It seems this blog has turned into the “Howard Webb” fan page with our coverage of the World Cup final merging into tonight’s qualifiers. But over a year since his height on the football stage, Webb returns to overseeing international knock-out football with the third meeting of these two sides in the playoffs.

Bilino Polje - the explosive atmospheric stadium will be the setting of the game

In Webb’s native England, his nation do battle with Spain tomorrow. The furore proceeding that match revolved around FIFA’s ban on England players wearing poppies on their shirt as a symbol commerating the victims of war. The dispute has now been settled but not without wider ramifications

But Webb had already managed to get FIFA to bypass their rules for him when he took charge of Bolton v Stoke in the Premier League last week.

And if we turn our minds back to Soccer City in what seems like a lifetime ago, we can all recall the game that broke records for cards in a World Cup final. On that day, the team that had knocked out Portugal, Spain, triumphed.

But the Selecção das Quinas nearly didn’t get the finals, only grabbing two wins in their first seven qualifiers and eventually stumbling into the playoffs behind group winners Denmark.

In the controversial “seeded” playoff, Carlos Quieroz’s side were drawn against Bosnia-Hercegovina and managed to come through 2-0 on aggregate with two 1-0 wins.

Two years on, history has repeated itself in a way that only football can with Portugal again losing out to Denmark after being defeated by the Scandinavians on the final round of group games and now goes to Bosnia-Hercegovina side who probably wanted anyone but Paulo Bento’s team.

Managed by Safet Sušić, Bosnia-Hercegovina’s side were 12 minutes away from automatic qualification when they were 1-0 in the Stade de France against the stadium’s titular team. But a late penalty from Samir Nasri cancelled his Manchester City teammate Edin Dzeko’s goal and the Balkan side rolled into the hat for the play-off draw.

Edin Dzeko - Bosnia's great white hope

Their slight in-discipline will see defenders Saša Papac and Boris Pandža suspended for the first-leg after two yellow cards. But neither of these sides has suffered any reds in the qualifiers and is relatively well behaved. Though the heat of playoff pressure can play havoc with any side’s temprament.

At least one Portugal fan is pleased with Webb’s appointment due to his perceived bias for Cristiano Ronaldo (although purists may simply see this as letting a great player off the reigns to play his game).

I doubt the truth of such an assertion but whether Webb will be booking CR7 for his “gamesmanship” is probably unlikely, if indeed we behaviour of that sort tonight. I feel this type of play is more of a problem in a second-leg than a first.

Ronaldo will be praying he avoids a booking tonight

But that said, Portugal will need to tread on egg-shells to avoid players being suspended for next week’s clash in Lisbon with Ronaldo, Raul Meireles, Carlos Martins, Hugo Almeida, Eduardo, Rolando and Ruben Micael all one yellow card away from being out.

The tight clash two years ago suggest that the first goal will be key and I can easily see this environment creating a perfect storm for some kind of disputed event involving Webb.

But with Portugal being heavy favourites for the tie overall, Webb is the least of Bosnia Hercegovina’s problems.

The refereeing blog will be relaunching this week, bigger and better than ever. We’ll have full coverage of the playoffs for Euro 2012 with increased fan interaction and interviews.

We’ll also be covering the rest of the club season from the refereeing point of view including the most controversial and unique incidents. There will then be dedicated coverage of Euro 2012 and we want you to get involved. Are we too harsh on referees? Do we need TV technology? Which leagues have the best and worst officials?

Keep an eye out for further updates in the next few days

World Cup final referee Howard Webb has been honoured by Queen Elizabeth II in the New Years Honours List with an MBE.

The 39-year-old official was recognised after a career spanning 21 years in the game which began in his native Yorkshire. But since 2005 he has been regularly taking charge of international games and also was the man in the middle for the 2009 FA Cup Final between Chelsea and Everton.

His crowning glory came at this years finals when he was the man in black for the controversial contest between the Netherlands and eventual winners Spain which saw a record number of bookings in a World Cup final.

Some were heavily critical of Webb, seeing him as too lenient on the Oranje and failing to protect Spain. Others perceived him as making key decisions that went against the Dutch in the match which took place on July 11th at Johannesberg’s Soccer City stadium.

However many saw him as coping well with an extremely difficult task and that the correct side had won on the day, an important consideration.

Webb was delighted with the royal recognition, saying:

It has been an unbelievable 12 months and this honour tops off an amazing 2010. It will be a real treat to go to the Palace with my wife and family and it should be a marvellous occasion. I always say refereeing is about your team, and without the support and ability of my assistants Darren Cann and Mike Mullarkey I would not have been selected for the final. This honour is for them too and it would be lovely if they could be recognised in a similar way at some point in the future.

