Can't wait until Sunday? Take a peek at how the World Cup final between Spain and the Netherlands might unfold. Spain/Gerard Pique fans might not want to watch through the end:
Here's your chance to be a visionary and put that octopus to shame: What will be the outcome, and who will score the goal(s) in Sunday's final?
Share your thoughts below.
We spell humor with a ‘u’ also.
@Kevin_Arnold: Jon Stewart is how he prefers to be called. Not sure of the necessity of using ‘Leibowitz’.
Oh, and he and Colbert both have multiple writing and performance Emmys for their brilliant brands of satire.
I’d be happy to explain satire if you needed it.
It’s going to be Spain 2, Netherlands 1. Goals by Villa, Busquets, and Robben.
Both of those guys come from families with pro athletes…so still not quite the same as inner-city kids.
Van Persie and Torres getting the goals? Mata (who looks like he may have been subbed on for Villa since Villa was absent in PKs)? Nah.
Spain 2-1 Netherlands.
LOL at you for even mentioning them
So you’re saying the parakeet, octopus and elephant are all wrong?
How dare you!
They’re all as well-qualified as FIFA refs…
Of course you don’t understand it — you spell humor with a “u”. Brits don’t get humor.
You guys are far to sanguine about this game in my opinion. 1-0 to Spain with the goal in the first 30 min., making this a boring final.
But if the Dutch do strike first, all bets are off!
Glad I’m not the only one who thought the sim was unrealistic because of that.
I know exactly what you are talking about. All ESPN has covered on its network since the Wednesday semifinal is Lebron. And it feels sad that this month is almost over. Most people will move to forgetting soccer exists and the Sportcenter anchors will probably continue to make snide remarks of the highlights on the top plays or know nothing about the teams they show.
Also Max, Fox getting the World Cup will be a bad thing, especially if some of the games are broadcast on FSC or FSC+ which most casual soccer fans don’t have. Ratings would go down and it would be a set back for the game. At least with ESPN, which did a great job this year, we would get to see all the games and a replay of the best game of the day in primetime. I did hear NBC-Comcast is the main competition for the English WC rights, FWIW.
and get booked for dissent
Robbie Findley, Marvell Wynne? LOL
Ha, Stewy has gray hair and a muture mug. Not even close to him.
2-1 Dutch
Kuyt in the First Half
Sergio Ramos early in the 2nd half
Sneijder with the winner around the 75′ mark
You can still use a stutter step as you approach the ball, but you just cant fake a kick of the ball.
They get some of the players so close to real life, it’s uncanny. Then they get others that aren’t even close. For an example, see Holden, Stuart…..
This guy is still famous? I never understood his humour or that of his partner in crime Jon Leibowitz.
This game is a commercial success, meaning the market has spoken, making this game infallible. Therefore this is exactly how the World Cup final will play out.
You can tell that simulation is inaccurate once Torres scores.
none of what you’re saying is new, although I’m sure you know that. I watch the MLS casually, I like to support it when I can, but americans in general want to watch the best, and everyone knows the mls is not the best. Most people now also know that our best players outside of donovan, play abroad. The question will be, to me, what are the ratings for the Brazil friendly? I don’t expect world cup numbers, but I’d be disappointed if they went back to pre world cup numbers.
Too true
Netherlands 3 Spain 1
Goals: Ned-Sneijder, Robben, Kuyt
Spain-Torres
I really dont want the world cup to end. I feel that teams were getting better with the ball and Gio’s goal was a good indication, as well as Forlan’s against Ghana. But, I can kind of feel the drop off as it’s winding down. When the USA lost, the World cup stopped being front page sports news and is now burried in the middle of the State paper’s sport section. When it’s over, it’ll be back to the weekly 5 x 5 in tab. With fewer games, the same station that’s airing the WC is putting guys like Jim Rome back on that are already slating soccer (why I hope Fox gets it next time. No point in getting the World cup if you run programming that says it sucks during it). Then after, I’m afraid fringe fans will look at MLS as an indication of where our national team is(while only 4 players are in the league, and some never played in it at all). I love the game, but I really think that with the main complaint being a lack of goals and refs, this might go back to “normal”
Spain will control possession, but the Dutch will counter attack late in the first half, and the ball will be played back to Sneijder following up the play and he will blast it in. Spain will again control the tempo in the second half, but van Bommel and the Dutch D hold on to keep Spain from any quality chances. Robben will be sprung on a counter attack. Robben fires a shot and Casillas comes up with a brilliant save only to have Kuyt put in the rebound.
