daveswelshrarebits.com

Congratulations to Paul the Psychic Octupus for correctly predicting that Spain would win the World Cup Final while I got my selection wrong again. I was hoping we would finish the tournament with a classic final with the two finalists leaving their cynicism in the dressing room to concentrate on playing football. Unfortunately, Holland attempted to kick Spain off the park, and the so-called Dutch Masters played like backstreet cloggers.

Howard Webb, the English referee issued a record 14 yellow cards and eventually one red card in extra-time. In hindsight, it may have proved prudent to have given “the Karate Kid” Nigel de Jong a red card when he implanted a stud imprint on Alonso’s chest. The players would have realized that Webb was not going tolerate any nonsense. Alternatively an early goal by Spain would have created a more flowing contest instead of the “cat and mouse” theatricals we were subjected to.

Holland’s line-up was designed to prevent Spain from playing their flowing football. De Jong and Van Bommel played in front of the back four and rarely crossed the half way line. Their mission was to shackle Xavi and Iniesta and it nearly worked. Van Bommel would comfortably win the trophy for dirtiest player of the tournament if they awarded one. Their only attacking outlets emanated from Van Persie, Robben and Sneijda. Robben had two great chances to score and could have won the game for Holland if he had shown a little more composure. Sneijda executed one sublime through ball to set up Robben for a “one on one” with the goalkeeper who managed to stick out a despairing boot to deflect it for a corner.

In contrast, Spain weaved pretty patterns around the field, but for all their attractive build up, had difficulty putting the ball in the net. The decision to play David Villa as a lone striker in the semi-final and final nearly back fired. Earlier in the tournament, he had posed a far more potent threat coming in from the left scoring five goals from that position. Torres’s lack of form and fitness necessitated a change in tactics, but Fabregas’s inclusion from the start may have proved a better alternative. Spain scored a meager 8 goals in seven matches to win the world cup while Germany top scored with 16. The Latinos deserved to win the cup if only because they were the best of a mediocre bunch.

What price on Holland’s legacy formerly lauded and respected for their “total football?” In the seventies they appeared in two world cup finals by playing with elegance and creativity. Now their cynicism which reared its ugly head against Brazil has left a sour taste in the mouth. The Dutch urgently need to return to the canvas and create another impression.

In previous world cups one player has made the tournament his own: Pele in 1970, Cruyff in 1974, Kempes in 1978, Rossi in 1982, Maradona in 1986, Zidane in 1998, and Ronaldo in 2002 to name a few. There were the pretenders to the crown in 2010 in the various shapes of Messi, Christian Ronaldo and even Rooney. None of them were up to the task. Diego Forlan had a good world cup for Uruguay, Shweinsteiger, Meuller and Ozil were shining lights for Germany, Xavi, Iniesta and Ramos were class above their opposite numbers, but nobody really imposed his personality on the tournament.

 One little oddity to leave you with: New Zealand were the only team in the tournament to remain undefeated. They managed three draws in the group stage but didn’t produce enough points to progress to the knock out round. Did anyone give Spain a prayer when they lost their opening match to Switzerland? Oh, I almost forgot to mention that Iniesta scored the winning goal in the final to give Spain the World Cup for the first time. See you in Brazil in four years.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 14th, 2010 at 10:55 am and is filed under Association football, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.