Webb joins fellow British referees who have also been honoured with MBEs including Scotland’s now tainted former official Hugh Dallas, and Ken Aston who oversaw games at the 1962 World Cup including the notorious Battle of Santiago.

So after a tournament filled with plenty of talking point, we look back at the lies, damn lies and statistics. Who was the dirtiest player or the cleanest match? The cover this and more, let’s crunch the numbers from South Africa 2010.

A rare shot of North Korean foul, like goldust at the finals

Teams
Most cards (overall): Holland (22 yellows, 1 red)
Most bookings: Holland (22)
Most red cards: Uruguay, Algeria, Brazil, Australia (2)
Most fouls committed: 1st – Holland (126) 2nd – Uruguay (99) 3rd – Paraguay (97)
Most fouls suffered: 1st – Spain (134) 2nd – Holland (126) 3rd – Uruguay (110)
Least fouls committed: 1st – North Korea (26) 2nd – Serbia (30) 3rd – Greece (35)
Least fouls suffered: 1st – Denmark (27) 2nd – Algeria (30) 3rd – South Africa (31)
Highest percentage of tackles won: Nigeria (89%)
Lowest percentage of tackles won: Switzerland (66%)
Most handballs: Holland (10)

Paraguay versus Japan - the dirtiest game at the finals (apparently)

Matches
Most cards: Holland v Spain (12 yellows, 1 red)
Least cards: Germany v Spain, Ivory Coast v North Korea (0 cards)
Most fouls 1st – Paraguay v Japan (55) 2nd – Japan v Cameroon (49) 3rd – France v Mexico (48)
Least fouls: 1st – Germany v England (13) 2nd – Argentina v Nigeria (15) 3rd – Germany v Spain/Ghana v Germany (16)

Iniesta celebrates completing an attacking move without being fouled

Players
Most bookings: 3 – Caceres (Paraguay) Van de Wiel, De Jong (Holland)
Least bookings by minutes played: Casillas (Spain) Muslera (Uruguay) – 660 minutes played, no bookings
Least bookings by minutes played, outfield player: Forlan (Uruguay) 654 minutes played, no bookings
Most fouls committed: 1st – Honda (Japan) (19) 2nd – Ramos (Spain)/Van Bommel (Holland) (17) 3rd – Perez (Uruguay) (16)
Most tackles attempted: 1st – Perez (Uruguay) (34) 2nd – Van Bommel (Holland) (31) 3rd – Schweinsteiger (Germany) (23)
Most fouls suffered: 1st – Iniesta (Spain) (26) 2nd – Honda (Japan) (23) 3rd – Busquets (Spain)/Van Bommel (Holland)/Suarez (Uruguay) (22)

Other trivia: Spain became the first team since Hungary in 1986 not to collect any cards during the group stage
Holland’s match with Spain broke the record for the number of cards in a World Cup final
Forlan incredibly not only went the whole cup without conceding a foul but didn’t even attempt a tackle according to Opta stats in any of his games

Dutch coach Bert van Marwijk has bashed official Howard Webb for his display in last night’s final, and has been joined by some of his player’s in questioning the Englishman’s decisions in the game.

The manager of Oranje said that he felt Webb didn’t control the match well but the man in the middle is put in a very awkward position with the number of fouls that were going on. In an ideal world, he’d be able to let play flow and ignore the odd sloppy effort to get the ball but the reckless challenges couldn’t really go unnoticed.

However in fairness to van Marwijk he did concede that the better side won on the night but was particularly concerned about the decision to not blow for a freekick when Robben danced his way through the Spanish defence. He stated:

“I’m not someone to look back on what the referee did. I think the best team usually wins the match. But if you look at the second chance of Robben, the referee should give Puyol a second yellow card, which would have meant him being sent off. It was a crucial moment just before the end of the 90 minutes. It is very bitter, but that is sport. It is harsh. And as I said, Spain were the better team.

I did cover this in my review but will explore it a little more through photos of the incident. Obviously the rule does state that “attempts to trip or kick an opponent” are fouls just as the trips and kicks themselves. But on the other hand, there are plenty enough a real moments of contact – to include all the failed efforts to win the ball or connect with a competitor as fouls would drastically break-up the match.

In the first photo, Puyol has his arms across Robben’s chest – it doesn’t appear initially to slow Robben down and the winger continues his run.

In the next shot, Puyol is faliing to the ground and Robben moving past him with the ball at his feet, his right leg slightly off balance as he either tries avoid the prone defender or because there is slight contact.

In the following image, Puyol is fully on the ground and his outstretched legs show that while Robben has to hurdle them to avoid tripping over, it looks from his position as though Puyol is trying to get a touch to the ball in desperation rather than try and take Robben down.

