Getting the ball first has minimal relevance as to whether a foul has occurred. There is no reference to making contact with the ball in the section relating to Fouls and Misconduct in the Laws of the Game, but it may be considered by the referee in deciding whether contact was careless, reckless or excessively forceful.
There are six offences in which contact is made with an opponent that cause a direct free kick to be awarded:
- kicks an opponent carelessly, recklessly or with excessive force
- trips an opponent carelessly, recklessly or with excessive force
- charges an opponent carelessly, recklessly or with excessive force
- strikes an opponent carelessly, recklessly or with excessive force
- pushes an opponent carelessly, recklessly or with excessive force
- holds an opponent
There are five offences in which contact may or may not be made with an opponent that cause a direct free kick to be awarded:
- attempts to kick an opponent carelessly, recklessly or with excessive force
- attempts to trip an opponent carelessly, recklessly or with excessive force
- jumps at an opponent carelessly, recklessly or with excessive force
- attempts to strike an opponent carelessly, recklessly or with excessive force
- tackles an opponent carelessly, recklessly or with excessive force
There are two offences in which contact is not made with an opponent that cause an indirect free kick to be awarded:
- plays in a dangerous manner
- impedes the progress of an opponent
The full text of these offences is found on pages 37-38 of the 2015/2016 FIFA Laws of the Game, which is too long to quote in full here.
As seen, contact does not necessarily mean there is a foul - for some offences it must be either careless, reckless or excessively forceful. These are defined on page 119 of the 2015/2016 FIFA Laws of the Game:
"Careless" means that the player has shown a lack of attention or
consideration when making a challenge or that he acted without precaution.
- No further disciplinary sanction is needed if a foul is judged to be careless
"Reckless" means that the player has acted with complete disregard to the
danger to, or consequences for, his opponent.
- A player who plays in a reckless manner must be cautioned
"Using excessive force" means that the player has far exceeded the necessary use of force and is in danger of injuring his opponent.
- A player who uses excessive force must be sent off
In a lot of challenges, contact is made with an opponent both before and after the ball is won. Whether it rises to the level of careless (or worse) usually depends on a number of things (and can depend on how/when the ball was won) - eg.
- was the tackle inherently unsafe?
- was the contact reasonably unavoidable as part of the challenge?
- was the challenge made to win the ball or did it just have the effect of holding up the player?
These are some of the questions the referee decides answers to in an instant as part of their foul recognition process.
In the Neuer / Higuain incident, the referee decided that the collision after the challenge was caused by Higuain, awarding a direct free kick to Germany. I tend to disagree here, as the majority of the force in this challenge was caused by Neuer, due to the pace he was moving at and due to his knee being raised high. Higuain had a right to be where he was on the field without being cleaned up. The collision was unavoidable as part of the challenge, but the challenge was made with complete disregard for the consequences of the opponent. There was no way to make a safe challenge here at that pace.
I believe Neuer should have been cautioned and a penalty kick should have been awarded to Argentina. As you see on the following links, here, here and here a number of experienced match officials tend to agree with my view that the referee made an incorrect decision here.
In the Fucile / Sanchez incident, the referee decided that in spite of winning the ball, Fucile acted with complete disregard for his opponent and that the challenge was reckless and hence cautionable. I tend to agree with the referee here - the challenge is fast and catches a large amount of Sanchez with a decent amount of force.