Three of the four remaining teams in the 2010 World Cup and referred to by the color of their shirt. You have La Celeste, Oranje and La Roja which respectively is the blue of Uruguay, the orange of Netherlands and the red of Spain. Then you have Germany which is white although will be wearing its away strip if it makes the final. Which color is going to prevail?
From a fantasy football point of view, it doesn’t matter so much as you can select players from each of the sides but the way they perform on the pitch is going to determine how many fantasy points you get.
Three of the leading scorers are still playing and they are all worth inclusion. There is Spain’s David Villa who has five goals and Germany’s Miroslav Klose and Netherlands’ Wesley Sneijder who both have four. Germany’s Thomas Mueller also have four goals and would have been very popular with fantasy football managers had he not been suspended for the game against Spain.
It would be hard to think that there would be any fantasy football players who won’t David Villa in their side. He has scored in each of the last four games and is playing very well. Fernando Torres scored in the final of the 2008 European Championships against Germany. Could this be the match where he breaks out of his World Cup slump?
Both of these teams have played each other before as these photos account for. Germany and Spain previously played at the 1966, 1982 and 1994 World Cups. Spain are still waiting for their first win against them. Uruguay and Netherlands have only met at the 1974 World Cup. It was the first World Cup game for the Dutch in 36 years and they won 2-0.
In terms of Uruguay, one player looms large and that is Diego Forlan. He was exceptional in leading Athletico Madrid to the Europa League title and now he and his three goals have helped Uruguay get to the semi-finals of the World Cup. Forlan is on fire but you would think the Dutch would have spent a couple of days trying to design a way to shut him down.
It would have been fascinating to see Luis Suarez play in this game. He plays
his club football for Ajax so he would have a better idea than most about how to play against the Dutch. Furthermore he is the reigning Dutch footballer of the year as he is coming off a year with 35 league goals and 49 in all competitions.
Looking at the defences, each of them has been solid with Holland’s three goals the most conceded by any of the remaining teams. The other three have all only let in two. To have done this over five matches is astonishing.
The bottom line is most of the remaining players that you can choose from are in great form. If they weren’t, their teams wouldn’t still be playing. You just have to anticipate best who is going to score and who isn’t going to sent off.
