Thoughts from a Dutchman:

- Giovanni is a really profesiional defender
- Each and every country better be scared of Robben.
- The substitude Van Nistelrooy was good.
- Van der Sar is getting old it seems, but still one of the best in the world.

And god damn it feel good to win 200$ playing slots while watching soccer downstairs.

He he. I agree with you on Van der Sar, still one of the 4 or 5 best in the world I reckon. One very underrated feature of his game is how comfortable he is with back passes too - lots of times he had to sweep up some untidy stuff and did it brilliantly.

Holland conceded a lot of goals in qualifying in a so-so group, and they left sooooo much space in the first half and just didn't close down at all well. The few occasions Serbia got decent delivery from corners and free kicks there was a bit of worry as well. Last ditch tackles and stuff were good and they seemed well organised but I think the lack of closing down and space the Serbians had would've been exposed by a better attacking team. Attackers weren't helped by the heat, either.

I dunno if Cocu and Van Bommel do much either - they're there as holding midfielders but the Serbs always had a lot of space. Van Bommel barely seemed to touch the ball. Perhaps a more energetic midfielder like Landzaat or someone (or a younger Davids) would've been preferable.

On another note, wish I'd put more on Iran vs Mexico - I got some insane odds on Iran to win, 6-1 or something, and these teams look relatively evenly matched so far. Mexico better of course but those are excellent odds.