Mr Owl PhD

I agree, though I think maybe he should have started the match with Huntelaar given van Persie's illness (plus that he had both Vlaar and de Jong carrying injuries and Martins Indi is a red card waiting to happen). It also begs the question of why he has Cillesen in goal in the first place. Would Krul or Vorm have been so much worse in the match that it's worth taking up a substitute to replace Cillesen when penalties come? In the end Cillesen was left with a big sign above his head saying 'My manager thinks I'm no good at saving penalties'. That probably didn't help. Van Gaal has done well to get the Netherlands to the semi-final but I think he took too many risks with his selection and that was borne out in how the penalties went. That was a result of poor decisions he made.

All I've read is that he asked two other players to take the first penalty and they refused, not that these were the 'big four' penalty takers (I guess they were players who weren't wanting to take any penalties). I can't fathom why any of those would have refused to take the first penalty but were fine taking any of the others. Was Robben really saying 'I'm fine taking the second penalty but don't make me take the first'?

The point though is that he should have got one of his main penalty takers to take the first one. If Vlaar needed to take one it should have been later - preferably fifth. Having someone miss the first penalty really set the tone for what followed and put more pressure on the others. Van Gaal should have got one of Sneijder, Robben, Kuyt or Huntelaar to take the first one and then if Vlaar needed to take one it should have been at the end if necessary. Holland didn't even need their fifth penalty taker in the previous shoot out.

Fantastic ploy by van Gaal to get his worst penalty taker taking the first penalty. The man's a genius.

Liverpool have signed Emre Can as a defensive midfielder (I think he can also play CB) and seem likely to sign Lovren as well, once they agree a fee with Southampton. They're also tipped to sign Ryan Bertrand too - maybe not that great a signing, but perhaps he'll 'do a Sturridge' and fulfill his potential at Liverpool. One of the tricky things at the moment - and it's one other teams (e.g. Man United) are facing - is that there don't seem to be a lot of really good defenders around. The World Cup has borne this out to some extent too. I kind of agree that they should spend the Suarez money on a really good back line but it's actually quite hard to know who they would be able to get. Prices for even 'promising' defenders (e.g. Shaw, Sakho, Lovren) are remarkably high at the moment too, which suggests that there's a real premium on any kind of defensive quality. It's hard to say how they will do in an attacking sense without Suarez. He obviously scored loads of goals last season and provides a kind of 'x-factor' that is hard to replace (i.e. he's unpredictable and can produce some 'magic' that can make a goal from nothing). Having said that, he lost some form during the run in when Liverpool won a lot of games so I don't think they're as dependent on him as is sometimes suggested. If they can get Sanchez then he could potentially be very good, though it looks possible that they won't get him. They should probably just throw all the money at buying J-Rod but I don't think he would come to England. It's easier to find attacking talent to spend the money at the moment though.

That organisation's website is worth a look: http://www.stopmasturbationnow.org/

Congratulations on the album. You can't go wrong with owls.

Brazil fouling their way to the World Cup and making innocent children sad.

The big game. We're going to attack. We're going to be Gol-ombia

The plucky underdogs of the United States of America so close to tying the game in overtime against the might of Belgium.

https://twitter.com/FootballJester/status/479317445945982977/photo/1

He's always been scoring glorious goals. Here he is scoring direct from a corner when he was 12:

Clinical. Glorious stuff from Rodriguez and some good resistance at the end. Nice to see Ospina looking solid. Brazil will be worried - I think they might have used up all their luck today.

This was good: https://mtc.cdn.vine.co/r/videos/38667DDB3D1094769271566954496_2714a8b7d3e.0.4.7447275469591192209.mp4?versionId=JK..5EwSpMB69JPR10hk2TcHLdSZlWUa

Suarez banned for nine matches (I guess for Uruguay) and four months.

On a related theme, this is amazing: http://kpboateng.com/

Some fantastic power pop from Toronto:

Fargo was aces. Just sayin'. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwLrszpNrH4

/debate

I got given good advice at Peterkins: http://www.peterkins.com/financial/find_mortgage/index.html

Good to give the reserves a game today, and the bit of history for Mondragon was a nice touch. Great to see Jackson Martinez finishing well and also to see James Rodriquez being the best player ever in the second half. Uruguay hold no fears in the second round.

Herrera:

https://mtc.cdn.vine.co/r/videos/C4400520661091791782347673600_1ebc7af4ab7.4.8.5081766513373545825.mp4?versionId=9PNWZTh2dN_A_AkPMDWr8VlC0WrH1uXS