Netherlands V Costa Rica World Cup 2014

Netherlands V Costa Rica Fifa World Cup 2014

After match synopsis in red!!

Beers: Quarter Finals Beer World Cup:

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

Who is set to win the battle of the beers? VB Bitter came top out of a very tough beer group which included beers from the Netherlands, Chile and Spain, and beat Corona from Mexico to make it to the last eight, while London Pride also came first in their beer group and beat Club Colombia to make it this far. 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!

VB Bitter V London Pride. 1-2 Win for London Pride. The Ale from England’s capital city gets victory in a very close battle with VB of Australia. London Pride pours an amber reddish colour with a very good sized head. The aroma of some biscuit malts and earthy hops with hints of caramel sweetness, is all pretty great on the nose. While the taste is of light caramel, some earthy hops with a mild bitter aftertaste. I also found it a bit strong in the taste which I enjoyed, more of a kick to it than other ales. Australia’s famous VB with its iconic brown stubby, and the famous aftertaste, pours a dark golden color, clear, topped with a thin white head with good retention.The aroma is mostly of faint grains, sweet malts and low hops. It has a sweet malty taste, and the expected creamy aftertaste hits you pretty quickly. I have gotten to appreciate VB over the course of these few weeks, and its now a beer I can definitely say I have developed a taste for, but London Pride gets this victory as its taste is more subtle and complex, having a lot of interesting flavours that make the beer easy to enjoy and strong enough to give me a good alcohol buzz.

PreGame:

Netherlands The Dutch definitely used their get out of jail card against the Mexicans. For the whole of the first half and a bit of the second, Mexico totally dominated them. Mexico must be wondering how they didn’t get through that game. The Netherlands scored two goals in about two minutes late on to qualify for the last eight. Truth be told the Dutch deserved it as Mexico did nothing after they scored and sat back to wait until the final whistle. Well done to the Netherlands and their never give up attitude.

Did Arjen Robben dive in the penalty box? I really dont think it matters that much to be honest. Yes it looked like a dive but Robben was fouled all throughout the game, and deserved about three penalties before this incident. But the ref will definitely be alert to any of his shenanigans today, so he better watch out!

The Mexican goal stirred the Dutch into action and the Mexico goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa kept them at bay, pulling off a point blank save to deny an equaliser. Memphis Depay came on and made more of an attacking threat towards the Mexicans, as the Dutch began to come more into the game. Mexico pretty much stopped playing after their goal. Funnily enough it started to look like the Mexicans were beginning to suffer with the heat and not the European team.

But boy did they leave it late, the 88th minute in fact. Sneijder who did more in the last ten minutes than the whole tournament up to that point started to play some good football and from a loose ball fired an unstoppable low straight shot, that even the great Ochoa could not save, into the corner of the net. Brilliant technique and a great goal.

So it was left to Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, the late Dutch sub, to keep his nerves steady, score and put Netherlands through to the last eight. You play to the end, and never give up, and that’s why the Netherlands are tonight looking forward to playing Costa Rica while the Mexicans go home ruing the decision not to take the Dutch by the jugular. It will be very interesting to see what kind of threat Costa Rica will have for the Dutch. This game could go both ways for the Dutch, play brilliantly and win easy, or just struggle and go out to a late goal. Hard to say, but they do like scoring goals and that’s what generally gets you through, especially with seven different goal scorers to date, and Robben and van Persie on top form. Even though Costa Rica haven’t let in a lot of goals so far this might all end tonight, and I expect the Dutch to book their semi finals spot in style.

Costa Rica are into the quarter-finals of the World Cup for the first time in their history after beating Greece 5-3 in a penalty shootout in Recife. But they fully deserve to be this far, they play with heart, skill and determination, and they are my team of this years World Cup.

Well done to Costa Rica you continue to entertain and surprise. I fully expected Greece to win the penalty shootout, but then I should have expected that under their wily old manager, Jorge Luis Pinto, the Los Ticos had put in a massive effort on the training pitch for penalties. And it showed as all their penalty kicks were expertly put away, calmly and without doubt. Brilliant, considering their legs must have felt like logs they were that tired.

Navas was to be busy all night against the Greeks, performing save after save. He pulled off about 5 or 6 amazing saves, particularly one in the last minute of extra time where he somehow got a touch to superbly tip over the bar Mitroglou’s late shot. Was one of the stand out player performances of the this years World Cup. Navas saved pretty much everything that was thrown at him. .

Will their journey stop tonight against what looks on paper a very strong Dutch team? Probably so, but they have already rewrote the history books, and for that I say Thank you Costa Rica. I will have my fingers crossed for you!

The last few games of the World cup were a bit dour so we needed a game to reignite the excitement of the early rounds. This was the game to do it. Who would have predicted that Costa Rica would have lasted the full 120 minutes of football keeping the Netherlands at bay and be within a penalty shoot out chance of making the World Cup semi finals. It didn’t happen in the end, but boy did they give it one heck of a go.

To add to all the drama and excitement van Gaal puled of a master substitution with less than a minute left on the clock to bring on a Goalkeeper Tim Krul just for the penalty shootout. He could have had egg on his face, but it worked and Krul dived correctly for every one of the penalties, saved two and helped the Netherlands beat Costa Rica to set up a World Cup semi-final showdown against Argentina. A pressure and inspired substitution from the next Manchester United manager whose ego can be seen presently orbiting space.

The Dutch had a good few chances to put this game to bed, but Navas in the Costa Rican goals was on fire, and his defence also put their bodies on the line to stop the rampant incessant Dutch, particularly impressive was Gonzalez at the back. Navas gave a display that will live long in the memory, he saved everything that was thrown at him, and it looked like he could not be beaten. He saved on numerous times from van Persie, put a magnificent Sneijder free kick, that looked to be going into the top right hand corner, over the bar, and kept his team in it right to the end.

When Navas was beaten the post stopped the Dutch from taking the lead. Sneijder had another great free-kick effort that bounced away off a post. Then there was a moment of complete madness and farce as three Dutch attackers couldn’t get a shot in on target, with van Persie’s finally hitting a shot that amazingly Tejeda manged to clear off the line with it hitting the crossbar on the way out. It was really backs to the wall stuff here for Costa Rica. Van persie also missing a gilt edged chance that he should have really put away easily, but he missed totally. And if that hadnt of shot the nerves, there was still enough time in the end for another Sneijder strike that came crashing off the crossbar. How the hell did Costa Rica manage not to lose this game. Amazing.

And the funny thing with all of that is Coast Rica could easily have nicked it in the end! Marcos Urena, forced Cillessen in the Dutch goals to make a smart save. I wonder if Campbell was still on the pitch would he have done better with some of the scraps that Costa Rica were getting late on in the game. Was a strange substitution to take him off at around the hour mark but we have to trust the manager, maybe Campbell was tired.

A few more observations: What does van Gaal and his team be writing all the time. Anytime it pans to the Dutch bench the whole staff are writing away. Strange.

Robben cleaned up his act a bit better, he looked dangerous every time he got the ball, and it took two Costa Rican’s too hound him out at all times. Díaz Campbell could easily have gotten a red card for the amount of dodgy tackles he did on holding back Robben.

Just knew Brian Ruiz would miss his penalty, as he had a stinker of a game, giving the ball away every time he got onto it. Should have got taken off in the game, but I guess the Costa Rican bench is light enough. And definitely should not have took a peno, his mind wasn’t focused enough and he didn’t look confident either.

How many times was van Persie called for offside? Must be a World Cup record surely?

Next up for the Dutch is a tie with Messi’s Argentina. I fancy them 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.