Today Holland beat Brazil 2-1 in the quarter final match. Holland was the underdog going into the match, many said they stood no chance at all. How can we as competitive 40k players learn from this great game to improve our own game?
(1) Holland is always underrated. Sometimes Brazil is overrated. Brazil is a great team and I hope they do not fire their coach as a result. Every game in a single elimanation situation is just one game. Holland was well prepared for the match and played extremely well. Some will try to say that Brazil had a bad day but it's not why they lost. The Dutch were very aggressive and won most of the loose balls. The Dutch simply outplayed their opponent.
In terms of 40k it might be like foot slogging orks beating mech IG. Most everyone will tell you that mech IG is an auto win versus orks. You can believe the hype or you can play your game.
(2) The officiating was superb. The last time Holland played Brazil was two World Cups back... In the semi finals. The score was tied late into the second half. Holland is not one of those teams that plays dirty. A midfielder for Brazil named Branca ran around fouling everyone he could until finally a Dutchman retaliated and pushed off the Brazilian. Brazil was awarded a free kick and scored winning the game in the final minutes. Very poor officiating at it's worst which is often a trademark of hte World Cup. Two things here...
First I'm sure Holland remembered that game and it helped to excite them. Holland was ready to payback Brazil & they did. Second good officiating takes a cheating team out of the equation. This Brazilian team is not as nasty as others I have witnessed in the past but then again they did draw a red card for spiking an opponent after Holland went ahead. Basically Brazil is a young team not used to playing from behind and they lost their cool.
(2) Holland did not drop back into defense after going ahead. They continued to play aggressive and kept the pressure on playing strong offense. Often offense is the best defense.
Like I said each game now is only one game and good officiating is very important. These are the things we can take away from this game to strengthen our own in 40k. It's just that simple really.
G
