Did Johnny Heitinga Deserve to be Sent Off?

No. It should've been a yellow for diving. But also one of the Dutch should've been sent off earlier. So there is some kind of justice.

Not really. Hate to say it, but it does somewhat even out. The Dutch deserved to be playing with 10 men far longer than 11 minutes in extra time.

A very slight touch. I'm glad Webb didn't fall for it. De Jong should have seen a red card, but later on in the game, the Dutch also took a lot of stick.

Kicking the chest with your spikes should have been a red card for De Jong. Holland would have been down to 10 after 28 mins.

Technically, a red card would have been the “right” decision. But since Spain won it anyways, and since it was so early on in the game… it was a dark yellow and anybody can live with it now. Talking about late justifications.

Heitinga did not deserve to be sent off, altough de jong should have been sent off for kicking Xabi alonso in the chest.

After a game is over I like to look back and see if the calls favored one team or the other. So a red here or there evens out. MOST people say DeJong deserved a red, even you!

My point is Dutch fans should not complain the team finished with 10 men since it should have happened long before.

Webb actually did a hell of a job. He wasn't right all of the time, but in this game, any wrong call was equalizing out itself over the course of the game. De Jongs foul would have been a red card, but I'm glad it wasn't. Since the complete game sucked, it couldn't have been much worse with 10:11 all of the time. But still, I'm always in favour of in dubio pro reo.

Thats ironic justice. I liked only 2 players in the Dutch team. Heitinga and Kuyt. They don't commit unnecessary fouls. Kuyt is just a hard working player who tried to win balls. I was sad when he was substitued. (Maybe the Dutch coach doesn't like players who can't bring the opposition down ;) – I am being sarcastic) And Heitinga was genuinely defending and was unfortunate to be sent off. In a way, he paid for the sins of his teammates. And the referee, anyways, had a hard time. Earlier, Netherlands got away without a red card. Imagine if they were down to 10 men in the first half after the karate kick of de Jong. Spain would have eaten them alive with their passing. So the corner kick (not given), and Puyol's non-foul on Robben don't even make up for that non-Red card. The Dutch should go back to their 1974 ancestors. Just because Cruyff and company were unlucky despite playing beautiful football, doesn't mean that all future teams are unlucky. I am proud of Spain for showing that you can play beautiful football and still win. Iniesta did dive to send off Heitinga. But I look at it like, the Spaniards were provoked in doing a tit-for-tat by the Dutch. You can't just simply endure the karate kicks. You have to do something to get the opposition booked. Was Iniesta always diving in other games? No. Because he is a good player and will react like this only when provoked. Enough said. Viva Espana

Do you see any Dutch fans complaining on here? I didn't even see some on TV. It was only very few time left to play in the game when the Dutch were down by one man. So: 1. No, the Dutch couldn't complain, 2. They didn't – at least so far from what I saw and 3. It wouldn't have changed the outcome of the game supposedly anyways, anymore in this later stage of it.

Yes, you do better consult your linguist. Especially if you have the audacity to criticize other people's English.

I agree, I'm glad it was a yellow but BECAUSE it should have been red it does not allow Dutch fans to complain about this second yellow. If a bad call goes FOR your team and later a similar bad call goes AGAINST your team fans should not complain. I hope you understand my meaning.

My point is they should not complain, I am sure some are somewhere. If they are not, good for them! According to Daryl, the guy starting this thread, Spain scored because Holland was a man down. The goal was scored AFTER the second yellow, how can you say it didn't change the game?

Me not know word audacity. Mr. Bense no es aqui.

I thought Heitinga played well and was unlucky to see red

lol, pay him no mind. He's just a arrogant (before Germany's loss) and sour (after the loss) German fan. He's going around the website and just generally being a poor sport.

One guy complaining ain't “The Dutch”. And this goal happened because the Dutch defense fucked up. It did not originate in midfield to that degree.

Spain deserved the win. PERIOD! That is my point. Holland being down a man might not have helped, but it did not hurt!

Heitinga probably didn't deserve the red, but De Jong and Van Bommel should both have been ejected in the first 30 minutes. The refereeing was atrocious all over, but it mostly benefited the Dutch as they were playing far dirtier than the Spaniards.

It's not so much “the best team won” as “the only team that actually tried to play football won”. I'm not shedding any tears for the Dutch tonight, they were awful and deserved to lose.

