It was heartbreak for the Dutch on Sunday night, as their World Cup dream ended with defeat to Spain under controversial circumstances.
This match was guaranteed to go down in World Cup history, as never before has a European team won the tournament when playing outside Europe. Amazingly the two teams had never met before in international competition. The Dutch were hoping to make it "third time lucky", having been losing finalists in 1974 and 1978. For the Spanish, it was their first World Cup Final, and a chance to become only the third team to win it while being reigning European champions.
The Netherlands had the chance to accomplish something that had only been achieved once before, by Brazil in 1970 – winning every qualifying game as well as every match at the tournament. They had already achieved Dutch records of 10 wins in a row and being unbeaten in 25 matches. They had also set a new European record of 14 competitive wins in a row.
Fully fit and in good spirits
Dutch coach Bert van Marwijk had a fully fit squad to choose from. Wesley Sneijder, who had not trained since the semi-final due to cramp, declared himself fit. The players looked totally relaxed at their Saturday training session, and TV pictures showed them laughing and joking with the coach and with each other. Captain Giovanni van Bronkhorst, who had already announced his retirement from professional football after this match, told journalists that this good atmosphere was one reason the team had done so well.
The teams lined up as follows:
Netherlands: 1-Maarten Stekelenburg, 2-Gregory van der Wiel, 3-John Heitinga, 4-Joris Mathijsen, 5-Giovanni van Bronckhorst, 7-Dirk Kuyt, 6-Mark van Bommel, 10-Wesley Sneijder, 8-Nigel de Jong, 11-Arjen Robben; 9-Robin van Persie.
Spain: 1-Iker Casillas, 15-Sergio Ramos, 3-Gerard Pique, 5-Carles Puyol, 11-Joan Capdevila, 14-Xabi Alonso, 8-Xavi, 6-Andres Iniesta, 16-Sergio Busquets, 18-Pedro, 7-David Villa.
Some of the Spanish players admitted to being nervous before the match. In a sense, the Dutch had already overachieved, and there was more pressure on Spain because they were the current European champions and are generally agreed to have underperformed at previous World Cups. Another reason for their nervousness might have been the choice of referee. Englishman Howard Webb was in charge of their opening group match when they lost 1-0 to Switzerland.
Busy night for the referee
Mr Webb turned out to be the busiest man on the pitch in the first half, with both sides guilty of some bad tackles that fortunately didn’t result in any injuries. He issued five yellow cards – two to the Spanish and three to the Dutch. The Spanish started brightly, and had the best chance of the half when Sergio Ramos got on the end of a free-kick from Xavi and headed a powerful shot towards a goal that was well saved by Maarten Stekelenburg.
But the Spanish didn’t build on their early promise, and the Dutch got back into the game as the first half wore on. However neither side created much excitement in the penalty box, and it was no surprise that the first 45 minutes ended goalless. There was clearly a lot for both coaches to sort out in the dressing room at half time.
Better after the break
The second half was more exciting, though still far from the quality that both these teams can produce. Arjen Robben was one-on-one with the goalkeeper on two occasions, but on both occasions Iker Casillas made superb saves. The Spanish also had some good chances. Dirk Kuyt was replaced by Eljero Elia in the 70th minute, but his presence did little to change the course of the game. As the second half drew to a close, extra time looked inevitable.
The Dutch made their final two substitutions in extra time, when Rafael van der Vaart came on for Nigel de Jong, and Edson Braafheid replaced Giovanni van Bronkhorst. Unfortunately, John Heitinga received a second yellow card about ten minutes from the end of extra time, and the Dutch were forced to play out the remainder of the game with ten men.
As the clock ticked towards a penalty shootout, the controversial moment arrived which led to the Spanish goal. Wesley Sneijder's free-kick from 35 yards took a huge deflection off Cesc Fabregas, but Howard Webb gave a goalkick. From the resulting goal kick, Fernando Torres got hold of the ball and crossed it into the box. The ball was half cleared to Cesc Fabregas and he found Andres Iniesta in the penalty area, who volleyed it past Maarten Stekelenburg.
Refereeing mistake
The Dutch were furious at this passage of play, as they believed (correctly) that it resulted from a refereeing error. But over the 120 minutes, the Spanish had been the better team, and only some good goalkeeping by Stekelenburg had prevented them from scoring sooner. It was not a good game to watch, and the 14 yellow cards - issued by Mr Webb, nine of them to the Dutch, told their own story.
