Sunday, June 25, 2006

stunningly bad tempered

Portugal holding on to their 1:0 lead; beats Netherlands in an extremely bad tempered game from both sides.

It all started with the veteran Figo's slight tussel with Van Bommel and it kept on going & going, leading to some interesting ;) moments for first time in this world cup, which was quite an embarrasment for both teams and to FIFA. But i suppose, it was an extremely awful and entertaining game for the fans.

And the referee went ballastic giving -
16 yellow cards
4 red cards

Portugal Netherlands
Deco 77 minvan Bronckhorst 94 min
Ricardo 75 minSneijder 73 min
Valente 75 minVan der Vaart 73 min
Deco 72 minBoulahrouz 62 min
Figo 59 minvan Bronckhorst 58 min
Petit 49 minBoulahrouz 06 min
Costinha 45 minvan Bommel 01 min
Costinha 30 min

Maniche 22 min (Pauleta)

Maniche 19 min


On ESPN, the commentator was all like against the referee but the players were equally not in control and i think, in most cases deserved to get the cards. In some cases, one can give the benefit of doubt to the player but when they behave like they did in this game, they deserve to get yellows and offcourse yellows lead to read. But it was a high heat & tense'd game, so I wouldn't comment on whether it was referee or players fault. But def. not in the game's spirit.

In the end, portugal hold'd on to their lead to win the game. Even thou', the dutch had a lot of chances and a one man lead (first 11-10 and then 10-9) all thru' second half but couldn't make any goals.

So Portugal advances to round of 8 to take on England, but there is no Constinha and Deco (red card holders) and Cristiano Ronaldo being injured (hope he gets recovered). Game to watch!!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hmm...actually, a game not to watch. I think Portugal will suffer from their behavior and red cards, so England will take it 2-0.

The games to watch for me: Brazil vs. Ghana and, of course, Germany vs. Argentina. :)

Mohan-S said...

probably, as portugal will missing some of its top players. But another reason to watch, which has been in news more than any other is due to the coaches, Sven-Goran Eriksson and the talented Luiz Felipe Scolari.