Photo by:
Flickr jmcarthy99 & Paul Domenick
SAO PAULO, Brazil—The great thing about history is that you can either learn from your mistakes or make the same mistakes over again. In Argentina’s case, they were not going to repeat history by losing to the Netherlands like they did in the 1990 Soccer World Cup. They were motivated and determined to slow down the young Netherlands team on Wednesday. Argentina’s goalkeeper, Sergio Romero was the hero in this story. He out shined the greatest attackers from both teams; such as, Lionel Messi, Robing Van Persie, and Arjen Robben in Wednesday’s game. Romero saved two of the four shots by Netherland’s players Ron Vlaar and Wesley Sneijder. He was on fire and ready to save the day. Romero was going to rewrite history by shutting down the Netherlands.
The Netherland’s luck began during the Mexico game when there was bad officiating. During the shootout against Costa Rica, Netherland’s coach Louis Van Gaal strategically substituted Tim Krul (Goalkeeper) into the game before the shootout which gave them a winning advantage. Louis Van Gaal was trying to do the same strategic move against Argentina; however, in the 96’ (minute) he had to use his last substitution on Robing Van Persie because he was tired and had nothing left. This put Louis Van Gaal to a disadvantage, because he had to use up his third substitution and he was not going to be able to send Tim Krul into the game during the shoot-outs like he did for the Costa Rica game. He was hoping that Tim Krul could help his team to victory. At the end of the game Louis Van Gaal stated,
“I subbed in [Daryl] Janmaat for [Bruno Martins] Indi because of Indi’s yellow card and because he was often slow or too late – too much space was created because of him,”
Van Gaal said. “I subbed out [Nigel] de Jong because I didn’t want to risk him getting injured and also because [Jordy] Clasie can play forward much better than him. I substituted van Persie because he was exhausted.” He continued:
“Argentina is a top country with top players, but we didn’t lose to them. Penalties are always just a matter of luck.” (Cody Brunner/Yahoo Sports)
Louis Van Gaal sums it up well, by stating that penalties are just a matter of luck. If that is the case then the Netherland’s luck just ran out and they will not be moving to the finals instead they will be playing against Brazil for third place on Saturday. He is not very happy about this game and feels that there are unfair advantages; such as, Brazil has had one day to rest, they need to compose themselves from losing against Argentina and the players are not interested in playing Brazil for third place. They would rather go home. The big question is should FIFA make the Netherlands play against Brazil for third place or should they just take their total scores and present it to the team with the most points? Would love to hear your views and stands about Saturday’s game.
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