2014 World Cup

I'll take Things Nobody Complains About for $800, Alex.

 

And your answer is: "This player scored the winning goal in the 2014 World Cup."

 

After eight goals in Tuesday's match, I'm wondering if anyone will ever score between Argentina and the Netherlands?

 

The Oranje have a spy on Messi the whole time. Pretty smart.

 

So you roll out the second-string keeper for PKs in the quarters. He gets you into the semifinal, where you don't use him in PKs?

 

This dude looked small compared to the backup used in PKs last game.

Dutch didn't help themselves... their very first pk was caught in the gut by the Argentine GK.

 

They were out of substitutions and couldn't make that switch.

And after that performance we can see why he used the second-stringer for PKs in the quarters. The Dutch keeper guessed right two times but didn't completely sell out either time. Both times he guess right he got a hand on the ball but did nothing to stop the ball.

 

Yes, I know they were out of substitutions. I don't understand why he burned the third one instead of using it for the GK switch.

 

That was weird when he did it.

But if they have studied the whole PKs thing enough to know when to substitute the goalie, maybe they also know they were at an extreme disadvantage against Argentina. The Dutch didn't have five guys who could bang it home.

 

Especially after he looked so brilliant for doing it in the quarters. That question has to be asked.

 

Yeah, it wasn't that they were out of subs, it was that they allowed themselves to burn all three.

IIRC they used their first two substitutions relatively early in the second half. They would have had to have played the last 60 minutes of game time with no subs.

 

They made their first sub at halftime when they took out the defender who had a yellow and was on the verge of getting a second one at least twice. The coach was obviously afraid he'd screw up and leave them down a man, so he went to the bench early. I suspect that skewed their whole substitution pattern.