Then we see Robben with the ball at his feet having taken it past Puyol who is now no longer involved in play. His body shape is slightly off-balance but he does have the opportunity to get the shot off.

Finally Robben takes the ball on a further foot or two and Iker Cassilas is able to close him down and grab the ball. Despite what the image shows, Pique does not connect at all with either the ball or Robben during the final section of this play.

I would have to conclude that whilst Puyol does slightly interfere with Robben’s attacking advances, he is probably trying to get a touch to the ball but doesn’t touch it and the contact with the Dutchman is small. Robben has opportunities to shoot once he has got past Puyol but chooses to try and round the keeper rather than have an attempt on goal. I don’t believe a serious offence has been comitted and at the very worst, we’re talking about a possible freekick for an advantage in this complex defensive situation rather than anything so rash as a penalty or red card.

Robben himself, would disagree with my assessment, saying after the game:

“When I got my second chance the referee should have given us a free kick and Puyol a second yellow card,” Robben said. “He gave the advantage but there was none as I could hardly move and the goalkeeper was too close already. As a player you always want to go on and especially 10 minutes before time in a World Cup final when you are heading towards the goal. When you play a World Cup final you need also a world class referee and – I have to be careful what I say – this was not the case for this match.

It is not an offence for the keeper to rush out of his goal to stop a goalscoring opportunity and the second or so that Robben would’ve saved if Puyol hadn’t come in with his challenge would not really have changed Cassilas’s pressuring on the attacker.

Robben may be irksome in his discussion of Webb but he should remember that under the letter of the law, he could have been shown a red card when he netted long after a whistle had gone for offside.

If Robben was trying to be tactful with what he said then Wesley Sneidjer certainly wasn’t, arguing:

‘He has robbed us. This really is a disgrace to football. It really shouldn’t have happened. First I shot a free kick that hit the wall and then the Spanish keeper touched it before going behind. What does the referee do? The whistle was not for a corner. In the following attack, Iniesta is at first offside. Webb doesn’t whistle and then Iniesta gets the ball and scores. And earlier there was a moment with Iniesta, he kicked Van Bommel when the ball was not there. The fourth official saw the moment and he said, “Yeah, I saw it”. I think if you saw it it’s a red card. That’s three incidents in a short space of time. It is a scandal it has to end this way.

It is very definitive that the Dutch certainly should’ve had a corner when Sneidjer’s shot was deflected (twice) wide and Webb was wrong to give a goalkick but this was hardly robbing Oranje of the game, merely of a setpiece (they had six other corners which they failed to make much impact from).

As I discussed in my review, any accusation that Iniesta is offside for the goal is complete rubbish and as for Iniesta’s kicking on Van Bommel which it probably should’ve been a sending off, Vam Bommel should have received a red before the half-time whistle so ifs, buts and maybes surrounding someone’s marching orders do not become the exclusive right of the Dutch team.

The fourth Dutchman to criticise Webb was striker Robin Van Persie saying:

What was this man doing? He made three big errors in extra time of a World Cup final. Believe me, this really hurts. Even after Heitinga’s red card I still felt we could be world champions. With penalty kicks we’d at least have a 50 per cent chance. He whistled four minutes from time, but not for a corner, and later overlooks Iniesta being in an offside position. Iniesta should not have been on the pitch because he kicked Van Bommel. He also should have shown Puyol a second yellow card for trying to knock down Robben. I don’t say it’s only down to the referee. We missed a very good chance. But the referee has been decisive. Perhaps it was because Spain were wronged in a group match against Switzerland? Let me say nothing.

Some of this is inevitably crossing over old ground but in terms of Heitinga’s second booking, he raised his arms and appeared to try and stop Iniesta breaking through. It is worthy of a caution and Heitinga is experienced to know that doing something like that on a yellow is rather silly.

Any accusations of bias for Spain as Webb oversaw their loss to Switzerland are rather unfounded. If anything, the Spanish press were a lot more concerned with Webb’s appointment for the final than Holland, with their view point being that Webb would allow too much physical play and this would unduly hurt Vicente Del Bosque’s side.

In the end, suddenly we were meant to believe it had been the other way round all the time and that Webb was actually penalising the Dutch to make-up for unwarranted opinions that he apparently screwed Spain in their opening game?

This does not fly – we cannot pick and choose the referee’s bias before and after the game and refuse to accept that at some point we were wrong. The Holland camp do have cause to be concerned about a few issues from the final but they need to take off their orange-tinted spectacles if they think Webb was the reason they lost the game.

We predicted it would be an intense occasion but never expected this! The joint highest number of bookings ever in a World Cup game, a red card, a disputed goal and probably the hardest game of Howard Webb’s life. Did the players destroy the game with their fouls or did Webb destroy it with his whistle?

