Spain takes the Cup

Spanish midfielder Andres Iniesta’s goal in the 116th minute was enough to crown Spain the World Cup champion in a 1-0 win over the Netherlands in the final of the FIFA World Cup played at Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa on Sunday.

With the win, Spain became the reigning World and European champion and the first European team to win a World Cup held outside its home continent. The result also completes a trio of World Cup losses for the Netherlands in the final.

Spain, who was a pre-tournament favorite, saw early hiccups in the group stage when the team lost to Switzerland in its first game. But the team, under manager Vicente Del Bosque, lived up to its billing and dominated games with superior passing and ball control.

The Netherlands, on the other hand, won 14 straight games to get to the final, including every match played in South Africa. However, the result of the final went exactly the way Paul, the psychic German octopus, had predicted.

Spain dominated the early minutes of the first half with better ball possession than the Dutch. Defender Sergio Ramos’ header came close to giving Spain the lead in the fifth minute, and David Villa nearly scored his sixth goal in the World Cup when he side-netted his shot from close range in the 10th minute.

In reply, the Netherlands’ style of play got more physical and the card count steadily increased as the game progressed. Referees cautioned four Dutch players in the first half, including Nigel De Jong, who received a booking for drilling his cleats into Xabi Alonso’s torso. The match set a new World Cup final record of 13 yellow cards. Dutch player John Heitinga was the only player to get red carded.

Just before the end of the first half, Wesley Sneijder’s defense-splitting pass released Arjen Robben in a one-on-one duel with Spain’s goalkeeper and captain, Iker Casillas. However, Casillas deflected the shot with his right foot while diving the other way.

In the 82nd minute, Robben embarrassed veteran defender Carlos Puyol with his pace and again had only Casillas between himself and the goal. Casillas once again foiled the one-on-one chance for Robben and stopped the ball at the Dutchman’s feet as he tried to get around the keeper.

The score remained 0-0 at the end of 90 minutes and the game headed to 30 minutes of extra time. Spain brought in fresh legs and replaced Xabi Alonso with Cesc Fabregas and David Villa with Fernando Torres. Midway through the extra period, the Dutch went down to 10 men when John Heitinga was cautioned for the second time in the game for pulling back Andres Iniesta near the edge of the penalty area.

With just four minutes left to play before the match would be decided by penalty kicks, Fabregas played the ball across to Iniesta who drove the ball beneath goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg’s right hand, into the far corner, to put Spain in the history books and shatter the Dutch dreams.

In the match for third place, held the day before the final, Germany overcame Uruguay 3-2 in an open and free scoring game at Port Elizabeth. Uruguay’s Deigo Forlan and Germany’s Thomas Mueller each scored their fifth goal of the tournament. Miroslav Klose, Germany’s all-time leading scorer, did not start the game due to injury and sits just one goal short of the World Cup’s all-time goals scored record. Brazil’s Ronaldo currently holds the record at 15.

Mueller won the 2010 Golden Boot award for his five goals and three assists. He led the race ahead of Spain’s Villa and Netherlands’ Sneijder, both of whom finished with five goals and one assist. Interestingly, Spain needed just eight goals from their seven games to win the World Cup—the least number of goals a winning team has ever scored.

The next FIFA World Cup will be held in 2014, with Brazil hosting the 32-team tournament.

2010 FIFA World Cup results

First place

Spain

Second place

Netherlands

Third place

Germany