World Cup Round of 16 - Portugese Wins Ugly Game (Portugal 1 - Holland 0)

What an awful showcase for the beautiful game! 4 red cards and so many yellow cards that I lost count. Quite frankly I don't blame Russian referee Valentin Ivanoc for flashing them. It was a hard game to referee and the amount of horrible tackles, blatant cheating and acts of poor behaviour and sportsmanship by grown men made it a nightmare for him.

The game started tentative for both teams in the early exchanges, with neither being overly advanturous, committing ment forward. It wasn't till the 23rd minute that Deco crossed the ball from the right side to find Pauleta at the edge of the penalty box, who delightfully laid it in the path of an on rushing Maniche. The Chelsea man skipped pass a challenge and rifled in a wonderfully struck goal past Van Der Sar. It remained that way till the final whistle.

At the end of the half, Costinha was sent off for receiving a yellow card the second time, reducing the Portugese to 10 men in the second half. Why he struck out his hand to touch the ball is anyone's guess. It was a stupid foul and he deserved to be sent off, if not for the foul, then for his stupidity.

In the beginning of the second half, Cocu then struck the underside of the bar in some penalty area confusion. But that's probably where all the entertainment ended and the cynicism started.

The referee started branding the yellow cards in quick succession on numerous occasions as the game got increasingly ugly with minor skirmishes threatening to boil over into full fledge fist fights.

Figo was lucky to get away with only a yellow when he headbutted Van Bommel in the first incident on the hour. Then a couple of minutes later, Boulahouz was sent off elbowing Figo, which had both benches emptying out and almost confronting on the pitch.

Because the ball was kicked out of play by a Portugese player to allow treatment to Figo, the Portugese had expected the ball to be returned to them in a gesture of sportsmanship. Unfortunately, Heitinga, who had just got on the pitch decided to take on the unwary Portugese defence, prompting Deco to cut him down. It sparked yet another round of rowdiness, and a flurry of yellow cards from the referee.

Then Deco became the third player to be sent off. Why? I do not know, and I didn't care. By this time I was just waiting for the fist fight that looked likely to occur. If the game wasn't going to give me entertaining football, at least it should compensate with a Royal Rumble.

The Dutch poured forward, throwing everything they had, including the proverbial kitchen sink at the Portugese, but simple could not find that elusive goal to bring on extra time. And in a very lengthy injury time, Van Bronkhorst, got himself booked and sent off. Well, if the score could not be levelled, at least the teams were.

After this encounter, the only winner from this game was England. The English couldn't have been happier from this result (except extra time). They would face an exhausted and probably badly bruised Portugese team, who will be missing Deco and Costinha to suspension, especially Deco who has been intrumental for the Portugese. They would probably be missing Ronaldo as well, who was substituted early in the game due to what looks like a bad injury.

Maybe this could be England's year afterall. What they can't make up in skill, they surely look likely to make up in luck. Maybe time to make a trip down to Singapore Pools to place a small bet on them winning this damn thing.