It was a brutal match with tempers flaring, red cards flying, and not what one thinks of when referring to ‘the beautiful game’ But I confess that the Portugal Netherlands battle was fun to watch. I know, I know, I really should should scoff at the players behavior, but after the England-Ecuador sleeper it was a welcome change.
Best comment over at The News Blog’s daily World Cup Thread by lull:
Isn’t the slogan of this World Cup "a time to make friends?"…
…I’m starting to think neither team got the memo.
A World Cup record 4 red cards and a record tying 16 yellow cards. Ouch. Many felt the ref lost control earlier in the match and was forced to clamp down once things got out of hand. But most of the bookings were deserved. FIFA’s president felt the officiating was a problem:
"There could have been a yellow card for the referee," said Fifa president Sepp Blatter. "He was not at the same level as the players.
I think that was a bit harsh. Both teams were acting like goons at times and I was really upset that the Netherlands twice took a drop ball after a Portugal injury and didn’t return the ball to Portugal. Classless. MadJock posted a analysis where he went back through the match on Tivo to review each booking. Worth a read.
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June 26th, 2006 at 9:02 am
I usually like J.P. and Harkes, but I thought they were out of line in saying the referee was at fault. His biggest mistake was not brandishing more cards for diving.
June 26th, 2006 at 9:07 am
Exactly. Had he done that earlier and not allowed some early cheap tackles he might have kept things in check. That said, I’ve seen comment that once the ref started flashing his cards it caused the teams to be even more physical trying to knock out the other’s star players. Not sure I buy that at all.
But Blatter throwing the ref under the bus was bull. I’ve seen worse officiating . The teams are to blame for the card fest when you review what they were given for. MadJocks synopsis was excellent.
My biggest fear is that the ref for the Italy v Socceroo match will be afraid to card and the Italian Diving Team will be in gold medal form.