Darn it. So, there is to be no repeat(esque) in 2014 of the 1974 World
Cup Final to tie in with the current drawing project (the current Germany,
already qualified, being, to all intents & purposes, in terms of colours
& history, the old West Germany of that time, & only Toni Kroos of the
team/squad seems to have been born in the East, even: those, by birth, from further
east again, in Poland, are better represented, in the form of Podolski & the record-setting Klose), but how close such an eventuality came, with only
the familiar ‘lottery of penalties’ thwarting what was beginning to seem like
the will of TOoT in arranging such a pleasing coincidence through the sheer
force & designs of art. Perhaps it was instant karma, though, that Holland
should lose the semi-final shoot-out after Tim Krul’s ugly, boorish antics helped them prevail at
the same deciding stage of the game against Costa Rica in the previous round.
For all that the match might most kindly be described as attritional (not
necessarily unexpectedly, given that Holland managed to score a total of 2 goals
squeezed into 3 minutes of the 5 1/2 hours ‘football’ they played over the course of the 3 knockout rounds, & one
of those a penalty indeed, & Argentina came into the semi after a pair of
ground-out 1 – 0 wins in the eighth- & quarter-finals), it was a glorious
aesthetic spectacle to admire in that both teams turned out, resplendently, in
their traditional & classic first-choice kits, the orange-white-orange
Dutch combo, & the sky blue & white stripes with black shorts of
Argentina: nice, & something of a rarity in this tournament.
[image sourced from The Guardian]
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