THOUGH THEIR attacking brilliance largely deserted them in the face of dogged Dutch resistance at Soccer City last night, Spain eventually did enough to confirm their status as the planet’s best football team with Andres Iniesta grabbing his side’s winner three minutes from the end of a disappointing game’s second period of extra-time.
On balance, Vicente del Bosque’s side deserved their win but this was far from the outright triumph of artistry over industry that the 59-year-old coach and the millions of fans back home would have wished for prior to kick-off.
The Spanish were dragged into a tough physical battle which threatened to go against them more than once before, already reduced to 10 men and visibly tiring under renewed pressure, the Dutch eventually succumbed.
Iniesta was involved early in the move that led to the goal but the danger became most apparent after a half-hearted attempt to cut out Fernando Torres’ chipped cross from the left, handed Cesc Fabregas possession on the edge of the area. As Rafael van der Vaart desperately attempted to provide cover, the Arsenal midfielder slipped the ball to Iniesta who had more than enough time to control and shoot with Maarten Stekelenburg getting a touch to the ball as it flew in but not nearly enough of one to make the save and, most likely, force things to a penalty shoot-out.
Perhaps if we’d left it to the South Africans to provide both teams in the final, we would have got a better game for the hosts have, in the face of so much scepticism, pretty much delivered on every other front over the last few weeks.
Instead, we got two European powers
cancelling each other out for long stretches in a game as memorable for its foul play as any occasional outbreaks of free-flowing passing with the Dutch, in particular, benefiting from referee Howard Webb’s apparent reluctance to see the number of participants depleted, at least until the 110th minute when Johnny Heitinga’s nudge on Andres Iniesta earned the defender a second booking.
True, there were plenty of chances for the two sides to get ahead before that and the Dutch will rue that having frustrated the favourites for so long, they came so close more than once to grabbing the goal that might well have paved the way to victory.
Some poor finishing, though, meant some opportunities went begging while each of the goalkeepers made vital interception on at least a couple of occasions.
The European champions made much the stronger start to the game, dominating the opening exchanges and creating clear chances to take an early lead. Having initially struggled to settle, Bert van Marwijk’s men started to hit their stride which consisted in no small part of knocking the Spanish out of theirs. In midfield a series of rough looking challenges prompted Webb to hand out a succession of bookings but the Englishman proved lenient at key moments with the tougher-tackling men in orange such as Nigel de Jong and, to a lesser extent, Wesley Sneijder, lucky not to be dismissed for reckless assaults on Xabi Alonso and Sergio Busquets.
Overall, the disjointed nature of the game must have suited the Dutch well enough for after a testing opening quarter of an hour or so, they managed to keep the bulk of the contest in midfield from where the Spanish found it unusually hard to push forward into the danger zone.
David Villa was largely anonymous while behind him even Xavi and Iniesta failed to make their usual impact in the face of fairly relentless pressure.
Their most successful outlet, predictably enough, was Arjen Robben out on the right where Joan Capdevila needed back-up more than once as he tried to contain the Bayern Munich winger. At critical moments, though, Xabi Alonso and Carles Puyol provided the requires support with the result that for a while Robben managed nothing more than to win a couple of corners until a couple of shots from the former Real Madrid star either side of half-time hinted at a growing threat.
The Spanish still looked the better side at that stage but not nearly so comfortably on top as they had against the Germans in Durban on Wednesday night. This time their opponents were hustling in midfield enough to cause the occasional problem although with the bookings stacking up, it seemed increasingly likely they would be short-handed by the end of the evening.
In the meantime, though, their tireless collective work-rate and determinedly physical approach threatened to do more sometimes than simply keep their more artistic opponents at bay. Most memorably, they came within a whisker of taking the lead when a hoofed high ball out of defence was seized upon by Sneijder who split the Spanish central defence perfectly with his through ball for Robben. The 26-year-old raced clear on goal and delayed his shot until fractionally after Iker Casillas had committed himself but the Spaniard somehow still saved with his outstretched right boot as he dived to his left, leaving Robben, holding his head in disbelief.
Del Bosque reacted by trying to disentangle his men from the midfield scrap. Jesus Navas replaced a subdued Pedro as the coach attempted to add a little more width to an attack that was struggling by this stage to create any sort of real scoring opportunities. Sure enough, the winger’s arrival sparked an improvement with the Dutch suddenly stretched and on the back foot again.
Villa might have grabbed a winner in normal but then so might Robben at the other end where he was held by Puyol but stayed on his feet only to get booked for complaining when the referee didn’t haul things back for a free after Casillas had gathered at his opponent’s feet.
His side hung in there through the early stages of extra time but steadily the pre-tournament favourites began to exert more control on things and Heitinga’s dismissal left his team-mates with little chance of doing more than taking the game to penalties.
They came agonisingly close to managing that but Iniesta’s late goal stole it for the Spanish who, deservedly if less impressively than might have been hoped, become the eighth nation to be crowned champions of the world.