There will still be a public welcome for the Dutch squad in Amsterdam on Tuesday. Although they fell at the last hurdle, they did better than many people expected. But the Spanish were technically superior, and fully deserving of their win. They now become only the third team, after Germany and France, to hold both the European Cup and the World Cup simultaneously.
Bert van Marwijk gracious in defeat
Dutch coach Bert van Marwijk conceded after the game that the better side had won. He took defeat graciously, as did the majority of the fans who had been watching the game on giant TV screens in public places. Most of them went silently home, but there were reports of some arrests for fighting in a number of towns including Deventer, Apeldoorn and Zwolle.
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Its a world cup final, you do everything to win it.De Jong made an individual foul, you cant blame the whole team, not to mention a whole country for that.Puyol and Iniesta should have had red cards as well.Dont be ashamed Netherlands, you had a great World Cup, where you FINALLY payed back 200 million Brasillians the injustice of 98.Spain had the upper hand in the the final but not by much, overall it was a 50/50.Netherlands you will one day lift that World Cup. Im certain of it.Congrats to spain on winning the World Cup with nothing but boring 1.0 victories.
wow an italian talking about "boring victories", yeah you're expert at it. Italy vs New Zealand was a 50/50 too.
Funny how badly some ppl reason. I'm dutch myself, but saying stuff like: "if the corner kick was awarded then spain wouldn't have scored, so we lost due to Webb" is clearly faulty reasoning. It's like saying: 'well if I wouldn't have received that phone call, then I might have left the house earlier, and I wouldn't have been in that car accident, therefore that salesman that called me should pay for the expenses caused by the car accident.'
There is no direct connection between not getting a corner and receiving a goal against you.
Overall the take home message is what one english paper wrote: too bad that every game gets a winner.
This match basically deserved two loosers. But holland, with their extremely agressive style of play clearly deserved the loss the most. Basically spain outplayed holland on the midfield and created more chances. But more importantly, they came out to play football, holland only came out to win, no matter what.
And that is still beyond me. Why is the result holy? If we could have poisoned the spanish players before the match, would that be a great way of achieving the win?
Holland has enough football qualities, but De Jong and van Bommel are not among them. They made me feel ashamed of being dutch. I think we have to go back to playing the way we did with van Basten at the EC of 2008. Samba football, but then with a little bit more concentration, and we should be set to show the world again that we are actually great sports, and can win football games with beatifull football.
Let me offer an unbiased view here, as I am neither Spanish nor Dutch. To an independent observer, there is no comparison in the level of foul play exhibited by both teams. The Dutch were much worse - to the point that it brought shame on their country and on the proud heritage of beautiful football that they represent. Anyone who suggests that Spain won because Webb was unfair is blinded by favoritism. For one, Webb should have pulled out the red card on DeJong when he karate-kicked Alonso. I'll end by saying that I have always appreciated Dutch & Flemish people and their cutlure, but the behavior of your team made me almost forget that. Actually, I feel badly for the team... for they will wake up soon and realize that they disgraced their country.
This Dutch team had a fabulous run in the qualifying rounds and in the final rounds of the World Cup. Even in the knockout encounters in the last 16, 8 and 4, Oranje came out worthy winners against all their opponents. A goal poacher of the calibre of Patrick Kluivert, Dennis Bergkamp or Ruud van Nistelrooij is what the team needs to create in its existing ranks so as to be able to translate their superiority into positive results. It is a powerful team and all credit to the players and the coaching staff for the many fine moments during the World Cup campaign.
Gomez, I am neither Spanish, nor Dutch and didn't really care who actually won the Cup between the two. If anything, I am happy that it was a European team. The referee didn't punish offences worth immadiate red cards for BOTH sides and punished offences that didn't deserve any card at all. Furthermore, he seemed to allow the Spanish to further develop their diving skills, in addition to making incompetent calls. This led to the ousting of Heitenga in the crucial last few minutes, obviously infuriating the Dutch. This is a serious blow for a team and never mind the Dutch...any other team would have showed strong reactions in this situation. Add to it the immediate circumstances that led to illigitimate Spanish goal. Imagine if it had happened to the Argentines instead of the Dutch... or the Spanish for arguments sake... (in this case, we might even have a similar opinion)
Fantastic remarks made below about other teams acting the same way as the Dutch did after the series of unfortunate events (red card, missed corner, then goal). The Dutch were slightly outplayed however it is always terrible to lose like they did, and anyone would react poorly to it.
