Thread: This is it Tonight Guys

It's game on tonight just hope it's a good game and a few goals would be good for football.
Here's the latest update from the BBC

Venue: Soccer City, Johannesburg
Date: Sunday, 11 July 2010
Kick-off: 1930 BST
Coverage: Live on BBC1 and BBC Radio 5 live | Highlights on BBC red button | Full repeat on BBC3 (0020 BST). Plus watch live, listen live, watch in-game highlights (UK only) and follow live text commentary and on this website
TEAM NEWS

Netherlands coach Bert van Marwijk is expected to recall Gregory van der Wiel at right back and defensive midfielder Nigel de Jong after both missed the semi-final win over Uruguay through suspension.


Playmaker Wesley Sneijder and goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg are both fit after shrugging off minor problems.
Demy de Zeeuw did not break his jaw after receiving a kick in the face against Uruguay as was first feared, but his teeth were damaged and it is unclear if he will play any role.


Spain coach Vicente del Bosque has to decide whether or not to recall Fernando Torres to the starting line-up, or stick with Barcelona forward Pedro. Cesc Fabregas is thought to have overcome a training-ground injury to his right leg, but played no part in the semi-final win over Germany.
MATCH PREVIEW

The first World Cup in Africa will produce a new winner when the two greatest footballing nations never to have won the game's biggest prize meet at Soccer City on Sunday.


Will the Spanish finally find El Dorado, or is the future Oranje?
Spain's previous best finish at the World Cup was fourth place in 1950, but football's great underachievers now have the opportunity to win their second major title in as many years to confirm their status as the greatest current team in international football.


Vicente del Bosque's side have won 50 of their last 54 games playing a mesmeric passing game, demoralising and eventually exhausting their opponents with one-touch possession football.


The Netherlands reached the 1974 and 1978 finals playing their own brand of the beautiful game, but while Total Football may have been consigned to history, Bert van Marwijk's class of 2010 have discovered a winning formula just as effective.



The Dutch are on a 25-match unbeaten streak and are hoping to emulate the Brazilian side of 1970 as the only team to have a 100% record in both qualifying and the tournament itself.


For Wesley Sneijder, Arjen Robben, Klass-Jan Huntelaar and Rafael van der Vaart, Sunday's final provides the perfect occasion to remind Spain of their talents.


The first three were deemed surplus to requirements at Real Madrid, while the latter's future there is in doubt. In a further subplot, Sneijder will go head-to-head with David Villa for the golden shoe, with both players on five goals.


Spain are at their 13th World Cup, the Netherlands their ninth, but remarkably they have never played each other in a major championship. Their biggest clash was their first when they met in Antwerp for the 1920 Olympic silver medal. On Sunday, for one of football's 'nearly men', the prize will finally be gold.
MATCH FACTS

Head-to-head

- Spain and the Netherlands have never met at the World Cup or European Championship before.


- In over 90 years of competition, they have met just nine times: they have won four encounters apiece, and drawn once.


- This will be the first World Cup final that does not involve one of Brazil, Argentina, Italy or (West) Germany.


- Their most recent meeting was a 1-0 friendly win for the Dutch in Rotterdam in 2002.
Netherlands

- The Netherlands are playing in their third World Cup final. They lost the 1974 and 1978 finals, to hosts West Germany and Argentina respectively.


- The Dutch are bidding to become only the second team to qualify for the World Cup with a 100% record and win every match at the tournament itself (matching Brazil in 1970).


- The Netherlands have won six World Cup matches at a single tournament for the first time. This beats their previous best of five in 1974, when they lost in the final.


- Van Marwijk's side are on a 25-match unbeaten streak, a record for the Dutch. Their last defeat was in September 2008 (a 2-1 loss to Australia in Eindhoven).


- They have scored 12 goals in South Africa - only Germany have scored more (13).


- Wesley Sneijder has scored 7 goals in his last 8 internationals. He was credited with Holland's first goal against Brazil, despite Felipe Melo appearing to get the last touch.
Spain

- Spain have lost only two of their last 54 games (to USA and Switzerland).


Defeat to the Swiss was a bad omen - no side has ever won the World Cup after losing their opening game.


- Italy (1994), Argentina (1990) and West Germany (1982) all reached the final despite beginning their campaign with a loss. Argentina (1978) were the last team to win the tournament despite losing a game in the group stage.


- This is the fourth time the reigning European champions have reached a World Cup final. The only side to have lifted Fifa's trophy, West Germany, beat the Dutch in the 1974 final.


- The Germans failed to double up against Italy in 1982, while the Azzurri lost to Brazil in 1970 two years after winning Euro '68. France also held both titles concurrently, though they were crowned world champions first (in 1998).


- The Spanish are through to their first ever World Cup final. They did reach the final four in 1950 under a different format, when the remaining teams played out a group stage. The Spanish finished bottom, behind winners Uruguay plus Brazil and Sweden.


