Sixteen yellow cards, and four red. Valentin Ivanov really outdid himself today, even by his own lofty standards. In truth, it hasn't just been Ivanov handing out harsh yellow cards left, right and centre. The problem really stems from FIFA's 'fine-tuning' ahead of the tournament, and their drive to ensure that the new guidelines are followed closely.
It could have been a great match, but the constant yellows had an effect on the players' psyche. They started going down easily in an attempt to draw a free kick from the referee, increasing the opposition's frustration and eventually leading to scuffles, and more cards. There was nothing wrong with the way football was being played before this tournament, so why did FIFA go ahead and meddle with the way referees work, and why did they do it so close to the start of the tournament? Surely it makes more sense to introduce these guidelines at least one year before the event so that you are certain that there won't be any mishaps on the biggest stage of them all. It's similar to the case of the new football at every tournament - why mix things up at the last moment?
Nothing can be done now. Portugal are through (and one can't really say they didn't deserve it), though the Dutch will have every right to feel aggrieved. For a side that have so much talent, they were desperately unlucky to have one of the toughest draws of the entire World Cup. Drawn in a group with Argentina and Cote d'Ivoire and then scheduled to meet Portugal in the next round. But as the cliche goes, if you're going to be the best, you might as well beat the best. Luckily for their young squad, there will be other World Cups, and they should be a force to reckon with in Euro 2008. Portugal meanwhile have had their chances of progressing to the semi-finals affected by the sendings-off of Deco and Costinha, and the injury to Ronaldo. My personal feeling is that Ronaldo will be the toughest to replace. Deco and Costinha have ready-made replacements in Tiago and Petit respectively, but Ronaldo's understudy, Simao, still fails to impress me as a winger. Still, the Portuguese should have enough about them to emulate Eusebio's team of '66 and reach the semi-finals.
It could have been a great match, but the constant yellows had an effect on the players' psyche. They started going down easily in an attempt to draw a free kick from the referee, increasing the opposition's frustration and eventually leading to scuffles, and more cards. There was nothing wrong with the way football was being played before this tournament, so why did FIFA go ahead and meddle with the way referees work, and why did they do it so close to the start of the tournament? Surely it makes more sense to introduce these guidelines at least one year before the event so that you are certain that there won't be any mishaps on the biggest stage of them all. It's similar to the case of the new football at every tournament - why mix things up at the last moment?
Nothing can be done now. Portugal are through (and one can't really say they didn't deserve it), though the Dutch will have every right to feel aggrieved. For a side that have so much talent, they were desperately unlucky to have one of the toughest draws of the entire World Cup. Drawn in a group with Argentina and Cote d'Ivoire and then scheduled to meet Portugal in the next round. But as the cliche goes, if you're going to be the best, you might as well beat the best. Luckily for their young squad, there will be other World Cups, and they should be a force to reckon with in Euro 2008. Portugal meanwhile have had their chances of progressing to the semi-finals affected by the sendings-off of Deco and Costinha, and the injury to Ronaldo. My personal feeling is that Ronaldo will be the toughest to replace. Deco and Costinha have ready-made replacements in Tiago and Petit respectively, but Ronaldo's understudy, Simao, still fails to impress me as a winger. Still, the Portuguese should have enough about them to emulate Eusebio's team of '66 and reach the semi-finals.
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