Howard Webb's Performance

he bent over backwards trying to keep everyone on the pitch. Understandable as it is a final and he does not want to 'award' the cup to anyone.

Other than the obvious De Jong red not given, I thought he had an OK performance.
 
How the fk was he poor ?

That is ridiculous

If he'd have gone the way some on here want we'd have had ended up in a 5 aside game

In a extremely difficult game with half of each side simply out to win at all costs he did brilliantly I thought

No one will not make mistakes and nomatter how the dutch want to look at it his mistake did not effectively cost them then game their shite defending did that and the fact that Robben missed the best chance for them to win it in the 90 minutes

Very difficult balance for the man tonight to keep a showpiece match as that and to apply rules without interrupting the flow of the game

tbfrank the players should be ashamed of themselves for putting a ref in such a position in a final he ought to have sent of three before half time but he could hardly have done it could he

He did well in extremely difficult circumstances imo
 
How the fk was he poor ?

That is ridiculous

If he'd have gone the way some on here want we'd have had ended up in a 5 aside game


In a extremely difficult game with half of each side simply out to win at all costs he did brilliantly I thought

No one will not make mistakes and nomatter how the dutch want to look at it his mistake did not effectively cost them then game their shite defending did that and the fact that Robben missed the best chance for them to win it in the 90 minutes

Very difficult balance for the man tonight to keep a showpiece match as that and to apply rules without interrupting the flow of the game

tbfrank the players should be ashamed of themselves for putting a ref in such a position in a final he ought to have sent of three before half time but he could hardly have done it could he

He did well in extremely difficult circumstances imo

His job to a certain extent is not to make sure viewers have the most enjoyable show.He has to be fair even if it kills the suspense of the game
 
Very difficult game to referee... I don't think he helped the game however by blowing for everything, sometimes you just have to ignore blatant fouls or whatnot just to aid the flow of the game.

Regardless the Dutch made that game very hard to referee without being card happy and I just hope Webb can recover from this match.
 
Very difficult game to referee... I don't think he helped the game however by blowing for everything, sometimes you just have to ignore blatant fouls or whatnot just to aid the flow of the game.

whilst i somewhat agree, he would have been absolutely slated for that by whoever lost. that's the first place they'd go, the dutch can't really blame webb with any sense of conviction.
 
He's done well. People will always complain, but at the end of the day he's one referee and they are 22 players. He did what he could to control them. They didn't really want to be, so they weren't.
 
Worst performance by a ref in a WC final since Codesal in 1990. The filthy Dutch should have ended the first half with 9 men, but they gambled Webb wouldn't have the balls to send anyone off in the first 30 minutes while they tried to kick Spain off the park, and their gamble paid off.

If it had been Uruguay instead of Holland, I bet a majority here would be calling for them to be banned from the next World Cup.
 
made a few mistakes but it was a tough match for him.

should never have booked Ramos and Van Bommel and De Jong both should have walked.

I think it was a foul on the winger but it wasnt a nailed on foul, with 3 spanish players around he could easily say he just ran into one of them and was never getting the ball anyway with the cover spain had.
 
Will we see FIFA's evaluation of his performance. I'd be interested to see what they think. I would think they would be happy that he kept 22 players on the pitch for most of the match and stopped it turning into a brawl ... which is how Spain could have reacted given the aggression and general thuggery the Dutch dished out to them.
 
well reffed. i would have switched it off if a player got sent of within 30 minutes.
 
Yup - agree with this. Not a Webb fan generally but this was a nightmare scenario. Keeping the game flowing and trying to keep all the players on the pitch with the behaviour of the Dutch in particular and some Spanish chaps was pretty much impossible to pull off without making any errors. So yeah, he made a couple but overall he did as well as could be expected.

Thank you. I'm a bit pissed after an afternoon of drinking so I had to search to find an intelligent view with which I agreed. In an era when everyone seems to urge refs to take a common sense attitude to a game Webb gets slagged for doing exactly that. Imagine the reaction if he had applied the letter of the law and the Dutch had finished the game with about eight players and Spain with ten. It's a World Cup final for christ sake. The players have to take some responsibility. Any ref in the world would have had difficulty with that game.
 
