World Cup Final: Spain vs Netherlands – half

By Michael Vass | July 11, 2010

Well there isn’t much to say about the match so far. Spain has dominated possession, but the Netherlands have had a couple of good counter-attacks. Passing for each team has been decent in the backfield, but a bit sloppy in the midfield. In all of that, the match has been less than exciting.

Both teams have had 1 shot on goal, with Spain having 2 shots overall to Netherlands 1.

What was more potentially critical to the 2nd half are the Yellow cards. There were 5 in all, 3 for Netherlands, 2 for Spain. Oddly enough the cards came down the line almost 1 after another, generally for the same offense by each team. This has lead Spain to be far more cautious against Van Brommel, and for the Netherlands the midfield challenges have become weaker.

The one Yellow that could have been the game changing card was #8 Nigel de Jong. In the 27th minute, Spain’s #14 Xabi Alonso was receiving a strong high pass when de Jong charged torwards him. de Jong then placed a kung fu styled kick square into the chest of Alonso, well after the ball was played. Should it have been a Red card? Indeed it should have been. The fact that it wasn’t is baffling.

Beyond that though the match has been ordinary and subdued. The critical factor will be which team has the first player removed from the game. Odds are, it will be Netherlands first, though Spain seems to be playing physical enough to lose a player even with that temporary advantage.

The prediction is that Netherlands will lose a player, Spain will score, Spain will lose a player making it a 10 vs 10 match and the score will not change.

Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)