World Cup 2010

[saturn-gamer]

Xavi asked for a card, and pushed van Bommel down. That went unpunished.

Webb was one of the worst refs I've seen. He was already like 'I am the star here' on forehand. Incredible twat. He couldn't control the game, right from the start he failed to punish heavy charges (De Jong should've been sent off) but yet punished minor tackles and thus he had to keep with this pace. What you get is that players take notice of him giving easy cards and buying dives. And so players are searching for and test him, resulting in more theatrics and more cards as he has to act consequently. In that case, the ref lost its grip.

A final should be a final, not some girls game with the ref blowing the whistle for every damn 5 seconds just to show how important he is.

Lets not forget that he sent Heitinga off because of 2 bs yellows and a dive by Xavi, that broke us. Especially when we don't get a corner in the dying minutes, and they score right after that happened. Thats just sour, just lightly bearable because we never really deserved to win it. You can't have a bigger influence on the outcome of the game as a ref. And thats the problem with this sport in particular, the influence of refs (and the lack of electronical help) is really too much. It killed Mexico, England... Such mistakes can't take place on this stage with a billion people watching.

Spain were better, had more possession and attempts, but the way the decision came about wasn't right. Champion with 8 goals... I call crappy tournament, exceeding 1990.

[abigsmurf]

Lots of focus on the kick to the chest (which was a red) but none on Xavi's retaliation (this is always a straight red). I just think the Spanish were incredibly low and lacked basic morals.

I find it embarrassing the BBC going on about it being a victory for football.

I think there are too many people caught up in the hype about how 'wonderful' Spain are that they just refuse to see what was going on in front of them. The dive that led to the red (sorry, he felt a touch on his shoulder and went down, there was no pushing or pulling whatsoever), the crowding of the ref after every tackle. Even Torres who was barely on the pitch decided to use his presence to time waste.

[saturn-gamer]

Torres was awful, supposedly heavily injured (wanted us to kick the ball out) but after the final whistle he could run!

Worst perfomance ever.

His sole contact with the ball was crappy too. Awful form. Roman still willing to shell out 50 million for him?

[Brad]

The whole competition was awful. The final was crap. The dutch played like thugs and the Spanish weren't much better. I was pleased Spain won in the end but only because they were ever so slightly less thug like. Neither team looked like World Champions to me, although both were 1000% better than England.

EDIT: I'm not a big follower of football so feel free to tell me how wrong I am about all this. I'll try not to get upset ;-)

[merf]

crap final
crap atmosphere though out
crap standard of football
crap ball
crap England
crap vuvuzelas
crap winners
crap tv punditry
crap pitches

I'd agree its been a lousy world cup.

Right, off to watch the tour de france, that never disappoints.

[abigsmurf]

I agree, it's certainly the worst international tournament I can remember.

The embarrassment that was the final was just the icing on the cake.

Does anyone else feel like they're living on a different planet to the press reading about how wonderful, noble Spain deserved to beat the evil thuggish Dutch through beautiful, honest footballing?

[Team Andromeda]

Worst world cup I can ever remember. Sick of the press going on and on about the Rainbow nation passing the test, especially the BBC.

Can't wait for the English football season to start back up

[ShadowDancer]

First World Cup since 82, have I woken up on a Monday and not felt that void.

This World Cup never really grabbed my whole attention, I'm a follower of World Football too.

Dissapointing.

[abigsmurf]

Yeah, there's no sad feeling of 'oh.... it's over'.

More 'euch, it's over... can we watch some decent premier league football now?'

[Flabio]

The odd game was pretty good, but overall a pretty poor tournament. Although I don't think I've ever actually seen a decent world cup final (maybe the one where France stuffed Brazil...)

Denmark v Japan was probably my favourite one to watch of the matches I got to see.

[abigsmurf]

The most enjoyable games were probably the ones between the lesser sides. Less cagey, more open.