Spain 1-0 Holland

Referee: Howard Webb (England)
Yellow cards: 13 – Puyol, Capdevila, Ramos, Xavi, Iniesta (Spain) Van Der Wiel, Heitinga, Mathijsen Van Bronckhorst, Van Bommel, De Jong, Van Persie, Robben (Holland)
Red card: 1 – Heitinga (Holland, second booking)

Where do we start? Perhaps we should start by looking at what must have been the pregame talk to the Dutch team – physical play, designed to get amongst the Spaniards and stop them hogging the ball. If this wasn’t part of the plan for Holland then it soon became par for the course when the match begun.

There is no problem with it on paper and indeed, if executed correctly it can nullify certain teams who can’t compete on levels of strength and if you have competent ball winners and a sense of discipline, it can be a game winner.

But tonight, that approach did not work for Oranje, not that I would exclude Spain from the discussion as they nearly trebled their yellow card total in one game after a clean tournament.

Initially, events didn’t appear to be too surprising. Both sides began relatively cagily with the Spaniards carving out a few decent chances and when Robin Van Persie came in with a forward’s challenge on Joan Capdevila and got slim to nothing on the ball, it was viewed as a symptom of his frustrated forays into the Spanish half rather than the start of dirty game.

Mark Van Bommel picked up from where he left off against Uruguay with a few late challenges early on but it was the man from the other semi-final, goalscorer and brown-locked Carlos Puyol who came in with a sloppy tackle from behind on Arjen Robben to get the second yellow of game quite fairly.

I was slightly concerned that Webb needed to keep his cards at least somewhat in his pocket even at that stage with just a quarter of the game gone but my concern was quickly altered when Van Bommel finally swallowed his just-desserts when he clattered into Andreas Iniesta from behind for a definitive caution and possibly red from stricter officials. Arguably, his numerous fouls throughout this half should have seen him off the pitch by half-time but it seems his blanket of invincibility is still being worn by the midfielder.

The next moment Webb scribbled Sergio Ramos’s name down when he fouled Dirk Kuyt. With respect to Webb, this was not a pretty attempt to win the ball and from a neutral’s perspective, it is very important to demonstrate to both teams that this isn’t about who is making the tackles but that bad play would be penalised.

Then came Nigel De Jong’s attempt at karate on Xavi Alonso. I do fault Webb for this as the photo below shows he is well placed to spot the offence and while there is a time and a place for the “it’s a World Cup final and we should give players the benefit of the doubt” argument, that doesn’t fly when you smack your boot into another player’s ribs. De Jong should’ve received red, but he only got a yellow.

It could be argued that perhaps a sending off would have shown both sides that they really needed to keep their rambunctious contact under control – though by the general atmosphere of the game, I don’t really know if anything would have really changed the way certain players were treated on the ball.

Before half-time Sneidjer should probably have received a booking for bundling into Ramos but again – where do you draw the line between allowing some physical leeway and turning the game into a farce?

My point of view on this is from an entirely unbiased one and even former Dutch maestro Clarence Seedorf was surprised at Oranje heading into the break with 11 men on the field, saying on the BBC:

The Dutch aggression is their tactics, I think. They’ve been committing a lot of fouls and they are lucky not to have received a couple of red cards, I have to say. Spain started well but after 15 minutes the Netherlands reshaped and since then all we’ve seen is fouls and tension.

However while the opening ten minutes of the second-half appeared to be more about attacking football, it returned to its normal standard quickly when Netherlands’ skipper Giovanni Van Bronckhorst held back Ramos – a caution in any game.

By now, it was more of a slugfest than a game of free-flowing football as Johnny Heitinga cynically stick a boot into David Villa off-the-ball and joined most of his teammates in the book. Minutes later, Capdevila appeared to get his own back on Van Persie by bringing him down by replays were inconclusive as to whether it was a poor tackle or a dive by the Dutchman. Probably a touch of both.

Van Bommel should join a circus such was the tightrope he was walking when he appeared to clip Iniesta – but then received a taste of his own medicine when the Spanish playmaker spitefully took his feet away after the ball had gone. Remarkably, both escaped cards.

When the game began to open up and Robben broke through the defence of Vicente Del Bosque’s side he battled over a challenge of Puyol before the out-rushing Cassilas grabbed the ball at his feet. He chased Webb down the field yelling, believing a foul should’ve been called. Robben kept on his feet by Puyol’s attempted tackle so it is difficult to argue it hindered him that much and the closing down to stop the shot was acceptable play. Maybe an advantage should have applied but that is debatable. However his protests correctly earned him a caution.