- David Villa is one goal away from equalling Raul's record of 44 goals for Spain. He has already equalled the Spanish record for most goals at a single World Cup (five), set by Emilio Butragueno in 1986.


- Spain have completed 3,387 passes at the World Cup, more than any other side. The Netherlands have managed 2,434. Prior to the third-place play-off, Spain had the tournament's top four passers: Xavi (464 completed passes), Busquets (420), Alonso (399) and Pique (378).


Referee: Howard Webb (England)
Assistants: Darren Cann and Michael Mullarkey (both England)
Fourth: Yuichi Nishimura (Japan)

edition.cnn.com

Hope the cloggies do it....SA can then claim it as a host country win!!!

Originally Posted by Jeremia

Hope the cloggies do it....SA can then claim it as a host country win!!!

Very true Jeremia just a pity Eugene Terreblanche could not parade the team down Fox Street or Hilbrow.

Originally Posted by 12Call

Originally Posted by Jeremia

Hope the cloggies do it....SA can then claim it as a host country win!!!

Very true Jeremia just a pity Eugene Terreblanche could not parade the team down Fox Street or Hilbrow.

But what part of Soccer City would he sit in??... and then again would he be allowed to lift the cup like Mandela did in 95...

I would assume he would sit next to his horse.

Mandela lifted the cup in Ellis Park as Soccer City is only a new venue but he was in Kapstad for the opening ceremony.

EAMtalk hopes Sunday's World Cup showpiece will be a match to remember as a fitting finale to a fantastic tournament in South Africa.

At Soccer City on Sunday South Africa in particular and football in general needs a World Cup final to remember.
It is not just another football match.



Spain v Holland will be watched by an audience estimated to be well in excess of one billion people around the globe.


They will not only examine the merits of Xavi and Andres Iniesta in Spain's supreme midfield and the match-winning individual stars of Holland. They will also judge South Africa and the first World Cup to be entrusted to the continent.



A country which gave birth to the 'Rainbow Nation', the symbol of which was then-president Nelson Mandela donning a Springbok shirt and baseball cap and presenting the rugby World Cup to South African captain Francois Pienaar back in 1995 just down the road in Ellis Park.


Fifteen years later it remains unclear whether a frail Mandela, who turns 92 a week on Sunday, will be at Soccer City to present the football World Cup to the winning European captain.



But how magnificent if he were, to complete the circle, to signify the coming of age of a new nation. Sport once again shaping history.



South Africa has spent £3billion on staging a World Cup which has delivered five new stadiums, new roads and refurbished airports.



A World Cup which undeniably has had a unifying influence on a nation which has blown its vuvuzelas with enduring enthusiasm throughout, even when all African hope had been extinguished.



We should not be too starry-eyed. The depressing shanty towns remain, crime is endemic as vividly portrayed by the media bus driver who revealed the long baseball bat complete with metal spike which he kept in his cab to repel potential intruders.


A Sky TV reporter was also burgled at his Cape Town hotel. And all on the day when Durban airport, specially built for the tournament, failed to cope with the influx of fans for the second semi-final, resulting in hundreds missing the match when their jets were turned around in mid-air.


Logistics and meticulous detail is not South Africa's long suit.
But the abiding memory is not of failure. It is of a nation willing to change, one desperate to embrace Mandela's vision of a future where "Africa is at peace with itself". One which took pride and joy in welcoming the world to take a peek at how far it had travelled since the wretched days of apartheid.



The football has not always matched the optimism. Too few goals in the group phase, too much caution, too many tactical games for the purists and not enough edge-of-the-seat excitement.



That is why Soccer City on Sunday night requires a match bursting with what the Spanish would call Joga Bonito. The 'Beautiful Game'.



There is every chance it will happen. Holland have match-winners of genuine flair in Arjen Robben, Robin van Persie and Wesley Sneijder, the latter the playmaker who has scored five goals and is in line for the Golden Boot as the tournament's leading scorer.


Going forward they carry real menace. At the back they carry Khalid Boulahrouz, the former Chelsea defender who struggled in the Premier League and remains the weakest of links.


Whether Holland's defence can cope with David Villa, by some distance the most artful striker at this World Cup, is doubtful.


Whether they can cope with the Spanish midfield is another thing entirely. Xavi, Iniesta and Xabi Alonso cling to the ball as if it were a comfort blanket. Their play is automatic. Xavi, in particular, controls the speed of the game, instinctively knowing when to inject that dart of pace, the killer pass, which makes the Spanish so difficult to defend against.



In short, Spain are the better footballers, a team whose quality is built on the soundest of foundations with the tournament's top goalkeeper in Iker Casillas and most accomplished ball-playing defender in Gerard Pique.


They were too good for a young German side in the semi-final, so sharp that their 1-0 victory became an exhibition in keep-ball, one for the aficionados rather than the full-blooded thrill-fest for which we had hoped.


