I want to see them play the Germans.
Go Argentina!
July 9, 2014 • 1:01 pm
Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
I want to see them play the Germans.
Game time.
All European final please …..!!
What? Why do they have to be Europeans?
Well, now we know it’s not happening, but I suppose there would have been some gratification in disproving the pundits who said only South American teams could win in South America, and, indeed, bucking the historical trend.
It might also just have been a way of saying they wanted Holland to win.
It was !
Nah, I want to see Netherlands in the final. They have nicer uniforms.😄
sub
The rivalry between the Netherlands and Germany is equal to that of England and Germany. Come on you cloggies!
For this game I’m pro Holland! Hup Holland!
But the next game… Deutschland vor, noch ein Tor!!!!
Not in the least. Germans do care about beating Holland… 🙂
Well done.
As Henning When says, “England v Germany is always a big game. Although for Germany there are usually bigger games to follow”.
Wehn not when.
While the Netherlands and Germany have a long-standing rivalry of sorts, an Argentina-Germany final would be even more interesting, given that it would mark the third time (after 1986 and 1990) the two countries meet in the final. I wonder who the Brazilian public would favour, archrivals Argentina or those who utterly humiliated the seleçao last night.
As for the England-Germany rivalry you mention, I think that exists mostly in the minds of the English. Not sure Germans really see it that way, and definitely not at the same level as the Germany-Netherlands one.
I think Germans see their rivalry with England as something that comes in handy to wind up the English with when the opportunity arises. Bad blood over that goal in the 1966 final notwithstanding, I’d agree that there’s more real loathing and rivalry between Germany and the Netherlands.
Germans are often baffled as to why the English always frame it in WWII terms (“Achtung! Surrender!” was one headline in the 1990s.)
There’s no Schadenfreude at all in beating England. Different with the Dutch, though.
Mentioning England here reminds me of joke (of questionable taste) that I heard on vacation in London. We were on a tour bus, driving past the Argentinian Embassy when the tour guide says, “how do you get a thousand Argentinians into a phone booth? Tell them it doesn’t belong to them.” This was in the early 2000’s, not the 1980’s. He’d probably been telling that joke for twenty years. And also, which is preferred, Argentinians or Argentines? (My spell checker apparently votes for the former, but some British announcers keep using the latter.)
Isn’t it always ‘Argies’?
First “Viva Espana”, now “Go Argentina”. I’d almost think Jerry doesn’t really like the Dutch. Hup Holland, leve Van Gaal!
I like Germany better than Netherlands. For some reason Robben reminds me of Patrick Stewart, which freaks me out. So far Argentina is controlling the ball. It’s just a matter of time before they score. . .
I don’t find Robben very attractive either, but hey, you don’t have to go to bed with him. He just needs to help us win (maybe take a dive at the right moment).
Actually, Robben is a handsome man; he just freaks me out because he reminds me of Patrick Stewart. And, as you said, he dives, too. I hate divers. Messi doesn’t dive.
Messi doesn’t dive? The Messiah is a divine diver.
Try Googling “messi best dives youtube”.
Messiah- love it!
Whoah…
“Robben is 30, looks like 40 and plays like he’s 20.”
“Robben is 30, looks like 58 and plays like he’s 20.”… fixed
I just began disliking Netherlands because of Robben’s dives and his over-acting each time he does one. They are a fine team otherwise.
The entire Brazilian team took a dive on Tuesday.
It’s taking them a while to score…
Arjen Picard: http://kourkouti.sport24.gr/2014/07/08/11310/
Half-time here in a crappy motel in Belfield, ND, on our way to Teddy Roosevelt NP. Go Messi! (Messi don’t dive;-))
Roosevelt NP is cool! And since you’re about to be there, if you’re looking for more sights, you won’t be that far from Glendive MT / Makoshika State Park. The Badlands area there was one of the sites that was used to correlate the presence of dinosaur fossils only below the iridium layer, supporting the giant impact theory for dinosaur extinction. That work was published in Science.
And just to give a further shout-out, the Glendive Lions Club has a camp there with an enormous (three-storey!!) A-frame that’s available for rent. There’s something like a 270degree panorama of the Badlands off the deck of the place.
(And holy hypothetical jesus! In digging up a link on that, I find that the damn creationaries have a dinosaur museum somewhere in/near Glendive now, too. @#$^%!!)
