I am guessing it takes more energy to continually face wave after wave of attacks than it is to pass and move as they were doing upto the last 35 minutes.

You would think the coaches would have stats for saying how many times parking the bus is a success percentage wise but Mexico had the momentum and the Dutch were poor so handing them first the initiative and then giving them several bites at the cherry didn't look like the best plan ...

Makes you sick doesn't it. The team that should have been banned from this WC for their thuggery in the 2010 final are through.

Yep, they are just not very good at it. They should bring Franny Lee into the coaching team, use the experience of the record holder for the most penalties in a season in England.

Exactly - the reason they are sitting on a beach somewhere is not because they can't dive with the best of them but simply they are not as good as they think they are and even more worringly don't look like they can be arsed pulling on their nations shirt.

More than diving. I mean cunning, nerve. Journalists, commentators and others have mentioned similar. Doesn't mean it's a fact of course, I just think there's an element of truth to it. Maybe I'm reading too much to it, and playing by the rules can win you things as much as bending the rules now and again.

I think Mexico deserved to be beaten though due to their stupid tactic of sitting back just because they'd scored a goal. It would have been safer for them to have taken the game by the scruff of the neck and kept their composure.
Being 1-0 up against Holland is simply not going to be good enough to be complacent about and just sit back hoping to defend for the rest of the match. Inviting them to score one back against you is suicidal.
As I understand it Holland have come back from 1-0 in some of their matches already.

I don't know what Mexico were playing at, but they blew it.
I feel sorry for them, as I think if they had kept their composure this game was theirs for their taking, but they still blew it.

Robben dives and kind of feigns injury. More OTT theatrics really. He's not really a danger to other players.

Suarez does that plus rakes achilies, gouges eyes and bites players. Also his feigning injury is premeditated.

Often you see players dive when there's a high chance of them scoring if they stay on their feet.

Behave.

Wesley Sneijder has scored more World Cup goals than the entire England squad put together.

What a horrible player Robben is, cannot stand watching him on the field.

Shame as he's actually a quality player when he has the ball at his feet.

I don't see what Robben did wrong with regards to the penalty. I know the dive was a bit theatrical but I don't believe that influenced the ref. Marquez clearly stood on his foot.

Mexico were a tougher test for the Dutch than I thought they would be. Credit to the Dutch though for coming back. I hope they go on to win it.

I really hope the Netherlands don't deny us a classic Argentina vs. Brazil final. Although I suppose Robben trying to dive his way to a winners medal when surrounded by passionate Brazilians could be quite entertaining also.


Of course it influenced the ref. If he tried staying on his feet he almost certainly wouldn't have been given the penalty. And that's the justification for the over-theatrical antics, because you don't get decisions if you're honest.

BBC:

Mexico coach Miguel Herrera said: "We'd done really well. Then the team sits back and we start to give chances to a team that had not done anything."

Even the Manager was mystified at that.

But they got their just deserts in the last wc as Spain won. I was in Holland during that time and every single person was gutted including the team and their entourage.

IMO that penalty was deserved, dive or no dive.

I was torn as have family from both countries so whoever won would have been sad for the other family but I think Holland deserved it for really going for it when Mexico sat back after one goal

Marquez was standing on his foot. If someone was standing on one of my feet while I was trying to move forward, I'd probably lose balance too. I think the theatrical fall is irrelevant to the ref if there is a foul, which I believe there was in that moment.

Besides, if you don't like diving, you'd better hope we don't get a Brazil vs Argentina final.

It would be interesting if one of these days a theatrical dive is punished with a yellow but the penalty still given for an obvious foul.

Surely that's not possible?

Dunno.
Penalty given for foul.
Card given for unsportsman conduct?

So it wasn't even a tactic by the manager.
I feel bad for him. the team had a great opportunity to really put the pressure on Holland but did the opposite.

Pfffffffffffffffff, gutted for Mexico.

Robbed admits diving now in yesterday's game.

Should be banned.

Robben comes from a long line of divers who continue to get away with it.

Remember, it wasn't long ago that the Premier League claimed it would be cracking down on "simulation", but still we see this week in, week out and only a handful of bookings. So if the PL are failing to take this seriously, what hope for the WC run by FIFA?.

But he was genuinely fouled, twice before in this match and in the penalty box. Both missed by blind refereeing. So things kind of equaled out. Falling over easily is nowhere near what Maradonna did in '86, which was deliberate and blatant cheating.

I hear ya.