It was to be a historical World Cup final as both teams, Netherlands or Spain, were going to hold the trophy for the first time in either country’s histories; a game between the creators of the total-football mentality and the current masters of it, thus football fans around the world had great expectations of witnessing a beautiful football game of great passes, chances and goals! It was hard to predict a winner of the game with 50% probability of  either team winning as Netherlands sent off Brazil in the quarter-finals while Spain sent off Germany in the semi-finals on their way to the final game. The Spanish team’s starting lineup was the same as in the game against Germany with seven Barcelona players starting while Valdes started on the bench. Great hopes and expectations were put in Villa and Pedro to score the winning goals for Spain during the ninety minutes or maybe in extra-time.

Read some brief notes about the match after the jump, and add your own thoughts on the game.

Final Result: Spain 1-0 Netherlands!

Paul the octopus was right once again about the identity of the winner of the game. Spain has made history as they are the first team in Spain’s history to ever reach the final and win the World Cup! However, the expectations of watching an amazing final between two teams who play beautiful football were betrayed by the style of play that the Netherlands players had shown throughout the whole 120 minutes! Bert van Marwijk, Netherlands coach, had two simple tasks to do. Make sure his players were physically fit to play a full game without tiring and tell his players to destroy their opponents! The outcome was a game with nine yellow cards and a red card for the Dutch player Heitinga, a new record for a World Cup final! From the beginning of the game, the Dutch players harshly tackled the Spanish players as they tried to keep their usual ball possession and create chances on the opponents’ goal. It was obvious that they thought of nothing but defense and how to find a way to stop the best team in keeping ball possession from playing their style of football. The Dutch player Nigel de Jong deserved a red card in the 28th minute when he ‘front-kicked’ Xabi Alonso, forgetting what type of sport he was playing on the field! La Roja accepted the challenge as they suffered in silence trying their best to play their game: keeping the ball while avoiding any dangerous injuries from inconsiderate tackles from the Dutch players.

The second half’s story was the same as that of the first half. With only two serious chances on Spain’s goal missed by Arjen Robben which Casillas heroically saved, Spain dominated the game with a continuous flood of chances on the Netherland’s goal but without any luck. Vicente del Bosque, Spain’s coach, decided it was better to play with five midfielders instead of four, so he substituted Pedro for Jesus Navas in the 60th minute; later in the game he substituted Xabi Alonso for Cesc Fabregas in the 87th minute. The game continued to be goalless with not much of a football show except for the chances La Roja players afforded without being crushed by any tackle!

It was obviously not one of the Villa’s best games of the World Cup, and he was substituted for Fernando Torres in the 106th minute. Eleven minutes later, with four minutes away from the end of the extra-time, Iniesta, Blaugrana’s pint-sized midfield icon, was finally able to score Spain’s first and only goal which turned out to be the winning goal of the game. Iniesta received the assist from Fabregas and determinedly scored the goal, providing deja vu of his goal against Chelsea in the 2009 Champions League semi-finals! He was the scoring hero as Casillas was the saving hero for Spain.

La Roja showed that beautiful football will always come out winning no matter how badly the opposing team decided to play! They played as a team, building up their chances with the goalkeeper to the defense, the midfield, and then the strikers. It is a system with which Barcelona play and Spain, with all the talents they have, knew it was the best way to winning both the Euro 2008 and the World Cup 2010!

If Cruyff was to be questioned about the Dutch team’s play in the game against Spain, he would surely say that this is the reason why he stayed at Barcelona all these years instead of supporting Dutch teams! It shows how powerful the skills with which Barcelona players and the Spanish team as a whole played with, that not even those who created the total-football mentality could stop them – not even with the non-football like style of playing! It wasn’t defense, it was an aggressive and a harsh style of playing that could have cost the Dutch more than a 110th minute red card!

Congratulations to Spain, to Blaugrana players, to total-football, to the beautiful game, to all the Spanish team’s fans and to you totalBarca readers! Share your thoughts and comments below.