twballgame9 {l Wrote}:cvilleagle {l Wrote}:EagleDave {l Wrote}:Spain wins again as another team refuses to play offense. It's laughable. Where does this innate fear of the Spanish team come from that causes normally potent offensive teams to back into a shell and await the inevitable? At some point you just have to play your game and let the chips fall where they may. You stand a better chance against this juggernaut by at least making attempts to score goals. Hopefully the Dutch will be play looser on Sunday and take the game at the Spanish.
All told, it was another typical game for the Spanish. The other team tried to bore them into a mistake, they wouldn't bite, and won ugly. Good for them. The potential impending blowjobs though, require me to root for the Dutch Sunday just out of principle as a guy.
Absolutely correct. Germany sat back, and sat back, and then got scored on. I can understand why a team like the U.S. refuses to play offense against Spain - our best bet is defend and counterattack. But at this level, you have to play some offense. No one wants games this important in PKs.
Germany's whole gameplan in this world cup was to sit back and then counter. It worked to perfection in their last two games. The England game in particular - 3 of their goals were the functional equivalent of cherry picking. The problem as I see it is that it is only an effective strategy if you get on the board first.
And set pieces. Problem is that Barca's defenders are very good at defending them. The Dutch general play a pretty positive style but I could imagine them going into a shell somewhat so as not to give a ton of space to Xavi and Iniesta, who will kill you when you give them something.