How easy is it to write super-catchy songs and create super-catchy videos?

This easy...

Straight out of the '60's and into your heart.

Surrender!

Someone finally figures out a way to make money blogging.

Never mind the previous post...how beautiful is this?

How beautiful is this?

Closure. And a fair dose of catharsis.

It’s become popular over the last several days to talk about the anti-soccer of the Dutch, the morphing of the beauty of “totaal voetbal’ (I own the shirt. And so can you…) into “totaal bastard voetbal”. In fact, I quote here from a previous post of mine: “D. Jong is going to make a reckless challenge at some point in this tournament and he is going to put Holland in deep, deep trouble”. Well it happened thank you very much, and who’s kidding who, that’s a straight red. In the 30th minute of the World Cup final. If he gets red there (as he should have), its game over.

And that gets to my one and only criticism of this team and the way it was assembled: they had 2 midfield pit-bulls (v. Bommel & d. Jong) and they really only really needed one (v. Bommel). With d. Jong off we could have featured Raf v.d. Vaart as a more creative and possession oriented support player for Sneijder, allowing Sneijder to offer better support to v. Persie, who, I’m sorry, looked like he had been abandoned on an island for long stretches of play.

Not to trot out my soccer bona fides too, too much, but let me explain how this works. Its generally understood v. Persie had, ah, a difficult tournament. He seemed out of sorts, a bit petulant, never really in the flow of the game. Well I’ve watched nearly all the games on replay now (and all of them live of course) and I can tell you it wasn’t his fault, it was the system…he was left alone to fend for himself always against a double team and very often a triple team. Why? Because Holland were playing with 2 holding pit-bull midfielders. Why was Gio able to unleash the goal of the tournament against Uruguay? Because for the opening 15 minutes of play Kuyt was making deep runs looking for v. Persie, opening up the defense. How did Sneijder manage to score on a header against Brazil? Because v. Persie made a near post run behind Kuyt scaring the crap out of 3 defenders. How did Robben score his winner against Slovakia? Because v. Persie made a near perfect curling supporting run. I could go on, but you get the idea. For all of Holland’s attacking options, they made a commitment to defense first in the midfield and v. Persie suffered most. V. Marwijk surely must have known this, and it’s hard to argue with success, but I’ll always have a nagging belief that a little less d. Jong, a little more v.d. Vaart, Elia, and Afellay, and the Cup is delivered to Holland in style.

Ah well…Brazil 2014!!

Uh oh.

So it's Spain after all, as Germany fall a half step short of the final. The game seemed to lack a certain bite, as if everyone were a little too nice and respectful of one another. I think that's fine, but when you're playing for a spot in the final you expect to see some hard challenges and a few cards...it just wasn't there. I found myself pulling hard for Germany; every World Cup a team grows on me and this year for me it was the Germans. Without the dour and controlling Ballack, out through injury, Germany were a hugely entertaining side. Also, it would have been very sweet for Holland to purge the ghosts of 1974...

We'll have a first time winner on Sunday, and there are a few other notable firsts...

Some very good commentary here...

And finally, Winners Only Nick (of German descent) writes from Hollywood with his final thoughts on the semis:

In all seriousness....I knew they'd lose this game. Call it psychic, call it intuition, maybe I knew the team very well, whatever...I knew this game would play out exactly the way it did. I told my brother this morning that they wouldn't be able to attack like they did in the last two games and they'd have a lot of trouble with Spain. He thought I was nuts. Spain is a possession team, plain and simple. They're tough to beat. I hope on Sunday you guys can figure out a way to skip through their defense. One thing I know for certain, you'll have a lot more scoring opportunities than we did.

So....On Sunday I will be rooting hard for the Dutch. I told people I'd host a party on Sunday if Germany won. I think I'll still host it.

GO HOLLAND!!!!!!!

Nick

Goal of the tounament? I've seen several replays and I'm in agreement with my friend Guach, who texts: "Goal of the year. All competitions."

Sitting on my built-for-an-eternity deck with an apres jeu beverage savoring yet another Holland win at the World Cup. Next up, the finals against the winner of Germany vs Spain. Oh my.

Funny thing, after the quarterfinal win over Brazil I was euphoric, partly because they came from behind in the second half and partly because it was somewhat unexpected. I mean who beats Brazil at the World Cup? Very few. This time it was more of a feeling of relief.

I had predicted a Holland vs Germany final, a prognostication that's looking pretty darn good right about now. In fact if you had wagered on a Holland vs Germany final you'd have gotten some quite favorable odds and you'd be cashing in handsomely. Yet another reason to follow the Not My Fault! blog, as if you needed it.

Regardless, it's hard not to pull for Spain for a couple of reasons. First, it looks like a more favorable match up for the Dutch, and second a Holland vs Spain final guarantees a new World Cup winner. We haven't had one of those since Argentina in 1978, and I mean c'mon it's time for a new winner.

What else did I predict correctly? Oh yes, the Nigel de Jong difficulties. Suspended from the semi, replace by Demy de Zeeuw, who looked less than useful after getting kicked in the head. And he didn't look particularly useful before getting kicked in the head. Replaced by Van der Vaart at half time and the game changed. Coincidence? Sure if you believe in that sort of thing. But really just more evidence of my soccer knowledge and awesomeness, cause I predicted that too.

So anyway, more later...including my quest for a reasonably priced ticket to Amsterdam for the final...

UPDATE AND CORRECTION: France was the last new winner of the cup in 1998.

Had a dream last night, one of those early morning in-between sleep kind of dreams...I saw the final scoreline: Holland 2, Brazil 1.

And so...

(And no I'm not making this up.)