Thanks, Hemp! We’ll check it out day after tomorrow on our way to Moab, UT. Tomorrow we’re hiking in TRNP. ( thanks for the heads up on the creationists. Maybe they have some of those green Sinclair dinosaurs..)
Oh, oh. Here comes the shoot out!!
Cool, my pleasure.
I was there on a pleasure trip, ca. 1995, and a woman who was one of the au’s of the Science paper was part of the group. Apparently one of the students in one of the summer field sessions that led to the paper got to feeling sorry for himself one day at lunch, and sitting out in the field he said, dejectedly, “I’m never going to find anything!” Turned out he was sitting on a Tyrannosaurus (or some such honking charismatic dinosaur) skull when he said that. At the time we were there, anyway, that skull greeted you at the visitors center at Makoshika.
We’ll keep our eyes peeled for the honking skull:-))
I am vexed. I can’t decide who to support. There are no Chelsea players on either side.
Is it just me, or is this an ugly game? There seems to be more player-player contact than player-ball contact.
It does seem ugly to me. Now it appears to be pouring rain. I’m not really enjoying this game very much.
Yesterday’s game used up the goal allotment for the semi-finals, now they must make do… 🙂
I’m sensing extention time, and then penalty shoot out.
Neither team can seem to find a way to score at the moment.
This would be a horrible game for someone’s introduction to soccer. A total of 8 shots on goal implies a very defensive game played mostly at midfield IMO… and that doesn’t make for exciting soccer.
The coaches don’t take off their suit jackets and put on rain coats???
Aguero is gonna settle this in overtime.
Woops, sorry, Bob. That was meant for the general thread. :-)*
*But Aguero is still gonna settle this.
Robben did NOT dive!!!! More shocking than GER 7 BRA 1.
The Dutch had much better ball handling in the second half than they had in the first half.
Footling!
I think the rain is a significant factor in the play.
Argentinian keeper made his first save after 99 minutes. I’m hoping for penalties and some guaranteed excitement.
Penalties!
Go Argentina!
I’ll be going elsewhere for my proof of evolution needs from now on.
Penalty kicks. This is brutal.
Praise Ceiling Cat!
Argentina!
Hallelujah for the Messiah!! ( and i’ve never seen Messi crossing himself – he does it on his own power:-)
Then I guess he is the only one. I saw one player go off and cross himself about a dozen times in 4 seconds.
I’ve seen at least one guy do that, too. Doesn’t the crossing “take” the first time. I’va also seen some go down on their knees after a goal.
Yes, Argentina!!!!
Argentina vs. Germany on Sunday!
How many left that predicted exactly that final? 🙂
The Dutch are classy; they’re being good sports and not whining. Robben was clapping!
In contrast to how they played. There seemed to be considerably more pushing, checking and holding on their part.
Terrific well played game though, both teams deserved to win, even if Argentina controlled the ball more.
I thought it was a terrible game, overwhelmingly dominated by defence.
I agree, Mal. There was some excitement towards the end, but overall it was a pretty ugly match. I felt like neither team deserved to win, not both!
My bad, the Dutch actually controlled the ball slightly more, I guess my biases as work.
Lousy game! What are they celebrating? Their lousyness? This game was not worth of a semi-final. Even USA or Greece would have fought harder.
Agreed, it was a crappy game.
I think both teams were freaked out by yesterday’s result and decided to play it safe.
It’s a little fallacious to assume that because 2 good teams cancelled each other out, 2 worse teams would have done better.
The Netherlands showed how to neutralise Messi, but did so at the expense of their own attacking threat. So a boring game, yes, but not because the teams were lousy, but because both defences were good.
Interesting to see what happens in the final. The German defence isn’t as strong as the Dutch, so they may find it hard to shackle Messi (Argentina’s only real attacking option) in the same way. But they will be much stronger on the counter/in attack generally, than the sides who Argentina have faced so far. I fear the final will be pretty defensive too.
I’ll go along with that,Nick,with some reservations about your final sentence. I also think the rain played some part in depressing the quality of yesterday’s game.
What will Jesus do????? The current pope (ARG) versus the ex-pope(GER). Who does he like more?
Whom – I wish the comments had an edit feature. I used there a couple of days ago instead of their.
