I have to admit that I underestimated the Spanish during the World Cup. I’ve seen them underachieve so many times over the years – much like the English – that I gave them no chance to reach the final in this years’ World Cup. They’ve proven me wrong thankfully! I like their style, but I still have a problem supporting them…

See, I think a coach has a very specific job in leading a team and Vicente Del Bosque has done a perfect job with this team. What a coach does is either A) come up with a new and revolutionary way to approach the game and teach the players what that system is, or B) just brings a bunch of individual players together and makes them a team. Some coaches succeed and some don’t. Maradonna succeeded in this World Cup in my opinion, though he didn’t take the team as far as he wanted. Del Bosque has done what so many before him have failed to do in getting the Spaniards to the final. He’s a great coach!

However, what I’ve said about the Dutch in games prior to the final are meaningless because, as much as I hate their system, I think they may be perfectly situated to stifle the Spanish. We’ll see what actually happens…

First, Spain got Germany off their game something fierce and I have to give them credit for that. I’ve never seen another team intimidate Germany so much. The Germans were completely freaked out by the Spanish attack. They played a defensive game that didn’t suit them. They sat back defending until they could make the occasional counter-attack which never worked. The Spanish kept the Germans on their guard until it was too late to change up the system and make a convincing challenge for the win.

The Dutch however play an ugly system of falling down and crying when a player or someone in the first row of seats sneezes… They behave like amateurs and then score incredible goals when the opposing team leasts expects it. I hate their game. It’s cheap, amateurish and they should be ashamed of themselves. Except for the fact they are in the finals… I stand corrected by what they’ve achieved… The goals they’ve scored are of such great skill and surprise when it happens that I’m blown away by it! Jerks!

Perhaps their system of falling down at the slightest touch and earning fouls is the perfect foil for the Spanish attack!

We’ll just have to see.

As for The Blues, I just bought R.L. Burnside’s album “I Wish I Was In Heaven Sitting Down,” and it’s freaking awesome. My introduction to R.L. Burnside was very recently and his later stuff is much more to my personal liking than his earlier stuff. Not that his earlier music is bad or anything, it’s just that my tastes are more along the lines of the freakin’ rock-ass blues with crazy cool screaming guitars and sangin’ and shit. R.L. Burnside fits that bill to a “t” for me. This album though is a bit different and shows so much soul I can’t describe it.

The emotion displayed even in light-hearted tunes like “My Eyes Keep Me In Trouble” is thick and heavy. He ditches the hard guitars in favor of acoustic guitars and harmonization, not that R.L. Burnside has a voice that’s going to make people go, “OH WOW! He’s got a great voice!” He just tries to paint a picture without cussing out the lyrics as on earlier albums…

Just listen to it, and you’ll see what I mean. He’s a great Blues Man, and you’ll appreciate the experience and the album.

Every team has the occasional “dive” or fall after a light challenge during the run of play, but it seems the Netherlands practices! I accept that it happens to every team, and I accept that once in a while a player that’s recently recovered from an injury goes down easily out of tentative fear of re-injuring themselves. In the case of the Netherlands specifically though I’ve never seen so many players on the same team fall down at the blink of an eye during each game they’ve played. They are all experienced and expert in the handling of the ball as indicated by the fact they made it into the World Cup to begin with, but also by the fact they are in the semi-finals. They are also looking for cheap calls from the ref, and I hate to say they get them more often than not, and I think it has helped them reach the semi-finals… They’ve become the team I hate most during the Cup.