Dutch 2 Spain 1
I predict a 1-0 Spanish victory. From the top of the box, Xavi lays the ball off to Sergio who strikes a laser into the far corner in the 23rd. Espana then plays off the remaining minutes with a game of 1-touch keep away that sees a greatly frustrated De Jong sent off in the 64th, board a plane to the US late in stoppage time, land in Houston the next day, and break Holden’s leg with a needless two-footed tackle before riding an oily dolphin named Arjen back through the Gulf to home.
But, IF the Dutch win, it will be 2-0 off a second half flurry, the only real action in an otherwise sleepy midfield affair. Sneijder combines with RVP for a smooth finish from near the spot in the 52nd and MVB will score a sitter off a poorly cleared corner in the 56th. The same oily dolphin will spend the remainder of the match trying to find water near the corner flags. In a post-match fit of rage, Puyol will chastise Marquez for leaving his man, only to be reminded by a bitter squadron of English reporters that the Champions League ended two months ago.
How ’bout it Paul… ? Now, where’s my muscle?
Oh, he’ll break Villa’s leg, but will get away with a stern talking to by the ref.
Spain will win.
Pssssh Paul the Octopus already made his prediction so this simulation is inane. Spain 2 The Netherlands 0. David Villa rides into football immortality.
yeah, but he’s not really saying anything that is false, practice against Messi, play for Argentian when your parnts are from there and have moved back, or come to San Jose for a camp… to me this guys is lost for USMNT unless he regresses from here, in which case he may not be all that different from our existing talent.
USSF must go after talent development from three fronts, in addition to the thriving suburban scene and relying on recent immigrants, we must also get the inner-city kids involved in playing.
Eddie Johnson can’t be the only African-American prospect out there…Adu, Davies, Clark, Altidore, Onyewu and Edu all are sons of recent immigrants and were drawn to the game by their parents, not by any US soccer actions…
Netherlands 1 Spain 0. Kuyt scored around the 65th minute on a counterattack and the Oranje are able to hang on
Didn’t FIFA just outlaw that? Dirty cheats.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE64H4K320100518
Ned 2-0. They’ll watch the USA and the Swiss game. De-jong and Van Bommel are untouchable foul-wise and will block down the center by tackling/containing Xavi and Iniesta. Iniesta and Xavi are undoubtably good, but they go down extremely easily(like Robben) and Webb doesn’t really care for that (unless they’re from UTD) and will allow play to move. Spain have hardly been tested at all in this World Cup, and even further back than that. When they are tested defensively, as in the USA game, they lose. If Holland, unlike Germany, remember to get off the bus, they should win. Even without a lot of possesion, Sneijder has vision on long passes to link up with Robben’s speed(exp-his Slovakia goal).
ESP 2-1 NED
Villa finishes with Xavi & Iniesta solving the NED defense early. Sneijder equalizes with a rocket from 25. Then ESP score on the ONE free kick that curls the way the striker intended, either Xavi or Iniesta, in the 85′. ESP park the bus for the last 5 + 5′ (De Jong breaks another leg on a dirty tackle) and ESP win.
Anybody see the article/interview with Rongen today about Michael Hoyos? I understand the kid likely will go with the Argies after his fast rise, but for godsakes Rongen needs to mince his words a little better. He always has one little extra jab to get in that could easily piss of a teen/twenty-something.
how is that possible when he gets a straight red for breaking Villas leg in the 9th minute?
What was up with that anyway? Every single one of them did a stutter run-up.
Why is Mata playing?
Serves the Spanish right for all their illegal walk up, stop, then kick moves on the PKs!
spain 2, nederlanders with one late consolation goal.
but if my fantasy predictions are anything to go by… there are precisely one hundred and twenty six of you who might know better.
1-0 Spain, the octopus has spoken.
The FIFA simulation is siding with the parakeet agasint the octopus and the elephant. I see a 2-2 result and the FIFA having the deciding tie-breaker.
I wouldn’t blame Pique, more like Fabregas
where are the vuvuzelas?
a thrilling 4-3 Final harkening back to the days of wide open play… Americans enthralled by the spectacle on the world’s greatest stage, take up soccer by the thousands and MLS breaks into the upper echelon of American sports culture….
who am I kidding… 1-0 Spain, Xavi scores in the 67th minute. Spain neatly passes the ball around the field for 70% of the time and Robben/Sneijder flop the other 30%, with some Van Bommel cheap shots thrown in….
I call Shenanigans…Didn’t see Robben do his 10 Meter platform DIVES
le oranje: 2
le furia roja: 1
sniejder and elia with a goal each.
villa with the first for spain.
iker looks a lot like David Villa in that sim…. is that Fifa world cup?
torres getting the nod?
Netherlands 0 Spain 3. Villa with a brace (including a penalty) and Torres as a sub with a last-minute clincher.
Netherlands 2, Spain 1. Van Persie opens, Iniesta answers, and gulp Van Bommel bangs home an ugly winner.