The battle to face off against Germany is on. Argentina and the Netherlands will now compete for the other spot in the World Cup final match and soccer glory. The two teams entered as favorites to make a solid run in the tournament and while failing to meet those expectations, they did enough to maintain dominance over the past two weeks. Now they are set to clash as the Netherlands seek redemption and Argentina look to break history.
The Netherlands have been runners up once before and they are not aiming for the results in Brazil. After coming up short to Spain in 2010, the team is ready to beat Argentina and faceoff against Germany to once again try and win a World Cup. If they are going to achieve that goal, it will be without midfielder Nigel de Jong while Leroy Fer and Ron Vlaar are also at risk of missing game time. The Netherlands will have to dig into their depth for help.
Argentina has not made a World Cup final four since 1900. With the most dangerous player in the tournament, Lionel Messi, living up to expectations, history could easily be broken. They will also be missing key players in midfielder Angel Di Maria, but will get back Sergio Aguero who made a quick recovery from a muscle tear. He likely will not start though as Ezequiel Lavezzi has done a solid job filling in for him.
This game is a matchup of counter attacks and the team that wins the possession battle likely heads to the finals. Argentina played with that mindset against Belgium and dominated the match. The Netherlands normally do not take that approach and have been pushed as a result, but their defensive lines could easily keep Messi quiet. Their central midfielders will have a tall task in front of them trying to slow down the scorer and prevent a big game from the star searching for World Cup glory.
Argentina is favored simply because of how Messi is playing. The team will take the same approach as they did against Belgium and sit back, forcing the Netherlands onto their front and unable to find a defensive stop. Argentina was operating on all cylinders again Belgium so the Netherlands cannot afford to let up after seeing what happened to Brazil on Tuesday.
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