal, Korea, and Nigeria. 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!

London Pride V Samuel Adams: 2-1 to London Pride in this battle between two famous beers that represent their respective cities, London and Boston, very well. Samuel Adams, is a very good looking beer, that pours a dark golden colour with a nice sized frothy head that hangs around a while, leaving a good amount of lacing left on the glass. The smell was also top quality. I got a good earthy smell of malts and some floral hops. 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. The finish is very strong with a long lasting heavy aftertaste. Overall a nice solid beer and a great delicious taste that is both memorable and enjoyable. I like this beer! But London Pride gets the win, just about. As I really do enjoy the complexities of flavours that it has going on inside the bottle. It pours a lovely amber reddish colour with some white head that doesn’t last too long. Unlike Samuel Adams, London Pride isn’t much of a looker. The aroma, though, has a nice sweet smell to it of some biscuit malts and earthy hops with hints of caramel. Nice. Its the taste that is the most important factor to this drink. A lovely refreshing flavour which hits the taste buds immediately. It tastes of light caramel, some earthy hops with a mild bitter aftertaste. It has a different, subtle, complex taste to it than what you can expect from a lot of beers, which has to be appreciated. I also found it a bit strong in the taste which I enjoyed, more of a kick to it than other ales and regular beers. It was also a better session drink so I gave the victory to London Pride and into the final they go.

PreGame:

Argentina got through against Belgium in the end in their quarter final game. Another one nil victory for them in a pretty dour game, where both teams managed to muster only three shots on target, the lowest tally in a World Cup knockout game since the dark days of Italia 1990. And it was also back in 1990 the last time the Argentinians had made it as far as a World Cup Semi final. Then they had Diego, now they have Messi, and the similarities don’t end there.

Like Maradona, Messi is carrying his team as far as possible. He was once again brilliant, showing great agility and skill to outwit four Belgian defenders who did their best to bring him down, to play 40 yard passes with pinpoint accuracy, and to help set up the move for the only goal of that game. His forward pass was deflected onto the path of Higuain, who brilliantly volleyed it past Courtois in the Belgium goal.

Argentina now go on to play the Netherlands tonight, a game which might be their first true test in this years World Cup. They will be without di Maria, who does provide width and pace to their attack, and they might need to score more than one goal if they want to be able to beat the Dutch and get to their first final in 24 years. One good piece of news for them is that Sergio Aguero is available to play and might get a place in the starting line up, which would further ease the pressure off Messi’s shoulders. I would love to see Messi grace a World Cup final, but I really don’t think its going to happen tonight, unfortunately.

Netherlands: I really fancy the Dutch to come out top in this game, they have the fire power to cause that weak back four of Argentina problems, and Messi wont get the same luxury he has had so far in the competition when he goes up against a pretty solid Dutch defence.

Robben has proved a real handful to all the teams he has come up against. His electric pace and agility has got a few defenders into trouble in this World Cup, be it a card or two, or a last minute penalty decision. He really is a nightmare to defend against, and I am looking forward to seeing him make all sorts of difficulties for the Argentina defence.

Will the 120 minutes of football and penalties have affected the Dutch? I guess they might be a little tired in the legs, but the euphoria of getting to a World Cup Semis, might just be enough to energise their batteries.

Also curious to see if van Gaal has any more tricks up his sleeve tonight. There are early reports that van Persie might not be playing as he has a stomach bug, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see him make an appearance sometime in the game. Is this more funny tricks from the manager?

This game was a battle between the tactical “master” van Gaal and the brilliance of Messi, team work v the individual , who would win? Well in the end neither particularly shown any greatness, as van Gaal messed up his tactics, and Messi didn’t play at all well.

The game was pretty rubbish and very disappointing considering the talent on show. Why then did van Gaal set up his team to defend first attack second. An awful plan considering the attacking players at his disposable and how the game eventually did pan out to a nil nil stalemate. If he had only instructed his team to attack with more passion they could have easily won this game. Once again negativity blows the ego of van Gaal. Never forget the mess he did against Ireland in 2001 when he took off Overmars who was causing the Irish problems all day, and ended up with 5 strikers and no one to give them the ball. Same result, the Netherlands lost.

I perhaps could give him some credit for the rejuvenation of Kuyt, who had a magnificent game, but in reality if you are looking to a player like Kuyt for good through balls and sublime forward passes then you are already in trouble. Kuyt is a workhorse that tried his damnnest but he isn’t the next Xavi or Iniesta.

The Netherlands played very negative football, always looking to pass it back first rather than forward. It was very disappointing to see. One example was when they had the ball on the edge of the Argentine penalty box, and with a few moves play ended up back to the Dutch goalkeeper. Shocking and not the first time the Dutch have done that kind of boring football in this tournament. Master tactician my arse!

Another example of this style that was encouraged is Wijnaldum who was allowed to stay on the pitch for the whole game. He did nothing and played like he was wearing clogs. He never showed for the ball, despite playing as an inside forward, yet he looked like a defender out of position. Terrible for a semi final to see such bad play.

This was a game where defenders came to the fore, that’s true, but were they really tested throughout the full 120 minutes of football? For Argentina Zabaleta once again did the business, and also was useful for a while in the first half going forward. But it was Mascherano who really stepped up in this game, and played a man of the match performance. I guess when the tough games arrive the best players do the job. Mascherano was a rock in defence and shut out Robben all game. He pretty much saved his team when he put in a phenomenal last ditch tackle to deny Robben, at the far post, whose position had goal written all over it. The tackle of the tournament. That’s how you do it Rafael Marquez!

Must also give a mention to Vlaar on the Dutch team, who also had an immense game, and pretty much had the better of all the Argentinian forwards and Messi all game. Pity he missed the penalty but it shouldn’t take away from his performance.

Argentina are in a World Cup final, and I hold my hand up I really didn’t expect it after watching some of their performances. I mean Switzerland, Nigeria and the Netherlands could have beaten them if they had got their act together. But its good to see Messi in a final and I would love to see the best player in the world lift the cup, but them Germans are hard to beat!