On 25 June 2006, Portugal played the Netherlands in the round of 16 in Nuremberg. It did not stay a football match for long.
The Russian referee Valentin Ivanov showed 16 yellow cards and 4 red cards. Players kicked each other, argued and squared up all evening. Portugal lost Costinha and Deco to red cards; the Netherlands lost Boulahrouz and Van Bronckhorst. By the final whistle both sides were down to nine men.
Somewhere in the middle of all this Maniche scored, and Portugal won 1-0. The goal barely made the headlines.
How bad was the Battle of Nuremberg?
The numbers speak for themselves. The match set all-time World Cup records for cards, and those records still stand. It is still regularly called the dirtiest game ever played at a World Cup.
The criticism came from the top. FIFA President Sepp Blatter publicly criticised Ivanov and said the referee "should have given himself a yellow card", which is as close as a FIFA president gets to shouting.
Even so, blaming only the referee lets the players off lightly. Both teams went looking for trouble, and both found it. The beautiful game turned into something closer to a kickboxing tournament with goalposts, and football was the real loser that night.
The venue was the Frankenstadion. The legacy is a list of card records nobody has any interest in breaking.
Tomorrow: number 25.