With the match deadlocked at 90, extra-time was required and with all these yellow cards sitting on the wall, it wouldn’t be long before one should accidentally fall. That came Iniesta tried to cut through the Oranje backline with a one-two pass but was held back by Heitinga. While it may seem cruel to go for that, he does have his arm on the shoulder of Iniesta and while the Spaniard exaggerates the contact, he is certainly not playing the ball. It also was by far not the only offence the defender had comitted since his first yellow.

The largely clean Gregory Van Der Wiel can feel like the obedient kid caught up in a class detention when he was wrongly cautioned for fouling Iniesta when the Spaniard had simulated the offence.

The Dutch however could have been down to nine-men when Robben tucked the ball in the net after play had been stopped for offside. I think it was the right call to leave him on however it is a quite minor offence and would have turned a difficult task into an impossible one for Holland.

That soon became a reality when a swift counter-attack from Spain ended with Iniesta swivelling in the area and dispatching the Jabulani into the net to send his countrymen delirious. The Dutch heavily contested this goal so let’s analyse it in some detail.

Depending on what reports you read, the disputes with the goal either came from an offside in the build-up to it or a foul on Elijero Elia at the end of the field just before the attack begun which was not blown for. If we address the offside first where the shot below shows the first ball played through (which was actually blocked by a defender) where Iniesta is level at worst with a Dutch player.

The next photo is the clearly onside Iniesta’s position as he receives the ball back, confirming its legitimacy in and of itself as a goal, as opposed to the whole attacking move.

The other aspect is with the alleged foul on Elia. I can’t find a suitable graphic image of that but from seeing the replays, it was more of a block from the defenders rather than an outright foul. I’m not saying those aren’t given on a regular basis but it is by no means a given. At any rate, the goal happens a good 10-20 seconds afterwards involving a good few Dutch touches as they try to get the ball from the Spaniards but fail. Holland did not clearly stop, assuming an offence had been called and their defenders were in a normal position at the start of the move.

The essence of this is then not so much a disputed goal as a marginally debatable minor foul – significant though it is, the reasons behind Oranje conceding that goal are not overly tied up with Howard Webb or his assistants.

But I realise I’ve digressed from talking about yellow cards. Immediately following the goal, Joris Mathijsen’s furious protests earned him a booking. Obviously he has the right to feel angry if he thinks, rightly or wrongly, that his side have unfairly conceded a goal but his viracious aggression cannot be allowed to escape punishment.

Just to show Webb wasn’t going to allow Iniesta to remove his shirt (I don’t agree with the rule but Webb is contractually obliged to enforce it) and cautioned him for his wild celebrations. Xavi clearly didn’t want out on the record-breaker and eeked his way into a yellow shortly after for petulantly kicking the ball away.

Holland weren’t able to grab a goal back in the remaining minutes and hence, Spain claimed their first World Cup. At the final whistle, Webb was surrounded by furious players such as Van Bommel who continued to berate him. There’s little I can comment on this – it was heat of the moment and while I frown on their behaviour, at least the ugly scenes were short-lived and in a game of these high stakes, one can somewhat empathise with their position.

This was an incredibly hard game to referee – no one expects the World Cup final to be a doddle to oversee but this was unprecedented and with so many clear infractions, Webb cannot simply say shrug his shoulders and let play continue “for the good of the game”. The reason why more Dutch names ended up in his book than Spaniards is simply because they committed more offences. If any Oranje supporter believes Webb to have unfairly penalised their team, perhaps they should review the first half when other officials may have sent Holland in with ten or maybe even nine men.

In the end, irrespective of the cards and the general quality of the match, most neutrals concur that the better side won on the night and in a highly charged and unstable contest such as this, that is all you can really ask for. It’s not the way anyone really wanted to see these finals end on and while Webb has had better nights, I don’t think any official could really come away from that satisfied as it’s more the lesser of two evils – either you flash red cards over the shop and blight the final itself or you let one or both side get away with cheating purely because of the occasion. Webb managed to scale those two extremes relatively well and while it wasn’t perfect, it required someone of strong character and judgement to keep his head and get the majority of the calls correct.

He may have been booed by many supporters in the stadium while collecting his medals but perhaps that particular prize was appropriate today after the battle on the field – having one of those pinned to your jersey shows Webb survived the combat and ended his tournament if not with a touch of class then a gritty, steadfast and determined performance which those years officiating in the lower reaches of the English leagues will have adequately prepared him for.

Plaudits should also go to his assistants Darren Cann and Mike Mullarkey who have had a superb tournament, arguably marginally better than Webb and have rarely put a foot wrong. The importance of their back-up to the referee cannot be overstated and they deserved recognition for their tireless work.

Refs rating: 7/10

Just because the tournament is over doesn’t mean we won’t continue to chew over the remains of the World Cup banquet on here for a short time as it is only with perspective of hindsight that we can truly consume the beast (octopus or otherwise) that has been South Africa 2010.

