History of falling at finals hurdles
FUELLED by decades of hurt, Lionel Messi’s Argentina and Arjen Robben’s Holland will carry competing motivations into their tantalising World Cup semi- final showdown at Sao Paulo’s Corinthians Arena.
Argentina, who last reached the final in 1990, will be determined to pay appropriate homage to former great Alfredo Di Stefano, who died on Monday aged 88, while arch rivals Brazil could by then be waiting in the final.
The Netherlands, meanwhile, are eager to rediscover their group- stage swagger and prove they are finally ready to claim football’s greatest prize after agonising final defeats in 1974, 1978 and 2010.
“The semi- finals are fantastic, but we know what it feels like to lose a World Cup, and we would love to win,” Dutch utility man Dirk Kuyt said.
“Argentina are a worldclass team and deserve to be in the last four. But we want to measure ourselves against the best, and not only measure, but win. That’s why we’re here.”
The second of Holland’s final losses came at the hands of Argentina, who won 3- 1 as hosts at a Monumental Stadium in Buenos Aires.
It is, however, the only time in eight encounters that they have bettered Holland, who memorably won a 1998 World Cup quarter- final in Marseilles.
Di Stefano never graced a World Cup, either for Argentina or his adopted Spain, but on Wednesday another Argentine great embraced by the Spanish can tighten his grip on this year’s tournament.
Messi met with quarterfinal heartbreak at his first two World Cups, but in Brazil the Barcelona superstar has played with a decisiveness that suggests he may be about to definitively make his mark on the game’s biggest stage.