Posted on 07/12/2014 7:52:54 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Host nation Brazil’s miserable run of form at the World Cup continued with a 3-0 loss to the Netherlands in the third-place playoff in Brasília on Saturday afternoon.
Any hopes of Brazil saving face at its own party evaporated within two minutes, when Thiago Silva pulled down Arjen Robben on the edge of the area. Silva, who missed the 7-1 semifinal rout against Germany through suspension and was supposed to bring stability to a shaky Brazilian backline, was lucky only to receive a yellow card for the foul. Robin van Persie made no mistake with the penalty, firing his spot kick past Júlio César into the top corner.
It got worse quickly. Playing a high line that invited counterattacks from the Dutch, the Brazilians went 2-0 down in the 16th minute when David Luiz headed Jonathan De Guzman’s cross straight to Netherlands defender Daley Blind, who had time and space to control and volley past Júlio César.
The Dutch comfortably defended a two-goal cushion against a ramshackle Brazilian offense for which long balls and crosses, not skill, were the order of the day. Brazil attacked without purpose or intelligence; it was no surprise when Georginio Wijnaldum fired home a shot between Júlio César and the near post after some good work by Robben and Daryl Janmaat in stoppage time.
Dutch coach Louis van Gaal will now leave the team to take over managerial duties at England’s Manchester United. The future of his Brazil counterpart, Luiz Felipe Scolari, is far less certain.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
And tomorrow we end the insanity known as the World Cup.
Dilma’s fault.
They were even beaten by the North Koreans.
If Argentina goes down, maybe we’ll see commie governments falling like dominoes.... /s
Yet again ... kinda feel sorry for Brazil seeing’s how they hosted the FIFA and all ...
I suspect it had more to do with her opinion of Argentina than anything else.
lol
(And tomorrow we end the insanity known as the World Cup.)
Nobody’s forcing you to watch it!
I’m loving seeing the Brazilians crying like little girls.
Brazil, why don’t you put the same effort into working to clean up your cities. No? Your towns? Say what, you’re taking a nap. OK. How about cleaning the garbage from your front yard then? Oh, I forgot; you gotta watch the World Cup!
News Flash: “Brazil Showed Great Self-Control When Beaten by the Dutch: Brazil DID NOT Behead Even One Referee”
Brazil: Stay OUT OF THE USA, especially Florida: we don’t need more Corrupt Welfare-Sucking Parasites.
with any luck, the brazillmut flag will be replaced with an argi one... 
Now that is FUNNY!
I’m not sure I’d call it a “miserable run of form”. They had easy passage in the early stages, and didn’t really get tough competition until last week. We’re just seeing the real Brazil now.
The loss of Neymar was a huge blow and without their star player, Brazil was simply struggling.
The future of football is about attack, attack, attack and that was evident in Germany’s play on Tuesday and it will be evident today.
Teams that play defensive ball will simply lose. I don’t know if the South Americans are prepared for this new football game. Brazil wasn’t.
You hold back, you die.
Klinsmann is largely responsible for the way Germany plays today.
He’s been a great coach for the US team. The US men’s team hasn’t made it to a final but the US women’s team has three FIFA titles to its credit.
Our quality of play is consistently improving and getting to second place in the so-called Group Of Death is no mean feat. There’s still lots of work to be done.
When all is said and done - while Americans are not obsessed with football like Europeans and South Americans are, the game has its legions of fans here and in this tournament the American team played far better than the vaunted Brazilians.
8^)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.