netherlands vs russia...
Netherlands vs Russia: 1-3 (a.e.t.)
(van Nistelrooy 86'; Pavlyuchenko 56', Torbinskiy 112', Arshavin 116')
Netherlands: van der Sar -
Boulahrouz (Heitinga 54'), Ooijer, Mathijsen, van Bronckhorst - Engelaar (Affelay 62'), de Jong - Kuyt (
van Persie 46'),
van der Vaart, Sneijder - van Nistelrooy
Russia: Akinfeev - Anyukov, Ignashevich,
Kolodin,
Zhirkov - Semak - Zyryanov, Semshov (Bilyaletdinov 69'), Saenko (
Torbinskiy 81') - Pavlyuchenko (Sychev 115'), Arshavin
Even before the game started, I knew that I would be sad about the outcome of it no matter what it would be because both teams played so well during the group stage and it's always sad to see a team with beautiful football out. In the end, the thing that disappointed me most about the game wasn't the end result but the Dutch team's surprisingly bad performance. I didn't even recognise them anymore. They were unorganised, ineffective, clueless and boring, which was also (but not only) because two of the key players (Kuyt, Sneijder) were liveless shadows of themselves in this game. Boulahrouz said he'd play despite the death of his daughter the day before, but he was taken out by van Basten in the 54th minute, which might have been the crucial mistake of the game. Heitinga took Ooijer's position in the centre and Ooijer moved to the right, where he was obviously overtaxed. Only two minutes later, he left Semak alone, and the Russian crossed into the middle where Pavlyuchenko slammed the ball against the back of the net. The Russian lead lasted until the 86th minute, and by then I was fairly certain that Holland wouldn't be able to come back. After all, they're not Turkey. But they surprised me. Pavlyuchenko's handball after a Russian throw-in resultd in a free kick. Van Basten ordered everyone forward so that only van Bronckhorst stayed in the back. Sneijder took the free kick and sent it towards the second goalpost, and van Nistelrooy headed it in. My hope was back. Don't get me wrong, I love the Russians and it's such joy to see them play, but since they're still very young and don't have a lot of tournament experience, I had already made peace in my mind with them dropping out of the Euro against Holland, and it was difficult to suddenly root for them now.
In the first minute of injury time, there was some hassle about Kolodin. The referee showed him his second yellow card and the red card afterwards for a foul, but then took everything back because the ball had been out before the foul had happened. I didn't quite understand that. Isn't it completely unimportant where the ball is when a foul happens? *scratches head* In any case, I'm not so sure Russia would have managed to win this if Kolodin had indeed had to leave the pitch, so I'm very curious what the newspaper will say about this scene today.
Extra time didn't look too spectacular at first, and I hoped for a penalty shoot-out because van der Sar played a great game and I was confident he'd save a couple of Russian penalties to win the game for his team. (Yes, I still hadn't managed to shift the focus of my sympathies despite Russia playing so much better than the Netherlands. *sigh* I don't even understand myself sometimes.) Then, suddenly, Torbinskiy scored the 2-1 with the outside of his left boot, assisted by Arshavin, who once again profited from Ooijer's negligence. Arshavin himself provided with the final score of 3-1 in the 116th minute, when a throw-in reached him directly (possibly unintentionally forwarded to him by van Bronckhorst, but I couldn't really see). He totally put van der Sar to shame in that scene, I couldn't believe my eyes. (But then again, he's part of the team that beat Bayern in the UEFA Cup semifinal, so I guess I shouldn't have been that surprised.)
So this means that another of my favourites for the title is out. My biggest favourite, actually. Who would have thought that they'd play like this in a knock-out game? *sigh* Now my only hopes rest on Germany and Spain - which is why I was more than nervous about yesterday's game...
(van Nistelrooy 86'; Pavlyuchenko 56', Torbinskiy 112', Arshavin 116')
Netherlands: van der Sar -
Boulahrouz (Heitinga 54'), Ooijer, Mathijsen, van Bronckhorst - Engelaar (Affelay 62'), de Jong - Kuyt (
van Persie 46'),
van der Vaart, Sneijder - van Nistelrooy
Russia: Akinfeev - Anyukov, Ignashevich,
Kolodin,
Zhirkov - Semak - Zyryanov, Semshov (Bilyaletdinov 69'), Saenko (
Torbinskiy 81') - Pavlyuchenko (Sychev 115'), Arshavin
Even before the game started, I knew that I would be sad about the outcome of it no matter what it would be because both teams played so well during the group stage and it's always sad to see a team with beautiful football out. In the end, the thing that disappointed me most about the game wasn't the end result but the Dutch team's surprisingly bad performance. I didn't even recognise them anymore. They were unorganised, ineffective, clueless and boring, which was also (but not only) because two of the key players (Kuyt, Sneijder) were liveless shadows of themselves in this game. Boulahrouz said he'd play despite the death of his daughter the day before, but he was taken out by van Basten in the 54th minute, which might have been the crucial mistake of the game. Heitinga took Ooijer's position in the centre and Ooijer moved to the right, where he was obviously overtaxed. Only two minutes later, he left Semak alone, and the Russian crossed into the middle where Pavlyuchenko slammed the ball against the back of the net. The Russian lead lasted until the 86th minute, and by then I was fairly certain that Holland wouldn't be able to come back. After all, they're not Turkey. But they surprised me. Pavlyuchenko's handball after a Russian throw-in resultd in a free kick. Van Basten ordered everyone forward so that only van Bronckhorst stayed in the back. Sneijder took the free kick and sent it towards the second goalpost, and van Nistelrooy headed it in. My hope was back. Don't get me wrong, I love the Russians and it's such joy to see them play, but since they're still very young and don't have a lot of tournament experience, I had already made peace in my mind with them dropping out of the Euro against Holland, and it was difficult to suddenly root for them now.
In the first minute of injury time, there was some hassle about Kolodin. The referee showed him his second yellow card and the red card afterwards for a foul, but then took everything back because the ball had been out before the foul had happened. I didn't quite understand that. Isn't it completely unimportant where the ball is when a foul happens? *scratches head* In any case, I'm not so sure Russia would have managed to win this if Kolodin had indeed had to leave the pitch, so I'm very curious what the newspaper will say about this scene today.
Extra time didn't look too spectacular at first, and I hoped for a penalty shoot-out because van der Sar played a great game and I was confident he'd save a couple of Russian penalties to win the game for his team. (Yes, I still hadn't managed to shift the focus of my sympathies despite Russia playing so much better than the Netherlands. *sigh* I don't even understand myself sometimes.) Then, suddenly, Torbinskiy scored the 2-1 with the outside of his left boot, assisted by Arshavin, who once again profited from Ooijer's negligence. Arshavin himself provided with the final score of 3-1 in the 116th minute, when a throw-in reached him directly (possibly unintentionally forwarded to him by van Bronckhorst, but I couldn't really see). He totally put van der Sar to shame in that scene, I couldn't believe my eyes. (But then again, he's part of the team that beat Bayern in the UEFA Cup semifinal, so I guess I shouldn't have been that surprised.)
So this means that another of my favourites for the title is out. My biggest favourite, actually. Who would have thought that they'd play like this in a knock-out game? *sigh* Now my only hopes rest on Germany and Spain - which is why I was more than nervous about yesterday's game...