Liveblog en Español: Uruguay-Holanda

Good job Uruguay! I have nothing but love for you guys. I don'even know anyone from Uruguay, but I love all of you as a nation now and you have gained a big fan in me. My team is Colombia for it is my family's home country, but you have inspired in me a sense of pride in your team's sense of sportsmanship, commitment, and humility that I wish you would teach to your neighbors, Argentina. Those bastards deserve what they got and I hope that it will be the last we ever have to see of them.
So congratulations and hold your head high, you were not even supposed to make it this far, but you showed the whole world you are a team in every sense of the word.
Bien Hecho Uruguay!

Well done you guys, you guys pushed us right to the edge and in Forlan you have a great player. Respect.

-Johan

3 key Uruguayan players on the bench, and offside Dutch goal that wasn't disallowed, several strong fouls against Uruguayan players, Forlán pulled out, and Uruguay still gave the Dutch a run for their money. Maybe next time guys!

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!! KARMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey Lugo! How does it feel?? You lost! You are out! Diving, celebrating cheating, average football team with one good player (Forlan) and now you're on the way home (after the 3rd place game obviously)…..what a great day for football lovers.

If an average football team makes it to semifinals, what are the other ones qualified as? Only one team can be the winner. It's sad when you don't win, but it's sadder and pathetic when people bet against other teams that got farther than they did.
There are a lot of sore losers in 2010…
We are supposed to ENJOY the World Cup. Lighten up!

Bye Cheaters!

I thought it was a great semi-final, the second goal looked offside but not controversial like some of the others we have seen this world cup. Uruguay battled hard and at half time this could have gone either way. Great job Uruguay, it was fun to watch!

hello

Forlan was pulled at the 85 minute b/c your coach gave up. Players on the bench like other teams players were on the bench through injury or suspension … The scoreline was flattering to Uruguay as the Dutch dominated the second half.

Also complaining about fouls? A careless maldroit Uruguay player kicked a Dutch player in the head, and the player fell unconcious and had to be substituted at half. Maybe that hapless Uruguay player was proclaimed a hero as well :/

Hey, did you even watch the match?

He's still crying and trying to find controversy with the Dutch pummeling his team — and even the coach and Forlan giving up on the match.

People have good reason to dislike Uruguay after the shameful display by Taberez, Suarez in the press conferences and Lugo here. Pretty much everyone else who benefited from a bad call or bad behavior on the pitch said, yes I should have done xyz and offered fake contrittion (Germans, Argentina, even Brazilians).

Not Uruguay, Suarez or Taberez, and as a result people are cheering against your team. Suck it up, you advanced based on treachery, enjoy the results with murky conscience.

Fair enough, but the Sneijder goal was offsides [or my team, Paraguay, was unjustly denied a goal against Spain]. Actually, this is the first game where Van Bommel finally got a yellow card, so overall the officiating was good except for the three blown offsides calls
(one Uruguay breakaway, the Sneijder goal, and Kuyt's header which didn't go in anyway).

Best footballing country per capita! Indisputably…

Humility? im assuming you dont understand the word. Or perhaps you missed out on all the post-ghana antics. Ill just leave you with this tidbit, suarez laid claim to the hand of god. Ill just let that sink in for a bit.

Uruguay played a solid pragmatic tournament, had some luck in the draw and advanced further then their talent. Beyond the shameful ghana game and even more shameful post match reactions they can go home pleased with themselves.

still here? I was out with a bunch of people who actually watch the World Cup to have fun, not to vent their frustrations. Tomorrow we'll watch another game, I hope the best team wins, hopefully the German goalie won't have the opportunity to rob the Spanish of a scored goal like he did the English team, and the linemen won't miss offsides that result in illegal goals like they've done so many times in this World Cup including today, and hopefully the Spanish goalie won't mow down a German player like it happen in the Paraguay-Spain game without a penalty being assessed, well, you get the picture, there are no angels. We all want our team to win and it's ok to be disappointed but jealousy and bias, like fouls and tricks don't do the game any favors. I don't know where you're from but in four years there will be another opportunity. Let's enjoy the rest of this tournament; 3 games to go!

Sneijder goal was incredibly close, even with the frozen image he's likely to have looked onside to the AR from his angle.
Numerous people have said that goal is fine. Tie/close goes to offense.
Realistically the shot was savable until a Uruguay player deflected it toward the post — so much for “post from La Celeste” (all three NED goals hit post).

I haven't seen the “breakaway” off sides call.

