Referee Rating: 2010 World Cup Final - Netherlands v. Spain

Howard Webb realizes the highest refereeing honor as the center referee for the World Cup Final. Darren Cann and Mike Mullarkey are his assistants as always. All three referees will hope that the talk after the game will be about the play and not their decisions. However neither Webb nor his assistants will be afraid to step up and make a big call if there is one to make.

14' Easy call for the foul on Puyol.

15' It was easily a foul by van Persie, not necessarily a yellow, but the challenge was from behind and ended up two-footed even though it didn't start out that way.

16' That was easily a yellow for Puyol.

18' Good call on the offside by Villa.

22' At least Webb won't be accused of letting van Bommel off easy. Of course van Bommel made that decision easy.

23' The challenge by Ramos was late and high, but not necessarily a yellow. It did look worse at full-speed though.

26' That looked like a foul by Sergio, not on him to me.

28' That was a dumb challenge by de Jong. Probably should have been a red.

31' Good advantage, too bad Pedro did nothing with it.

33' Busquets made no attempt to play the ball, just put a shoulder into Robben.

36' Easy call for the foul on Sneijder.

43' Sergio is really annoying me calling for a card for every foul committed by the Netherlands.

45'+2 Good call by Mullarkey on the offsides. While van Persie didn't play the ball, he did obstruct the view of the Spanish defender covering Kuyt.

First half rating: Good. 7/10. Some might criticize the number of cards shown so far, but it seems like they calmed the game down and all but one of them were easily classified as reckless. As for de Jong's yellow instead of red, I can only assume Webb saw it as reckless instead of excessive because de Jong only had eyes for the ball. It could have easily been a red though and it would be interesting to know what Webb thinks of the challenge now that he will have seen a replay or two of the challenge. I expect he might have second thoughts. It would be nice if I had a DVR so I could see Webb's positioning and de Jong's challenge frame-by-frame, but I have to make due with ABC's replays.

46' Iniesta flopped a bit there.

49' Neither van Bommel nor Xabi looked like they were trying to play the ball nor could they have.

54' That was a yellow only because of the position of the foul. Van Bronckhorst knew what he was doing.

56' Webb tried to play the advantage while Villa made a meal of that.

58' That wasn't "minimal contact" on Sneijder as Ekoku (commentator) said it was. It was a foul, but no more than that.

62' Great run by Robben, he was easily onside. Great save by Casillas.

67' Easily a yellow for that foul on van Persie. It looked like he could have stayed on his feet though.

68' Not sure what happened there with van Bommel. Great call by Mullarkey on a close offsides.

73' Good call for the foul on Iniesta.

78' That was not a foul on Iniesta. It probably should have been a yellow for him for his reaction though.

83' I don't think that was a penalty, but I'll hve to see a replay. Nope, an arm, but that wasn't even a foul by Puyol. That was a good card for dissent by Robben.

88' Easy call for the foul on Villa.

90' Easy offsides call by Cann on van Persie.

92' Fabregas dove. Xavi kicked Heitenga and then dove. What unsportsmanlike play from Spain. I'm firmly rooting for the Netherlands now. It had been half-hearted support since Robben was rolling a bit, but Xavi's insistence on a card for every foul on his team had me on the Dutch side.

96' Not really sure what the foul was on that corner.

102' Good offside call by Cann.

108' Easy call on the ball out of play.

109' Robben should probably watch his protests. Iniesta went down easily there. I'm not so sure that was a foul. If it was, then a red is correct, but I'm not so sure. Seeing the replay, it was a second yellow. I guess that's a more defensible call, but I still think the foul was soft.

113' There was no need for a yellow there, but Robben is on very thin ice. He's basically asking for a second yellow.

115' Webb missed the deflection...I'm not sure how. He's not had the greatest of games. His assistants have been great though.

117' I think Iniesta was offside there. Replay shows I was wrong and Mullarkey was right. Easy yellow for Mathijsen. He was throwing a tantrum worthy of a two year old.

120' Xavi finally gets the card he deserves, but it's actually not for a dive or dissent.

Ratings will come after dinner.

Updated 12 July at 1320 EDT:
Ratings:
Assistants: Excellent. 9/10. Cann and Mullarkey got every call correct even some very close offsides calls.

Game control: Pretty good. 6.75/10. This one is hard to rate because I feel that the game got away from Webb a couple times. That said, both teams, particularly the Dutch, were fouling pretty hard at times. I think the cards did calm the game and were pretty much all given for clearly reckless challenges or tactical (unsporting) fouls.

So, I might be harsh in my rating given the tough time the Dutch gave him. This appeared to be a very hard game to referee and keep under control, but I just would have liked to see Webb handle it better. Maybe no referee would have been able to do that, but given the way he handled the Champions League Final earlier this year, I expected more. I do think an above average World Cup referee would have completely lost control of the game so maybe even a great performance was what Webb put out and it was just a really tough game, but I still would've liked to see Webb excel.

Big decisions: Average. 5/10. I think de Jong's challenge should've been a red. The second yellow for Heitinga was harsh I thought. I guess it is a yellow if you think that's a foul, but I thought Iniesta went down at the slightest touch on his shoulder. I think he missed the biggest call of the game (de Jong), but his cards were mostly right and he was close to play to make the big calls. Even de Jong could been seen as merely reckless (which gets a yellow) instead of excessive or violent (which gets a red), but I still think Webb will see a replay of the challenge and think he may have gotten that wrong. I think some of the diving could have been dealt with, but the biggest flop by Xavi was kind of hidden from Webb from what I could see.

Overall: Above average. 6.5/10. A tough game was mostly kept under control. I think the biggest call was missed, but the yellow instead of red for de Jong is defensible in law. Maybe my expectations were too high for Webb, and my ratings reflect that. Like I said before, it's tough because it was a very difficult game and so maybe Webb deserves at least a "Good" or "Very Good" for giving us a game that was about the game itself and not really about him and his team, but it is what it is. If I can find Webb's thoughts on his performance and his explanations are convincing maybe I'll change it or maybe it'll confirm my criticisms.

So there's my incredibly wishy-washy ratings. I'm still not sure they should be that low, but we'll see.

Edit: After re-watching the final, I don't think there's many referees that could have handled the game as well as Webb.

Revised ratings:
Game Control: Very good-excellent. 8.5/10
Big Decisions: Good. 7/10
Overall: Very good. 8/10