The Final - Netherlands v Spain

Both sides flew in. Webb would have been crucified had he not produced the cards he did - the game would have massively degenerated.

Wasn't it like 14 yellow cards?

Exercise some bloody discretion.

Regardless, calling that a deflection off the Dutch is what's laughable.

The most disappointing World Cup for me in history. Could not be more displeased right now.

Roll on the 'Nix season.

He did, he could have easily sent of Robben aswell for kicking the ball into the goal after the offside, and the dutch would have rightly been down to 9. It may have been 14 yellow cards, but there were probably 15 or 16 yellow card offenses.

Justice done I believe. Dutch won't win many sympathisers for that display.

Iniesta probably player of the tournament apart from going down far far too easily.

Spain deserved to win. The Netherlands deserved to lose. Spain did their best to hit full stride but found it hard when they were being kicked off the park. So disappointing from the Dutch, even Switzerland and Paraguay weren't that cynical against Spain despite playing defensive.

Anyway well done Spain. I await all the bitters coming out and moaning about how boring they are and how they are sh*t World Cup winners. Deep down they must know that isn't true.

spain played excellent possession football throughout the cup, pity they couldnt score more goals. Lowest scoring world cup winners? i'll check the stats and be back

Thats a problem with the diving - had Robben gone to ground 99% chance Puyol would be sent off. However he tried to play on and nothing happened.

Yes. Beats eleven.
Could they also have conceded the least?
sanday2010-07-12 09:14:49

The best thing about the Spanish winning is it leaves the mighty All Whites as the only unbeaten team!

Mueller golden boot then on basis of assists, or is it shared?

that the Dutch feel they have a reason to complain just goes to show how bad priorities are in modern football. So many skillfull and intelligent players yet game plan was kick the other side to death. They then berate the ref.... insanity.

No exaggeration to say van Bommell , De Jong and Robben could of easily joined Heitinga fro an early shower. I'd argue it was solely because it was the Final that 2 of them did not go.

Hope FIFA sticks it to them, but they need to look at themselves too, this game is a result of 20 -25 years of anti-football holding sway.


congragulations to Spain, at least they generally tried to play football. I generally can't stand players whinging at the ref but after a while felt Xavi was with in his rights to get into Webb about van Bommell's outrageous and repeated fouls.

good to see Fab get a run and set up the match winning goal
can't understand why Torres got a run at all.
Spain's Goalie is the best IMO. Capedvilla probably had his best game and Ramos went good too, but should of scored.

worthy winners Spain, overall they play the smartest football and most often try to attack.

I've got Forlan at 40/1 so i hope it's at least a 4 way split. normally the odds are split between the number of shared leaders.

wd Spain.

foal... the hypocrisy... amazing.

Spain played, attacked and deserved the win. for the Dutch, Robbins almost won single handed.
Unbelievably the builder turned up and I missed the goal. Grr.

france in '98 too

Madrid going bonkers as you would expect.

Think you may have lost your bet. I think Muller gets golden boot

Well, all in all, I enjoyed that WC.

WD South Africa.

?

 If Holland had a game plan to counter Xavi and Inestia that did not involve kicking them I was unable to decipher this. As far as I'm concerned van Bommell pretty much spent the entire tournament ruining games. That's why I described him as a Micheal Carrick.

If you think Webb picked on Holland and let Spain have a free run I'd question your analysis of the game at even a primary school level. Whilst Webb has a particularly poor record at officiating at Old Trafford he did try and allow some leniency today.

If your talking about Uruguay then to attempt to clarify, once again, my gripe was that Uruguay were held up as a cynical fouling team despite their being patent evidence of other teams being far worse offenders. These other sides seemed to escape condemnation at all, which I found hypocritical. It was never a handwashing or absolution of Uruguay. For the record Holland packed more cynicism, fouls and cheating into today's 120 mins than most sides did for the entire tournament.

it's totally unacceptable for the World's #1 participation event
football needs some fixing.
we must do better

I do think that Germany and Uruguay were far more entertaining teams but that doesn't matter any more.  Well done to Spain.  They were better than the Dutch today and that is what matters.  Though I don't think Torres should be allowed near the trophy.  He was crap all tournament and today he was just horrid.