The final two: Webb will oversee the biggest prize in football when he leads the sides out tonight

For some, it all feels like its ending too quickly, for others they were happy for their World Cup fever to conclude a week ago. But whatever, this is the final, the fat lady is warming up and a man from Yorkshire is ready to take charge of one of the biggest occasions in sport. Does he have what it takes or could he caught caught in the web of the atmosphere?

Referee: Howard Webb (England)

Previous matches:
Switzerland 1-0 Spain
Slovakia 3-2 Italy
Brazil 3-0 Chile

Average refs rating: 8/10

Two years ago, angry Polish fans were posting YouTube videos depicting Webb as a cheat, a fascist and other slurs against him after he (correctly) penalised their national team by awarding Austria a late penalty in the opening game of Euro 2008.

The vivid documentary Referees at Work (or, rather more sensationally Kill the Referee as its US title) followed Webb and his team throughout those finals, from the disappointment and even fear of fan reprisals form that game to the low key plane ride home.

What was clear was that Webb and his assistants Darren Cann and Mike Mullarkey are comitted to making the right calls, keeping the game flowing and trying to maintain a good relationship with the players, all key aspects when taking charge of these high stakes international games.

From their group games, it would suggest that’s Webb presence led to two of the main surprises of that round though in both cases, neither losing side was unfairly penalised by bad refereeing decisions (Italy fans may differ but I would point them in the direction of my review linked above). This may give Dutch supporters hope as bookies have made Spain favourites but as long the game is officialed in the correct spirit, that shouldn’t be a factor.

In terms of the players tonight, I’ve expressed my constination at the leniency given to Oranje’s Mark Van Bommel by referees and hopefully Webb, who booked the midfielder in the Champions League final, will be harsher on him if he comes in with the sort of late challenges that have been his hallmark throughout the tournament.

In contrast Spain have received only three bookings between them, the second lowest in the tournament after North Korea (who they’ve played three more games than). Arguably taking a firm standpoint, they should have had a few more (Sergio Ramos comes to mind) but have been very well disciplined by on and off the ball with David Villa’s slap on Honduras’s Emilio Izaguirre being their main blackspot. However FIFA ultimately chose to take no action against that incident, something I generally agree with.

Holland have the most bookings of any team in the competition with 15 over their six games and have suffered accusations of diving, particularly from winger Arjen Robben. The Dutch have never been famous for their calm temperament but largely they’ve kept the fighting out of the camp and off the pitch for South Africa.

Both teams have had a large amount of fouls comitted against them (only behind Uruguay who have played an extra match) and this is no doubt due to their swift attacks and the pace within their sides. It will be interesting to see how they cope with each other from a defensive point of view considering both have given away penalties thus far.

Wesley Sneidjer has committed the most fouls out of the squads tonight with 13 to his name, vastly more than Spain’s highest fouler, Sergio Busquets with 7. Conversely, Busquets has jointly drawn the most fouls from opponents in the Spanish camp along with Andreas Iniesta while ironically Van Bommel has been in the receiving end of 19 offences from his opponents (no sympathy).

Graham Poll, England’s main official at the last finals (ending in disgrace with his big mistake in the Croatia/Australia game) believes Webb’s skills match more FIFA’s ideal picture of an official than what he brought to the table.

While I don’t think Webb has been by far and away the best referee out there, he’s probably been a clutch of three or four who deserved the final – Irmatov, Baldassi, Archundia, De Bleekere and Nishimura all come to mind as men who had done enough to earn this place but certainly the Englishman has been one of the top performers and while it is impossible to predict these things in advance (especially considering the last tournament’s final and THAT red card), Webb has the attributes, the composure and the form to take full control of the game tonight and see to it that the best team wins in the best possible way. He won’t want to be noticed, as he discusses below, but we will be the first to shout his plaudits or take him to task depending on how he takes charge this evening.

In professional terms, this was the footballing equivalent of the gold watch for Benito Archundina. He’s not retiring from refereeing just yet but under FIFA rules, this will be his final World Cup and the veteran official will have wanted to go out well. It’s a game that many believe has no real credence but did the right side win?

Germany 3-2 Uruguay

Referee: Benito Archundia
Yellow cards: 4 – Friedrich, Aogo, Caucau (Germany) Perez (Uruguay)
Red card: 0

While it was never too heated down there tonight, there would’ve been a minor riot had Dennis Aogo’s challenge on Diego Perez caused the injury it could have done. Slo-mo replays of Perez’s ankle bending underneath caused winces from my local TV station’s pundits and no doubt around the world.

The issue in a match like this is that you have to reset your parameters – did Archundia only give Aogo a yellow because he didn’t feel the tackle was that severe, it did he see the challenge clearly and feel that in the circumstances, with no injury actually caused and the match more of an exhibition that a caution was all it warranted?

