Holland v Spain - World Cup Final

[Nick Shorey my Lord!]

So many decisions are open to intepretation that I don't think people can condemn his for eg. not sending off De Jong. I don't think I would have done either.

I know where you're coming from but there are some tackles that have to be appropriately punished because a) it's the law and b) it has to set the tone. The fact he got away with it sent the wrong (right) message that they could behave pwoper naughty.

Regardless it proved their undoing. They were so focused on murdering the opposition they forgot that to win a game you have to score some goals. Except for Robben, no-one in orange looked like doing that.

[papereyes]

What a turgid game of football that was. As with Ian I had to support the Dutch but boy they made it difficult. The only thing I really enjoyed were the fouls, the Dutch were horrendous, I knew they would kick the oxf*rd out of the Spanish, but the Spanish were also niggly and petulant.

I thought Robben's dash after Webb would have summed up the game until Iniesta's winner.

Hate the Spanish but Iniesta deserved it, he is the Spanish team, they play with no width and their strikers weren't important, so very apt he scored.

Congrats, begrudgingly, to the chicos and chicas...

... did you get the constant stream of chicas in blue hot pants where you were ...

fuck. me.

cracking atmosphere though.

[Maguire]

I'm all for using a bit of common sense early doors and trying to manage the game sensibly but it seemed the Dutch were having none of it and I know you like it when things get a bit nawty but I can't think of any reason not to send of De Jong

It all happens so quickly though, and if a player goes in for the ball with a high foot like that, the other player heads it away before he gets the there and the follow through catches him in the chest then I can see how under certain circumstances you might not give him a straight red. Are you going to give a red to someone who attempts a bicycle kick and boots a defender in the head, for example?

It's just not as clear cut as someone launching in two-footed or elbowing someone in the head IMHO.

This is all a red herring anyway as my general point is that Webb did about as well as he could have given the behaviour of the players and that it's a bit rich the Dutch sticking the blame on him when they played liked dirty pcunts.

[Big Foot]

Nadal to win Wimbledon & Spain to win the World Cup

Thank you very much

[TFF]

This is all a red herring anyway as my general point is that Webb did about as well as he could have given the behaviour of the players and that it's a bit rich the Dutch sticking the blame on him when they played liked dirty pcunts.

'greed. Missing the corner was a bit of a shocker though. Deflected AND Saved.

[readingbedding]

Webb had a poor match.
Crap game, the best side in the world is a 5-a-side team.

Yippee!

[Archie's penalty]

What a turgid game of football that was. As with Ian I had to support the Dutch but boy they made it difficult. The only thing I really enjoyed were the fouls, the Dutch were horrendous, I knew they would kick the oxf*rd out of the Spanish, but the Spanish were also niggly and petulant.

I thought Robben's dash after Webb would have summed up the game until Iniesta's winner.

Hate the Spanish but Iniesta deserved it, he is the Spanish team, they play with no width and their strikers weren't important, so very apt he scored.

Congrats, begrudgingly, to the chicos and chicas...

... did you get the constant stream of chicas in blue hot pants where you were ...

fuck. me.

cracking atmosphere though.

yep and yep.

[Nick Shorey my Lord!]

I'm all for using a bit of common sense early doors and trying to manage the game sensibly but it seemed the Dutch were having none of it and I know you like it when things get a bit nawty but I can't think of any reason not to send of De Jong

It all happens so quickly though, and if a player goes in for the ball with a high foot like that, the other player heads it away before he gets the there and the follow through catches him in the chest then I can see how under certain circumstances you might not give him a straight red. Are you going to give a red to someone who attempts a bicycle kick and boots a defender in the head, for example?

It's just not as clear cut as someone launching in two-footed or elbowing someone in the head IMHO.

This is all a red herring anyway as my general point is that Webb did about as well as he could have given the behaviour of the players and that it's a bit rich the Dutch sticking the blame on him when they played liked dirty pcunts.

It did happen quickly. But, as soon as it happened I thought he's off. We've all seen (well most of us anyway) enough football to instinctively know when a red card is a red card and that was the case last night. The foot was too high full stop.

An overhead kick is different since the player executing the move won't be able to see what's going on above / below him - as witnessed in the Uruguay / Netherlands game.

[6ft Kerplunk]

They were so focused on murdering the opposition they forgot that to win a game you have to score some goals. Except for Robben, no-one in orange looked like doing that.

Yeah, right up until the point he when was one on one with the keeper.

At least you didn't have the misfortune of Webb's mum on your Lolocal news filmed exclusively before she flew out to SA. Anyway Webb had is sussed. He's only going to ref one world cup final and he's made sure we all remember him doing it.

[Gus the teenage cow]

Webb was pretty poor imo, Given that one of his obligations is to protect the players and by not sending De Jong off for his Bruce Lee impression it gave the Dutch players free range to carry on with their shady tactics.

With regards to this I believe, from the footage, that Webb wasn't in the best position to see the foul. Otherwise I thought he had a really good game, considering the huge weight of the World Cup Final he did very well, and no way was it a foul on the Dutch player moments before the Spanish goal, not in a million years.

I love the way all the English media and even players, pundits, ex-managers and fans are defending Webb as if he was somehow representing you guys. God forbid if he was. His assistants are decent but he is an awful referee, how he even got sent to the World Cup is beyond me when he made seven or eight game-changing errors in key matches this season. I suspect it's coz he is a big bald tough-looking guy who is great with his gestures and body language and looks authoritative, all that is fine and dandy but it would be nice if he got the occassional decision right. Got multiple decisions wrong last night and on the Continent the guy is a laughing stock, papers from Netherlands and Spain both absolutely slating him and the neutral countries also having a pop...yet somehow some morons in these parts seem to think he had a good game-lol.