Was a good performance from him. Holland booed him at the end yet they should have defo been down 2 men in the first half. If Webb had have sent them off he would have been critisized for harshly ruining the biggest day of their lives. And what was Kuyt on about saying Webb had a nightmare? If Kuyt wants to know what a nightmare is then he should look in the mirror.
 
I was there. Webbs performance was pretty bad. The sending off for the Iniesta dive was fecking ridiculous and not calling Puyols for wrapping his arm around Robben, stopping him from getting a shot off were the two moments that changed the game. Completely and shockingly inconsistent on two plays that pretty much made one team a winner and the other a loser.

Nearly everyone I was with, all wanting a good game and no one picking sides, thought Webb ruined what could have been a decent game.
 
Thank you. I'm a bit pissed after an afternoon of drinking so I had to search to find an intelligent view with which I agreed. In an era when everyone seems to urge refs to take a common sense attitude to a game Webb gets slagged for doing exactly that. Imagine the reaction if he had applied the letter of the law and the Dutch had finished the game with about eight players and Spain with ten. It's a World Cup final for christ sake. The players have to take some responsibility. Any ref in the world would have had difficulty with that game.

Had he done his job and tossed a player when he should have, they would have obviously behaved better. They were all cnuts, but Webb was just one of the many cnuts out there.
 
whilst i somewhat agree, he would have been absolutely slated for that by whoever lost. that's the first place they'd go, the dutch can't really blame webb with any sense of conviction.

yep very sensible there Rimster.
 
Webb was Man of the Match in my book.. handled a tetchy, niggly, unsporting encounter admirably. If that had been a Sunday league game at least four would have walked...Webb (and unfortunately the players) knew that could never happen in a World cup Final.
 
I was there. Webbs performance was pretty bad. The sending off for the Iniesta dive was fecking ridiculous and not calling Puyols for wrapping his arm around Robben, stopping him from getting a shot off were the two moments that changed the game. Completely and shockingly inconsistent on two plays that pretty much made one team a winner and the other a loser.

Nearly everyone I was with, all wanting a good game and no one picking sides, thought Webb ruined what could have been a decent game.
Both of the incidents you mentioned happened in second half of ET. It was already a horrible game by then.
 
Of all the things he did wrong, I think Webb booked Iniesta after he scored the winning goal in the world cup final for taking his shirt off to reveal a memorial notice to dead player and former team mate Dani Jarque... really, kind of sums up what a small man he really is.

If we can learn something about from this world cup it is that football is not, and should never be, about the referees... we should be talking about the players and not the quality of the officials.
 
You can't really blame him for giving almost 14 cards. The game was dirty right from the start.
 
Of all the things he did wrong, I think Webb booked Iniesta after he scored the winning goal in the world cup final for taking his shirt off to reveal a memorial notice to dead player and former team mate Dani Jarque... really, kind of sums up what a small man he really is.

No offense but the rules of football say you have to book a player if he takes of his shirt to celebrate. It does not matter what message he portrays or what the occasion is.
 
I thought he did very well considering the approach of the Dutch team and the Spanish card demands. It wasnt his fault players were more interested in fouling than playing.
 
Of all the things he did wrong, I think Webb booked Iniesta after he scored the winning goal in the world cup final for taking his shirt off to reveal a memorial notice to dead player and former team mate Dani Jarque... really, kind of sums up what a small man he really is.

It is one of FIFAs most prized rules, it is the only infranction I can think of that gets exactly the same result from a referee every single time regardless of country or competition.
 
Got all of the important decisions spot on

10/10



Precisely. I read reports on the Netherland's side complaining on how Webb was unfavourable to them, and now a bunch of people in this forum as well? I am starting to doubt if we had watched the same game. Personally, i think it was a superb performance from Webb. I really do so, and i will rate his performance as a 8/10 or even a 9/10. All the bookings from the start to end were spot on. A few people had criticised De Jong's challenge on Alonso as worthy of a red, but i disgree. On such an occasion, and given its still early stages, he applied common sense and issued a yellow, a few stern words, and allow the occasion to flourish rather than disintegrate into a mess due to numerial advantage. Also, he tried to allow the game to flow, but it was very difficult with the dutch's constant fouling, which he accepted as a strategy for their vastly inferior midfield. I could go on and on but i wouldn't. Full marks for Webb in a very very difficult game to referee, and he came up superbly and deserves all the praises.
 