What I'd like to see for Brazil 2014 (or even for the euros):

Heavier ball. The lighter ball has been awful for quick runs, set pieces and curling shots. It's only been good for endless boring passing. I don't watch football to see endless strings of passes within 10m of the centre circle.

Cracking down on diving. If you're going to clamp down on the physical side of the game as has been done, it needs to go alongside clamping down on people cheating to take advantage of this.

No vuvulzelas or any instruments that enable a solid wall of noise to be emitted. **** atmosphere this tournament.

No high altitude games. I don't want to see games where players look like they've already been playing for an hour at kick off.

Goal line tech or referral system.

[yesteryeargames]

Lots of focus on the kick to the chest (which was a red) but none on Xavi's retaliation (this is always a straight red). I just think the Spanish were incredibly low and lacked basic morals.

I find it embarrassing the BBC going on about it being a victory for football.

I think there are too many people caught up in the hype about how 'wonderful' Spain are that they just refuse to see what was going on in front of them. The dive that led to the red (sorry, he felt a touch on his shoulder and went down, there was no pushing or pulling whatsoever), the crowding of the ref after every tackle. Even Torres who was barely on the pitch decided to use his presence to time waste.

True, people over hyped them so much and are offended when few of us point out the their faults and cheating, BBC were unfair on Holland throughout the night and overly harsh to their tactics after and not once pointed out the diving or ref crowding by the spanish in the tourny, shameful just like Italy

one cheating champion replaced by another lol

[Brats]

This was the first game since England/Slovenia that I watched the full 90 minutes (120 in this case) and I didn't think it was too bad to watch. It wasn't a thriller, but I thought it was interesting watching the Dutch play a physical game against the Spanish who for this whole tournament have not played anything like they can and have been pretty lucky tbh.

The two Dutch fouls in the first half were dreadful and in hindsight, I think Webb made a mistake not sending one Dutch player off, although I'm sure the Holland/Portugal game of 2006 was on his mind and he didn't want to be the ref known for sending half theplayers off in a final. TBH I would have done the same.

But I think he missed a trick when Van Bommel went studs in on Iniesta who then retaliated. He should have booked Van Bommel for a second yellow and given Iniesta a straight red. It would have been fair in the circumstances, would have opened up the game and sent a message to the other players not to play dirty any more (although I doubt that part would have worked).

Overall I thought the game was a tense, somewhat dirty affair and both sides came out of it not very well, but also both were in it and it could have gone either way.

What really annoyed me though was the BBC pundits. I'm not an expert, but the way they talked about Spain, you'd think they were giving all their winnings to charity and spending their spare time raising orphaned children. They might pass well, but all this talk about them winning being 'good for the game' was utter rubbish and completely ignored their many negatives. They aren't the Brazillian team from the Seventies, as much as the pundits want a return to that kind of play.

Conversely, they spoke like the Dutch were smashing in the heads of kittens. They kept on going on about their 'cynical' play, but I thought (the two tackles aside) they played very well in a physical role and looked at times like the only side who wanted to win.

Only Seedorf seemed to tell it like it is and not want to rewrite history for the sake of a simple soundbite.

[sharky_ob]

Unlike some of you I enjoyed the tournement as a whole. We had some great games with "lesser" teams like Japan, Ghana and Uruguay batting above their weight. Also Germany were a great team to watch throughout and for me were the real winners.

Completely agree with this. I was obviously watching a different final to many of the posters on here.

I went into the final wanting Holland to win. Between Van Bommel and De Jong's fouling, and Robben's constant diving and complaining I was rooting for Sapin with 20 mins left of normal time. Made up they won and Robben's miserable face at the end was comedy gold.

Just my opinion of course

[gamelife]

the whole world cup was garbge, only thing that kept me watching was the dutch team going all the way to the final. been suporting them for 15 years now, one day they'll do it haha!!

have to agree with the BBC pundit thing too, hansen and shearer were riding spain's dick the whole tournament! wankers. hansen's a miserable fuk : )