Potential thriller descends into farce

Portugal 1 Netherlands 0: From the subtle swing of Latin rhythms to the ugly realities of the European mainstream. If Saturday night's epic Argentina v Mexico clash illustrated much that was good about Latin American football, Portugal's hard-won 1-0 defeat of Holland in Nuremberg last night illustrated the negative side of European football as two of its superpowers got involved in a fiercely competitive scrap that quickly disintegrated into a kicking match which ended with just 18 players on the pitch.

Fifa will doubtless look long and hard at the performance of Russian referee Valentin Ivanov who, to put it mildly, was a trifle whistle happy. Speaking after the match, Portugal's midfielder Maniche, scorer of the game's only goal, was critical of the referee, saying: "Frankly, the referee didn't help much tonight. He was flashing too many cards, I don't think the match was that violent, he didn't need to show all those yellows and send off four players."

Defeated Dutch coach Marco Van Basten was even more outspoken, saying: "I don't want to be hard but it's a pity the referee made such a mess of this game, it's a pity we didn't play much football in the second half. Until then, it had been an open and spectacular game."

Van Basten and Maniche are entitled to defend the players but the reality is that neither the Dutch nor the Portuguese team helped referee Ivanov in a game that quickly went from the aggressive to the outright violent. With the Dutch defenders more than ready to use brawn to compensate for their technical shortcomings and with Portugal not behind the door in replying in kind, a kicking match was always going to be the order of the night.

Indeed, almost from the kick-off, we had an idea of what the game might entail with Dutch midfielder Mark Van Bommel narrowly shooting wide and then deservedly picking up the first yellow card of the game, all within the first 100 seconds. With Fifa recommendations in his ears, Ivanov opted to err on the safe side, tolerating little or nothing, so much so that by the end of the game he had shown an astonishing 16 yellow cards and sent off four players, Portuguese midfielders Costinho and Deco and Dutchmen Khalid Boulharouz and Giovanni Van Bronckhorst.

Perhaps last night's game will finally burst the bubble on one of the great myths of the modern game, namely that the Dutch are footballing purists, devoted to the "total" attacking game. The reality about Dutch football, going back as far as Johan Neeskens for those of you old enough to remember, is that it has always been "brutal" (Flemish word) i.e. cynically tough and ugly if necessary.

Given the footballing potential of both sides, such an outcome was a real pity. Indeed, this was the first truly negative night of this World Cup. Mind you, as the rest of the world looked on horrified, English eyes were probably smiling since given the plethora of yellow cards issued by Ivanov, Portugal coach Phil Scolari will have difficulty finding 11 players for Portugal's quarter-final clash with England.

Of the two coaches, Van Basten had sprung the only minor selection surprise with his decision to omit Ruud Van Nistelrooy in favour of Feyenoord striker Dick Kuyt, flanked by the two wingers Robin Van Persie and Arjen Robben. For his part, Felipe Scolari remained true to his normal 4-2-3-1 formation, the Ronaldo-Deco-Figo trio playing behind Pauleta in attack.

The possibilities for football had been fleetingly seen in the first half, firstly through the bold running of both Van Persie and Robben on the Dutch flanks and then through the creative work of Portuguese maestro Figo.

The game's only goal, too, was a fine effort set up by some clever work from Cristiano Ronaldo, who released Deco down the right wing. The Barcelona schemer then crossed to Pauleta, who tapped it back to Maniche for a splendid 23rd-minute goal.

After that, darkness descended. Costinho picked up the first red just before half-time when he needlessly handled the ball close to the halfway line. Earlier, he had attempted to reshape Philip Cocu's left ankle.

Next off in the 62nd minute was Khalid Boulahrouz who, for his part, tried to reshape Figo's nose with an accurately placed elbow. After that both Deco in the 78th minute and Giovanni Van Bronckhorst in the 95th followed the other two, again for obvious offences.

Perhaps the most telling image of the night was that of Barcelona team-mates Deco and Van Bronckhorst, rivals last night, sitting on the grandstand steps watching the final minutes of the action after having been dismissed.

Both players appeared to be sharing some obviously negative opinions about the referee's work. However, most neutral viewers are likely to have even more obviously negative opinions of Deco, Van Bronckhorst and company.