My hope for tonight's semi-final is a Croatia win. Argentina display of appalling poor sportsmanship at the end of the penalty shootout with the Netherlands was just plain nasty. Hoping it comes back to bite them tonight.

That's a pretty silly sentiment at the best of times, but it's a little hypocritical in regards to Morocco too. The Arabs conquered/colonised an awful lot of land as well, their empire was only about 3-4% smaller than France's and in the top 10 largest empires ever (twice actually, under different caliphates). There's a reason so many countries have Arab people, use Arabic as their language and have islam as their religion.

Granted, I know a lot of Moroccans would identify as Berber rather than Arab, but it certainly wasn't just Europeans that were colonising the world.

Edit: It's also kind of funny seeing somebody complain about colonisers while supporting Japan. I live in Japan and love the country, but they definitely were a coloniser, one of the worst ones too. Personally I don't much care about what countries did in previous centuries though, I care more about the present.

If Argentina goes to the finals I think they'll win. Neither Morocco nor France is well-suited to deal with their level of fuckery. The decisive game will be today.

So after a lifetime of Van Gaal being xenophobic against south american players, including some nasty episodes with Riquelme and Di Maria when he managed them, after he said Messi is like one player less when defending, after he said penalties was advantage Netherlands because they had a better keeper, after Weghorst came in to provoke the Argentina players and foul them nonstop, after the Dutch players continuously broke the rules in the penalty shootout by leaving the halfway line to block the path of the Argentine penalty takers and give them very nice words on the way... You expected the Argentine to give them a handshake and a hug?

Give them a handshake and a hug? No

Not to behave in a crash, childish way? Yes.

Bit in italics I haven't seen referenced but if true I can understand there being bad blood.

The bit in bold, there's always trash talk before/during games. I guarantee you many involved in the Argentine squad will have said similar.

Bit underlined, I don't remember seeing that in the game but so many times one sides complains about the other getting away with fouls (England have said the same thing about the France match). If the Dutch players were blocking the Argentine players then why did the referee not get involved? Did either Croatia or Brazil do any of that to the other? Don't believe so. When they won, Croatia celebrated but didn't see the need to rub it Brazil's faces. There's a image of Mbappe after Kane missed his second penalty which has been twisted to imply he was mocking Kane, but really he was just celebrating a missed penalty like any opposing player (England one's included would). 

Let's fucking go!!!
1-0 Messi!

~Edit~

2-0!!!!

Then you either reward the Dutch players disgusting behaviour by letting them get away with it.
Or you don't, but only blame Argentina, as you did in your previous post. (Which is probably because you didn't know the context.)

The difference is that the Netherland players were in their faces tauninting and heckiling DURING the penalty shootout.
Several dutch players swarming the person walking up to take the penalty. I have never seen this before.
And they didn't just target the one walking up to the spot. Otamendi said: "I celebrated in the face because there was a player from the Netherlands who, in every penalty we had, came and said things to one of our players."

If you ask me, the Argentine players were not close enough to their face when they taunted back after the final whistle was blown.
Fuck that about having to act classy when your oppionents act like this, and reward them for that behaviour.

That's more of a separate issue, and less about why the Argentine players taunted the Dutch players after the game, and more related to why Messi did Riquelme's goal gesture aimed at Van Gaal, and also told him "You talk too much".

VAMO ARGENTINA

In my defence, the broadcast I watched did not show any of what you highlighted of Dutch behaviour during the penalty shootout so that makes more sense to me now.

What several media outlets have done is plaster the photo of Argentine players celebrating at the Dutch players across several articles between the quarter finals and the semis. The hand gesture which I took as a childlish teasing one seems to have a different context as well.

Regardless, doesn’t look like I was getting my wish anyway. Croatia don’t really have the goal threat to get back into this. Similar reasons to why I can’t see Morocco stifling France tomorrow. As someone else pointed out, Messi is also right up there for the Golden Boot. The trophy and the boot (the golden ball as well maybe, that’s certainly a possibility but harder to predict) would certainly be quite a way to sign-off. Despite what I’ve said previously, I find a part of me wanting to see that happen (maybe the bit that holds a dislike for Ronaldo).

OH MY FUCKING GOAT!!!!!!!
What an incredible increadible goal!

There is NO WAY Messi is 35!! Someone check this man's birth certificate!!!!!
He's playing like he's 25, doing whatever he wants. 

He receved the ball pretty much at the halfway line. There is no better assist than this. And in the WC Semi-Final.

He has now been directly involved in 9 of Argentina's goals.
Have we ever seen a 35 year old play like this??

He's having one of the best season's of his life, statistically and artistically, not just in his club, but even in the final stages of the world cup.