We've just seen an incident that shows quite clearly why referees should not even attempt to punish 'simulation' on the night. If they don't think it should be a free kick or penalty fair enough, don't give it, but they make he selves look like fools when they punish a player for a dive and replays show that there was enough contact for a fall, whether it is a penalty or free kick is another matter but if a player legitimately went to ground then it is ridiculous that they get carded.

All diving/simulation should be policed after the fact with Hefty bans of two or three games being given out for incidents ruled to be a dive after looking at various camera angles etc. then we might see a reduction.

Oscar should not have been booked there

Totally agree, ridiculous referring today.

And Van Gaal makes another goalkeeper change, getting Vorm, the only player in his squad that hadn't played in the WC, inside the game.

Final score: Netherlands 3-0 Brazil.

The referee is not up with play today and that is pretty much all I will criticise him for because he should never have been given this game.

Brazil have again been horrible. Can't wait for the proper final tomorrow!

Yeah poor performance from the officials tonight for this glorified friendly game. Is there any point to the third place play off? I find myself agreeing with Van Gaal, there is no point.

A decent Dutch team beat an ordinary Brazil side. That's all that happened here.

Haha...that's what my husband said---it looked more like a friendly than the 3rd place game in the World Cup. I suspect the ref will get hammered by everyone because of his errors. I don't think he changed the outcome, but still...at this level that many mistakes is unacceptable.

Today's Games
Brazil 0-3 The Netherlands
Brazil's humiliation only got worse today, when nobody thought it could. Even though the first two goals were incorrect referee decisions, Brazil deserved to lose. Big changes have to be done in order to go back to what Brazil's soccer was before.


Today's Refs
Algerian referee Djaimel Haimoudi proved the world he isn't ready for that type of matches, and that FIFA people in charge of designating refs are not the brightest people. What may seem as a non-important game has repercussions in the people of Brazil, which has reached the bottom of the pit. Haimoudi and his assistant missed Robben's dive (the first, which was called a penalty), there was contact but outside the box. In any case, Thiago Silva should've been sent off and he wasn't. There were a couple more penalties he missed, as well as an offside that ended in the second goal. Haimoudi is not a bad ref, he is simply not ready for this. If FIFA are already designating Europeans to officiate matches with an European in them (Nicola Rizzoli tomorrow), then they might've as well put Howard Webb in this one.

Hopefully Rizzoli will do a good job tomorrow.


Today's Facts
- Brazil's 7-1 loss against Germany was by far the widest result Brazil has lost by, however, today's 3-0 against the Netherlands ties the France 1998 game against France. These are Brazil's worst defeats in World Cups.

- With Louis Van Gaal's last-minute substitution, the Netherlands became the first team in the history of the World Cup to use all 23 players in the squad at some point of the tournament. Goalkeeper Cilessen became the first to be substituted twice in the same WC.

- It is the first time Brazil loses two consecutive official (non-friendly) matches as the home team.


What's Next
Sunday July 13: Argentina vs Germany, the Final


Today's Questions
- What do you think of Brazil's performance?

- Is the third place playoff important? Should it be played?

- Who will rise as World Champion tomorrow? Argentina or Germany? I'm rooting for neither but think Germany will win.


What do you think? See you tomorrow! I can't believe this is my penultimate recap post!

Good final, with some nitty gritty in it too which I like.

I'm pleased that Germany won, I think the way the German national team have played since 2006 they have deserved it. Argentina were well organised and defensively very sound and very capable on the break but I'm glad they spurned their big opportunities as they could have won in normal time quite easily had one of the few chances gone in.

Well done Germany!

I felt a bit sorry for Lionel Messi, but I'm glad Germany won.

I know Messi was disappointed, but he has to be a bit more gracious in defeat. He looked like a pouting child after the game, especially when accepting his award and medal. I'm not expecting smiles and high fives, but was also not expecting that.

Anyway, great game and beautiful goal.

To be honest, I thought it was a terrible, boring game, but the winner was who deserved to win. Shameful attitude by Messi and the Argentinians, some even blamed the ref! Argentina played a bad WC and did not deserve to win, Getmany did a good tournament and these are the results of a 6-year process

Rizzoli did a great, almost impecable job. He could've shown more cards and even two reds, but given the tendency throughout te tournament, there were no surprises.

Thank you all for following my updates for this last month, I hope you liked them! I will be giving my final recap in about a week, when I'm back home. I actually watched the game in New York, where two ESPN announcers said these were the best two teams. I completely disagree, Argentina was terrible! And Messi winning the Golden Ball... ridiculous. Anyway...

Thanks!

Thanks for your commentary, Lpez- it was quite enjoyable and informative to a non-soccer fan like me!

Well as someone who DOES classify himself as a football fan (soccer if you like), I have thoroughly enjoyed Lpez's excellent and informative postings on the World Cup matches.

As to the Final itself, I have watched better (and worse) matches, but it was still quite entertaining. Overall I think Germany deserved their win.

I have to disagree with you that this was a boring game. It was a game of good quality with the exception of the finishing in front of goal. The personal duels that were taking place all over the field, the way Argentina were set up so well drilled and ready to snuff out the German attacks but all the while being so dangerous on the break. I mean they could have won this game quite easily! Before you suggest that this was a bad Argentina side try to think about which other team in the tournament could actually have beaten them. I can't think of any other team that would have knocked Argentina out such was their organisation in defence.

Germany still deserved it for me, maybe they were snuffed out on the night except for a classy goal but they are the best team at the tournament. Although they need to improve more for me to see them as greats. I still don't think this German side would beat any of the last five previous winners.

About the Golden Ball. I'm pretty sure these things have to be chosen before the final starts (although I could be wrong). With that in mind I think they had to choose Messi because if he had had a great performance in the final and scored one (or especially two goals or assisted with a second) then I think his total contribution would have become that of the golden ball winner and it would then have looked weird to award it to someone else. As it stands he had quite a good tournament, he just didn't live up to his own astronomic standards. Commentators here in he UK were suggesting it should have been James Rodriguez but he didn't even figure in the last week of he competition so I don't think he should have won it either. I think it was between Messi and Muller and one of them needed to make a major contribution in the final to truly deserve it.

Finally, I too would like to thank you for keeping this thread upto date and active with your thoughts, stats and commentary. It makes such a difference and was most interesting and has got many of us posting that might normally be more apathetic. Kudos LPez!

I also want to thank Lpez for his commentary. It was interesting and informative, but always polite and considerate of others' opinions.
I, too, thought the game, even without tons of scoring chances, was tactically interesting and very intense (especially in extra time.)

To be fair...Messi didn't really figure into the last week of competition either. he disappeared once the round of 16 started. I think that says more about the defensive style the Argentina played than anything else (and the defensive style their opponents played too, since that's common in the Round of 16).

I'm of the thought that the Golden Ball should have gone to Muller even before the final. I thought he was more deserving than Messi. Rodriguez had a great WC, but he won the Golden Boot, so not surprised he didn't win the Golden Ball.

Well, I'm finally home after a rather long vacation. The Mexican soccer league started just a week ago and it has been hard to make the transition from the high level of the World Cup to the impressively low level of Mexican soccer.

Anyway, I would like to thank all of you for visiting the thread and commenting, and of course, for reading all of my daily summaries. I really appreciate all your comments, and I was glad to provide my efforts for you guys, definitely would do it again.

Thank you all,