World Cup Blog

Over the limit

By Matthew Day ⋅ June 26, 2006 ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

Graham Poll may have been shrouded in controversy for only a relatively minor error that lasted three minutes, but a lot more should surround Valentin Ivanov for his over-zealous performance led to 16 yellow cards and a record-breaking four dismissals – plus a lot of enjoyment. Despite the excitement Ivanov’s display gave everyone, Sepp Blatter’s criticisms appear vindicated.

The tone was set with an early flurry of bookings, many of which could have been avoided, and the match maintained its intensity with various flashpoints – Holland playing on when the Portuguese felt they should been given the ball back and Luis Figo’s headbutt which apparently only warranted a caution. The lack of consistency, which Blatter pointed out, was terrifying because if Figo had seen red and Deco sent straight off for his wild lunge it may have been a case of trying to keep enough players on the pitch to fulfil the fixture. Costinha and Deco’s dismissals cannot be argued with, but the 12 other yellow cards are more questionable.

Khalid Boulahrouz and Gio van Bronkhorst’s dismissals for Holland were dubious – the formers elbow was accidental, and although that does not necessarily get Boulahrouz off the hook, Figo had obviously practised his diving after training and out of sight from his team-mates: he out-did Deco and others brilliantly. And van Bronkhorst would not have seen a second yellow card with a more pragmatic referee. It was the 90th minute and the game had cooled down considerably; the challenge was innocuous but Ivanov felt the need to even things up once and for all.

Ivanov set a precedent in the opening stages and was then forced to uphold it, which looks to have spelled the end of his World Cup. Perhaps he and Poll can share a house in Russia.

But Portugal move through, thanks to another special Maniche strike, and face old foes England, albeit without two key players. And they will go in as underdogs, which will be beneficial to Luiz Felipe Scolari as he looks to make it three in a row against England and counterpart Sven Goran Eriksson.

Tags: Holland, Portugal

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