My summary:
Okay, 12 hours later nd with all the press (17 news papers) in front of me, here a resumen of what we saw yesterday in the final and the WC as a whole. I will try and apply s much neutral anlyisis as I can given that I am on cloud 7 after Spain won, I will make it long and divde into sections, this partially also goes to Henk (who seems to think they were robbed) aanad 13th (who seems to hve suffered major boredom in the final):
For starters, I had never relized consciously there were only 7 nations that ever had won a WC (now 8 with newly dded Spain), I had thought that over one hundred yers there would have been many more. Interesting!?
The match yesterdy, now that I viewed the replay and see the statistics on top of what I saw as a spectator, yes had a winner who deserved it, and I will try and contrast Henks opinion (nothing personal, just the facts) before I go in depths:
Like I predicted it would go.
Falling, screaming, asking for cards conitnuing raising of the hands, schwalbes, complaining and add to that a referee who is very bad and you have a receipt for disaster.
What a bad game. Anti soccer, if I have to win a game that way Id rather lose it.
- You predicted it allright the way you want to see it, but you never disclosed your base for prediction: As I said earlier, no yellow cards for Spain in the whole tourney before (5 yesterday), but not the case for the Dutch (10 yesterdy beating the record of all WC matches ever, 27 in total. Just for the record, they held the previous record with 9 cards in the match vs. Portugal in the EC 2004). Looks you are off reality here a bit...?
- The ref *was* bad, and as I stated before, he has this history,
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=referee+webb&aq=f (not wanting to claim he is anti-Spnish, but in the two mtches he at least acted like he was): He did not give red neither for van Bommels attack on Iniestas standing leg (! you only go for it if you want to break it !), nor for "Kung Fu" De Jong´s attack on Xavi Alonso, both were red directly by any standard, and nobody missed it except him:
Neither did he give the penalty on Xavi in the prolongation but instead gave three cards for minor fouls (but instant revenge fouls - here I can follow him, you want to stop revenge in a final) of Puyol, Capdevilla and Ramos (oh, those happen to be the defense of Spain? What a pity...
).
2:30 into the vid, also if you look at it you can see it was not as boring as 13th claims...
Of cause, he really did not see the corner that was due just before Spain scored, but this I count as true "error" that happens, and it was truly hard to see...
Bad, actully - and as expected - incompetent ref (FIFA has to from my POV really have to get their act together nd chnge the nation percentage solution to bringing in the best, even if they are majority from a few nations, most important is to employ trained tems as in the major leagues and not mix them over laaanguage barriers just to satsify some nations where soccer is still plyed with coconuts), but Spain won despite of him.
- Who would be a better witness to counter Henks claims than his proper National Team Manager, Mr. Van Marwijk, who asked for pardon in his press conference, here his words (translated from Dutch to English to Spanish - and back to English by me -, so take with the deserved grain of salt), excerpts:
Q: Holland denied to play soccer, only went for a destroying battle. Are you not ashamed of presnting such an image in a WC Final?
A: Indeed it is nothing beautiful to see one team committing so many fouls in a WC final, it is not our style normally, but you have to understnad this is a final and we play to win whatever way. Personlly I would have liked to win playing soccer. It is true that some of our fouls were tremendosly violent. To commit such terrible dangerous fouls is not part of our way of playing normally. But, it is a WC final, and you have to judge the whole tournament, not just one match. I think even the Spanish commited a few undeserverd fouls, if not with as tremendous violence as we.
Q: What do you say about the ref?
A: I do not want to think bout the ref, I really think the better team won, but when I think in the last entry of Robben I think he should have given three yellow cards to the Spanish defnders, leaving them totally without defense 5 minutes before end. Webb was judging Switzerland versus Spain, he commited the error of the illegal Swiss goal then, and this is probalbly what influenced in his decision to give them pardon at this moment.
Off of Henks back now ( he has suffered enough already
), lets look into the match more in depth, it is a lesson of how a *team* wins against 11 individul players, even if the match is ugly:
Holland had seen the German mtch nd devised a strtegy to destroy the Spanish tactically and technically based soccer (while maybe not appaling to the eye, that is *not* illegitimate: The great thing about soccer, love and war is tht "everything goes"!). They decided not to meet Spain in her own territory (technically brilliant soccer based on posesion and first-touch psses) but to get her to another terrain where they felt more secure (physics, plyer mass aand height). 9 defenders/terminators and two loose cannons (Snejder nd Robben), but it just prolonged their agony aas Spin ws up to the challenge, revenging violent fouls by also marking their territory (they mnaged 5 cards also, the total was 38 fouls from Holland versus 19 from Spin, 10 vs 5 cards).
The Match;
3 minutes before the end, nd with more spce to move fter Cesc nd Navas had entered to spread the defense and the Dutch finaally ended up with 10 plyers, Iniesta scored wht probably will be seen as the most important goal in his personl history nd in the history of Spnish soccer til tody, it s interesting how some players out of nothing suddenly jump over their personl and profile limits to create moments that never will be forgotten!: Iniest is the apotheosis of passes on the first touch, clss, nd subtleness, he is not a goal getter, not even one who usually goes for a goal, sometimes it even seems (we saw it twice last night when he could have simply tried to execute) he feels ashamed to score. But, he now has two goals on his back, and both made history, alwys when everything seemed lost: #1 in Stamford Bridge (to give the Champions win to Baarca 2009), and now the 2nd in Soccer City.
