Deco and van Bronckhorst sat next to each other on the sidelines, watching the end of the game together, sweating from their match exertions, Deco in the Portugal kit, van Bronckhorst in the white Dutch away kit. If you just saw the image without any context, you’d think it was one of those moments of any World Cup, where football brings people together. And you’d be right. These were two teammates at club level, Barcelona, they knew and liked each other. But why were they sat together on the sidelines looking on in bemusement?
It was the match that became known as the Battle of Nuremberg. A last-16 clash between Portugal and Netherlands at the 2006 World Cup.
It was a record for a World Cup match in terms of refereeing and fair play (or lack of).
4 red cards and 16 yellow cards.
It was so bad that it has its own Wiki page.
The Russian referee, Valentin Ivanov wasn’t shy to hand out the cards early, booking Mark van Bommel within 2 minutes, although to be fair van Bommel loved getting a booking in his career. That was just the start though:
- Costinha received two bookings, the second a handball.
- Ronaldo went off injured in tears after suffering from a bad challenge, not the last time he would cry on the pitch.
- Luis Figo headbutted van Bommel on the side of the pitch, causing a melee involving coaches and players.
- Boulahrouz was sent off for fouling Figo and causing another touchline melee.
- Deco received bookings for a rough foul and then for delaying the restart from a free kick. Before that he’d had a wrestling match on the floor with Cocu.
- In injury time, van Bronckhorst was sent off for a second yellow after fouling Tiago.
We shouldn’t forget about Boulahrouz too, he was also sat next to the pair, and the scene was dubbed ‘bad boys’ corner’ by the commentator. The scene of the players chatting with each other, disbelief in what had happened on the pitch is one that will last forever. An iconic World Cup moment.
]Amidst the chaos of the bookings and red cards, Portugal won the match 1-0, going through to beat England on penalties in the next round and losing to France in the semi-finals.
It wasn’t the first time that Portugal had been involved in ugly scenes like this. At the Euros in 2000, Abel Xavier was sent off in extra time against France in the semi-final, leading to an on-field brawl. Nuno Gomes received an 8-month ban for pushing the referee and Paolo Bento got 6-months for taking the card out of the refs hand.
As a spectator it was a lot of fun to watch. We all love a bit of handbags on the pitch at times, and at a World Cup where there is so much at stake, it’s understandable that when one player loses his head, the rest will follow.
You should be careful when playing Portugal at an international tournament. They might get violent.
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