Alex, Well, you are partially right and mainly wrong. I did do contact sports for a brief period - judo. After that I did rowing, sort of part time, for two years, but I actually used to be a second division soccer player in a European country for almost 5 years until a car accident, after which I switched to competitive sailing. As per being crazy - I might be, but I haven't been officially diagnosed as of yet, that is unless of course, you are an expert in the medical field.
I have a pretty good insider understanding of how soccer, it's governing bodies and referees work. It's frustrating to play again a stronger team and in the same time put up with an incompetent, bias or corrupt referee.
This was a hard fought game, a real battle between a team with lots of talent and another team with less talents. Nevertheless, it does not matter how you play on the field. Being able to score is what matters. The fact is that eventhough Spain was the better team, they could not score until the referee's "magic touch". If Spain had won by scoring from any of their other chances - it would have been a legitimate win and congratulations on their fine achievement. The fact remains that it was not a legitimate goal.
It was an extremely tight game that required consistant refereeing standards. Clearly, Webb either had no idea what he was doing on the field or for whatever reason, his goal was to frustrate the Dutch culminating in a seemingly legal red card against them. Not to mention the corner kick turned goal kick that led to the goal. The bottomline is Webb won the game and unfortunately that is the final result.
As per the Dutch being ruthless...well, I guess you have not yet heard of the "Battle of Berne". As far as I am concerned, both teams put their hearts into winning - it was a great game until the referee intervened.
Oranje felt intimitaded for Spaniard players, German did same. Paraguay face them and any South American team do not feel intimitaded for Spaniard players
that is true, Spain soccer is not so good. Cannot compare Brazil or Argentina. Also Italy and France were in a bad time, that situation makes easy Spain win this time.
Go home dirty duch! Yaou dont have sports culture nor moral! You are shame your country!
The false injuries from spanish players , look at Iniesta legs :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0ATB32MOcg
Viktor Lazlo, are you sure that you watched the final? I think you watched another match, or you are completely crazy, or you don't know anything about football, you probably prefer karate or kung-fu, that's why you say such nonsenses
Webb/FIFA vs Holland 1-0!
World Cup finals shouldn't be a walk in the park and certainly I am not expecting to see 22 ballerinas on the field. I think this whole WC was rigged, Spain had a walk straight into the final while other teams (Germany and the Dutch) had to go through more difficult opponents. Interestingly, after their semi-final loss to Spain, Germany with their second best team, beat a very motivated Urugay for the 3rd place. Spain ousted a weak Germany without Muller, who by some strange coincidence collected a yellow card a game earlier for basically doing nothing. Spain also had to go through Portugal, a team that barely survived other than the 7-0 win against N Korea. In terms of cards during the final....Yes, the Dutch played hard and fought a stronger opponent, but there were at least two occassions where Spanish players deserved red cards as well. Not to mention what lead to the goal. Furthermore, I don't really think Heitinga deserved a second yellow for that incident, and certainly not at that stage of the game. Even after the goal, the referee allowed the Spanish to waste time. Brutal referreeing - a disgracefull end to a World Cup final.
Viktor, the only disgrace was the behavior of the Dutch footballers from the onset of the game. They played brutal "football". They were bullies, and like most bullies displayed a lack of confidence and self control. They were too insecure to play football, instead they chose to go on an all out assault on the Spanish players (they forgot about the ball all together). When they were penalized and when they conceded a goal they showed no self control. They tried to intimidate the ref! Even until today, Arjen Robben, and a few of his disgruntled teammates, are launching attacks and throwing temper tantrums.
This Netherlands team has demonstrated that football can sometimes be "a gentleman's game played by hooligans".
What a disappointing final! I said two weeks ago or so to a friend from the UK that I thought the Dutch deserved to get the title at last, but I had to change my mind quickly yesterday. Simply put, I found them disgusting. And it's not just that their style of playing is quite ugly these days.
