Howard Webb's Performance (Holland vs Spain)

[d3xt0r]

Im not a Haward Webb fan but i cant understand why the Dutch think he lost them the game?
He gave a yellow card for a Karate Kick to the chest and i saw at least 3 red card offences over the game. He knew what it meant to all players involved and just cautioned the players.

In my eyes saved them an embarrasing defeat rather than lost them the game. Spain were the worthy winners. The Dutch obviously had a plan to try an injure as many spanish players as they could to gain an advantage.

Ok, he made an error after the Dutch free kick which should have went to a corner but other thatn that i couldnt see any other mistakes. The linesman made 1 or 2 offside errors but apart from that i thought the officials had a good game.

I rated them 8.5/10

Any other thoughts?

[chesser]

I thought he did well in a difficult game...like you said the Dutch could have been down to 9 men but he tried to keep the game flowing, a couple of minor errors but fair play to him!

[GTI]

I thought he did particularly well given the circumstances, however had the Dutch won with their thuggish gameplay then the scrutiny would really have been on him.

[Fear345]

Same here i thought he did well and it wasn't his fault the dutch had a game plan to kick Spain to bits.

[honestDave]

I think he was weak and his lack of authority meant the game decended into broken up play with way too many fouls.

The Dutch obviously came to the game with a very negative attitude. That's very unsporting but within their right.

Webb should have sent off Kung foo de Jong. He also was way too easy on Bommel.

Webbs job was not to try and ensure there were 11 vs 11. If the players choose to spoil the match as a contest by getting sent off then that's their problem.

A very difficult job but at the end of the day Webb bottled the big decisions in the first half = 5 out of 10.

[trueblue924]

I think he did very well i mean the dutch challenges were awful and were borderline red cards except for the kung fu kick which i think he did get wrong. He showed some common sense at the end where he could of booked robben for kicking the ball away near the end but didnt becuase he had allready got a booking and he would of had to send him off. It was a very difficult game to ref and i think he did well

[ant3b]

Howard Webb handled the game exceptionally well for me. As above he knew what it meant to the players and tried to keep sending offs to a minimum and keep it flowing.

[d3xt0r]

For me keeping it 11 vs 11 is essential in a World Cup Final. Obviously if a dangerous tackle occurs then you should punish within the guidelines e.g Red/Yellow but had he sent someone off that would stop the Dutch playing Mortal Kombat on the spanish.

Emotions were high as neither team had won it before. You cant just keep sending people of until its Kepper vs Keeper or 11 vs 5

[SiE]

He was in a no win situation. If he sent off players in the first half then he would have been blamed for spoiling the final. Thought he did really well and Holland were dirty beyond belief. I was pretty shocked at how they approached the game to be honest.

[Clubber Lang]

Van Bommel should have gone, so should de Jong. Many refs would also have booked Robben as he clearly heard the whistle as he stopped his run, then kicked the ball away. As already said above, he did the Dutch a favour by not throwing reds around.

[koola2]

I agree he did well, but I think the BBC commentary team were far to kind to him when he did get things wrong. If it had been any other ref they would have moan at some of the decisions.

[Eazi]

I think he was typically poor.

He seems to feel it is his right to vary decisions to make the game what he wants it to be.

He definately should have booked for the diving, yes de yong should have walked but I think he was very one sided (as I feel he always is)

Spain deserved to win but its not up to a biased ref to make sure.

[russbeer]

i think he did a good job considering Hollands dirty play and considering the ease with which red cards had been dished out during the tournament.

There will always be differing opinions on it, but as GTI said, if Holland had won there would have been many, many more complaints than there are now for him letting 2-3 of them stay on the pitch.

[BBK]

I think it WAS up to him to try and keep 11 on the pitch for as long as possible, I would have been pretty sure FIFA didn't want another repeat of 2006. I think he got the major decisions right, for me the most debateable was Puyol on Robben, but on replay you could almost see why that decision was made too. The Dutch as a nation are just showing themselves up as the players did throughout the tournament, which for me is a real shame as I've always held the Dutch in high esteem. They should have finished the tournament with 8 men, that they didnt is maybe a credit to Webb rather than a criticism, and when they wake up from their national disappointment (understandable) I think they will see they were fucking lucky.

[flik]

Holland were a disgrace and should hide their heads in shame. Webb kept the dirty feckers in the game they should be licking his rear end !

[willp2003]

i thought he did pretty well really. It was unfortunate that the nasty tackles started flying in from the beginning. As soon as you set the tone by booking someone, you'll always end up booking loads more.
Not sure how different another ref would have been, I think it would have been a lot worse if there had been a few early red cards shown. It would have ended up in a fist fight, and disgracing both nations....... would have been more entertaining tho

[Greyfox]

Agree with what most have said in that Holland should be thanking him for keeping them in the game not criticising him! The Dutch should have been down to 9 men by the end of the second half and overall played like a bunch of thugs. Overall i think Webb done very well, anyone got an idea of how much he got paid for reffing?

[dpSparhawk]

The Dutch = Dirty fucking losers
Van Bommel = Total Cock with a disregard for the game and his team - Should have walked.

Howard Webb did well in a tough game where the Dutch were intent on trying to maim the Spanish.

If you want something so badly, play for it don't maim for it. The Dutch are now the laughing stock of the world.

[CzarJunkie]

If Webb had been strong enough and reduced Holland to 9 before half time then Spain would have scored a hatful in the 2nd half. That would have been a much better ending to an otherwise wank World Cup.

[spraky]

Webb was worse than useless, but how the Dutch can feel aggrieved beats me.