Heitinga was unlucky in my opinion. I'm not sure that wasn't a dive (shockingly, I felt that Iniesta dived several times towards the end, disappointing), and even if it wasn't it seemed minimal contact. In addition, I felt like some cynical playacting earned the first yellow. The officiating was pretty horrible. De Jong should have been sent off obviously, and Puyol deserved at least a second yellow for holding back Robben, it prevented the goal. Webb missed fouls, called some too harshly, was too lenient at other times, couldn't put a lid on the playacting (isn't there a ref out there with the stones to give yellows for running off at the mouth, exaggerating injuries, and demanding cards repeatedly?), and was often in the way of play. I feel a let down by the players too. Of course, Holland were getting stuck in with a too much aggression from the start, but I feel a bit worse about how the Spanish played almost as cynically. A somewhat dramatic, perhaps apt, and mostly unaethetic ending to Spain's tentative, stop/start campaign at this cup.

Both teams were quite unfair at times, I think. Different divers on both sides, especially the dutch playing quite brutal, De Jong should have been sent of for his foul, Xavi maybe too for his revenge foul against van Bommel in the second half… and I hated to see the spanish players claiming for cards against the dutch all the time. Imagine this game with the referee of Germany-Serbia… ooooh!
All in all I think that no team should complain about the referee in this match since both tried their best to make him a hard day.
Not to forget Robben who should have got a second yellow card, too, for kicking the ball away…

Puyol didn't get the yellow because Robben was on his feet, had the ball, and was one-on-one with Casillas, so the play was allowed to continue by the advantage rule. The fact that Robben missed *again*, one on one, when both times the keeper was already going to the ground and a relatively easy chip would have guaranteed a goal is unbelievable. It's almost as if he couldn't believe he wouldn't get a whistle so he just ran into the keeper instead of chipping the ball. By the time he remembered to fall, Casillas had already taken the ball from him and it was too late.

Just awful football both times (and phenomenal goalkeeping). A decent forward would have buried at least one if not both of those shots. You can bet Suarez, Forlan, Muller, and Klose were grabbing their heads wondering why they weren't in the final instead of this guy.

I take your point, but I can recall instances of almost identical situations where a retrospective card was given without a free kick. I'd always prefer this sort of reffing because the pullback does have an effect on whether or not the goal keeper can position himself in time, and on the attacker's balance. Not to mention it encourages honest play by the forward. I feel like that pull back made the shot much more difficult, illegally. Robben, for once, decided to stay on his feet and will probably feel that was a poor choice, sadly.

Any of those guys you named might have been in for a hat trick with the chances in this game. I've enjoyed this world cup fairly well for the stories if not the football, but I pray Brazil 2014 has more quality on the field.

:)

I toyed for a little while with awarding this game “worst refereeing ever in a WC final”, but for my money that's still 1990.

You didn't like Stekelenburg? I thought the two goalkeepers were the best players on the field throughout the match.

was a nice match, too bad many mistakes arbitration and beat the game must end after 90 minutes, if arbitration power was correct

Firstly, let me start with the premise that yes, Van Bommel and De Jong should have been sent off for “excessive force” fouls earlier in the match. Also, I consider Andrés Iniesta to about as much of a diver as Arjen Robben.

Secondly, if a referee makes a mistake to balance out another he made earlier in the match, he has now made two mistakes. That is not how a good referee operates. Any discussion pertaining to other incidents in the game, and the decisions that were taken in consequence, is irrelevant to the question at hand. Daryl specifically asked if Heitinga deserved his 2nd yellow. That is the question we should be answering.

Based on the video evidence, it is clear that Heitinga grabs Iniesta by the shoulder slightly, and then lets go.

Was it enough of a grab for Iniesta to flop to the ground? Probably not.
Was the grab enough to slow down Iniesta and prevent him from playing the ball in the most ideal conditions? Probably yes.

When these grabs happen in soccer, sometimes the forward stays on his feet and the referee applies the advantage rule: the defender usually gets away with no foul and no card. In this case Iniesta didn't stay on his feet however. The fact Heitinga, with no intention of playing the ball, decided to grab Iniesta by the shoulder with the sole purpose of slowing him down, is viewed by referees as “unsporting behaviour”. Unsporting behaviour merits a yellow card.

