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Posts: 3470
Joined: Jul. 12 2009
From: Washington, DC
World Cup USA vs. Netherlands
Gerundino 63 and Erik van Goch,
I haven't had much to add to Foro conversations (flamenco and off-topic) lately, but I want to congratulate you long-time members of the Foro on your World Cup victory over the US today. The match just wrapped up, and the Dutch team played magnificently, both defense and offense. I, of course, was cheering for the US, but you deserved your victory.
Wishing you good luck during the rest of the tournament.
Bill
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And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, With the name of the late deceased, And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here, Who tried to hustle the East."
RE: World Cup USA vs. Netherlands (in reply to BarkellWH)
Bill, Excellent sportsmanship. I’ve been routing for Japan and the US. So far both teams have been doing better than expected. I was dissatisfied with the Japan - Costa Rica game because the CR team kept grabbing the arms or tripping the Japanese shot takers. Really poor playing.
The now famous goal that put Japan in a win over Spain is on TV in Japan all the time and was the subject of a lengthy analysis. I think because the ball looked out of bounds from the camera angle during the game the diligently polite Japanese media had to go out of its way to show the ball was still in play when it was scooped up to position it in front of the goal for the other Japanese player to kick in point blank.
The look on the Spanish goalkeeper’s face…. Whoa
My only turn off, besides some things I don’t like about the host country, is that Brazil’s Neymar pledged to dedicate his first goal of the tournament to Jair Bolsonaro, which I found disgusting.
Posts: 3470
Joined: Jul. 12 2009
From: Washington, DC
RE: World Cup USA vs. Netherlands (in reply to estebanana)
Marta and I were cheering for Brazil, but the Brazilians really fell down in the shoot-out. The Croatians scored in the shootout and the Brazilian goalie couldn't block them. Moreover, the Brazilians couldn't score themselves. The Croatians deserved to win this one.
Saturday's match between Portugal and Morocco will be one to watch.
Bill
_____________________________
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, With the name of the late deceased, And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here, Who tried to hustle the East."
Posts: 3470
Joined: Jul. 12 2009
From: Washington, DC
RE: World Cup USA vs. Netherlands (in reply to BarkellWH)
Great win by Morocco over Portugal. In my opinion, Morocco is really the star of this tournament, so far. They have made it to the semi-finals, and they have been underdogs all the way. It might be asking too much, but I would be very happy to see them take the World Cup championship. We'll see.
Bill
_____________________________
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, With the name of the late deceased, And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here, Who tried to hustle the East."
RE: World Cup USA vs. Netherlands (in reply to Morante)
quote:
ORIGINAL: Morante
None of the players have shown that they know how to take a penalty. How can "professional" players be so bad?
Yes, a few are good at it, but overall they are pretty bad. I was thinking the same thing - clearly this is a major important skill in elimination games, and we know already what to train - to hit hard near the inside of the goal posts, preferably high too. If done properly, the goalkeeper physically has no time/height to get there or the strength to push the ball out even if he guesses which side and somehow gets a hand on it.
RE: World Cup USA vs. Netherlands (in reply to kitarist)
It’s harder than it looks. The tolerances around that sweet, unsaveable spot are tiny, just a few inches in each direction. Accuracy degrades quickly as you increase power, so if you whack it hard enough to beat a first-rate keeper, you can easily miss. Here are the stats for the two best players in the world: https://www.messivsronaldo.app/detailed-stats/penalties/
RE: World Cup USA vs. Netherlands (in reply to BarkellWH)
The problem is idiots like the bad sports on the Costa Rica team who obstruct by holding, no wonder the power kick exists. Overpowering kicks derive from fouling defensive players who betray artistic play because they’d rather obstruct by ****ty fouls than get beat by artistry.
RE: World Cup USA vs. Netherlands (in reply to BarkellWH)
Gerundino,
My stepfather was Dutch, he was from Heerlen, in his day he was a professional soccer player. He was also in the Dutch /Indonesia war, and lied about his age to join to fight with Americans during WWII, he was 15. He eventually moved to the US and had a career as an electronics engineer in a defense industry company where he met my mom. He coached soccer on weekends.
I also played for an AYSO team coached by a Scottish guy. The Americans will catch up because the European coaches have been anchors since my youth.
My biological father and my beloved stepfather died within two days of each other in 2014.
RE: World Cup USA vs. Netherlands (in reply to Brendan)
quote:
It’s harder than it looks.
Not so. As Kitarist says "to hit hard near the inside of the goal posts, preferably high too." The high cuadro, left or right cannot be reached. Beckham used to practice after hours, hitting the same spot time after time. The idiots do not practise and are called professionals.
This is cool but I would have liked to see it broken down by type of kick taken - a lot of these, if not even the majority, are probably fancy chips and faints; it would be good to see the percentage scored out of the ones that are hit hard.
But ever since Panenka did his cheeky penalty shot in 1976, gently chipping it right in the middle of the goal where the goalkeeper WAS, it seems it is always at the back of players' heads to fool the goalkeeper in addition to actually scoring.
Posts: 1762
Joined: Jul. 11 2003
From: The Netherlands
RE: World Cup USA vs. Netherlands (in reply to estebanana)
What a story Stephen!
Your stepfather was a hero to fight with the Americans in the WW11. We, and I are still thankfully this men did this of things for us. Soccer is a big thing in the Netherlands, in the south, (Heerlen) of the Netherlands is Roda JC and Fortuna Sittard. Maybe he played in one of those teams? And, he must have been 20 years or something like that after the war.
Posts: 3470
Joined: Jul. 12 2009
From: Washington, DC
RE: World Cup USA vs. Netherlands (in reply to BarkellWH)
Sorry to see morocco lose to France, but they can take pride in going as far as they did. So it's between France and Argentina. Both are very good, and I would not hazard a guess as to which will come out on top. Should be a great final Sunday.
Bill
_____________________________
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, With the name of the late deceased, And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here, Who tried to hustle the East."
Posts: 3470
Joined: Jul. 12 2009
From: Washington, DC
RE: World Cup USA vs. Netherlands (in reply to BarkellWH)
What a finale! This World Cup final was one for the ages. From the latter part of the second half, into overtime, and then the final shootout, it was exciting. Argentina took charge in the shootout though and France appeared to lose its grip. Argentina ended up playing very well indeed.
Bill
_____________________________
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, With the name of the late deceased, And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here, Who tried to hustle the East."