Haha yes I really watched a match. In fact i'm watching Germany-Spain as I'm writing this.
After Sunday I won't be watching soccer for at least a couple of years, so don't worry: I'm not turning into a soccer fan.
Btw : Germany - Spain is a nice match. The Spanish team is showing how a team should play this game, very impresssive! The Germans are having problems keeping up with them.

Hmm, I not watching it, Yet. Was trying to watch an KRO detective.. But now going to water the flowers.

spain lead, now lets see a few more fly in that german goal to make for a final of beautiful attacking football :)

dissapointing performance from Germany, having been born there I was secretly supporting them, oh well only one more match left and then no more football for me either [:)] Rugby world cup next year, go Wales [:D]

Goodluck to Holand for the final.

Did Germany make Spain look good, or is Spain really that good?

I'm afraid Spain is really that good.....when (or if) our guys do not win from them they really do not have to be ashamed.
[8D]

But Spain won't win...our guys will. [good]

Have to make a choice today. . .we're having extreme low tides today and there will be informative tours along the exposed tideland during the hours the game is on.
It will offer some good photo opportunities.
So. . .which would you choose. . .stay home and watch the game (once every four years) or get outside on a photo shoot?

That's an easy question: Get outside and take photos! Soccer is only soccer....it's not important at all (and Spain is going to win anyway...[:'(]

I'm on the couch, escaping 35 degrees celcius, dressed in the only orange shirt I have, awaiting the start of the match in just under half an hour.
Perhaps I'm even going to drink a beer tonight..... Yeah I know, I'm a daredevil. ;-)

[exit]

We had our 30+ degree days mid-week and today was only 24 c with a breeze and light cloud cover. I watched the game and then mowed the mini-pasture.
Sorry to see Holland get beat. . .but it was a close and tough game.
I bet that kick in the chest hurt. . .and that he feels it for more than a few days.

Too bad this is one of the few predictions I make that actually comes true....
Well, Spain deserved to win, but man, that referee was an asshole. [oO]

Bye the way, does anyone know who made third place?
hahahahah

I thought the ref did a pretty good job to be honest, the Dutch team deserved all the yellow cards they got, some of their tackling was dire.

Spain were just the better team in the end and Holland were lucky to finish with 10 men to be honest.

the ref made mistakes yes, he let at least two red card offences from the dutch slip... I was very disappointed with the dutch tbh, after the way they played so well all competition, beautiful flowing football then they come into the final get nervy and start hacking at the spanish instead of playing their own football :/

Indeed, exactly what Jez said: that flying kick deserved a red card, and Mark van Bommel also deserved red for his rugby style defense.....in fact, De Jong and Van Bommel should consider starting their own soccer version: K1 Soccer, full contact soccer.
A lot of our guys played dirty....."fair play" was not in their vocabulary, except with Sneijder, Kuyt and Van Bronckhorst.

However, that doesn't change anything about the referee being an asshole....he stopped the match every 20 seconds, taking out all the dynamic of a game....I hope no one meets this guy in his daytime job, cause he'll book you for "driving while thinking about speeding" if he has the chance. (He is a police officer with South Yorkshire Police but took a five-year sabbatical leave to concentrate on his refereeing)

you can't blame the referee for stopping the game every 20 seconds, the players cause the referee to stop play for getting caught breaking the rules. Yes, he let a few off, but to get 9 players yellow carded in one game is just disgraceful and it could have been even worse had the ref not let a few players off lightly.

Well I think they should change the rules of the game a little to allow a punch to the face. Americans would find the game a lot more interesting then.

Have to agree with Huw, yes it's horrible to have the match stopped every 20 minutes but he wasn't the one flying into tackles with intent to kill - I didn't see any trivial stoppages myself, and every time the game stopped you saw him take the players involved to the side and try to calm things down. Didn't work but given his last three games in this tournament I'm inclined to blame the players rather than him.

He wasn't just stopping the game because of the tackle-to-kill actions of our guys, he also stopped the game for Villa looking faul at Stekelenburg.... Yeah, I know I'm exaggerating, but I was really annoyed by him.

And no, I'm certainly not blaming the outcome of the match on him, not at all. Our guys forgot to play soccer and instead resorted to a strange new form of footrugby, or something like that.

The best example why Howard Webb must be a bad referee is that I am no soccer fan and I hardly know the rules and have seen only 3 matches in the entire worldcup, but I know a fuddy-duddy pettifogger when I see one....(yes, I looked up pettifogger....I must admit I really like that word...I'll be using that more often. [:p]).
I enjoyed watching the other two matches, and even though the number of yellow cards were lower there, there *must* have been some pushing, pulling, faul looking etc going on there, and still those referees did not interfere every 20 seconds. I disliked the referee 10 minutes into the match, so don't think I think he's an asshole because of the outcome of the match.

BTW, this came along on Twitter this morning:

[:-/] I didn't write it, I just quoted it. [:D]

Here's another one, about the new K1 Soccer style:
[img]http://q.oxle.com/files/1/9whz5u.gif[/img]
He certainly should have received red under all circumstances, but he got off easy with yellow.
Perhaps Webb realized that it's in fact difficult to imagine he really did this intentionally and thought he'd get away with it....Perhaps he thought "No one is that dumb...." and perhaps he was right.

The blame is to the dutch players, the referee clearly gave a few warnings.
Knowing the rules of engagement, some did not complie.
[exit]
Game over.

It was an embarrassing game for the Dutch.

Fetze's wrath [}:)] @ Dinner time
[:-})]

BTW, I'm not the only one who was annoyed by the referee.
Here's two guys NOT from NL.
http://forum.spoilertv.co.uk/v../..t=60#p491647
Poster: Sawyer5665, Location: Nashville, Tennessee

Poster: DestinyFound, Location: U.S.A

Crikey, they can talk, they are american, they take 3 hours to complete a game that only has 60 mins playing time!!!!!

BTW ; I heard Victoria's Secret is going to launch a new line of bras this month, called "Holland".
It brings a lot of support, but it has no cup....

[;)]

http://bleacherreport.com/arti../..ld-champions

http://www.tendollarbeers.com/../..e-diary.html

It was a sad final...

Webb has broken the record for most bookings in a final. The previous record was set in the 1986 final, with six yellow cards, while Webb has issued 15 yellow cards and one red...