Fan punched to ground by security guard after storming pitch to cover World Cup trophy with a hat

Pitch invasion: 'Jimmy Jump' bursts on to the grass and attempts to throw a hat over the World Cup trophy

Lightning reaction: A security guard runs on to the pitch to stop Jaume Marquet Cot

Security alert: Jump is punched to the ground by a security guard

A serial pitch invader was punched to the ground by a security guard as he stormed the Soccer City ground and threw a hat over the solid gold World Cup trophy before last night's final.

Notorious Barcelona fan Jaume Marquet Cot - known as 'Jimmy Jump' - fell to the floor after being knocked out with one hit as he ran across the grass to the ceremonial stand 10 metres from the team dug-outs.


Game over: Marquet Cot is held on the ground by security officials

Shock: Officials and football fans look astonished as Marquet Cot lies on the floor.Floored: The pitch invader falls to the ground after being hit by a security guard

Facing jail: Jump is carried from the Soccer City grounds and is charged by police

The joker, who is in his mid-30s, sprinted across the turf wearing a black T-shirt with writing that said 'Jimmy Jump against racism' while holding his trademark red Catalan hat.
After being punched to the ground, he was carried down the tunnel by seven stewards, past astonished players and officials who were lining up ready to take to the field.

As a result of the pre-match stunt, the famous World Cup trophy was kept under lock and key during Spain's 1-0 defeat of the Netherlands in Johannesburg.
Marquet Cot, from Sabadell, Catalonia, has previously pulled off security breaches at high-profile events including the Spanish Grand Prix, the Eurovision Song Contest and top European football matches.

A police spokesman said: 'The man is Jaume Marquet Cot, who has done this sort of thing before.
We're pretty annoyed that antics like this got in the way of the start of the match, but at least it wasn't a life-threatening situation.

'The bottom line is he has shown serious disrespect for the authorities and for the tournament. For that he will pay.'

WORLD CUP 2010: Holland striker Dirk Kuyt blasts 'cheating Howard Webb' for handing World Cup to Spain

Dirk Kuyt pointed the finger of blame for Holland's World Cup final defeat by Spain at English referee Howard Webb.

Webb brandished 13 yellow cards and one red - a record for a final - in a fiery encounter which saw Andres Iniesta's extra-time goal secure a 1-0 win for Spain.


Favouring Spain? Howard Webb had no choice but to send off John Heitinga after fouling Andres Iniesta

...but is only booked by Howard Webb while the Spaniard fights for breath

Favouring Spain? Holland's Nigel de Jong takes out Xabi Alonso chest high...

Favouring Spain? Holland coach Bert Van Marwijk should be grateful his side did not have three players sent off

 
Favouring Spain? Howard Webb books Spanish defender Carles Puyol, one of five Spaniards to be shown a yellow card

 
The South Yorkshire official was booed by Dutch fans at the final whistle and
Liverpool forward Kuyt said: 'We are angry that we lost because we came so close. I know you cannot blame others, but the referee favoured Spain.

WORLD CUP OFFICIAL LINE: Tetchy final made it impossible for Howard Webb to shine

An honour: Referee Howard Webb, with assistant referee Darren Cann and Michael Mullarkey, were the first all English team to officiate the World Cup final since 1974

Missed: Nigel de Jong escaped with just a yellow card for this kick on Xabi Alonso. Webb was poorly positioned at the time

Supporting Howard Webb this World Cup has been easy. But it is impossible to shine in a game like this one — tetchy, physical and tense.

Overall, he did ok but will wince when seeing the Nigel de Jong tackle in his debrief.
How many of the Dutch can say they were true to their football history when there were a record 13 yellow cards and one red? It’s easy to blame the ref, but Holland’s tactics were shameful.


I'm the boss: Webb usually let his cards do than the talking for him

Dutch protests at the goal rightly fell on deaf ears. No one, least of all Webb, could have any sympathy. The right team won.