When the Dutch players realized that they were not good enough technically to cope with Spain, they resorted to rather brutal fouls to intimidate their opponents, more or less destroying the match. Of course they were aided in this by the rather incompetent British referee who did not manage to get things under control. Not sending off the thug de Jong after his brutal foul (this was one of the clearest red cards I've ever seen -- it clearly was a deliberate attempt to injure Alonso) was a major mistake; maybe he had hoped calming things down by ignoring the rules. Van Bommel (well-known as one of the most unfair players on the planet, I wish Munich would get rid of him) should also have been sent off during the first half.
Certainly not a match to promote football, or the image of the Netherlands in the world. The Dutch press (and the Dutch people) ought to be ashamed of this team. Well, at least the right guys did win. It would have been a disaster if the most unfair team in the competition had been rewarded with the title.
Netherlands plays DIRTY !!!!
Get over that we are better then you and look at the disgrace of your own team, infantile.
During the NL-SK match, the ref did not notice that the NL goalie touched the ball during a shot at goal by SK. No corner was awarded in this case but I did not notice any righteous complaints from the Dutch then.
The game of attrition played by the Dutch against Brazil so inflamed them that one poor soul lost it and wanted to take the main offender (van Bommel) to pieces. Reward: red. The Dutch trainer looked very smug.
The Dutch played a dirty game and spoiled the final. They should be ashamed! Spain deserved to win.
Both teams played a dirty game and the dutch put up a great fight and that showed as spain only just scored within the last 2 mins of extra time.
Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of many rules, and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence. In other words, it is war minus the shooting.
Pro football is like nuclear warfare. There are no winners, only survivors.
If there were so many harsh tackles by the Dutch team ...how come no Spanish players left the field injured? I think there was a lot of "acting" by both teams.
The other point is that the English supporters say that justice was eventually done to Spain as they were the better team regardless of the refereeing error at the end. Using the same logic I would say that Lampards disallowed goal counts for nothing as they were sure to be beaten by the superior Germans anyhow.....then why the outcry by the English fans???
This is what international press says about the match:
"Spanish captain Iker Casillas lifted the World Cup to the African night sky as all of Spain celebrated the first World Cup triumph in their history.
And justice was done at the end of a match in which Holland should have lowered their heads in shame.
South Africa did not deserve this. They did not deserve a final which made history with 14 yellow cards, two of them leading to a red for Everton defender John Heitinga - the most cards in the 80-year history of the tournament.
They did not deserve the final throes of the first World Cup on their continent to be remembered for Dutch thuggery and a match which stained the spirit of football. "
Dutch, how you can complain about the referee?????????? the half of your team should have seen red card, by different reasons, not only the brutal violence. Someone should have told the dutch team that it was a football match, not a kick-boxing championship. The whole world has seen it and you should be absolutely ashamed.
I always admired the dutch football, and the play of the Spanish team is inspired in the dutch football, the old dutch football, of course. Yesterday, Spain was Holland and Holland was a gang, I had never seen such a dirty play in the final of the world championship. Even kicks in the breast of a player.... terrific...
You should thank the referee that Holland could finish the match with ten players... what a shame.... You better recover your former football than crying like children who doesn't know to lose with elegance and accept the truth.
Clearly the Dutch should have flooded the pitch. It worked last time
Nice review of the facts: ommitting De Jong's brutal tackle on the first half and Van Bommel's continuous foul play, with some nasty tackles, but refreshing how Elia was fouled on the build-up of the goal.
Not biased article. Anyway, I agree, the better side won. I could not recognize the dutch side: from Cruyff and footballing excelence, to such unsporting side.
I prefer the classic humble winless NL over this aggressive one. Netherlands was once the University of Football, but it seems the school is now on Spain.
Thank god my sport is rugby. When the referee gave Australia a ridiculous penalty at the end of extra time in the 2003 world cup final the England team didn't bat an eyelid: they got on with their job.
It's called dispipline, children.
I look forward to an apology from the Nederland's head of state to referee Howard Webb for the disgraceful display of petulance by the Orange players after the game, and for the pathetic complaints by the manager and Dirk Kuyt. An awful example from a crowd of babies to watching children all over the world.
Well ??
Whatever anyone says about the quality of the refereeing, the best team won. Holland deliberately played the way they did because they knew they were up against a better side.
If Holland had managed to sneak a win, maybe the Spanish would be complaining about the referee for not sending off de Jong at least and the Dutch would be saying that the referee did a good job.
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