Am I defending Iniesta's actions? Hell no. But were the laws of the game correctly applied in this case? Yes. In absolute terms, Heitinga knew what he was doing when he tried to slow Iniesta down, and if he wanted to avoid a card he should not have initiated the grab at all. I might add it was an unnecessary foul on his part, because Mathijsen was right behind him to pick up the garbage.

Now whether Howard Webb used this criterion of judgment for ALL the fouls in the entire 120 minutes of playing, *that* is another matter to discuss. In this particular case though, I think he got it right.

Webb gave two disciplinary yellows I think in this match, one to both sides. Of course they were lost in the other 45 he gave. And, ok, one was for Iniesta taking off his shirt after he scored.

I thought Heitinga was unlucky too, but he was on one yellow already. He was perilous, and I think Inietsa's dive there was shameful, but in general, I don't think he had to do much upselling on the way he was defended in this game. I'll be surprised if he can even walk tomorrow.

Heitinga did not deserve to be sent off. But De Jong should have SURELY gotten a straight red near the beginning of the game. And as per usual, the ref missed many of Van Bommel's egregious fouls so he's lucky he was able to play the full 120 minutes. I think these would've been much more detrimental to the Dutch had they been called right. Thus, I won't be losing any sleep tonight over Heitinga's dismissal here.

If Puyol didn't deserve a yellow in 84th min when he wrapped himself around Robben as he was moving toward goal, then Heitenga certainly did not deserve a yellow for laying his hand on Iniesta's shoulder as he was moving toward goal. And for those of you who are uncertain if Iniesta took a dive or not, tell me how Iniesta could fall forward if Heitenga pulled his shoulder backward? If Heitenga's hand on Inesta's shoulder had actually impeded Iniesta, at the very least, we would have seen Iniesta get straightened upwards, but instead he dove forwards.

In the Robben-Puyol incident, Robben was straightened up with Puyol hanging on his back. It slowed Robben down enough to allow a second defender to catch up and allow Casillas time to close him down. The ref was correct to play the advantage but when the advantage didn't materialize, it should have been yellow for Puyol.

The ref had already set precedent in the game for giving a card afterthe fact. Heitenga his first yellow well after the play for his take down of Villa. In that case, Webb didn't even signal a foul or advantage or anything, just came back after what seemed like a minute or so later and issued a card (perhaps even influenced by spanish players crying for a card).

As for De Jong, I can only ask “what was he thinking???”. Hard to imagine a pro player in the biggest game of his life would actually kick an opponent in the chest intentionally. The ball was playable, but clearly a dangerous kick if he was trying to play the ball. Most of the replays make it look like DeJong was drop kicking Alonso, and that is obviously waht most people will buy, but a couple other angles indicate he was eyeing the ball with a high kick and it was unintentional. Again, I ask you to look at the actions. Did DeJong follow through, or did he pull back? If his real intent was to injure Alonso, I would have expected to see his leg straigten out for more power. Instead what we see is DeJong holding his leg back and coming down with a desperate surprised look on his face. He knew he was in trouble. He deserved yellow the same way that uruguay's Caseres deserved yellow for kicking Holland's De Zeeuw in the face in the semi-final game.

I am stunned by all the vicious accusations levelled at the dutch team, and the relative acceptance of spanish wrongful actions. Spain did not win the game because they played “beautiful football”. Both teams did their best to move the ball and attack. Both were stifled by grabbing, clutching, spiking, tripping, etc. Both teams, Spain perhaps more so, acted unsportsmanlike with dives and acts. To blame one side more than the other in a hard fought battle is simply wrong. Spain simply was the better team in one sense only, they put one ball in the other team's goal. With all the missed scoring chances both teams had, with all the missed calls or wrongful fouls called, this game could just as easily have been Holland's game, and imagine the cries about Spanish dirty tactics we would be hearing now if Holland had gone a goal up. Try to keep some perspective people. The spanish are not angels, and the dutch are not demons. Both teams did whatever they could to prevent the other team from playing their own game. In the end, it was an ugly game that Spain barely won.

I would have given referee Webb a few yellow cards for his poor performance.

