Yeah mr. Van basten. This is the only thing you and I agreed upon, the referee was beyond incompetent, a disgrace to this world cup. Now let's talk about you, who by yourself, reduced to shreds everything that Dutch football represented to the world. Your inability to put together a squad for this world cup is pitful. You left out Davids,Seedorf,Makaay and one of the great scorers in dutch footbal "Kluivert". Instead you brought to germany and show the whole world a team of second class players. With the exception of Gio Van Bronckhorst and Robin Van Persie, the "rest" of your team was a joke. You are a joke. Please do us all a big favor and resign.Let some one who has the common sense of bringing to a world cup players who have talent and experience instead of hookies like yourself. Holland played a ugly, slow, backward, disgraceful game. I am half Dutch and I was and will always be a great fan of yours as a soccer player, but as a coach you made me feel embareced to be Dutch.

give the ref a break. at least all of the calls were right. Those teams just have a bad history between them.

Sorry David, I don't think I can give the ref a break on this one. I will grant you that there were some bad fouls in the game as it deteriorated, but it got to that point as a direct result of the ref making poor calls and losing control of the game.

Boulahrouz should never have been sent off for that ghost elbow to Figo. There was no intent there as he just stepped in front to shield the ball and his arms only swung in stride, not in malice. On top of the lack of intent, the replay clearly showed that his elbow never even made contact with Figo. Of course, Figo acted like he had taken a shot from Holyfield and bought the card.

But that's just one of many mistakes. The real problem is that cards were being given out right and left for very questionable reasons, and without any of the verbal communication that a good referee would have given too keep the game under control. Being so utterly card-happy actually has a reverse affect. Rather than controlling the match by punishing foul play, we've clearly seen that excessive cards cause the game to spiral out of control and that's exactly what happened here.

20 Cards in a game (4 reds and 16 yellows) simply cannot be justified. A good official would have communicated better and given verbal warnings to the players that would have prevented a lot of the offenses he deemed card-worthy in the first place, and several of the calls and cards were excessive and unwarranted.

Holding the record for most cards given in a World Cup match is a dubious distinction, and indicative of a poorly managed match.

I'm with Heath on this one. The refs, overall, have been very poor, especially in that game. When you are flashing a card almost every time someone falls down, then the players start trying to get each other sent off. The number of cards given for normal fouls this cup has been absurd. And until today's Brazil-Ghana match, diving has gone largely unpunished. So you get crap like that Portugal-Holland game.

I have to disagree with Marcello. The Dutch had a strong squad. All their players play in top level clubs such as Man. United, Arsenal, and Barcelona. I do agree with your picks of Seedorf and Davids, but other than that you're wrong. Maakay and Kluivert would not have helped the team in any way. I also believe that the Dutch played pretty well, but what they needed was van Nisterlooy, which van Basten left out in a very important match.

I think i disagree with marcello a little bit. With Seedorf, Davids, and Kluivert, you have three players who are getting pretty old for the world cup, i dont think that the dutch played poorly against portugal, they clearly should have one, but they just didn't finish their chances. I do however, agree with u when it comes to Makaay, but that might be because I am a Bayern fan. I don't understand why van Basten left van Nistelrooy out for the whole game, at least put him in for the last 15.

Van basten must go. I don t like him at all even when he was a player. he s weird.how come he left Kluivert,Seedorf and Davids i don t understand, lot of coaches are looking for these kind of players.i knew the dutch will be eliminated.that s a shame to leave someone like van nistelrooy on the bench. im telling you man basten sucks.do you think that we will see again some players like seedorf ,kluivert ,davids and nistelrooy on the pitch again? No that s why im so angry.

Got it! Takhns a lot again for helping me out!

I feel so much hpaiper now I understand all this. Thanks!