Coach van Marwijk says his players were too tense and were not the only ones going for rough tackles.
For all the beautiful football they have produced in the World Cup, The Netherlands will be remembered for the rough tactics that they employed in the final.
The Dutchmen will have to take the blame after one of the roughest finals, which produced 47 fouls, 13 yellow cards and one red card.
Though experts say that was the only way the Dutch could have stopped Spain’s beautiful rhythmic play, their coach, Bert van Marwijk, insisted his side did not play ugly football.
“Let me put it this way, it’s not our style to commit horrible fouls,” Van Marwijk said. “It’s not our kind of football. It was a World Cup final and people were tense. Look at the rest of the tournament. I think both sides, also the Spaniards, committed terrible fouls.”
Van Marwijk, however, conceded that Spain were a better side throughout the tournament. “It was still our intention to play beautiful football, but we were facing a very good opponent. Spain are the best footballing country in the past few years, so we needed to have a top day to beat them.
"We did a good job tactically. We got into good positions at times. It’s a World Cup final, and there’s a lot of emotion out there. I’d have loved to have won that match, even with not-so-beautiful football.”
Led by their bruising midfield enforcer Mark van Bommel, the Dutch used physical intimidation to try and knock the Spanish off their elegant passing game. Van Bommel, who committed five of the 28 fouls by The Netherlands, was lucky not to get a first-half red card for slicing through Andres Iniesta’s left leg.
Nigel de Jong could also have followed with a chest-high tackle on Xabi Alonso in a display which, at times, bordered on brutal. It worked up to a point, as the Spanish were knocked off their stride for the first hour.
But Spain coach Vicente del Bosque refused to criticise the Dutch tactics, saying the effort required might have taken its toll on them. “I congratulate our opponents who gave us a very hard time and never let us get comfortable,” said Del Bosque. “They had a great physical effort and we dominated extra time.”
Ref robbed us: Sneijder, Van Persie
Meanwhile, Wesley Sneijder and Robin van Persie lashed out at English referee Howard Webb.
The pair led a chorus of Dutch criticism against the match official. “He has robbed us,” said Sneijder, who was denied the accolade of adding football’s greatest prize to medals this season for winning the Champions League, Serie A, and Italian Cup with Inter Milan.
“This really is a disgrace to football. It really shouldn’t have happened. First I shot a free kick that hit the wall and then the Spanish keeper touched it before going behind. What does the referee do? The whistle was not for a corner.
"In the following attack, Iniesta is at first offside. Webb doesn’t whistle and then Iniesta gets the ball and scores,” Sneijder said.
Arsenal striker Van Persie was equally scathing about the official who had earlier sent off Dutch defender John Heitinga for a second bookable offence, but spared Iniesta the same punishment.
“What was this man doing?” said the striker. “He made three big errors in extra time of a final! Believe me, this really hurts.
"Even after Heitinga’s red card I still felt we could be world champions. With penalty kicks we’d at least have had a 50% chance."
According to Van Persie, "Iniesta should not have been on the pitch because he kicked Van Bommel. He also should have shown [Carles] Puyol a second yellow card for trying to knock down [Arjen] Robben. The referee has been decisive.”
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