World Cup Final 2010: Spain 1-0 Holland

There were no surprises in the Dutch line up for their third final appearance. Right-back Gregory Van Der Wiel returned from his one match ban to take the place of Boulahrouz and defensive midfielder Nigel De Jong was back from his suspension to replace De Zeeuw in the engine house of the Holland team meaning that coach Bert Van Marwijk was able to name his strongest eleven. Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque had a selection dilemma in attack, eventually opting for Pedro, who impressed in the semi final, ahead of Fernando Torres, who has struggled since rushing back from injury to be fit for the finals. Therefore, Spain fielded an unchanged team from their win over Germany. On the celebrity front, Nelson Mandela was present in the stadium for Africa’s first final and Michel Platini made it too, having fainted in a restaurant on Friday night. Most importantly of all, Paul the Octopus predicted a Spain win, and he hadn’t been wrong yet this tournament. Unfortunately he couldn’t attend in person. England’s Howard Webb was appointed referee for the big occasion, three days before his 39th birthday.

Holland kicked off and their game plan was clear from the start, with three fouls conceded in the opening minutes. The first real chance came early on too, with Xavi whipping in a free kick from the right following one of those fouls. Ramos met it with his head and Stekelenburg needed to make a fine save to protect his clean sheet. Dirk Kuyt managed Holland’s first shot on target a couple of minutes later but it wasn’t hit hard enough to trouble Casillas. Ramos was having a busy start and he got forward again in the 11th minute, beating Kuyt as be broke into the box and struck a shot towards the far post, which was diverted over the bar by Heitinga. Villa had a shooting chance after the resulting corner and hit the side netting as Spain piled on the pressure. The Dutch were already struggling to keep up with the slick movement of their Spanish counterparts and Van Persie was booked for his second bad tackle on the quater hour mark when he took out Capdevila.

Carles Puyol demonstrated that Spain can mix it in a physical encounter when he brought down Holland’s danger man Arjen Robben a minute later to earn himself a yellow card and Wesley Sneijder was presented with his first chance to aim a free kick at Casillas’ goal. His powerful shot beat the wall but was too close to the Spanish ‘keeper. Mark Van Bommel got his own, much anticipated, booking in the 22nd minute for a terrible challenge from behind on Iniesta, and Ramos was similarly punished a minute later for a foul on Kuyt as the yellow card total began to mount up. De Jong claimed the fifth caution in the 28th minute and he was probably lucky not to be dismissed for a studs-up high foot into Alonso’s chest. The game calmed down a bit towards the end of the half with little more than a few long range efforts to note, the best of which was a snap shot from Robben following a corner but Casillas turned it around his near post to ensure parity at the interval.