No worries, we know very little about Jesus, including whether he even existed, but we do know he never used “whom”. 🙂
Very disappointed. Neither team appeared very inspired.
Argentina doesn’t deserve another final (not as blatantly as Brazil didn’t deserve, but still), despite having the best ‘extant’ player. Messi appeared but a shadow…
The Dutch are apparently back to their losing penalty shoot-outs. Btw, I think it is only the second time in 9 matches they lose, if I’m not mistaken, the other one being the crucial one, the final in 78.
Whichever way it goes (I think the Mannschaft will make bratwurst from their opponents), the new champion will be an old one, having won several times before.
Sad day for football.
Should we call this the Pope final, since the last two popes are from Germany and Argentina. Bad joke.
George beat you to it, two comments ago.
There are other comparisons we could make – but I do not want to lower the tone!
😉
If Argentina plays as well as it did against Holland in 1978, it will be as breathtaking a match as it was in the 1978 final. Problem is, they don’t have the brilliant and magical Mario Kempes or his equivalent.
Sorry,Vierotchka,I can’t let that pass.Kempes was a very fine player,but nothing like Messi.
I beg to differ. Kempes had all the bravado, skill and charisma of a true gaucho twirling and dancing with his bolas. Messi is very technical and talented, is all.
That was dire!
Two unambitious teams!
Messi may as well not have played apart from his penalty which he showed confidence in taking, unlike the Dutch forwards who were too frightened to step up to take the first one so poor old Ron Vlaar who had a great game was left to do it.
Aye, a boring display of tactical skills.
Messi still haven’t played full potential, so I’m a bit weary for the final.
Hopefully they’ll pull it off and all talk of Maradona being greater will fade. 🙂
If tiring means anything, & Chris Waddle thought the Dutch looked tired, then Germany had a stroll in their second half & an extra day to recover. Maybe Aguero will be fit?
I was thinking it was Man City v Man Utd – van Persie & van Gaal v. Aguero, Demichelis & Zabaleta, so I suppose Matthew was supporting Argentina…?
I think the Germans must be favourites by a fair margin after the semi’s, not because of fatigue issues although three days rest for the Argentinians isn’t much, but because their game looks much more solid and their attack doesn’t stand or fall by one single player’s performance. If Di Maria isn’t there and Aguero isn’t back on form, Messi’s all they got.
Brazil had a complete meltdown against Germany and it’s hard to say how much of it was Germany’s doing and how much of it was a miserable tactical setup. Under all circumstances Germany must be mentally on top coming in to this game. Momentum is on their side, imo.
But it’s probably going to be a tense defensive affair with a one goal difference at 90 min.
Vamos Argentina! 🙂
It was a little disappointing game after the shameful defeat of Brazil, although at least it was not decided after first 30 minutes! Both teams played too slow and safe, lacked dynamics and the Netherlands had to pay a bigger price for that. Too bad. Anyways, congratulations to Argentina and let the best team win the Finals!
“shameful defeat of Brazil” – come on – it is just a stupid game & there is no shame in losing – no one died! 22 men kicking an inflated pig’s bladder! 🙂
Blasphemy!
I’m sure the Bible has plenty to say about what may – and what may not – be done with a pig’s bladder (or any other parts).
🙂
Not a great game as both teams played to not lose, instead of to win.
I was thinking that NL would go through, but well done (I suppose) to Argentina, and I hope that the final won’t be this dull.
I’ve heard it joked that both teams were afraid of what sunday has in store for the winner… 🙂
It seems most people blame Holland more for playing defensively than Argentina. I disagree, I think they were as bad as each other.
Whenever Robben got the ball, he was instantly pressed by two Argentineans with usually one or two more providing cover. Also, whenever Holland turned over the ball, the first thing Argentina did was to pull back all 4 defenders plus 2 or 3 of the midfield players, to shackle Robben, van Persie, and Sneijder.
All told both teams knew the other’s danger man, and in neutralizing them, sacrificed too much of their own attacking power elsewhere.
Just to fill you in on current English footie politics. We wanted Holland to beat Argentina (Argentines btw or Argies slangily)and then thrash the Germans. Now we want the Germans to kill the Argies with extreme prejudice – got it? LOL.
Bottom line, anybody can win EXCEPT Argentina! We had to whack their arse in 1982 so even the Germans get a break lol.