Unbelievable

spain is understandable enough, alonso did get a karate kick to the chest after all and no red the dutch however should be thanking webb for not sending off half their side Well yeah, the Dutch are saying 'he was too harsh' and the Spanish are saying 'he was too lenient'. From what I saw he got all the yellow cards correct. The Dutch should be ashamed at how they conducted themselves and now they even have the nerve to complain about the refereeing?!? Disgraceful. I think we've been here before, but here we go again: - De Jong should have been sent off, no doubt about it; - Van Bommel could have been sent off. He always plays on the edge. For me, this match he didn't step over the line, but I would have accepted it if he was sent off as he was very close to the edge; - the sending off of Heitinga was harsh. There wasn't much in his first booking, the second bookable offence was similar to: - Puyol holding back Robben when he was through on goal and already on a yellow. If Heitinga is sent off, then for consistency's sake so should Puyol have been; - Iniesta lashing out at Van Bommel could and perhaps should have been a sending off; - Mathijssen and Robben were correctly booked for protesting fiercly against refereeing decision. For consistency's sake, so should Iniesta and Xavi have been for repeatedly requesting for Holland players to be booked; - in the build up to the deciding goal Webb missed an unmissable deflection on Sneijder's free kick. I mean, the ball was deflected in an angle of almost 45 degrees from its original trajectory. If a corner is given rather than a free kick, with 3 minutes to go and with a man down, Holland can try and keep possession and we would have perhaps reached penalties; - also in the build up to the goal and with 2 minutes to go, and I admit to have only seen this once, but there appears to be a foul on Elia out on the left wing when Spain wins possession which they score from seconds later. All throughout the second half and in extra time Webb has given free kicks for petty things, yet he missed this particular incident. Looking at the above, I would say there can be complaints from both sides, and I don't think Webb controlled the match at all. The trick to being a good referee in a match like this is allowing play to flow and be very decisive when things go over the edge (like in the case of the De Jong karate kick). In my humble opinion Webb made lots of small and bigger mistakes and most importantly didn't allow the game to flow as a world class referee like Collina would have done. The final was a subdued affair, and Webb is partly to blame for this (although I accept a large portion of the blame must be placed at the feet of the Dutch team, in particular De Jong and to a lesser extent Van Bommel). Make no mistake though, Spain deserved to win and Holland didn't play the game in a fair play manner, but neither did Spain and this Holland basking and Spain praising for their attitude is doing my head in. In reality, there wasn't much difference between the sides and the game as a whole was practically unwatchable bar the tension side of things. It's a bitter pill to swallow seeing a Dutch side perform like this when you know they are capable of doing so much better, especially the likes of Van Persie who just hasn't turned up this World Cup..

I agree, partly.. De Jong was very, very lucky not to get sent off. I think the anger of the Dutch players was mainly because of that ridiculous call not to award a corner after the Sneijder free kick with minutes to go. I mean, that deflection man, how could he have missed it? From the resulting resuming of play Spain score, which is a bit unlucky. I haven't seen a replay of the supposed foul on Elia in the build up, so can't comment on that.. Also, if Heitinga is sent off (correctly mind you), so should Puyol have been. All in all I don't think we can have too many complaints though: Spain were the (slightly) better team. It wasn't a good match as a viewing spectacle, but I can tell you tension was running very high if your team was involved, so I can imagine the disappointment of the Dutch players directly after the match. They were moments away from penalties and possibly winning the World Cup, so losing it to a late goal with some dubious calls from the referee in the build up is a hard pill to swallow.

Cheers Sewelly.. I just couldn't get myself to go online yesterday evening after this surreal experience of being outside at 11pm in complete silence with thousands of other nutcases dressed in orange.. Depressing it was..

VI, congratulations! I am sick as a parrot, but have to admit the best team won on the day.. Losing the World Cup final 3 times ffs! 3 times!!!

Reports in Holland are surfacing Stekelburg may not be able to figure in the final. If so, will be interesting if Van Marwijk goes with talented yet inexperienced Michel Vorm or experienced and dependable, but not world beater standard Sander Boschker if this happens... Hope we don't have to find out!

Not sure if already mentioned, but apparently Man Utd have made an enquiry for Sneijder.. Inter do not want to sell though..

Err, in my lifetime Non European teams have won the WC 6 times. You missed "SA" in the thread title?

Basically this, Ghana could have won it this year, with Essien they might have got even closer. Agreed, also who knows what Ivory Coast could have done with a fitter Drogba and somebody like Hiddink managing them (which was close to happening). Teams like Ghana and IC could be contenders, but they will also need huge amounts of luck (injuries, refereeing decisions) to get there..

May have been done in South America though (Copa Libertadores).. One for the journalists to find out..

Not in one year/season then..

Xavi really deserves it. Should be Messi for me, even if he didn't really win any international competitions. If Holland win it will be Sneijder though; he may not deserve it, but it's hard to ignore the fact he would have won every single competition he was involved in this season and have been quite instrumental in doing so... Has anybody ever accomplished that feat (winning 4 out of 4 competitions including CL and WC (or EC) I mean)?

Howard Webb hopefully! We need Van Bommel and De Jong to be able to get into Xavi's and Iniesta's face or we don't stand a chance, so a more lenient ref would be more than welcome...

De Guzman on a free? Yes please!

Funny how the mood in the Dutch media has changed after the Spain result. Yesterday it was all hallelujah and bring on the Germans and now it's Spain they seem to think we are the underdog. I am still very confident. Wacko is right about getting in the face of the Spanish players and putting them under pressure, and I think Holland have been doing exactly that quite well this tournament, plus Spain seem to be having trouble scoring, more so than Holland, so I still think we have a good chance. Both teams are terrific at counter attacking football (although both teams also seem to have problems finishing a game off when they break), so I would say scoring the first goal is absolutely crucial in this one...

Two teams who have traditionally bottled it in World Cups have reached the final. You would hope one would have it in them to win it this time..

Good. If things don't go to plan we will bring on Elia to make his life miserable. Although neither team is specifically 'dirty' I can see a sending off or two for the final, probably involving our defensive midfielders and/or your full backs..

On the other hand Robben should completely own Capdevilla on the right, and our 2 defensive midfielders (Van Bommel and De Jong) may just provide enough steel to frustrate Spain's midfield passing game.. I think it's quite thinly balanced..

I know the feeling. Congratulations on reaching the final. May the best team win on Sunday.

That's a hell of a pic for your avatar. It's the precise moment? Aye, goal of the tournament imho...

Holland is on record breaking form: now unbeaten in 25 matches, and won the last 10. One more to go please..!

Man in my avatar, a child from my city and a player of my hometown club, is playing his very last football match in his career on Sunday. Come on Gio, make it one to remember and score another screamer like that to make a fitting end to a distinguished career!

YES! Brilliant atmosphere here in Holland yesterday. Here's hoping Sunday will be the biggest party ever. Germany please..

all match i'm going to be calling forlan "underestimation".....""underestimation's unmarked man", "pass man underestimastion you greedy t***". He's their only player..

Starting to feel a little nervous about tonight. The only thing between us and a World Cup final is bloody Uruguay. We have to watch out for underestimation here, but bloody hell, it's doable alright!

Holland to beat Germany in the World Cup final this time next week hopefully!!!