Dutch coach Bert van Marwijk was critical of English referee Howard Webb after Spain’s 1-0 extra-time victory in the World Cup final in Johannesburg last night. The Premier League official brandished 14 yellow cards, two of which led to a red for Holland’s John Heitinga — setting a record for a final — in a fiery encounter that saw Andres Iniesta’s late goal separate the sides.
Van Marwijk also suggested that Webb might have been influenced by Spanish media blaming him for Spain’s defeat by Switzerland in their opening match.
“I don’t think the referee controlled the match well. But let me be clear about this: the best team won the match,” said Van Marwijk.
“I’m trying to analyse the match as best as possible. But I read a few things today about how angry Spain were at the refereeing in the first match against Switzerland. If you view the performance (of the referee) today, you’d almost think now that that first match had an influence on this game.”
Van Marwijk admitted that some fouls had been “terrible” but said both sides were responsible, though challenges by Nigel de Jong and Mark van Bommel were particularly X-rated.
He added: “It’s not our style. Let me put it this way, it’s not our style to commit horrible fouls. It’s not our kind of football.
“It was a World Cup final and people were tense. Look at the rest of the tournament. I think both sides, also the Spaniards, committed terrible fouls.
“I’m on the bench and I haven’t seen any replays. I’d have to see the replays. The way I saw it from the bench was very different.”
Van Marwijk said the Dutch had done well to reach the final and could have won it.
“No one expected us to be here, in the final. We even came very close to a penalty shoot-out. We could even have scored through (Arjen) Robben.
“Whether we would have deserved that, I don’t know. But it’s a final. It’s very disappointing. You want to win it, and we might have done. I think we performed really, really well to get this far.
“The team that scored the first goal was going to win that match. Those chances for Robben could have meant victory for us. But, unfortunately, we weren’t so lucky.”
He also defended Holland’s attempt to ‘win ugly’ and said that had not been the plan from the start.
“It was still our intention to play beautiful football, but we were facing a very good opponent. Spain are the best footballing country in the past few years, so we needed to have a top day to beat them,” said Van Marwijk.
“We did a good job tactically on them. We got into good positions at times. Both sides committed fouls. That may be regrettable for a final. It’s not our style, but you play a match to win.
“It’s a World Cup final, and there’s a lot of emotion out there. You saw that with both teams. I’d loved to have won that match, even with not so beautiful football.”