We’ll never know but then again while we had to change the way we viewed the refereeing performance, the players own discipline was markedly changed from the rest of the tournament. Diving and simulation was at a minimum and it led to a physical and free-flowing game – if only we could have seen this from more teams, more times at these finals.

Perez was later cautioned himself for bringing down German skipper Bastian Schweinsteiger, a stonewall yellow card if ever there was one.

No real question of offside on Thomas Muller’s opening goal, another competitor was just about level but Muller timed his run perfectly and the defence could do nothing.

I’d like to think the Mexican wave was the supporters own way of saying goodbye to Archundia but in reality it was probably the laidback atmosphere of the fans, somewhat relieved at the less nail-biting and buttock-clenching that this contest brought compared with previous matches involving these sides.

There were amusing echoes of those previous contest though – the sight of Luis Suarez berating the official for an opponent’s handball will have caused some much witnessed irony. It came when Diego Forlan’s fizzing freekick was blocked by the hand of Cacau in the wall and Archundia, on spotting it, awarded Uruguay another setpiece opportunity and showed the Die Mannschaft striker a yellow.

Another freekick, late on in the game, earned them a chance in injury time to level the game at 3-3 when Arne Friedrich was booked for tackling the oft-mentioned Suarez. From the resulting strike, Forlan almost brought the scores equal and gave himself a shot at the Golden Boot. As it was, the crack of the bar above Hans Joerg Butt probably muffled the sound of Forlan’s heart sinking as the ball swung away simueltaniously with Archundia blowing the final whistle on the game and possible his international career.

Refs rating: 8/10

It may not feel like it matters from a footballing perspective and the third-placed playoff is more like an extended farewell to the teams who really helped to carve the tournament’s image but weren’t quite there for the finishing touches but this contest retains gravitas and is mark of honour for the man in the middle.

Many have labelled this game a glorified friendly and the past disciplinary record in this fixture bares that our – since it was introduced in 1934, there have been no red cards in a third/fourth placed playoff game at the World Cup.

What the contest lacks in cards, it usually makes up for in goals with a high average of strikes as players let their hair down and focus on fun, free flowing football as opposed to tense conservative play.

But we mustn’t take away this achievement from Mexico’s Benito Archundia, the official selected to take charge of this game. Archundia has been a good official in his previous two games at the finals (both in the group stages) and is very experienced, his first international tournament being the 1996 Olympic tournament in Atlanta, and has been officiating since 1985 – quite a comparison to Sunday’s final referee, Howard Webb who was only 14 at that time.

He started the tournament overseeing Italy’s 1-1 draw with Paraguay and had a superb performance when he took charge of the stalemate between Portugal and Brazil. It was somewhat surprising to see him not given a knockout game although he did have two in 2006, including Italy’s intense extra-time victory over hosts Germany.

One of his strongest attributes – foul detection – will sadly probably not be of great use this evening but he deserves his plaudits in what will be his final World Cup, due to FIFA rules so he can return to his profession as a laywer and economist for 2014.

In terms of the sides, if this hadn’t been the relatively clean environment of the third-placed playoff, it would be interesting to compare one of the best disciplined teams (Germany commit around 10 fouls a game) with one of the less well controlled (Uruguay’s matches have contained a total of 184 offences so far, for and against).

The pariah or hero, depending on your point of view (I am of the latter) Luis Suarez will make his return following his famous sending off for deliberate handball against Ghana and the formely suspended Thomas Mueller returns for Die Mannschaft.

Typically the “underdog” has had the better of this match with Croatia and Poland beating more favoured opposition in this fixture so history is slightly on Uruguay’s side, but Germany are the unwitting holders of third place having won it four years ago and when the two (West Germany back then) met in 1970, Celeste lost 1-0.

Archundia will still give it his all this evening but in a more relaxed environment, he should be able to take in the great atmosphere in Port Elizabeth as the contestants rue falling the wrong side of the weekend.

So England will be represented in the final – though not quite as they hoped one month ago. Howard Webb has been given the biggest prize for officials in the game – the right to oversee the largest game in the sport. Was this the right decision by FIFA or another attempt to make the final even more eurocentric that it already is?

On July 7th 1974, when Webb was just a toddler in his native Rotherham, Englishman Jack Taylor led out West Germamy and Holland at the Olympiastadion in Munich for the World Cup Final in a match where he famously awarded two penalties in the opening half hour including one for the Oranje in the first minute of the game.

Following the match, Taylor was criticised by both sets of fans – Holland believing he had given Die Mannschaft a spotkick just to even things up and Germany thinking he had given the Dutch a penalty and wrongly called a Gerd Muller goal offside because of his supposed resistance to the nation as an Anglophile. Franz Beckenbauer had walked up to Taylor following his early penalty call and said ‘Taylor, you’re an Englishman’.

