OT - World Cup Semifinal #2 NED v. ARG, ESPN, 3:00pm CDT

Submitted by Wolverine In Iowa on

Well, after yesterday's completely terrifying beatdown of Brazil by Germany, I have no clue what will happen today.  I think Holland has a more complete team, but Messi is the best in the world (or top two).  It's going to come down to how often Robben gets away with diving versus keeping the ball away from Messi.

NED 3 - 1 ARG*

______________________

* Not to be taken seriously, unless it happens.

sadeto

July 9th, 2014 at 2:39 PM ^

It's the opposite for me, I've wanted the Netherlands to win since I was a young boy, 40 years ago. But it's difficult to say they will stop Messi. 

 

Yeoman

July 9th, 2014 at 5:02 PM ^

Coming into the tournament Luis Suarez had played 355 professional matches and bitten two people. Estimating from that you'd get 177:1 for a single match and roughly 60:1 for the tournament.

Of course it's not so simple for a low-frequency event like this but the quoted odds assume a lower chance of a bite at the WC than in his career as a whole, by a factor of three. You'd think a bookie writing a sucker bet like this would be careful to err in the other direction.

Naked Bootlegger

July 9th, 2014 at 2:56 PM ^

Since I'm traveling to Amsterdam next weekend, I would really like NED to win this one.   I can't imagine the excitement of watching the final match with the locals.   If it happens, I'll have to find the proper shade of orange to wear (Syracuse?  Clemson?  Illinois?)

 

 

Zoltanrules

July 9th, 2014 at 3:54 PM ^

Di Maria's effectiveness/health could be the real difference. Machirano should get exposed.

Van Persie wakes up....

 

Netherlands 4 , Argentina 2

 

alum96

July 9th, 2014 at 4:15 PM ^

Surprised at all the high score predictions.  Normally at this stage, the team that scores first gets all "Italy/Germany" and it becomes a slow paced game.  We'll see.

Argentina has won every game by 1 goal and NED has been behind 3 of their games per announcer.

Argentina v Brazil in the 3rd place game WOULD be fascinating from a "how does Brazil bounce back after its demolition versus its hated rival" sort of thing.  Often the 3rd place game is a lot more fun to watch than the final since its very open.  

Seeing an all European final on South American soil, likewise would be interesting.  But so would seeing a bunch of Brazilians rooting hard for Germany in a final after that team destroyed them :)

koolaid

July 9th, 2014 at 4:18 PM ^

Messi is great to watch, but I can't stand how Argentina plays overall.  First significant 'foul' of the day should be a yellow card on Perez for diving.  Unfortunately more to come from Argentina in that regard.  Fingers crossed Netherlands 2-1

RioThaN

July 9th, 2014 at 4:36 PM ^

Argentina is widely known at least in spanish speaking countries for their "colmillo" or "garra" (fang or claw) which only means that they like to dive, foul and take advantage of situations (hand of god for example) as is Uruguay, they're not at all saints.

ken725

July 9th, 2014 at 4:26 PM ^

I played this match up yesterday on FIFA and my friend committed a penalty with Vlarr. I almost thought the same thing was going to happen.

M-Dog

July 9th, 2014 at 4:35 PM ^

Wow, at this point in the match yesterday there were 5 goals scored already.

I don't think the lesson of not getting too careless was lost on these two teams.

alum96

July 9th, 2014 at 5:36 PM ^

It's a shame their govt is so horrid constantly and their economic stability is so bad.  It would be a very nice country for a lot of ex-pats but the level of corruption and occasional 30% inflation hurt its stability.  When you cant be sure you can take your money out of the bank that hurts your credibility.

alum96

July 9th, 2014 at 5:39 PM ^

Yeah I was thinking Montreal might give it a run for the money.  Just when I see photos of downtown BA it looks like any street in a major European city with the buildings, the architecture, the squares, etc.  I havent seen enough of Montreal / QC downtown to know they are built the same.  Probably areas of Quebec are right up there too.

snarling wolverine

July 9th, 2014 at 5:55 PM ^

Big difference between Montreal and Quebec City.  Montreal is much more of a melting pot (there is a sizeable non-white population) and looks very North American, with skyscrapers and all that.  If it weren't for the language, it wouldn't seem all that different from a lot of other cities in the U.S./Canada.  (Of course, the language is a pretty big deal.)

Quebec City on the other hand really feels like you've gone to Europe.  In the center of town all the buildings are hundreds of years old, there's stone walls around the old city, and basically the whole population is not just white, but of the same ethnicity (French).  It's very unique.