204Red;8309948[B said:
]Of all the things he did wrong, I think Webb booked Iniesta after he scored the winning goal in the world cup final for taking his shirt off to reveal a memorial notice to dead player and former team mate Dani Jarque... really, kind of sums up what a small man he really is.[/B]

If we can learn something about from this world cup it is that football is not, and should never be, about the referees... we should be talking about the players and not the quality of the officials.



It is a Fifa's rule that a player will be booked for that. I wouldn't blame Webb for issueing the yellow because
1) Had Iniesta been on a yellow already, he wouldnt have done so
2) Do you really think Webb would have done so, had he been able to read Spanish? Small man? Give me a break..
 
What's he meant to do, when both teams are engaging in such levels of gamesmanship, cheating and frankly, thuggery?

I thought he handled it about as well as he could. He was only conned once, and how the Dutch can complain given the leniency he showed their players is incredible

He could and maybe should have sent a few of the Dutch off earlier, but it would have spoiled the game too. That said, not as if the game was any good anyway

Correct answer.
 
i for one wanted a free flowing classic WC final but was ruined by the dutch trying to hack their way to glory and spain trying to get the opposition players sent off and some diving.. nothing new by either team..

since its a WC final i think we all know it would be quite ridiculous if it ended up 5 on 5 dont see how he could have done anything to avoid that :confused:

one howler he made tho was giving a goal kick just before the goal..
 
If you really feel that way, then I'm sorry, you know nothing about association football in my opinion. Maybe you should try supporting a different code of football, or maybe cricket?

No need to slate someone for expressing an accurate opinion.
 
5/10. He was poor. I expected him to control the game better. Before the match the Spanish complained that he didn't award them enough freekicks the last time he blew their match. Well hell, this time he blew for every dive. I expected more from him tbh
 
5/10. He was poor. I expected him to control the game better. Before the match the Spanish complained that he didn't award them enough freekicks the last time he blew their match. Well hell, this time he blew for every dive. I expected more from him tbh

Interesting this, so exactly how should he have controlled the match then ?

He did control it then? with one eye on the fact that he could easily have ended half time with 8/9 Dutch players on the pitch and Spain 9.

What would that have achieved? You'd all be on here absolutely slamming him if he'd done that wouldn't you ? By th 70th minute we'd have had 7 Dutchman against 9 Spanish. How the hell in the greatest game for the sport would that have been a 'good measure' of 'control

He was speaking to players incessantly trying to get them to realise the situation and most of them, particularly the Dutch, were not listening

Its rare, but in the realms of refereeing that I've seen, this match was almost impossible to get 100% right

So go on, exactly what should he have done to control the game better? exactly what was the 'more' you expected from him ?bearing in mind I'm sure you wouldn't have wanted it turning into the Mad Hatters tea party with 7 v 6 by the 80th minute?
 
Interesting this, so exactly how should he have controlled the match then ?

He did control it then? with one eye on the fact that he could easily have ended half time with 8/9 Dutch players on the pitch and Spain 9.

What would that have achieved? You'd all be on here absolutely slamming him if he'd done that wouldn't you ? By th 70th minute we'd have had 7 Dutchman against 9 Spanish. How the hell in the greatest game for the sport would that have been a 'good measure' of 'control

He was speaking to players incessantly trying to get them to realise the situation and most of them, particularly the Dutch, were not listening

Its rare, but in the realms of refereeing that I've seen, this match was almost impossible to get 100% right

So go on, exactly what should he have done to control the game better? exactly what was the 'more' you expected from him ?bearing in mind I'm sure you wouldn't have wanted it turning into the Mad Hatters tea party with 7 v 6 by the 80th minute?

Ok, take your English glasses of for a second. Even the Spanish fans I sat next to in the stadium said he was poor. He kept giving fouls where there weren't and missed some obvious ones. He's consistency was poor and thus he couldn't control the game. He made some good decisions but I'm not talking about handing of cards, I'm talking about his general control of his whistle. He blew for nitty gritty shitty 'fouls' and missed some glaringly obvious fouls which infuriated the crowd and the players. From then on in it was downhill. He started of on a downward slope and pretty much stayed there.