FIFA 2010 is over and Spain are the champions. Although it is still to be decided, whether what we saw was a football or a rugby tournament. Football has changed drastically and mainly because of one team, and that is Netherlands. They have embedded the art of foul into their tactics/game plan. And this is not something new which they have done. They had done the same thing in field hockey. Football, like hockey, is a field game, and the only thing that catches the eye is the flow and pace of a team. Scoring goals is like icing on the cake. Netherlands has a hockey team as well, and in order to break the flow of champion teams like Pakistan, India and Germany, they embedded foul play into their game plan. Once their opponents are in the flow, the Netherlands would easily commit a foul, take the yellow card and give the free kick/hit to their opponent.
The chance of scoring a field goal is higher than scoring a goal through free kicks/hits. As in latter, the number of defenders increases considerably.
Netherlands is killing football unless FIFA takes some stern action.
Anyways, for us, its back to Cricket i.e. truly a Gentleman's game. Pakistan has an important uphill battle against the two best test sides. Lets see what happens.
