My dad is from Portugal, so believe me when I say that I know a thing or two about the number of cards thrown about this tournament.
For you non-viewers, there were 16 yellow cards and 4 red cards handed out in the Portugal v Netherlands match, which broke a world record and ensured that one man would never referee another soccer game as long as he lived; or so vowed the current FIFA president (and when the president of all soccer as we know it says you're out of a reffing job, you're probably out of a job).
It was a really sloppy tournament; Argentina and Italy dominated by being the best at diving and flopping, which I might add has always been part of the game. Soccer is very much about skill, but it is also about getting away with whatever you can; just do a video.google.com search for Diego Maradona's "Hand of God" play, in which he scored a goal in the World Cup semis (I think) with his left hand.
The refs this year were instructed to call extremely tight games and hand out cards with less warning in order to discourage flagrant fouls; however, when players got frustrated with this, the game turned ugly. By the last couple rounds, soccer had returned to its old status as an extremely physical game because with all the cards, people were getting fed up with it.