I also think the Dutch deserved to have more than 1 player sent off.  Robben being one of them, especially due to his stupidity in kicking the ball away.  In his defence, with his first yellow card for arguing I though Puyol should have been pulled up by the referee.

Edit:
No blaming Webb either.  I didn't think he did too badly under a lot of pressure and with two teams determined to give him as difficult a job as possible.

Foal, in a previous post you mentioned Dutch anti-football for the last 25 years.  What tosh.  I assume you missed them in Euro 2000.
loyalgunner2010-07-12 10:10:09

and I also understand that there are many who consider the Dutch tactics smart; isolate and foul, hopefully find Robben/Snie/RVP on the run.

my argument is their are laws of the game, any side who holds them as secondary to the result deserves our scorn, not our support. Condoning this allows for yet more poor behavior and ungracious 'sportsmanship'. These are the last things (apart from more financial liberalization) football needs.

Johan was correct again and it's a colossal effort from him to acknowledge this pre-match.

I started writing an "essay" reply but seriously I cbfed. Its no use, but for the most I disagree.

And why jump to think I'm instantly defending Holland, which I wasn't.

Ignoring what else happened in the game, Puyol should've been sent off, but the cheeky vagina face gets away with his typical crap again.Michael2010-07-12 10:13:20

I wasn't , I was asking some questions as I was unaware what you meant by hypocrisy.
the 3 sections were my best guess (s)

so I still not entirely sure what you mean.

Puyol gets away with hampering Robben run? I don't think he gets away with anymore than any other player specifically. Maybe he should have got a second yellow for this.... it's certainly not an unheard of thing in such situations. On the balance of fouling and negativity it's a drop in the ocean to what his side ran into. I think so anyway.

The real pity is that the game played right into the hands of the (football) haters out there.

For those of us keen to see the profile of the sport rise in this particular outpost, not such a good day.

Well done Spain though - deserving winners of the tourney.

As a German supporter, I can also go away with head held high. Fitting that the young player of the tournament went their way. Mueller winning it alongside his Golden Boot.Turfmoore2010-07-12 10:22:58

quite enjoyed that game, found myself supporting spain for the sole reason of leaving us the only unbeaten team. not much to say about the game that hasnt been covererd already

all in all a pretty enjoyable world cup

Holland played the game to their advantage, created chances and should've won. That said, Spain deserve to be champs. All this talk of "why didn't Holland go all out attack, why did they go the hack?" is hysterical clap trap.

Hmm, not as clear-cut as that. Watch the replay, and it's actually Robben who starts pulling first - his arm comes accross Puyol's shoulder and chest while Puyol was still in front, and this allows Robben to get in front and to the ball. Puyol then responds in kind (although probably for half a second longer) when the roles ares reversed, and most refs let play continue in those kind of situations.

Thought Webb was desperately trying not to be the most influential man on the pitch, and this ultimately helped the Dutch more, as they were testing his resolve in this respect much more often. To be honest though, it was a very difficult game to officiate, Webb was in a fairly unenviable position.

Anyway, happy that Spain won, been saying that it's theirs to lose for a long time now, so glad they didn't.

Oh, and one more thing.

Paul. 100% record.

Rezpekt.

Kuyt is blaming the ref already.

Putting my refereeing head on for a brief second, Puyol should not have been sent off. There was nothing in the challenge, he put an arm across Robben and Robben had an arm across Puyol. Robben's forward momentum didn't seem, to me, impededed in any way, there was no shirt pull. Nothing there. Robben butchered the chance. Suck it up. End of.

On reflection i think puyol was just about the player of the tournament.

Yip, paulm, agree. Puyol was outstanding. So glad he grabbed that goal against the Germans too, fully deserved.

You better be drinking EN.