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Luckily for Brazil, Netherlands weren't as clinical as Germany in their finishing or this could well have ended up 7-1 again. Sadly, Brazil's defence was still all at sea, even with Thiago Silva back but the Netherlands attack just wasn't as lethal as Germany's - mind you, at 17 minutes down, Brazil were already 2 goals down and it was looking like it could go the same way again. I had said earlier that I hoped the Netherlands didn't win any games off a Robben dive but to all intents and purposes, they did in this game. Not that it was the final goal but rather it was the first goal and it was so early (just the second minute) that it quite simply deflated Brazil. They became so nervous that it was going to be the semifinal all over again that almost everyone lost confidence in their own abilities.
It was similar in some ways to that game - David Luiz messed up time and again, both in defence (where he handed the second goal to the Netherlands after a terrible defensive blunder) and also in attack where all of his much vaunted free kick prowess simply evaporated. Also like the semifinal, one of the few Brazilian players who finished this game with any credit to his name was Oscar who ran and junked and twisted and crossed and shot but all to no avail as the rest of the attack (Willian, Jo, Ramirez and Hulk, once substituted on) just slumbered on.
Robben did get booked for diving (finally!) but then it became very much a game of "Kick The Robben" as the Brazilians knew that he couldn't dive again and risk getting sent off but any time they did foul him, they could simply claim a dive. He did get a few more free kicks but he must have finished that game very sore - isn't karma a bastard, Arjen?
The game finished 0-3 to Netherlands so they finish third and Brazil finished fourth - but I imagine that the blood-letting wont stop for years in that Brazilian team!
It was similar in some ways to that game - David Luiz messed up time and again, both in defence (where he handed the second goal to the Netherlands after a terrible defensive blunder) and also in attack where all of his much vaunted free kick prowess simply evaporated. Also like the semifinal, one of the few Brazilian players who finished this game with any credit to his name was Oscar who ran and junked and twisted and crossed and shot but all to no avail as the rest of the attack (Willian, Jo, Ramirez and Hulk, once substituted on) just slumbered on.
Robben did get booked for diving (finally!) but then it became very much a game of "Kick The Robben" as the Brazilians knew that he couldn't dive again and risk getting sent off but any time they did foul him, they could simply claim a dive. He did get a few more free kicks but he must have finished that game very sore - isn't karma a bastard, Arjen?
The game finished 0-3 to Netherlands so they finish third and Brazil finished fourth - but I imagine that the blood-letting wont stop for years in that Brazilian team!
