almost negates the greatness of sneijder's goal to equalize. i was disappointed to see that, but the dutch had been flopping the whole match too. cheap.

Robben embellished, but come on Marquez fouled him. You could argue some might swallow the whistle in that situation, but he was fouled.

i saw the replay like 5 times...he barely touched him. he was clearly looking to get tripped in any way so he could fall down. they'd been doing it all match. the dutch knew they couldn't get another past ochoa, so they were looking for a penalty if they could get in the box. and it worked.

how did he foul him? He was basically standing there and the dude flopped.

I did not see the missed call earlier in the match as I started watching at about 85 mins.

I did not really care who won or lost. But Mexico got screwed in that call.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Yes he was looking for the penalty but I still think he was fouled. I was rooting for Mexico and was hoping against hope, but I have no problem with call. Like I said earlier, Marquez is always chippy so maybe his reputation played into the call going Holland's way.

that is also probably the most sensitive part of the whole pitch, and it's very easy to be deceitful there...you gotta be real careful. there was contact but not enough for him to fall down like that.

it probably won't go down as the biggest story or anything but i still didn't like the way the dutch played. i thought they were divey and desperate and i've seen them do better than that.

but the strike by sneijder was still damn awesome.

He steps on his foot. I don't like it, but he was fouled.

Mexico's decision to play conservative is the bigger story to me. They have no one to blame but themselves. And yes Sneijder's strike was world class. Most of the time that ball is six rows up.

Thanks for posting that gif. I have watched that thing over and over. Sure his foot is there near the guys, but it still looks way more like a flop than an actual trip or foul to me. If his foot was really stepped on, then how does it come off the ground so quickly as he falls(flops) to the ground?

I don't know. I guess it is closer to a foul than I originally thought

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

No doubt Robben embellishes and dives at the end. I would love nothing more than to rid the sport of flopping and diving but as you say "it is closer to a foul" than most probably realize.

They were just talking about this play on the pregame show for the Costa Rica/Greece game and they called it a cumlative foul.

How does that work?

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Don't know exactly. Maybe in reference to Holland pushing the action almost the entire second half. I think if they were talking about the missed call in the 1st half they would have used "make-up" call.

I hope Costa Rica losses, that goalie is a little bitch...

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team Mully & Hanley
team Meatpants

At the half of the Nigeria and France game they said there were reports that an Algerian official had been assigned to USA and Belgium game and they said that was a "curious" decision.

Why is that?

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

wtf is that

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

US knocked Algeria out of the WC in 2010, but don't really think it's an issue.

I'm a Netherlands fan and Robben does like to exaggerate fouls, he is great at it. I agree with your post though about "flopping". To me there is a big difference from taking a borderline foul and making it look obvious to the refs and just flat out faking.

Can't even put yourself in that position if you are Mexico though...

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By cumulative foul I believe they were referring to Robben being hacked at and knocked down all game with the refs waiving them off before they finally gave a foul on that last play since you can only let it go so many times.

And it was definitely a foul, guy stepped on his foot causing him to fall. No doubt Robben sold it to the refs, but the reason he went to ground is because of the foul. Don't stick your foot in there while in the penalty box if you don't want to run the risk of clipping a guy and getting a foul called on you. Don't give the refs the opportunity to ding you. Same philosophy applies to hockey, seen in a million times where guys complain that they barely touched a guy or barely got a stick on them, but by even doing the slight contact they are giving the ref a chance to call a penalty on them.

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just turned on the Germay and Algeria game. Why does the Algeria dude have a big bandage on the side of his head

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

He cut off his ear for advancing out of the group stage and has vowed to cut off his other ear if they make it to the finals.

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Must be Sharia Law

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

No, I think under Sharia Law he would have cut off his daughter's and wife's ears.

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AMERICA BITCHES!

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Only a matter of time before the Germans get on the board.

Wow! Would have never imagined a scoreless draw.

USA weakened Germany up for em

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

So extra time is not sudden death? They will play out all 30 mins still?

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."