It was an awful match for too many of its 120 minutes. At halftime, I switched over to ABC to see what they were saying, and there was Ruud Gullit, an elegant player during his great career, saying Nigel De Jong’s vicious thuggery against Xabi Alonso was a turning point in the match, in favor of the Dutch. That sums up the influence of the Netherlands in this match. Even so, their strategy almost worked, with only a couple of saves by Casillas, Saint Iker, preventing a Dutch win.
The extra half hour was the best the match could give us. Neither team played for penalties … well, once the Dutch went down a man they did, but that’s understandable. It was never a great match, but given the tension and context, that last half hour was good enough.
It was appropriate that Iniesta scored the goal. He was the recipient of much of the early Dutch thuggery … they knew who needed to be shut down … and in the final fifteen minutes, it was Iniesta who kept beating Holland’s defense, forcing them into fouls (one of which, of course, led to the expulsion of Heitinga). They tried all day to kill off Iniesta, and he responded in the best way possible.
Referee Howard Webb had an impossible task, thanks largely to the Dutch. De Jong absolutely deserved a red card for his intentional demolition of Alonso, but I think Webb was trying to keep 22 men on the field. He almost made it. People will point to the large number of cards given, but the players need to look in the mirror if they want to see the reason behind those cards.
OK, I’m done being “objective.”
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