With all due respect to our forum members of Dutch extraction, I must say that I was thoroughly disgusted by the Netherlands' approach in this match, which was supposed to be between the top two teams in the competition - the most watched single sporting event on the planet.
For much of the match, however, one could have believed that one was watching the cynical thugs of Brazil running about in orange shirts, as the Dutch unfortunately employed similar tactics to those which were utilised against
them in the quarterfinals.
The first half featured a stream of deliberate fouls perpetrated by the Dutch in order to unsettle the Spaniards and stifle the latter's trademark fluid passing. I fully expected the Netherlands to play a hard defensive game and to rely on counterattacks, but the sheer brutal negativity of their strategy surprised me. They kicked almost every Spanish player in sight and were exceedingly fortunate not to be reduced to ten men following zoo escapee Nigel de Jong's appalling studs-in-the-chest foul on Xabi Alonso - I'm still astounded that he wasn't shown a straight red, yet the Dutch actually had the hide to complain about the refereeing.Given the treatment that they were receiving, with midfield goon Mark van Bommel also tirelessly putting himself about, the Spaniards did well not to blow their tops completely (hell, I would have...) and return the favours with bone-crunching compound interest. But I guess that's why I'm not a top class footballer - that and my lack of the necessary level of skills...
Just likein the Netherlands - Brazil quarterfinal, such churlish spoiling tactics paid dividends for their executors in the first half, for the match was still scoreless, which suited the Dutch game plan of smothering Spain and hoping for a goal from an Arjen Robben-led counterattack, a corner or a free kick. The second half was a bit more open, but I was still less than impressed by the continuing Dutch rough play and their haranguing of the referee, especially by Robben and Wesley Sneijder.I was always hoping for a Spanish victory as they were the only all-White team in contention since the end of the second round and I was mightily relieved when Andres Iniesta scored to prevent the match going to penalties - it would have been a terrible thing if the Dutch had emerged victorious from a penalty shootout, both from a racial point of view and from a purely footballing perspective.
Spain play football exactly how it should be played - i.e., they attack and try to win the game. Their style is based on brilliant individual technique, close control, quick and inventive passing and positive attacking teamwork. Watching Spain is like watching the best quality football from the past, when the objective was to
win a match as opposed to
not losing a match, when entertaining technique-based football was the norm, not some kind of phenomenal exception. This was the football I watched as a little kid, the football which was generally played up until the first years of the 1990s when the fear of losing became much more important than the desire to win in an impressive manner that could make one's fans proud. Sure, catenaccio and related defence-minded systems were around in various forms since the 1930s, but the philosophy of
winning a game was always foremost, be it through constant counterattacking (made possible by the opposition's willingness to attack) or "long ball" football, et cetera. But the era of beautiful technical football ground to a halt with the rise of commercialism and playing for very high financial stakes, which inevitably influenced tactics and therefore changed the game as a spectacle forever. As usual, whenever the business and political sides of things gain the upper hand, the quality of the product being sold suffers adversely. This is exactly the case with football.
The injection of greater numbers of blacks into the sport had a deleterious effect on the level of technique on display. As I mentioned in earlier posts, the American model of "black athleticism" was applied to European football, with an increasing emphasis on"speed" and "power", which the blacks purportedly possess, as opposed to technique and quick thinking, which they most definitely do not. It's no surprise that even the rules of the game changed to accomodate the new breed of (largely black) player with poor technique and tactical awareness but endless straight line running and empty speed - the tackle from behind, whose correct execution required plenty of skill and always allowed defenders to nullify some of the fastest forwards' speed, was banned in 1998, consequently giving the simply "fast" players an instant advantage. The "passive offside" rule was introduced in 2003 ostensiblyin order to facilitate attacking play and reduce stoppages, but one did not have to be a particularly insightful genius to see that some of the reasoning behind the change was to prevent tactically dim-witted black (usually African) strikers who always strayed offside from constantly exploding their teams' attacking moves.
Anyway, sorry for the digression, but it's all to a purpose.
The Spanish victory was a victory for old-style technical football. The media "experts" like to repeat that "modern" football, with its blacks-as-far-as-the-eye-can-see personnel and transparently blunt emphasis on speed and power is a far superior product to the (White dominated) football of previous decades - the cult of the so-called "new era of true professionalism", served up at the altar of pay-TV. Well, Spain have proven that this is all utter bollocks, for the traditional White European style of superb technique and passing has been shown as infinitely superior to the grunting "ultra-professional" philosophies of the modern "athletic"black / non-White-friendly approach.
This is emphatically illustrated by the fact that whichever team played Spain did so in a negative manner, putting everyone behind the ball, fouling, spoiling, and generally sh*tting their pants in an attempt to prevent the Spaniards from playing and scoring, instead of making an effort to score themselves. Why? Because Spain possessed the finest technique, the finest passing, and the most open approach. This was 100% White football played by 100% White men coached by 100% White men.
As I said before - no blacks, no Muslims, no half-breeds, no bullsh*t.