Spain are facing Paraguay next aren't they?

Anyhoo

21 (Mirson) Spain 1-0 Portugal (FootballFan) 16

               Villa 63

That kind of refereeing is something that we Portuguese fans are accustomed to, against Brazil it was the same. Ronaldo spent the entire WC being shoved, tackled and so on. 

What pissed me off was both the offside and the asinine red card. I just hope Spain gets eliminated in the same way, just to taste a bit of what it feels like.

I know

who do you think will win the germany/argentina match then lol, i think argentina will win.

It's going to be an extremely tough call. Both are probably the best two offensive oriented teams in the WC. I fear that they'll play too fearful of one another but in the end, I think Argentina will manage to win though.

Unlucky result for Portugal. Comiserations mate.

I get the feeling it's a "boy who cried wolf" syndrome with Ronaldo. He's somewhat known for going down a bit too easy so the referees probably ignore him, even when the fouls were blatantly obvious as they were vs Spain. I mean, he got fully man-handled in that game!

As for the fake red card, I personally think players that behave that way should be banned for 3 matches minimum. Acting to get another player sent off is disgraceful behaviour no matter what level of football they play at.

Well, Portugal's second half (after Almeida's substitution) pretty much dictated the result. Even considering that offside goal (which was minute, as I saw a couple of days later, so I think there's a gap for refereeing doubt there) and the forced red card, Spain played better than Portugal. 

The problem with Ronaldo is that his play style always forces contact between himself and the defenders. Referees are known to disagree strongly against this concept of play, since it only makes for much difficult decisions to be made, and thus they often decide against the player. That still doesn't takes out the blame from the referee. 

There were a couple of fouls that were so blatant, the referee had no chance not to see them. Especially the one at minute 83, when Capdevilla shoved Ronaldo with both arms. He didn't even care for the ball, as Puyol was already running for it, he only cared for pushing Ronaldo. That was a serious foul that in other cases would be a direct Yellow card.

As for that red card, it's a shame how it was the second successful time that Spain has managed to pull it off in this World Cup. And when a true aggression happens, like Villa punching the Honduran defender in the face, the referee (and FIFA, as they said they didn't see anything ban worthy in the replay footage in the disciplinary committee)  just acted as if nothing happened. 

If Villa had been expelled from the Honduras match, there would be a high probability of Spain having a very hard time of salvaging the 1-0 lead they had at that time. Not only that, it would prevent Spain from having their best player for the decisive match against Chile.

And even in that match, Chile was robbed when Torres simulated that tackle from behind which got the Chile defender expelled. The timing of the red card was what ticked me off. Just as Chile was recovering from the 1-0 blow (scored by Villa, who should have been suspended) and was gaining an ascendant over Spain, that red card happens, completely obliterating any chance of Chile recovering from that result. 

Thus, this creates a very large doubt over the validity of Spain in the later phases of the World Cup. No doubt that they play some of the best football today, but if the rules had been applied for them, I don't doubt that they wouldn't go through the first round.

only saw the second half but those were 2 nice goals from NL.

The brazillians really seemed to be incapable of doing anything when they lose control of the game.... too used at being stars I guess...

In any case NL is more than ever a contender for the world cup.

As I said on the Football thread, Brazil just had the typical reaction of S.America/Latin football teams, when they find themselves in the downside.

Everything is fine and well when they're winning, but when they're losing, that nasty side arises. 

Good job for NL, and now I'm hoping for a Netherlands - Germany final.

The Dutch had a fair part of fouls too. Funny but any big teams against Netherland tend to go hot...Reminiscence of portual vs Netherland in 2006.

In 2006 the Dutch did everything they could to break both Ronaldo's and Deco's legs. They managed to succeed on Ronaldo, as he had an 8 month foot injury that cost him almost a full year in Manchester United. I still remember Van Bommel smiling towards Van Brockohorst when he did that foul.

That just pissed off the Portuguese players who had some nasty fouls of their own, and a consequent Red Card (which was correctly showed).