Paraguay v. Spain

Speaking of Paraguay, that player didn't handle that sure goal that passed him on the posts … go figure.

Paraguay was very lucky not to have your 1st keeper red-carded and a penalty awarded on DOGSO (or let the first penalty stand, who calls encroachment? ) so I think that match balanced out based on that alone.

LOL sportsmanship and humility? After the “hand of God” comments? Lugo is that you?

Pride I'd buy, but after all pride is a deadly sin.

Was auch immer.
Schadenfreude ist die schönste Freude.

Maybe for someone with a somewhat twisted mind…
Good luck tomorrow. Que gane el mejor.

Hi guys, Jan from the Netherlands Blog here! Here to pay my respect. Uruguay did GREAT.

The team that got us into most trouble for the last two years. Impressed with you and with Suarez and Lugano, who knows! Tabares had a great tactical plan against us and it was really really close…

CU in 4 years, ok?

Hopefully Uruguay will be just watching from the stands and not out on the pitch.

Good luck on the final. This is your chance to get a world cup star on your jersey!

@Lugo: hey Lugo. as much as I'm not a uruguayan, i've been following the team since wc 2002. and despite the lost, its great to see uruguay to be among the top 4.

@ByeCheaters: about the handball, i personally think its like a tactical foul. when you have to do it, you do it. of course, you have to pay the price. and suarez did. (unlike henry)

@Jan: and to Jan, nice sportsmanship, man.

DAMN SUAREZ COULD HAVE SAVE ALL THOSE 3 DUTCH GOALS WITH HIS SUPERB HANDS AND GOALIE SKILLS
DAMN WHY THE URU DEFENDERS DID NOT USE THEIR HANDS LIKE SUAREZ. DIDN'T THE COACH AND LUGO INSTRUCT THEM TO DO SO???? DAMN. WE WANTED TO SEE MOVE SUPER HANDBALL SAVES BY URU PLAYERS. DMAN I AM DISAPPOINTED.
BYE BYE YOUR URU ASSFCKERS. LUGO, GO BACK TO JAIL. I HAVE NO IDEA WHY URU SOCCER STYLE WAS SAID TO BE EQUAL OR BETTER. EVEN WITH THEIR TOP PLAYERS, I REALLY DOUBT THEY COULD HAVE STOPPED THE DUTCH. URU IS ONLY GOOD FOR HANDBALLS, AND KICKING PLAYERS AND BREAKING THEIR JAWS… URU, GO BACK TO OR TRY PLANTING COCAINE. FORGET SOCCER. YOU AND YOUR CHEATING WAYS ARE A TOTAL EMBARRASSMENT TO YOUR NATION, PEOPLE AND THE SPORT.

So you wanted FAKE contrition? That's what it takes to satisfy you? Sheesh.

Well, disallowing a first goal is huge in any match. Apparently the linesman said he thought Valdez was offside (he was not) and that even if he wasn't he committed a handball (which he didn't). I agree there were some weird calls – there was more encroachment on the Cardozo penalty (which he missed and therefore should have retaken) than on the first Alonso penalty (which he converted but had to retake).
Also, it seems to me that both Pique and Alcaraz should have been red carded for their fouls.
So really, if the first three calls had been made to favor Paraguay, they be up 1-0 with a retaken penalty and one Spanish player sent off. So don't tell me about the foul Villar commited on the Spanish player after the penalty. But of course, I'm not so biased that I can't admit that Paraguay's first goal was offsides according to the rules, just like Sneijder's goal (even though the referee's reasons for the call were wrong).

I don't know how you could miss the offsides call that cost Uruguay a one-on-one if you watched the match like I did. Potato chip or bathroom break?

The Sneijder goal was offsides, though I admit it was so close I'm not surprised the referee made the wrong decision. Forget arguments from authority, I've studied the FIFA rules and rewatched that clip several times. If you want I'll give you the full description of the rules and explain why it was offsides. I get that offensive players are supposed to get close calls, but that wasn't the case on the Uruguay breakaway (or on Kuyt's header, though he missed it anyway) so it wasn't consistently applied even within this match.

I would never deny the obvious – that to win a world cup you have to be both lucky and good. Every single team left has had lucky breaks – Germany had the second England goal disallowed, David Villa smacked a player in the face and wasn't carded (and his goal against Portugal was offside), never mind the Paraguay game, and now the Dutch scored the go ahead goal on an offsides. That's just how the game works. No sense in being TOO upset about it. In fact, Ghana is fortunate in not being the victim of any egregious refereeing decisions that I can think of. As far as officiating goes, Uruguay-Ghana was one of the better officiated matches in this world cup though still far from perfect.

