Lucky, Lucky Argentina.

Last night (9/7/14) saw the second World Cup semi-final between the Netherlands and Argentina.

Throughout the tournament the Dutch side and in particular their head coach Louis van Gaal have liked to think of themselves as the master tacticians. For example in their quarter-final against Costa Rica they brought on a goal keeper in the last minute of extra-time specifically the psych out their opponents in the subsequent penalty shoot-out. In their second round match against Mexico they successfully lobbied for a cooling break to mitigate any fitness advantage the Mexicans may have had. In every match the Dutch have played tactics have also been first and foremost in how they play every game.

Their main tactic seems to have been inspired by the story of the Tortoise and the Hare in which a Tortoise and a Hare have a race. Being the faster animal the Hare immediately rushes into the lead but is forced to stop and rest allowing the Tortoise to to take the lead and win at the last minute due to its slow and steady plodding. This is exactly how the Dutch approached the semi-final with lots of precision passing and probing possession intended to force the Argentinians to chase the ball and tire themselves out allowing the Dutch to snatch a late winner.

The problem was that having watched the Dutch through out the tournament the Argentines were wise to this and deliberately slowed down their game in order to avoid falling into the trap. So while Argentina were much less disjointed and disorganised then they'd been in all of their previous matches they lacked the attacking zeal they'd shown in their quarter-final against Belgium which they won with an early (10th minute) goal by Gonzalo Higuaín ably assisted by Linoel Messi and Angel Di Maria. As a result the Dutch were allowed to be the superior team and were able to dictate the pace of the game throughout. However as the Argentines did not tire themselves out the Dutch were unable to find the late breakthrough they had been hoping for.

This lead many people to compare the slow paced match to a chess game. However I think it more closely resembled a very specific phenomenon of chess known as stalemate. This occurs when both players have the defence needed to protect their King in order to avoid defeat but each lack the attacking resources to to capture the opposing King in order to win.  As a result the game remained goal-less and was decided on a penalty shoot-out. These of course owe much more to luck and mental strength then skill and footballing ability so when Ron Vlaar had the Dutch's first penalty saved the Netherlands immediately found themselves at a disadvantage from which they never recovered. With Argentina scoring all their penalties when Wesley Sneijder missed the Netherlands' third penalty the Dutch lost 4-2.

This means that Argentina will go on to face Germany in Sunday's (13/7/14) final while the Netherlands will face Brazil in Saturday's (12/7/14)  third place play-off. I personally think this dreadful news. In part that is because from the start of the competition I've been saying that Argentina have been over-rated in a competition that I thought would be decided between Germany and the Netherlands. Mainly though it is because it means that the hosts Brazil will not face Argentina on Saturday.

Although it decides which team is better then 29 other teams in the competition the third place play-off is always overshadowed by the fact that it is simply not the final. However Brazil and Argentina are not only neighbours but the two giants of South American football. As such any match between the two is going to be a derby game loaded with pride and local bragging rights. I think that is exactly what Brazil needed because the way they move on from their crushing defeat at the hands of Germany in the semi-final is to pull on their shirts again and play their little legs off.

15:40 on 10/7/14 (UK date).