The most bizarre match. I thought nothing could top the Italy-USA match. But Ivanov topped Larrionda. 4 red cards and 16 yellow cards. The match unravelled when Figo pulled off a great bit of acting by going down as if he was pole axed by an inadvertent elbow by Bouhlarouz who get sent off. Johnny Heitinga then made things worse by conducting himself in the most unsportsman like manner by taking off with the ball towards goal, instead of booting the ball out when a Portugese player was down and play stopped.
There was just mayhem after that as Deco brough Heitinga down incensed by his behavior. One by one the players started disappearing, Costinha, Bouhlarouz, Deco, Von Bronckhorst.
The German police better be in full riot gear because the Dutch and the Portugese fans are going to go at each other. Van Basten is going to get flamed in the Dutch media tomorrow with his decision not to bring on Nistelrooy.
In all this chaos, it was touching to see Van Bronckhorst and Deco, Barcelona team mates hug each other.
This game is a gift to England. They will face Portugal without their main playmaker Deco, a stalwart defender Costinho, and possibly Cristiano Ronaldo, who got whacked pretty badly on the thigh and might be ruled out of the game.
3 comments on “Fulltime: Portugal 1 Netherlands 0: Where does FIFA get these referees from?”
Great that Portugal won. This team is good to watch, but without Deco, it’s going to be tough against England. I’ll hope for another Portugal win, I would like to see a match between Argentina and Portugal, I guess most soccer fans would like to see that. Holland did start all the wrong-doings in the match, first the foul against Ronaldo, that should have been a red card, and then that unfair running which was brought down by Deco. Yes, Figo took full advantage of the unintentional hit of elbow, but already it was too unfair for the Portuguese.
Referee did a poor job, but what could he do if the players forget about the fair-play and keep doing dangerous fouls. You can’t really judge a referee based on the number of yellow or red cards, instead we should look at the correctness of the decisions.
I imagine Ruud VN did something behind closed doors.
A poor standard game, I felt. but interesting as you have mentioned. Perfect for england.
I think if the ref give red for the cleat to Ronaldo, then the game goes cleaner. That was the origin of it getting out of hand in my opinion.
Of course, the trivial card throwing this world cup makes it harder for the cards to mean something when the ref wants to keep it under wraps.
Lots of silly fouls. Could the ref speak the langauges of the players. I would hope some talking could help nip this stuff as well.
Players made dumb decisions yes, but things may go better when their is trust and respect for the referee. Trivial cards make it a tougher job for the man in the middle.