The goal closed WC thta overall really ws represnted in this laaast match, t least from my POV: Entering as fvorites, Spin started this tourney with unexpected difficulties, did not find its style, nd suffered. But, it overcame all the self inflicted problems, cncentrted on its superb plyers (Villa in the beginning, Caasillas when he became necessary, Xvi and Iniesta in the last two matches) and won aginst its dversaries.
A team that learned how to suffer, that ws there with all fcets of soccer when it became important, always patient, full of a conviction: s team there is no better (remember Rein telling Casillas how to stop the penalty versus the Paras?).
The unexpected goal of Iniesta manifested all these qualities of a tourney team in one moment.
The Mister:
The figure of Del Bosque relly determined much of the discussion of the team all over the WC (nd before), s you probably remember I was not a friend of his, but of cause with the success stnd corrected:
He came in for political reasons after Spin won the EC, nd this hereditary required delicacy, responsibility nd character, sure not the easiest of jobs. When Spain lost gainst US (Confedertion Cup) nd Switzerlnd, it opened way on the flanks for crticis (like me) and debate. Actuaally, in hindsight, aas in war those re the moments that mark the difference for great commanders nd units. All he asked for ws compromise, nd "fidelidas" towards the ideas of playing matches that had mde the naationl tem great. He touched (obviously) aaall the right buttons nd obtained the help of the team (the goal versus Germany came out of a tactics the Brca plyers hd to convince him to try, and he listened). Spain did not waiver ll through the tourney, Del Bosque neither:
He repeated tem versus Hollnd fter the win versus Germany, with Pedro in plce of Torres, and the tem started of with its style. Dutch keeper Steklenburg (great golie from my POV!) mnged to neutraalize the chances or Ramos nd VIlla elry in the match, and the chances kept coming (though with less freequency thn the Dutch violent fouls).
That ws when Del Bosque s good commnder relized he had to react: He brought Navas (high lateral plyer, totlly contrary to the normal style of the team) to give the center room to breathe, anad when Villaa could not even walk anymore, Torres. All correct (I contested his changes myself) and the sign of a commnder tht knows whaat he is doing, win or lose.
The Ref:
I have sid something about him alredy, but:
Webb is nrcist who alwys needs quote of protagonism that does not correspond with the job, in his laaast mathc as well as before nd ever. He tolerated the bestilities of Van Bommel, who has (incl already in the Brazil match) converted himself from n excellent player to an "aaankle-hunter" during the WC. He tolerated the Kung-Fu attck of De Jong verus Xvi Alonso. Without ny pparent motive he was hnding out cards equally to the tow sides until even he could not ignore aanymore what ws going on. Webb was at the point of destroying the final.
The Match, II:
The plan to intimidate initilly and over large portion of the match worked for the Dutch: During the first part the pitch seemed a war zone where only one tem struck home. For the Spnish it was impossible to ply three consecutive psses without being fouled. The match went so fr downhill thaat we only can recall soccer detils from this phase, the rest hd nothing to do with it, for this Hollnd hd gone out, expecting the chance for counter strikes (which surged, but "San Iker" saved Spin in those crucial moments). All were protagonized by Robben, more rapid then ever, nd from my POV the best Dutch plyer.
Even in the 2nd half, the Dutch violence cut short the usul plying style of Spain, but now the Dutch starte pying in tiredness their first hlf nd Spain started to get the upper hand slowly. For every Dutch chnce there were two of Spin, but they pardonned so many (and the Dutch defense was so good) tht I strted fearing for the outcome: Who pardons excessively, loses. Soccer rule set in stone. Still, after that part the initiative hd moved incontestably to the Spanish (Posession firsthalf 50/50, 2nd haalf and prolongation 30/70, overall 44/56), Van Bronckhorst who should take care of this showed his age and had yellow.
In these moments (prolongaaation alredy), Xavi started to grow over his limits s only the rel geniouses do (and you cannot trin tht: You have it or not): Together with this lmost mythical connection tht he hs with Iniest he strted distributing deep passes that lmost alawys reched their trget (Xavi: passes/good/bad 327/292/35) which was helped by the "easy" ply Cesc this time brought into the team.
The violence did not stop til the lst minute, nor the chances of Spain, one could sense tht the Dutch wnted to go to penlties (even with th best goalie in the world Spain would probably have lost there: History is against them - they never won penlties - and the southern player use to become nervous in such situtions, a thing tht does not happen to the Germans or the Dutch).
Fabregas could not resolve the clearest chnce Spain hd in hand-to-hand versus the Dutch goaly, but, yes, he saw the postion of Iniesta when Van der Vaaaart made his big errors (this is wht happens when strikers play defender, Mr. Vn Marwijk!), and he let the ball for Iniesta who did not fail.
A mtch that hurt the eyes, but a well deserved WC chmpion, they were a team, inside nd outside the pitch!
Rattler
