Smart pick; given the Spanish love their paella and perhaps there was a bit of resentment towards the Dutch, given their country is land reclaimed from the sea.
The little man from Barcelona didn’t score a goal in the tournament, but finally everyone understands just what a special player he is. The final showed why Spain is a team that deserved to be World Champion:
Spain’s approach to the game is always to play forward, control the ball and create scoring opportunity; that is possible because of an immense talented midfield; Spain's way of playing is based on a fluid movement, accurate passing and a determination to keep the ball on the ground instead of flying around hoping that something good is going to happen.
As pillar of this unique midfield there are 3 players; Xabi Alonso, Andrés Iniesta and Xavi.
Xabi Alonso is the engineer, Iniesta is the artist and Xavi is the brilliant mind; Xavi, the midfielder was the player that made the Spain machine hum, allowing it to dominate the midfield and set up countless scoring chances...
Xavi's movement without ball and with the ball is just behind belief: more importantly is passing accuracy is stratospheric; Xavi in the entire tournament had a 78% passing accuracy rating...just incredible statistics...
The midfield of Spain is the real winner of the 2010 World Cup, and clearly those 3 players constitute in absolute one of the great midfield of all time...
On a side note Spain won the tournment even though they played basically without Torres...still they found the way to score one more goal that their adversary...overall they score only 8 goals but received only 2 goals thanks to a strong defence and the crucial save made by their goalkeeper, Casilla...
Spain won the last 4 games all by 1-0, scoring always in the final 20 minutes of the game...
Tonight against Nedherland it happend again, even though in the extra-time...the Dutch played a harsh game, full of fouls and strong challenges...they played to block Spain's midfield pressing high each time Spain started their web-passing game...they runned like crazy, and of course there was no opportunity to counterattacking with lucidity: as Portugal, Paraguay and Germany, the Dutch played to stop Spain from playing instead of trying to play their style...the Dutch created only 1 real chance on goal thanks to the only key touch on the entire game by their best player Wesley Sneijder; Arjen Robben missing the only chance, and arguably its hard to win a game when you have only one clear chance of scoring...
As such the Dutch ended up as the other team: loosing. Spain, sooner or later will find the way to score a goal even though the other teams play like barricade...
This time it was Iniesta who find that little space to score the winning goal for the Spaniard team...as I said previously I found a little weakness in the Dutch central defense, and I forecasted that Del Bosque, Xavi and Iniesta would have take advantage of that...it took 116 minutes of play to find the opportunity, even though Spain created at least 5 others clear opportunity to score a goal...
Spain completed a remarkable journey: after the European Championship in 2008 they won the World Cup 2010...considering how tight the game has become in the last 10 years this is even more remarkable...
Soccer is still a wonderful game, and Spain showed why is so...
Great analysis on the game, B-M68. If Robben worked a little harder to play his game instead of whining about being fouled by Spanish defenders(didn't he see his teammates were equally vicious in their challenges to the others), then the outcome for this World Cup Final would be different. Spain earned the title by beating Hollands fair and square. I totally enjoyed all the games because many excellent players were showcased in this tournament. And this game is just beautiful.
I have to add that the way Dutch's players approached the game it was a real display of weakness: they just try to destroy Spain's web-passing game attacking each midfielder who was possessing the ball with incredible harshness...fouls after fouls...
Robben's reaction was again synpthom of histerical approach to the game, and since I played soccer for about 20 years I know why that happen: Dutch's just knew that they were inferior tactically and talent-wise...they played harsh and committed tons of fouls because that's the only way they can stop Spain from doing her game...
As I said, the Dutch was a cynical team, and they related on the talent of Wesley Sneijder and Robben...Dutch's midfield is formed by a breaking-stopping type of player, with no much talent technically and tactically speaking...
The key statistics of the game are the following two: Dutch committed 28 Fouls, and got 8 yellow card and 1 red card...
Dutch had 43% of time of possession compared to the 57% of Spain: I cannot recall a such domination in this part of the game for a final in the World Cup...
Even Ruud Gullit, who commented the game for ESPN, was with no words about the harsh approach to the game that its Nation displayed in the final...he stated that "As a player Nedherlands did not showed but nothing about the beauty of soccer..." He was really embarassed by the way Dutch played the game...
In 1974 and 1978 Dutch lost with honor and clearly were superior tactically and technically to Germany and Argentina...they played forward with the 'total soccer'...against Spain they will go down to history as a pretty awful way of playing such an important game
Spain is not by any mean comparable to the 'total soccer' of the old Nedherland of Cruiff, Neeskens, Rep, Haan, Krol, Jansen, and Rob Rensenbrink but clearly the are pretty close at least when we look at the way the operate in the midfield...
Spain made the other teams looking just awful, both technically and tactically...
As I said this is because of their unique midfield formed by Xabi Alonso, Iniesta and to what for me is the best player in the world right now Xavi...
They force the other team to play defensely and by doing this the other team lost their identity...Spain's instead always play their game...
That's what make them different from anyone else on the field...
And thus they look beautiful, and they deserved to win this World Cup as they did the European Championships in 2008...
Since the late 1980s soccer has become a game where talent has slowly being supplanted by obsessive pressing and physicality, where the main approach to the game is first not to loose and then hoping we can win with a lucky goal...
So I celebrate Spain for all the above: talented players organized wonderfully tactically, with a strategic web-passing game always looking forward to score goals...
I'm a little too young to remember the Dutch of the 70's but I grew up watching the Eredivisie and remember the exciting football of van der Sar, Davids, the de Boers, and even Kluivert (when he wasn't going around committing crimes.)
Thanks for your wonderful analysis. As you can see I'm finding it hard not to peek in on this board.
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