Well. Now we know. Spain is football world champion for the first time in its history. A new name joins Uruguay, Italy, West Germany (Germany yet to win it post the reunification of the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic), Brazil, England, Argentina and France.
Last night’s match was engrossing but no classic. Far too much cynical clogging and diving for that. Opinion is sharply divided about referee Howard Webb’s performance. For what it’s worth I thought he did OK in a very difficult game to control. The Spanish did dive a fair amount. By far the biggest sinners were the Netherlands I’m afraid. They quite simply set out to clog (no pun intended) the Spaniards off the park in the first half. They partially succeeded in closing down Spain but could get little going up front.
The Dutch could very easily have gone in at half time down to nine men. Nigel de Jong could have walked for his studs up chest assault. Marc van Bommel was a very lucky man to stay on the park. Whilst Spain never fully got their mojo fully functioning in high gear in this tournament (they could have very easily have gone out to a battling performance from Paraguay in the quarter-finals) they were, for mine, by some distance the most gifted team in the tournament. I tipped them before it all started at Soccer City a month ago to corpse on the biggest stage yet again. I was wrong.
Dutch public opinion is all against Howard Webb. I think the Dutch need to have a long, hard look at themselves. Arjen Robben is a cheat. If you live by the sword you’re going to die by it occasionally. His demented charge up the field after he failed to score having been held back outside the box was typical of the man. Let’s blame anybody but myself. True, Webb failed to spot the foul. That was an error. In my opinion however the correct decision if he had have spotted it would have been, “advantage, play on”. He could then have come back for a Dutch free-kick outside the box when Robben failed to score if he judged that a failed goal attempt was insufficient advantage.
The Dutch would have been equally furious if Robben had have gone on to score and Webb had blown up for a free-kick. Last night’s game was all but impossible to referee. Both teams were intent on conning the referee. Additionally the Dutch were intent on sticking the boot into the Spanish at every opportunity. I’ve said before that I find the waving of imaginary cards by players intensely irritating. Players should play, leaving the decisions to the referee. The correct response from all referees to a player waving an imaginary card should be, “Oh, I see. You want one of these do you?” and to produce a real yellow card from his pocket. The players would soon turn that horrible habit in if that was the automatic response. The managers would clamp down on it.
I thought Webb should have issued post final whistle red cards to the Dutch managers and all those players who were surrounding and harassing him. The players and coaching/technical staff are all under the control of the referee from the moment they leave the dressing room to the moment they return to it. I thought he showed great restrain in placidly not reacting to the pointing fingers and insulting words. I’ve have got the red card out and told them all to “fcuk off”. At least that way suspensions could have been applied to the next competitive games the Netherlands appear in. I’m a great admirer of the Netherlands in general and their football. Some many have graced the game. Don’t we all know that from eleven delicious seasons of the Devine Dennis?
Spain were clearly the better team on the night. They deserved their win. I was surprised and even a bit depressed at the near xenophobic anti-Spanish rants posted to my colleague Carl Eldridge’s blog last night. Yes Spanish players do have a very irritating tendency to dive. It’s a cancer on the game and needs stamping out. There are a lot of lessons and issues in officiating and the laws of the game from this World Cup. I’ve mentioned some of them in previous blogs. I’ll do a more considered blog on what I think they are and what should be done about them in the future. For meanwhile, congratulations to Spain, World Champions 2010.
Now we all look forward to Underhill on Saturday. Well, most of us do. I’ll be away for work unfortunately, missing the Barnet friendly for the second consecutive season. What a drag. It’s a day out I really enjoy. Have a spiffing day out all of you who’ll be there.
Receive a digest of our best Arsenal content each week direct to your mailbox
