Matchday 24 - The Race For The Golden Boot

Uruguay 2 - Germany 3

Thomas Mueller and Diego Forlan put themselves right back in the race for the Golden Boot, as both scored their 5th goals of the tournament in the third placed playoff that saw Germany take the bronze medal for the second consecutive tournament with a 3-2 win over Uruguay.

But it was the race for the Golden Boot that was as much the prize on offer as the third place finish with the likes of Thomas Mueller, Diego Forlan, and Luis Suarez all hopping to be amongst the goals to pass or at least join Wes Sneijder and David Villa on 5 tournament goals. And the bigger winner in that regard on the night was Mueller and Forlan who notched a goal each, both their 5th, to make it a four way tie at the top of the Golden Boot standings going in to tonights final. Mueller opened the scoring in the 19th minute when he smashed home a rebound after the Musilera had saved a Bastian Schweinsteiger strike. Forlan's goal was yet another cracker to add to his collection when he he acrobatically smashed home from just on the edge of the penalty box in the 51st minute to give Uruguay a 2-1 lead after Cavani had equalised for the South Americans just before the half hour mark. Uruguay's lead was to only last 5 minutes however as Marcell Janesn equalised for Germany, heading home a cross that should have been cleared by the Uruguayan keeper. The match was decided in the 81st minute when Sami Khedira looped a header into the top corner from close range to give him his first goal of the tournament and Germany their second consecutive third placed finish. Diego Forlan was centimetres away from taking the lead in the golden boot race and equalising for Uruguay some three minutes into stoppage time when his superb free kick smashed off the crossbar.

What We Learned - That Diego Forlan should be the player of the tournament. He has scored 5 goals, 4 of which have been absolute crackers (the other was a penalty). In a side that has had limited attacking potential he has virtually single-handedly dragged Uruguay to the semi-finals for the first time since 1970, both as a pure striker, and as a creative attacking midfielder playing in behind Luis Suarez.

The Falcon's Spud of the Day - Joachim Loew (Germany) - The German coached radically changed his team for the semi-final dropping a number of first team players for their reserves. Not only does this really make a mockery of the third placed playoff (honestly I think it should be scrapped) but it absolutely destroyed my fantasy team. Why would you drop the goalie FFS?!? It's not like he would have been tired from running around the outfield for the past 6 matches.

Tonight's Games - After 63 matches the 2010 World Cup comes down to the European derby between the Netherlands and Spain. Both nations are looking for the first World Cup in their history and as a result we will have an 8th nation joining the ranks of winning World Cup nations come tommorrow morning. Spain are favourites and deserverdly slow. They showed in the semi-final that they are clearly the best team in the tournament in dominating a German side that had scored 4 goals in its past two matches. The Netherlands on the other hand have got through on the soft side of the draw, and were lucky in defeating Brazil, their only real challenge in the knockout rounds so far. The Spainards play a far superior brand of football and have far more quality on a player by player basis. I think they will dominate possesion again and it will just be a matter of how many goals they score in winning their first world cup. Viva Espana!

Suggested Investment - Spain are fairly short to take the title at around $1.60 so it might pay to bet enough on that to cover the more exotic bet types. In the correct score market it is hard to go past Spain 1-0 ($6.50) (the score in their last 3 matches) while I like David Villa ($5.30) to score the first goal to put himself on top in the Golden Boot standings.

Prices courtesy of Betfair.