Libertine wrote:ProudGooner wrote:I think the reason why the game got ruined so badly was because Webb went onto the pitch thinking I dont want to spoil the final. Therefore I will try my best not to send anyone off or give a penalty unless it is absolutely blatant.
He wanted to avoid all controversy but this was purely for himself.
I dont understand why referee's do this. They should go onto the pitch, no matter what the game, to apply the rules. If as a result of that someone gets sent off after 5 minutes then its their fault not the referees fault.
I think if Webb had applied the letter of the law we'd have seen the first World Cup final where the game was abandoned.
The sending off he did was correct but (in my opinion) De Jong, Van Bommell and Robben were all lucky not to see red.
That'd leave the Dutch with 7 players, one more sent off and the game has to be abandoned.
If Web had applied the laws there might have been 1 red card max (which there was anyway in the end)y. The moment that would have happened all the rest would have realised that this guy will not let us get away with yellow card/ red card offenses and they would have adjusted their game accordingly.
You are looking at a out of control game and looking at individual fouls and working out if it was a red card or not and coming to the conclusion there would have been a lot of sending offs. Ignoring the impact a red card would have had on the rest of the game.
In normal games when you show a yellow card straight away for a bad foul the rest of the players straight away get the message of what is acceptable and not acceptable. The guy recieving the yellow becomes more careful with his tackling.
If Howard Webb had shown Van Bommell a yellow for the first bad challenge he made it would have been a different game. If van bommell had then committed another bad foul maybe the ref could have pulled him up and told him one more bad tackle and you are off, I am sure Van bommel would have been a bit more careful.
The reason it got so out of hand was because the players could sense this ref is desperate to not send anyone off so they exploited that to the full extent.
I think the problem is (and this is in the EPL too) english referees allow way too much to go for the sake of allowing the game to flow. As a result they lose control of the game. The final game reminded me of the Croatia vs Australia game that was officiated by Poll. In both games there was an english referee that lost complete control of the game.