Whatever the legitimacy of his calls, Taylor denied any accusations of bias but the Dutch will certainly be hoping the presence of another British official will not be bad omen as they lost that 74 final 2-1.

The reality is, after Spain’s triumph last night, that we won’t see a repeat of the participants of that day though we came awfully close. Webb will also hope that no controversy trails him following the game after the arguments surrounding officials which has sadly cast a cloud over some of the stronger referee performances these finals.

But 36 years on from the events of Munich, Webb puts the icing on top of a career which began on the damp pitches of Yorkshire in 1989, balancing what little money his early officiating jobs pulled in with his job as a policeman – a profession that has no doubt helped when it comes to handling intense situations on the pitch.

Like many in refereeing professional, his original dreams of becoming a player were quashed by disappointing episodes following trials with his local clubs.

My father kept telling me that there was a desperate shortage of referees at the local level and that I ought to give it a go. I wasn’t interested at first as I was happy playing and watching but eventually, after some persuasion, I decided to give it a go. I was still only 18 and continued playing and refereeing for several years until I decided to fully focus on refereeing

He was following in his dad’s footsteps as Webb Sr. had officiated at a semi-professional level extensively. But like many young men growing up, Webb felt he could emulate and perhaps outdo his father’s success in the business. By 1993 he was an assistant referee in the Northern Counties East league (9th on the rung of England’s notoriously intricate pyramid system) and three years later he achieved the same position in the Football League itself.

After overseeing matches in the Football Conference, he was taking charge of league games 2000 and got the big jump into the Premiership itself in 2003. The seven years since have seen FA and Carling Cup finals, a Community Shield, Champions League games and plenty of internationals including two games at Euro 2008.

The opening game of that tournament which Webb officiated was not without dispute when he awarded hosts Austria a late penalty against Poland which they coverted to draw the match 1-1. Webb was criticised by Polish coach Leo Beenhakker who, in a phrase that could’ve been taken from recent weeks newspapers, said the call was as “inconsistent with the rest of the tournament”. Unlike this year, Webb was backed by the governing body with UEFA’s William Gaillard supporting his decision.

This May, he was made the offical for the Champions League final at the Bernebau where Inter Milan defeated Bayern Munich 2-0 and Spain fans will be delighted to know that Mark Van Bommel was booked that day!

Earlier in the tournment, Webb was the man in the middle for Spain’s surprise loss to the stiff Swiss, before reffing Slovakia’s monumental 3-2 victory against former World Champions Italy and Brazil’s disposal of Chile in the second round. During those games, Webb has shown 17 yellow cards (the joint highest in the tournament and more than Ravshan Irmatov who has overseen two more matches than Webb) but no red cards.

The decision to appoint Webb will be somewhat of a redemption for English officials after Graham Poll’s embarassing “three-card trick” in the 2006 finals when he notoriously showed Croatia’s Josip Šimunić a trio of bookings in his country’s fiery loss with Australia, only sending him off with a red card following the final whistle when the player had complained to Poll, despite his remarkable luck in remaining on the field the whole 90 minutes.

Poll’s career never fully recovered and he recalls the ominous words said to him by the German president before the tournament as he addressed the officials “a decision you make could be seen by billions and remembered for decades”.

We should not forget Webb’s erstwhile assistants who are vital supports to the referee and come in the form of Michael Mullarkey and Darren Cann, a duo who have made some tight but ultimately correct calls so far.

Mullarkey revealed that as a preparation for the piercing noise of the vuvuzelas, FIFA had installed giant speakers blasting out the sound of the trumpets at training sessions.

But the suggestion that FIFA should install systems to help the officials has been welcomed by Webb. “I think the place most referees would like to get some help from technology is on goal-line incidents”, he said. “Some help there, either with video replays or some form of chip in the ball, in my view would certainly improve the game.”

Webb thrives under pressure however and he will not baulk at the prospect of such an important game. He at least appears to understand the qualities that will serve the man in black for the final well.

You need to be an excellent manager of people and be a good communicator. You also need lots of awareness and courage. But the main things for me are a desire to learn and work hard, and having belief in yourself.

Speaking shortly after the 2006 tournament, Webb said: “I only hope I get the opportunity one day to experience what must be the pinnacle of any referee’s career.” He’s got that opportunity now and with all eyes pointed to Johannesberg, there will be no room for error on Sunday but also a chance for Webb to prove himself as one the best officials with a strong performance.

Elsewhere Mexico’s Benito Archundia has been given the third-placed playoff between Germany and Uruguay and Saturday and we’ll be paying his dues and exploring that contest in more detail in a preview to be posted soon.