WORLD CUP SEMIFINAL: ARGENTINA 0(4) - NETHERLANDS 0(2)
Argentina scored all four penalty kicks in a shootout against the Netherlands on Wednesday in São Paulo to advance to the World Cup final for the first time since 1990. Lionel Messi made the first and his teammates Ezequiel Garay, Sergio Aguero and Maxi Rodriguez followed suit to earn Argentina a date with Germany in Sunday's final in Rio de Janeiro. The Netherlands missed two of their first three attempts, with first Ron Vlaar and then Wesley Sneijder seeing their shots saved by Argentina's goalkeeper, Sergio Romero.
After 120 minutes of scoreless exasperation in a World Cup semifinal on Wednesday that was by turns tense, cautious, clumsy, gripping and stubbornly unyielding. There was little space to move, few chances to score. Sometimes the match was as dreary as the misty evening chill. If it possessed any beauty, it was not in gracefulness but in stark, struggling exertion.
Sergio Romero, Argentina's goalkeeper, was poised in the shootout, unsettling the Dutch on the very first kick. He dived to his left, parried a shot by defender Ron Vlaar and kissed his gloves. Later, Romero repelled a shot by Wesley Sneijder and pounded his chest. And finally, Argentina defeated the Netherlands by 4-2 on penalty kicks and advanced to Sunday's final against Germany.
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