Perhaps it was just me at the time but I thought they were suggesting that it was actually a legit time for Robben to go down in order to get the deserved card on Puyol as opposed to all the other times he drops to the ground in order to draw an undeserved card on someone.
While I understand that a foul is a foul and should be called as such, it is often the case that guys get away with it if it doesn't look too bad. Robben stayed on his feet and while I don't know where the ref was on the play, I am guessing that just the fact Robben stayed up left him thinking there was less contact than we know there was from the replay.
First off, let me reiterate, Lallas is an idiot and one of the worst faces for American Soccer. It was his participation in the success of the '94 team and his name recognition that affords him such clout in US soccer, clout he doesn't deserve. I have a friend who is in management on an MLS team and worked with Lallas in NY who told me this.
As far as the Robben situation, anyone who says take a dive to get the call is a fool. Again, I want to bring in my experience as a referee to try to shed some light on this. I know my experience refereeing High School soccer is not world class, but I have some insight.
First off, Robben tried to do too much, I believe he was trying to make up for the blunder earlier in the game that could have won it for the Dutch. Anyway, diving was not the answer in that situation. He should have dished the ball outside to the man coming up field wide open or taken the shot a step earlier. Tough play on his part, but he gave it the effort.
Now, my opinion, there was a foul in that situation. But unlike many other sports, and I know some of you guys know this, there was still an advantage favoring Robben. He still had an opportunity to get a shot off. The referee does not want to call the foul if the flow of the game does not have to be interrupted and allow the player the opportunity to score.
The issue the commentators were trying to raise is that if he had gone down, the advantage he had would have been negated. I think this is assinine. You play to score, not wait for the referee to make a call giving you the opportunity for a free kick.
 }})
