Herrera claimed Robben committed three dives, including for the decisive penalty, and criticised FIFA for appointing a referee from the same continent – Portugal’s Pedro Proenca – as Holland won 2-1 in Fortaleza thanks to Klaas-Jan Huntelaar’s stoppage time penalty, after Wesley Sneijder’s 88th minute volley had equalised Giovani Dos Santos’ goal.
Herrera claimed Mexico had been victims of bad refereeing in their group matches against Cameroon and Croatia as well.
He told a news conference: “Out of the four matches here in all of them the refereeing was disastrous.
“Robben did three dives and he should have been cautioned. You should caution a guy who is trying to cheat, and then if Robben did it again he would be sent off.
“And why did FIFA choose a referee from the same confederation as Holland instead of one from South America, Asia or Africa?
“The doubtful decisions were always against us. We have to say it in capital letters, in three matches we had horrible refereeing. The man with the whistle knocked us.
“I want the referee committee to take a look and that the referee goes home just like us.”
Herrera also blasted organisers for making the teams play in the heat and humidity of a 1pm kick-off in Fortaleza.
He added: “What goes against football is to have to play in these conditions. The players were suffocated by the sun heat and the humidity.”
There was extra time added at the end of both halves, with official cooling breaks allowed for the players due to the extreme conditions at the Estadio Castelao.
Herrera felt his side gave the initiative back to Louis van Gaal’s men by dropping deeper as Holland pressed for a leveller.
He told reporters: “We’d done really well. Then the team sits back and we start to give chances to a team that had not done anything.
“It’s a World Cup where everything was against Mexico.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t achieve what we wanted.”
