Cards aplenty as Portugal dump Holland

Before the kick-off, this match had the potential to be one outstanding game between two in-form teams. Both teams had players who could win the game with a moment of magic.
In one corner you had exceptional players like Arjen Robben, Robin van Persie and Mark Van Bommel. At the Portugal corner there were, among others, football legend Figo, Deco and Cristiano Ronaldo.

And then in the middle we had a Russian referee - Valentin Ivanov, who had so much influence in the game that he single-handedly spoilt it. He dished out 16 yellow cards, four red cards and failed miserably to stamp his authority in at least three tussles between the players, let alone the match.

I must say that he majestically failed to control the game and turned it into a farce. In fact his first yellow card came out of his pocket in the second minute and by the eighth minute, the Dutch had two players on yellow.

In between, we had a superb goal from Maniche in the 23rd minute which proved to be the winning goal for Portugal. Their prize for that is a quarter finals meeting with England next Saturday.

Portugal defender Francisco Costinha was the first player to be ordered out, right at the stroke of halftime. At that point it looked as though that was the second stroke of bad luck for the Portuguese as their winger Ronaldo limped out injured earlier in the game. We didn’t know what was to come in the second half courtesy of the referee.

The Dutch then started the second half as expected, passing the ball swiftly around, trying to catch the 10-men Portugal short. Sometimes they tried too hard, to the extent of falling down for the simplest contact (read: diving). The Portuguese players too got into the act by doing their part to make this a really stormy affair.

All this while, our referee tried his best to keep the match in a fairplay mode by dishing out the yellow cards. The second red card for the night came in the 62nd minute for a Dutch player, then 16 minutes later Deco was sent off after getting his second yellow for time wasting.

Then 11 yellow cards later, we had the final sending off of the night with Dutch player Giovanni van Bronckhorst taking the walk.

This was a record breaking game as far as the disciplinary aspects are concerned – the 16 yellow cards equaled the worst record set in the last World Cup while the four red cards are a new record.

I hope no other game in this World Cup will be as badly officiated as this.

At the end, it was a wasted chance for us to see some good football being played by two countries that are capable of playing such football.

As for the game itself, I thought Portugal coach Scolari (pix)deployed better tactics than his Dutch counterpart van Basten. His team selection, and the players he brought in after injury to Ronaldo and the red cards, was perfect in choking the Dutch game. It is also a record breaking night for him for no other coach has managed a team to win 11 straight games in the World Cup. He achieved the first seven with Brazil in 2002 and the feat now continues with Portugal.