How did De Jong and Van Bommel and Sneijder stay on the pitch? Sneijder not even booked for a leg-breaker. Robben should have went too. Puyol should have went for attempting to take down Robben when clean through. Spanish goal wouldn't have happened if Webb gave Holland a corner after Sneijder free-kick was deflected or if Elia was given a free kick for being blocked off by Ramos. Also a couple of penalty shouts for Spain. So maybe 9 or 10 game-changing decisions he got wrong, well done Howard!

[sheshnu]

We get it, Liverpool fans don't like him. What decisions did he give against your lot last season? Weren't there some controversial incidents in the games against the other 'big boys'?

[Tony Le Mesmer]

How did De Jong and Van Bommel and Sneijder stay on the pitch? Sneijder not even booked for a leg-breaker. Robben should have went too. Puyol should have went for attempting to take down Robben when clean through. Spanish goal wouldn't have happened if Webb gave Holland a corner after Sneijder free-kick was deflected or if Elia was given a free kick for being blocked off by Ramos. Also a couple of penalty shouts for Spain. So maybe 9 or 10 game-changing decisions he got wrong, well done Howard!

So you think he should have awarded 6 red cards, 5 to Holland thus forcing the game to be abandonded? And then what?

Total lose/lose situtaion for a referee in a game like last night. And you're saying hed have had a good game if he was forced to abandon the match.

[sandman]

Webb is not a poor ref imo. I was surprised he got the CL final because by his standards he was poor last season missing some blatent reds in the CC final and FA Cup semi finals. However he and his assistants deserved to be appointed as the officials for the final as they were the best officials throughout the tournament. Last night he had an off day in trying Circumstances and was back to the same sort of strange decisions he made last season in the PL and CC (DeJong, Van Bommel, Puyol). He's not a bad referee and is better than the other refs in this country.

[Terminal Boardom]

I still think that there is an over-reaction to the way the match officials went about their job. Football these days is all about cheating. Arjen Robben has legs made of paper. van Bommel and de Jong are back street thugs. Puyol is no angel either. Just how many decisions did the officials get wrong last night? Sure, Webb could have flashed a couple of red cards. Had he done what would the reaction have been then???

There is no pleasing some people.

[Gus the teenage cow]

How did De Jong and Van Bommel and Sneijder stay on the pitch? Sneijder not even booked for a leg-breaker. Robben should have went too. Puyol should have went for attempting to take down Robben when clean through. Spanish goal wouldn't have happened if Webb gave Holland a corner after Sneijder free-kick was deflected or if Elia was given a free kick for being blocked off by Ramos. Also a couple of penalty shouts for Spain. So maybe 9 or 10 game-changing decisions he got wrong, well done Howard!

So you think he should have awarded 6 red cards, 5 to Holland thus forcing the game to be abandonded? And then what?

Total lose/lose situtaion for a referee in a game like last night. And you're saying hed have had a good game if he was forced to abandon the match.

I agree it was a tough game to ref and that the Netherlands were a disgrace, an early red for De jong and all that is stopped, that's not ruining the game, that's sending off a guy for a karate kick...they Dutch players knew after that he didn't have the bottle to send one of them off until late in the game, so they kicked and kicked all day long until eventually very late in the game he did finally send one off..should have done that a lot earlier

[RoyalChicagoFC]

Right, can anyone recollect the identity of the last side to knock the world and European champions out of a FIFA-sanctioned competition?

Seem to recall a good bit of chuckling about it in these pages, downplaying the whole thing --"carrying on like they just won the World Cup" etc

Anywas*, who the devil were those guys again...

[Archie's penalty]

Easy-peasy. France.

[papereyes]

errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

its the States in the Confederations cup.

[Ian Royal]

I'm all for using a bit of common sense early doors and trying to manage the game sensibly but it seemed the Dutch were having none of it and I know you like it when things get a bit nawty but I can't think of any reason not to send of De Jong

It all happens so quickly though, and if a player goes in for the ball with a high foot like that, the other player heads it away before he gets the there and the follow through catches him in the chest then I can see how under certain circumstances you might not give him a straight red. Are you going to give a red to someone who attempts a bicycle kick and boots a defender in the head, for example?

It's just not as clear cut as someone launching in two-footed or elbowing someone in the head IMHO.

This is all a red herring anyway as my general point is that Webb did about as well as he could have given the behaviour of the players and that it's a bit rich the Dutch sticking the blame on him when they played liked dirty pcunts.

It did happen quickly. But, as soon as it happened I thought he's off. We've all seen (well most of us anyway) enough football to instinctively know when a red card is a red card and that was the case last night. The foot was too high full stop.

An overhead kick is different since the player executing the move won't be able to see what's going on above / below him - as witnessed in the Uruguay / Netherlands game.

De Jong isn't the best example from the match for me. Yes it was nasty, but it's also very clear he was going for the ball and didn't see Alonso. Not so much from the endless replays which aren't long enough and from the right angle, but from the first angle live. And his reaction says it all, Before Alonso's even hit the ground he's holding his hands up and trying to apologise.

You'd never argue if it was given as a red but I see why Webb only gave a yellow.

Van Bommel is a better example of weak reffing IMO. He could have had 4 or 5 yellow cards for his challenges in that match, at least three in the first half if not more. If ever a player who wasn't involved in a nasty injury or goal preventing breach of rules should have been sent off in a game it was Van Bommel.

[Royal Rother]

If Webb had sent off the 1st player possibly deserving of a red card, ok, the players might have altered their approach somewhat, but it would have made the game become a turgid bore-fest. Holland would have sat back and done nothing for the remainder of 120 minutes. Webb would then have got hammered by one and all for ruining the biggest showpiece game in the world.

He wasn't to know that it would become an equally unattractive spectacle anyway.