I was waiting for this. Now that it is here, I am pleased. And my sternum hurts.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'world cup, chest kick, spain, netherlands, 300' to 'world cup, chest kick, spain, netherlands, 300, xabi alonso, nigel de jong' - edited by rasch187

Should obviously have had a red card straight up.

I feel sorry for Webb because it's damned if he does damned if he doesn't. He tried his best to keep all 22 players on the pitch...the Dutch didn't play soccer they playing whats called "anti-football" with a dash of thuggery. It's the Dutch that should be getting the blame for this horrible final, lots of ignorant people are instead blaming Webb, while he was wrong about this play and a couple others he can hardly be accused of the person that ruined this World Cup Final.

I went into this game wanting the Dutch to win...halfway though I wanted Spain to win because they deserved it.

@Yogi - I would say that aside from the corner thing, the reffing was spot on.

I also wanted the Dutch to win before the game but they turned so ugly and desperate. Fully deserved winners.

I actually thought this was a great football game. Finally a game where something interesting happened almost the entire time.

On a semi-related note:
I think they should allow hockey style tackling in football. Would make it a lot more fun to watch and get a lot of the primadonnas out of the game, the-ones-who-fall-over-when-a-rival-is-three-feet-away-and-dies-a-slow-agonizing-death-for-5-minutes-before-they-jump-up-and-happily-run-along-without
-a-scratch... if you earn 100 million a year you should be able to take a bruise or two. Give me the money and that guy can kick me 5 times a day for a year and I would still be a happy camper.

If I remember correctly, and this is a vague memory, it was possible in one of the old rule sets to score a goal by tackling the goalie into the goal when he held the ball. Anyone knows if this is right?

I agree that howard webb was doomed to insults either way. He ref'd this game pretty much as good as it could have possibly been ref'd. If he'd given out the 5 red cards in the first half that people think were justified, he'd have ruined the final. Instead, he tried to allow the final to be played as much as possible, and that's really what people want from a final, not to see it dominated by some media hungry ref.

People will always find something to criticise in a refs performance, I'm sure Webb is more than used to it. Refs probably get most their support from fellow refs, I doubt they'd look too hard at anyone else's opinion, you'd commit suicide pretty quickly.

Please tell me the guy's name was Cletus!!!

I was just remarking to a friend just before this kick how I dislike soccer/futbol because of all the pansy wimp primadonnas doing prat falls.

Then I was all, "Fuckin' A! Now THAT'S futbol I can get into!"