No I'm saying realistically, it would have been dropped, instead Lugo and many other's including Suarez and his coach proclaimed him a hero, then they and you as well wonder why people cheer against their team.

I reviewed that Paraguay offsides call — so are you saying both paraguay and oranje were offside? B/c you certainly can't claim that Oranje player was offside and the paraguay goal was good, as that isn't logically consistent — the Paraguay “goal” player is in a further offside position, and definitely makes a play for the ball.

That offsides was a far easier call against Paraguay, that certainly sucks for your team that you didn't get a “break” and the ref make a bad call, but there's not much controversy there.

Encroachment is like minor shirt pulling on free kicks, it occurs consistently on every penalty. The referee called it in a way that benefited Paraguay, and then ignored the keeper's roughhousing entirely for an additional penalty. Paraguay benefited quite well from the series of calls, maybe if they would have handled the ball on the Villa goal they'd be playing today instead of Spain. Perhaps they should have taken lessons from Suarez school of handling and penalty prayer (the penalty prayer seemed to work).

A break in the game? Sorry I don't remember a lot about Paraguay v. Spain b/c I don't watch paraguay… so I watched highlights. It's the Paraguay style, which works for them, I'm just not interested in watching it.

The Sneijder goal was much much closer then the Paraguay call and the still footage (as shown on WC blog) show the _ball being played_ when the still is taken, and even then it is still close.

As you have already agreed — tie goes to offense, the goal is really more of an own-goal off the URU defenders leg into the post. Put it this way, if the call would have been called “offside” the same people would be drawing up diagrams and videos saying how FIFA had messed up and disregarded a clear goal.

Lastly, the scoreline makes the game seem far closer — Uruguay feel apart in the second half and the NED wasted a lot of chances. . At the end Taberez gave up (poor decision on his part), removed Forlan and the silly Dutch started to celebrate early.

Uruguay created and converted the one chance they had in the final minute.

Re Authority, you can find plenty of authority opinions on both sides if their are clearly controversial items. However, trusting in your own “judgement” alone well that says a lot about your bias towards the outcome you'd like especially the part about using coaches as evidence.

“I would never deny the obvious” — well you have rather consistently why stop now?

Ghana, actually they did receive plenty of bad calls/no calls/close calls that affected matches, but ESPN wasn't there to replay them over and over again. They weren't your team so you didn't bother to notice. Most people are only interested in a few teams and ignore the rest …

Heck, even “non-latino” “non-uruguay” fans like yourself bother to complain about “harsh luck” and “injustice” of fate against Uruguay being beaten soundly by a wasteful NED team. The best notes i saw were fans saying “what if ” URU had Suarez and “what if” we were “luckier with some calls or bounces off the post” without a hint of irony.

no problem — that's fair enough. “professional fouls” and lack of sportsmanship are great reasons to root against teams and players as well.

Ideally the choices will follow uruguay around for a while and cause bad luck on the pitch.

Uruguay played superb this time, they deserved to win this time, but there was already “blood in their hands” after the Ghana match, so they had to pay for their sin, Tschüssie!
P.D. Deutschland gegen Uruguay: Kampf der Titanen… jeje.

What can I say? Congratulations on being the dumbest person on the internet.

Man someone's butt is still sore I recommend some cream…

Karma? The dutch were the favourites to win. Look at the betting odds. Man,oh man It annoys me when people misuse the word karma.

Posting a comment here as I don't see any way to contact Lugo, the author of this blog.

I'm not weighing in on Suarez's legacy or the silly flame-war people have come around here for. I just want to say: Lugo, thanks for your work. I've subscribed to the RSS and look forward to following the fortunes of La Celeste and all the Uruguayan players at their club teams.

It looks like some of the past posts are in Spanish and some are in English. I'm in the U.S., and know a tiny bit of Spanish, but hope that at least some of the coverage continues in English, as that will be much easier for me.

Thanks!

uruguay a tiny country of 4 million people and $8,000 gdp per capita vs netherlands 16 million people and $46,000 gdp per capita plus the ex-colonies it draws on. if the dutch are so good why all the fucking assassin fouls. not sporting fouls, but fouls to maim or worse. for all your skills you put on a display of fucking thuggery both vs uruguay (and yes, netherlands + irmatov + linesmen defeated uruguay) and spain. vayan a llorar a la concha de su madre, holandeses putos. pelados y feos, caras de concha afligida.