If the ref had always made the right decision it would have been worse for Holland so I don't understand the complaining. They should have been with nine at the break.
If you read back in this thread, you can see that I posted it was going to be a tight game and also that it would not be so entertaining.
Well, it turned out exactly like I was afraid it would. So no surprises there.
I'm Dutch and have been living in the US for 9 years. I watched the final with 15,000 Spanish, Dutch, American and other fans/supporters/people on a square in San Francisco. That in itself was already something, as soccer (as they call it here. Sorry Americans, but seeing as the Dutch word is closer to football, that's what is what it will always be for me) isn't really that popular here.
Of course, I wanted NL to win very very badly and I was extremely nervous while watching the game. A totally biased watch, for sure.
So I really hoped I would somehow (I don't have any recording equipment) be able to watch the game again in a more neutral way. Calmer, now that I knew the end result and not surrounded by thousands. And what do you know? One of the Mexican tv-stations just started broadcasting a repeat, when I got home. So I watched the entire game again. I must be nuts, I know!
I was hoping and expecting to see that Spain clearly was the better team. Funny thing though, I came out thinking NL was not as bad as I remembered from earlier. Although that might only be, because the first time I watched every corner, free kick and chance by Spain gave me a near heart-attack.
Anyway, I have only one complaint about the ref and that's the yellow card for De Jong. Where was the ref standing at that moment? My guess is, he didn't quite catch what happened. Had he seen, what we saw in the repeat, it would have been red for sure. Although I think he might have been (too) afraid to give a red at that time in the game.
So 10 at the break. Sure.
9? I don't know. Who else should have been send off according to you? Van Bommel?
I was just trying to say, that a different decision in that situation would have led to a different game. Not to a different end-result. Because, as much as I would have liked to have seen it differently, in the end I don't think NL would have won.