[Shabbaman]

So that is what you get when you play teams who keep space between their lines (although it would be hard to call Brazil a team). Hurray for teams who don't stick to their penalty box like they're glued to it. If only Argentina had had the slightest attacking interest... What set this match apart was that the Dutch midfield actually got into the box. I'm not sure why we hadn't seen that before: it could've been the quality of the opponent's midfielders (marking is not a concept known to Brazilians, apparently), it could've been Sneijder, but I suspect it's that the Dutch midfielders aren't good enough, or experienced enough, or too scared by their coach to leave their positions. Pity, but this was nice to watch.

This tournament has made me wonder how to assess the quality of players: here, the Dutch defenders have been the laughing stock of the whole nation for years: how could any player from the Dutch league ever achieve anything on the world stage? I'm thoroughly impressed. Is club football that much better than national team football? It's hard to picture a club being lightyears apart from some teams. I mean, Spain is half Barcelona and half Real Madrid, that doesn't put that team below the level of the Dutch league. Yet that David Luiz is going to PSG for 50M, and you can buy the complete Dutch defense for that amount of money. And David Luiz doesn't even know how to play football!