“Puyol didn't get the yellow because Robben was on his feet, had the ball, and was one-on-one with Casillas, so the play was allowed to continue by the advantage rule.”

it's just that kind of thinking which promotes diving and simulations … robben, to his credit this time, stayed on his feet and tried to continue, but his speed and motion were impeded by the puyol monkey hanging on his back … playing the advantage would have meant robben actually could continue his scoring chance but he was off balance, slowed down, straightened up … anybody who saw that and still says no-foul-cause-he-still-had-the-ball truly does not understand the spirit of the game

if puyol deserved no foul for this incident, then heitenga deserved no foul for his shoulder tap on iniesta … and iniesta should have been booked for simulation …absolutely inconsistent refereeing in this game, sad

Dude, the Spanish player tripped on Heitinga's boot. De Jong did deserve a red as did Puyol who deserved a second yellow. Both of Hietinga's fouls were not yellow worthy.
They have cleverly posted misguiding images in the article. Believe me, I have Tivo and i saw the replay quite the many times.

i think the ref had bias against Holland because of their initial fouls. Spain clearly took advantage of that.

I would say Holland made the game fun since we all know how boring the Spanish play.

damn right devvrat! that was a great game, a great battle, a real man's game … the beautiful game was always there, from both sides, but with some amazing and often exuberant pressure and tactics … in the end, despite all the talk of thugs and dives and wrongful fouls and missed red cards, this game was won by spain because of a defensive mistake by the dutch backs to leave iniesta unmarked off the far post, hietenga was out (wrongfully) and bronkhorst was out (age), that's it, that's the game … one mistake that led to the only goal scored in 120+ mins … spain had a couple more chances than holland, but holland had better chances … yes dejong could have easily earned a red for his “what were you thinking” kick to alonso's chest, but what referee would want to do that in a WC final game? in holland's semi against uruguay, dezeeuw got his face smashed by a uruguan boot, yellow card, no less dangerous and likely inadvertent … holland played strong and hard and on the edge of fair play for the most part, spain played no differently, unless you want to argue that aggressive play is a greater sin than diving and crying for cards, and i would argue there is stronger case to be made of simulation as being further removed from the spirit of the game … spain won, holland could have easily won, two quality teams putting everything they had into it, and it was beautiful

the pictures you suggest are not as convincing as you think … the from-behind tackle by van bommell is no different than a dozen or two others in that game, from both sides … dejong could have been a red, and especially if the analysis of it is as simple as one frame from a video clip (there was a ball in play in the air, its not shown in your pic, and its not like it was zidane head butting his opponent off the ball behind the play, it was just a badly timed and horribly executed challenge) … webb made a lot of bad calls in that game, but i don't blame him for that decision, trusting he made it with whole game situation in mind … the last one of heitinga is just a great challenge on his part, again something you see in every game, he didn't touch xavi, xavi kicked heitinga's blocking leg, it was brilliant defending as heitinga did all game

all this hate toward holland is ridiculous, i would have loved it if holland had a different game plan, but this was the way they saw to beat spain's defensive tica-taca game (i'm certain the germans would have liked to have played this style in retrospect) … holland deserved to be in that game as much as spain did, and they could have won it as easily as spain did, cause style points don't count

People watch football to see some nice skills and great goals. Both the Netherlands and Spain turned on the style with some great goals and beautiful ball skills, control and passing prior to the finals. The Dutch came into this game having won every game in qualifying and in South Africa. The Spanish did wonderful in the qualification and showed class against the best European teams to be ranked as favorites. It's unfortunate that only one team can win. But this match was unfortunate to see so many fouls and high tempers.

There was a lot more foul play by the Dutch throughout the match, especially the first half. Technically a high boot merits a send off for dangerous play, regardless of the intent, but I think the ref didn't want to be let De Jong walk off from such an important game. Puyol's and Heitinga's fouls both deserved yellows because of the position. Puyol got lucky because Robben didn't choose to go down and you can't blame the ref because again, he wouldn't want to have Puyol miss out.

As for Heitinga, the ref could have kept his card in his pocket but the difference was Iniesta went to ground. The decision I thought harsh, but again, can't blame the ref who is obviously under pressure to choose one way or the other, unlike when the player stays on his feet. I think this is in the spirit of the advantage rule – you don't want the team committing the foul to get an unfair advantage when there is a potentially goal scoring chance.

I think the result was fair, because the Spanish did create more chances and played more positive. Both Robben's chances came of counter attacks. Casillas had no right to keep out the shot from Robben, which saved the day for the Spanish and was one of the best moments of the game.