Quote:
Ohh, and the goal wasn't offsides

Quote:
Congratz to Spain for a deserved victory! 

Quoting FilmAlba:

Quote:
The ref was not biased your team brought it on them self by playing dirty football or as i like to call it total Van Bommel football to try and break the game to prevent Spain's midfield from running rings round you with there superior passing.

I have to agree. I see some Dutch press are naming the ref as the reason for their defeat. Although it's true he isn't without reproach, it wasn't all in Spain's favor, far from it. In all honesty the ref could have easily given more cards to the Dutch in the beginning of the match, including two reds for two very vicious fouls which were nothing more than personal attacks to cripple Spanish key players. One of those was the attack with studs to the chest which deserved an immediate red card, no questions asked.

In fact, when considering the game as a whole, I thought the ref was rather pro-Holland: he gave a few yellow cards to Spanish players for minor fouls whilst giving only yellow to Dutch players for very vicous fouls clearly meant to injure an opposing player.

The Dutch team created two nice chances to score but for the rest, relied on only trying to stop Spain from playing both by a strong defense as well as dirty fouls. Spain at least try to play it's usual soccer and for that I'm happy they won: football won against anti-football yesterday 

Quote:
And he didn't give Iniesta a red card for his push on van Bommel without ball insight. He didn't give the clear foul on Robben when he broke thought he second time. He didn't give a corner after the Sneijder free kick, the following goal kick led to the goal. And the goal was offside, look at the first intercepted pass. Clearly offside.

Now, i don't say they lost only because of the referee, the Spanish played better although they didn't create many chances. But the referee was extremely poor, as almost all referees have been poor this tournament.

Also, i always thought asking for cards was not allowed and should be punished by a card for the asker? Mr. Webb must have missed that lesson!

Paul

Quote:
Quoting paulb_99:

Quote:
And he didn't give Iniesta a red card for his push on van Bommel without ball insight. He didn't give the clear foul on Robben when he broke thought he second time. He didn't give a corner after the Sneijder free kick, the following goal kick led to the goal. And the goal was offside, look at the first intercepted pass. Clearly offside.

Now, i don't say they lost only because of the referee, the Spanish played better although they didn't create many chances. But the referee was extremely poor, as almost all referees have been poor this tournament.

Also, i always thought asking for cards was not allowed and should be punished by a card for the asker? Mr. Webb must have missed that lesson!

Paul

Yupp,
definitely a poor referee. But impartial (for a given value of "impartial"), since he treated both teams almost equal.

I think railroaded described the game very well.
So don't be too sad, we'll (hopefully) all meet again in Brazil.
And if Robben and van Persie learn when it's better to pass and when it's better to shoot on goal (and to see the difference), the Netherlands will be among the title favourites again.

Quote:
I want him back