The final could be different. It could be a classic. The Spanish will weave their pretty patterns. The Dutch will press and harry to try to disrupt their rhythm in the knowledge that the individual brilliance of Robben and co. shines best with the game gung-ho.


Let us hope so because South Africa, for all its faults and failings, deserves a memorable final, one which lives up to its sentiment when it made history by winning the right to host the tournament on May 15, 2004.



"A victory for football and a victory for Africa."

More bollcoks talk , lowest number of visitors to any world cup and they borrowed from that Swiss fuckhead of FIFA so it could not fail.

Add to that the amount of labour strikes during the process and one can see why Africa will remain Africa but just add in France.

As an Engelsman I take a bit of ironic pleasure in seeing two countries such as Holland and Spain taking the purities of their past into the purity of the future somewhere at the end of the rainbow........

Altogeher now..

SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW.....

I thought the Port Of Gees established the Indian/Paki version of the Corner Shop in SA with the Port Of Gees coming from Mo Cam Beek.

(I do miss slop chips and vinegar).

Originally Posted by 12Call

More bollcoks talk , lowest number of visitors to any world cup and they borrowed from that Swiss fuckhead of FIFA so it could not fail.e.

Without the vuvuzelas the grounds would be silent....How the fuck can an African make their way accross a continent on a bus when they prefer to walk to work in the mud and rain to save money rather than ride on a Dala Dala, Tro Tro or Bada Bada....Then the minor problem of a passport....unless you are Nigerian.....but that was worthless after the fist game..

I am a GREAT fan of the Black Stars and if any African country can do it they can...If they handle their oil revinue better than say, Britain, then I predict they will win the WC within the next three....


African WC??...BULLSHIT!

Togo players took the bus for the African Nations and 2 were shot dead , Sepp Blatter should be shot and good news is that Platini collapsed yesterday so that should save a bullet or 3.

Originally Posted by 12Call

Togo players took the bus for the African Nations and 2 were shot dead , Sepp Blatter should be shot and good news is that Platini collapsed yesterday so that should save a bullet or 3.

Platini is French....falling over backwards at the first sign of a problem is normal...much the same as the Swiss with money..

As for Togo at the ACN....how effing, buggeringly, African was the whole thing??..From the attack, the apportion of blame to the bizarre exclusion of the team from the competition...??

What is the betting that in 20 years SA will be more like Zimbabwe than Zimbabwe will be like SA???

SA will be the New Hong Kong in 20 years time.

Those Chinks love Ports of Call and have the wedge to secure that the deal with happen.

Originally Posted by Jeremia

As an Engelsman

As an Engeritman I thought you would of been barracking for Spain.

There must be more Poms in Spain then there are Spamish these days.

Originally Posted by 12Call

SA will be the New Hong Kong in 20 years time.

Those Chinks love Ports of Call and have the wedge to secure that the deal with happen.

Your view is too narrow....expect the continent to be called the PRA ( People's Republic of Africa) within the next 20 years...... I can't believe how effing stupid America and Europe is on this continent giving money to Governments that only ends up back in the Swiss bank account of an individual that has transient power; Whereas the Chinese are hitting the real businesses.....

Anyway....hope Holland win tonight...

Originally Posted by Loy Toy

Originally Posted by Jeremia

As an Engelsman

As an Engeritman I thought you would of been barracking for Spain.

There must be more Poms in Spain then there are Spamish these days.

Yes Mate..Chavs and criminals.....not my sort of people don't y'know...

The Chinks rarely miss a trick ............ they own Hamerica's debt and cannot get enough of the Nips Funds Market.

All I see in the future is MSG.

The Chinese habitually don't actually pay hard cash for their African assets of minerals and oil. Usually it's a trade off with infrastructure provision (roads, railways, etc etc, using Chinese labour of course). The cash exceptions are the bribes.

Agreed as why spend money on the ground when resources are below it. Military sales also help cash flow.

Originally Posted by PAG

The Chinese habitually don't actually pay hard cash for their African assets of minerals and oil. Usually it's a trade off with infrastructure provision (roads, railways, etc etc, using Chinese prisoners of course). The cash exceptions are the bribes.

I only made one change to your post.....

i'm going for spain to lift the trophy tonite.
the german -uruguay game was great end to end football,
it's what i had been lookin for all through the tournament and hoping tonite we have a feast to equal that.
spain's excellent quick passing of the ball and their energy will suffice.
c'mon you reds.

Couldn't give a fok who wins it tonite, can't stand either of 'em.

In fact, am planning to be fast asleep at 1.30am. First final I'll miss live since '74.

ok come on Muff dont be like that I know you like footie

Seriously mate, I'm not staying up for this one. Don't like Holland or Spain and although this has 'classic final' written all over it I couldn't care less who wins it. Might watch the replay tomorrow.

Hey, maybe I'm all vuvu-ed out.


Bring on the new PL season.