How do you rate Howard Webb's performance?

UK Yahoo has this poll.
Dont let their results influence your vote!

8053 votes since Mon 12 Jul
Good 46% 3696
Average 25% 2000
Bad 15% 1237
Pathetic 14% 1120

Perhaps you could offer a neutral set of choices? Everybody treats "Average" as a negative - you have one positive and 3 negative choices there.

I can't call it pathetic because, in realtion to some of the other games, he was a bit better.

That being said...to suggest that it was good is a complete joke.

The only ref in the whole world who doesn't red card De Jong for the flying kick HAS to be a ref from the UK.

It was no coincidence that the game almost degenerated into a rugby match.

He had little control of the game and tried to make up for it too late.

He was bad.

He missed a clear 2nd bookable offence on van Bommel and was conned into a couple of soft free kicks.

All in all...it wasn't good.

ps...that yahoo UK poll thing is absolutely useless. They're going to support the home grown boy....regardless of merit or not...kinda like here on big soccer. lol

This isn't the way to do a poll about referee performance. The Soccer by Ives poll was much better, they gave an option for "The best he could in a tough situation" which I think fits it perfectly.

7.5/10

Given that the Dutch did not come to play the game according to the rules, 8/10.

That said, I think the WC referees should be emphatically instructed to call the game consistent with the way they have been calling them during their careers. After all, their career performance is the basis for their selection in the first place. And, the players should be emphatically told to expect no favors just because it is the WC. Both admonishments should be repeated ad nauseum to referees, players and the public so that everyone understands that the rules will be enforced as they are normally enforced.

Average bordering on gutless. It is clear the dutch played to subvert the game. While I understand a ref wants to be as unobtrusive as to the outcome as possible, this game is the prime example of why a ref should penalize a team for bad conduct. DeJong's challenge is only the salient example. There were several others.

I'm only giving Webb an average because I think that's what most refs are taught to do. I'd he had stuck to the intent of the LOG, we would have seen the Dutch finish the game with 7 or 8

they, ( the Dutch) BTW, Get a complete fail. I hope they do not qualify next time.

I can't blame Webb for trying to keep the Dutch in the game. If he had given out 4 red cards...he would most certainly be to blame, everyone would try to kill him. He's damned if he does, damned if he doesn't.

I can't imagine what would happen to a ref that sent three Dutch players off in a WC Final, even if they were all correct.

Maybe the lesson for the future would be that you can"t play like that.

that's the pity, because now the door is open.

this argument is what is so wrong with refereeing. you don't want him to make the calls he should because of what people might think, and it might be bad for his career.


News flash. His career is forever tainted anyway. it's what people will remember about him forever.

he could have done something for the game.

NO NO NO. Vehemently NO. The *argument* is what is so wrong with the popular opinion from the masses, not what is so wrong with refereeing. I don't often agree with LiquidYogi, but he is right: in this match, Webb was damned if he did (punish the Dutch team strictly), and damned if he didn't. The Dutch team ensured this through their style of play. People must be able to admit this.

You probably agree with me more than you think. You just don't agree with the way I call everyone an idiot

I'll be dead in 50 years. this game will still be known as the dirtiest game of all time, and Webb will be known as the enabler.

If that's what you think refereeing is, there is the pity.

can I change my vote to "fail?"

Wow. Talk about exaggerating. WAY over the top there.

Seriously if you think that's a terrible game you should see me give 6 red cards in a 10 year old game. Making flower necklaces IS killing plants and therefore IS Violent Conduct!

I've seen much dirtier games.

Everton vs. Liverpool this past January, for example. Also, USA vs. Guatemala in August 2008 was pretty bad.

It's been a long time and I wasn't a ref back then, but didn't the Argentinians stink up the joint pretty good?

I think it's pretty fair to say the 1962 Chile-Italy game was the previous record holder.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOtL1m1o_ok"]YouTube- Battle of Santiago[/ame]

Not sure how there could be so many favorable votes. I thought it was pretty bad. After missing the awful kick to the chest for the red, he then favored Spain on almost every call. Game was already sloppy and missing flow, and his whistle made it worse.

Plus he was inconsistent. He missed easy foul calls, and then calling it on ticky tack stuff, and then showing cards for fouls that were nothing (including two back to back Spain dives that were shown clear as day on replay. Iniesta got rewarded multiple times by that. 0 contact at all or chance of tripping up). To give cards against the Netherlands for some of those plays and then call nothing on the other side of the field on the play that led to the Spain break where they scored was a crime.

The worst was when a replay showed a play where Webb was completely turned around and saw nothing (no linesmen near that part of the field either), guy goes down, and after the players start their chirping he shows the card and rewards the wrong team. Awful stuff. If he wasn't English I know one country that would've poured on the criticism, but as usual, a bias in reporting and coverage, just like the racism against Italy and the criticism when all their fouls are microanalyzed and everything must be a dive but ignored when Spain's blatant attempts get rewarded.

The worst was when a replay showed a play where Webb was completely turned around and saw nothing (no linesmen near that part of the field either), guy goes down, and after the players start their chirping he shows the card and rewards the wrong team.

I was really impressed that despite his back being turned, he got that call right. Either instinct or what the rest of the crew told him. Excellent refereeing for which they should get more credit.

Exactly! That was a good caution and seemed like he must have gotten some good help from the crew. Good teamwork and got the decision correct. Shame on Efan Ekoku for being so clueless about it on the ESPN broadcast and not understanding that the referee IS entitled to come back and show a yellow card after the ball goes out of play.

I'd rate it as bad simply based on the DeJong incident. Even if everything else is perfect, and it wasn't, that incident had a profound effect on how the game was played

Actually, if Webb had sent off de Jong, he would've been almost universally praised for that decision. With that mistake, any notion of strictness went out the window.

More generally, the Dutch approach posed a difficult challenge to Webb but not an impossible one, nor even an unusual one. They played like any underdog whose main advantage is its physicality, and they were given an an enormous amount of leeway to do so. Some people might've condemned Webb if he had enforced the laws to a more typical international standard, but as we all know, using good judgment in the face of criticism is the essence of the referee's job.