Player management

A surprising lack of talking to the players from the first minute following Robin van Persie’s poor challenge. Usually an excellent communicator and a calming influence, Webb let his yellow cards do his talking for him. Players made it tough for him by crowding him.

Fitness

Webb’s strength is his fitness and movement; never far from the action but never in the way. Strangely out of position by the touchline in the 28th minute, he missed full impact of De Jong kick.

Assistants

Darren Cann and Mike Mullarkey did what they could to assist Webb and continued to give him all the support they could. Two close but correct offside calls by Cann against David Villa proved once again that he is the best in the world. Mullarkey was also right when he kept his flag down for Andres Iniesta to score the World Cup-winning goal in extra-time.
Decision making

It’s all about getting the big decisions right. De Jong’s kick to the chest of Alonso was an obvious red — Webb can’t have seen it clearly. Van Bommel could also have seen red in the first half. The detection of fouls was excellent but the disciplinary measures taken were not.

Match management

Balance, fair play and credibility are the key to refereeing. This was a poor game, tough to handle and made more so by the approach of the players. Watching on TV, it was clear the unfair physical approach of the Dutch was allowed to stifle the Spanish flair. When the yellow card doesn’t work the red should be shown.

WORLD CUP 2010: Champions Spain return to a hero's welcome in Madrid

Main men: Spain's players pose with the World Cup trophy on their flight

World champions Spain received a hero's welcome as they touched down in Madrid today.

After winning the World Cup by beating Holland 1-0 in Johannesburg on Sunday night, the jubilant players arrived to a rapturous reception at Barajas airport.
A big crowd roared with delight as the players - led by skipper Iker Casillas holding the trophy - walked down the steps on to the tarmac.


Flying the flag: The colours of the national team are on show out of the pilot's window

Heroes: Xavi (left) and Andres Iniesta enjoy the attention at Barajas airport

The players headed off for a siesta before they are due to attend a reception hosted by Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero in the Spanish capital.

Around a million fans are expected to line the streets of Madrid when the players take part in an open-top bus parade from 6pm UK time.The plane carrying the squad and staff - complete with a Spanish flag flying from the front - landed just before 2pm local time.

The plane was emblazoned with the word 'Campeones', while two fire engines also made a guard of honour with their jet streams.
Casillas, who cried after victory on Sunday, again appeared to be on the verge of tears as he led his team across the tarmac.

Spain won the World Cup for the first time ever after Andres Iniesta's extra-time goal at the Soccer City Stadium.

WORLD CUP 2010: Uruguay 2 Holland 3 - Sneijder and Robben make final difference for Dutch

 
Sheer joy: Holland captain Giovanni van Bronckhorst celebrates his stunning opener as fellow goalscorers Arjen Robben and Wesley Sneijder look on

Back in the game: Diego Forlan unleashes his own thunderbolt to bring the scores level

 
All over: Arjen Robben rises to head home the killer third for the Dutch

Second-half goals from Wesley Sneijder and Arjen Robben swept Holland into the World Cup final in Cape Town on Tuesday night.

Uruguay had levelled Giovanni van Bronckhorst's brilliant opener through Diego Forlan just before the break.


Breakthrough: Wesley Sneijder fires the second goal with the help of a deflection to put Holland in control

But the South Americans were rocked back as the Dutch struck twice in three minutes after the interval and although Maximiliano Pereira fired home in stoppage time, it is Holland who await the winners of the second semi between Germany and Spain tomorrow.

Recaps back at the most memorable World Cup quarter-finals

Now England are out we can actually relax and enjoy the rest of the World Cup.

Holland have already caused a quarter final shock by dumping Brazil out after Friday's 2-1 win.

And surely Uruguay's dramatic penalty shoot-out against Ghana last night will go down as one of the most memorable World Cup quarter finals ever?

But which other quarters have gone down in World Cup folkore?



1954 - Austria 7-5 Switzerland

Austria became the first team in World Cup history to overcome a 3-0 deficit, scoring five goals in an amazing first-half comeback. Austria’s Robert Wagner and opponent Josef Hugi both scored hat-tricks in tournament which saw Ferenc Puskas (above) take Hungary to the final.


