Best thing I like about Kuyt all these years is that whenever someone says, "Who could we put in place of ____________?" Kuyt's name can come up and it's not entirely implausible.
Look at the replay again. I think it was Vlaar and he got a boot to the ball before the contact (if there was much of any) with the attacker's face. Are you denying the defender the opportunity to clear the ball from the box?
Look referees will never do 100% job to keep every side happy. I try, sometimes unsuccessfully, to realize they are human and sometimes not in the best positions to make a call at the youth level. Let alone, at the professional level no matter how good they are. Was i the referee who took out Giovani dos Santos in favor of Javier Aquino? Was it the referee who moved Kujt to the right wing from playing lwb and have him 1v1 against Layun winning corner after corner? Was is the referee who left Sneijder unmarked in the corner kick so he can smash in and pretty much kill any Mexican hopes? Was it the referee who told Mexico to stay in their half and not attack the weak Netherlands backs? Was it the referee who struggled to put shots on target and capitalize on dutch goalie mistakes?
Wow bitter... 'Dive' or not, there was contact. Name one striker, any country, any league, any club that would not have 'dove/fallen' exactly the same way Especially under these circumstances, late in a tied knockout round game which was being played in less than ideal conditions. Was the fall a little theatrical? Sure, but does that take away the contact? Actually, forget that, name any player, any position that would not do the exact same thing
Not to mention the guy put his head down into the ball - you do that you take your chances. No way was that a foul
That's the thing: there clearly wasn't. Watch the replay. Marquez didn't even step on Robben's foot and Robben went airborne...
I think I have to agree with our Mexican friends.. I also taught it was a dive, there no hard contact. But we did deserve a penalty in the first half when van Persie cleared Robben. The ref messed up two times in this game, first against us and after that, for us.
Well we must be watching different replays. I understand the bitterness. I would be too if the Dutch lost like that. Contact 1: definite contact: Marquez's right foot steps on Robben's left foot, more specifically his toes Contact 2: marginal/questionable contact. Marquez's right leg with Robben's right leg. Like I said, questionable
The only vested interest I, as a USA fan, had in the match was seeing Mexico lose. So if I'm biased in any direction, it's towards the Dutch. And I'm telling you I think it was a dive.
dude you grew 20 years in one week? http://forums.bigsoccer.com/threads...sa-26-juni-2014.2006922/page-30#post-30548111
What a match.! My blood pressure is finally coming back to normal. First half did not start well with boiling heat and early loss of the rock solid De Jong a massive blow. I thought Verhaegh was brutal out there. Almost no idea what to do on defense and nothing but negative slow passes. VG needs to bring Janmaat back. Ciliessen looked lost out there too, and for what it's worth I too thought he should have done better on the goal. I also thought Blind looked very slow out there today. Vlaar was shaky too. Both he and Dr Vrij are not fleet of foot and struggle when forced to run into channels. They did wake up after the goal I thought but need to pick up their play. In general the defensive play by Oranje was rather slow at times and too much ball watching was going on in the first half. 2nd Half the game started to pick up after Mexico's unfortunate goal. For me Blind was too slow and Ciliessen could have done better but it is what it is. From there the Mexico Manager Herrera made negative substitution and Oranje bosses game. I got the feeling that Mexico was very scared of Robben and was not surprised that Marquez got called for a pk as he is careless and rather shaky. As Ruud said on ESPN he cannot challenge there and certainly Robben made the most out of it. Kuyt and Robben were awesome today. I also thought Winjaldum was excellent too. Very positive cameo appearance by Huntelaar and class finish by Wesley and coolly taken pk by Hunter under enormous pressure. Perhaps Clasie gets a look if Nigel is out. I believe he is the only unused field player by Van Gaal. Crazy game this football. Van Gaal with so much talent in 2002 cannot make it happen, now with a much lesser experienced group he has really made a lot of good decisions. I am absolutely thrilled.
Even in the reruns it's hard to be conclusive either way so I can understand it's tough for the referee to make a correct call. Robben's reputation did not help him in the first half where several calls went against him. The cynical part of me suspects the ref just gave it in the stoppage time to be certain he wouldn't have to spend another half hour in that awful heat. I can't blame the Mexican fans for being upset, this is a terrible way to go out. I can still recall the frustrations of the incorrect penalty calls the Netherlands received against Spain and Australia. Still, it's a bit disappointing to see Herreras blame others instead of admitting he made some tactical mistakes.
Players embellish when their fouled because the refs don't give penalties when they don't. There's a difference in my mind between when a player pretends they were contacted when they actually weren't, and when they embellish to make sure the ref sees that they were fouled. It was pretty obvious that Marquez caught Robben's foot. That is a foul, and since it was in the area, it's a penalty. Now what are the chances that the ref calls it if he stays on his feet? Pretty darn slim. Call him a cheat all you want, he wouldn't have to dive if refs actually gave penalties for fouls in the area where the player doesn't go down. I'd also like to point out that most 'cheats' would have caught themselves on Marquez instead of jumping over him like Robben did on that run in the 74th minute. And it would have been a penalty every time if he did.