1966 - Portugal 5-3 North Korea

Having beaten Italy in the previous week, North Korea threatened a second shock as they led Portugal 3-0 after 25 minutes. But Eusebio, on his way to winning the Golden Boot with nine goals, scored four as Portugal hit back in style, taking his team through to meet England in the semi-finals.

1986 - Argentina 2-1 England

Maradona cheated a nation with his infamous Hand of God goal but he lit up the finals with sublime second. Receiving the ball in his own half, he tore through the English defence before rounding Peter Shilton to score. A consolation goal from Gary Lineker couldn’t stop the eventual winners going through.

1990 - England 3-2 Cameroon

Roger Milla’s Cameroon became the first African team to reach the last eight but David Platt kept up his knack of scoring and Gary Lineker held his nerve to convert a late penalty and take the game into extra time. The striker then ended the Africans’ dreams of progressing with another spot-kick.
.
1994 - Brazil 3-2 Holland

This game will always be remembered for Bebeto’s baby-cradling celebration after he scored Brazil’s second goal. It was imitated all over the world but his squandered their two-goal lead and needed Branco’s left-foot free-kick minutes from time to progress.

1998 - Holland 2-1 Argentina

With both sides reduced to 10 men and the score locked at 1-1, it took a moment of magic from Dennis Bergkamp to separate the teams. Frank de Boer’s 60-yard pass was controlled in mid-air by the striker before he put the ball through Roberto Ayala’s legs and smashed it home.

WORLD CUP 2010: Holland 2 Brazil 1: Dutch destroyers march on as Felipe Melo has a day to forget

Seeing red: Felipe Melo gets his marching orders for stamping on Robben

Seeing red with Robben: Brazil's Robinho is furious with a bemused Arjen Robben

It wasn't the beautiful game the world had longed for. Far from it. But it had drama, it had courage and it had resolve. Ultimately, it also had the right result.

At half-time in Port Elizabeth yesterday, there seemed little chance of Holland winning from a goal down. Their football in the first period had been poor. Where they had been assertive and aggressive in earlier matches, they seemed a little cowed.


Cut open: Robinho (right) fires Brazil ahead as the Dutch defence  disappears

Gift: Felipe Melo and keeper Julio Cesar end up putting the ball in  their own net

Turnaround: Sneijder (2nd right) heads home to put Holland 2-1 in front

But this is a Dutch side unlike many that have passed before. Playing pragmatic football for a coach that seems to have fostered a team spirit so alien to previous generations, Bert van Marwijk’s team have a sense of purpose that could yet lead to the ultimate prize in South Africa.

And so it was that Holland looked deep inside themselves at half-time to produce a second-half display to which Brazil shockingly had no answer. As the Dutch grew in strength, the South Americans wilted before them.

It was a sight as remarkable as it was unexpected.You need many things to win a World Cup. Good players and a decent coach help. But you also need strength and heart and determination.

Brazil coach Dunga announced after the game that he was giving up the job and perhaps rightly so for this was a tournament that was his side’s to win. Perhaps it was the dreadful nature of the second-half goals they conceded that so sucked the life from the South Americans.

Perhaps it was the persistent harrying of Mark van Bommel in midfield or the increasing assuredness of the two Dutch central defenders Andre Ooijer and Jonny Heitinga, who started dreadfully and then improved beyond measure.
Whatever it was, the Dutch will not care. They may not play in the manner that legends such as Johan Cruyff would like but that will not matter today. A path to their first World Cup final since 1978 has opened up.

Afterward Van Marwijk said: ‘I said when I started that my mission was to win the World Cup. People mocked me but today you could see that belief. We didn’t play well in the first half and could have lost this in this first 15 minutes. But the difference in the second half was huge.

‘We started to play our own game and once we scored the first goal we just got better and better. People have criticised us for not playing attractive football but now we have beaten the favourites.’
Having won every competitive game since qualifying started, it is perhaps no surprise that the Dutch have such confidence. Nevertheless, the manner in which they started yesterday must have shaken them to the soles of their boots.

Having lost central defender Joris Mathijsen in in the warm-up, Holland had to draft Ooijer in and the uncertainty was immediately apparent as Robinho ran through an enormous gap in the Dutch defence to slam Juan’s perfect through ball beneath Maarten Stekelenburg in the 10th minute.
For the remainder of the first period, the pattern looked to have been set. With key players Arjen Robben and Wesley Sneijder unable to impose themselves on the game, Holland were poor and Brazil might have taken the game away from them had they cashed in on one of three subsequent opportunities.

Juan volleyed a low cross over the bar when he should have scored in the 26th minute, Luis Fabiano headed another chance wide and then Kaka was denied by a superb Stekelenburg save after curling a shot towards the top corner.
Apart from a Sneijder free-kick that was saved comfortably by Julio Cesar, Holland had offered virtually nothing. Robben was dreadful and spent far too much time on the floor and it was clear that something had to change early in the second half.
The equaliser in the 53rd minute arrived from nowhere and changed the game. Having drawn a debatable foul from Daniel Alves, Robben worked a free-kick to Sneijder and when the Inter Milan midfielder delivered the ball to the near post, Brazil defender Felipe Melo headed past his goalkeeper Julio Cesar and in to his own net.

As the Dutch grew, Brazil withdrew. Robin van Persie was close on the hour and then Sneijder coasted forwards at a corner to convert a flick from Dirk Kuyt in the 68th minute.

With the game now turned on its head, Brazil were being asked a serious question for the first time this tournament and it was the way they failed to respond that was so disappointing.

Their cause certainly wasn’t helped when Felipe Melo stamped on Robben’s thigh and was sent off.

With that, their challenge died.

Netherlands hit back to shock Brazil

Netherlands' Wesley Sneijder and teammate John Heitinga celebrate after their 2010 World Cup quarter-final match against Brazil in Port Elizabeth July 2, 2010.

PORT ELIZABETH, July 2 — Wesley Sneijder headed a second-half winner as Netherlands came from behind to beat ten-man Brazil 2-1 today and book their place in the World Cup semi-finals.

Brazil, the five-times champions, took a 10th minute lead in the quarter-final clash through Robinho and dominated the first-half against a Dutch team which initially looked outclassed.



But the Dutch levelled out of the blue in the 53rd minute after a rare mistake from Brazil’s usually impenetrable defence, as Felipe Melo headed Sneijder’s cross into his own goal.

Then Sneijder headed a winner as the Dutch avenged a quarter-final defeat in 1994 and a semi-final defeat four years later.

Felipe Melo, returning from an ankle injury which kept him out of the second round match against Chile, set up the first goal after 10 minutes.

He threaded a 30-metre pass through the Dutch midfield and Robinho timed his run perfectly to score with a first-time shot past Maarten Stekelenburg.

The game turned niggly, although Brazil managed to produced a some flowing moves and should have extended their lead.

Juan volleyed over from close range after a jinking run on the right by Dani Alves and Stekelenburg produced a superb one-handed save to tip away Kaka’s curling effort, following a dazzling Robinho run down the left.

Just before halftime, Maicon fired into the side-netting after Luis Fabiano rolled the ball into his path.

The Dutch rarely threatened with Arjen Robben far too predictable to outfox the Brazil rearguard.

But they levelled out of the blue eight minutes after the break when Felipe Melo touched Sneijder’s looping cross-shot into his own net.

Kaka missed an excellent chance to put Brazil back ahead, side-footing wide from the edge of the area after the ball was gifted to him by a poor clearance.

They paid dearly in the 68th minute when Dirk Kuyt flicked on Arjen Robben’s corner at the near post and Sneijder headed into the net.

Shortly afterwards, Felipe Melo was sent off for stamping on Robben.