Spain - World Champs

Spain were not just good on the night but were so throughout the tournament.

Few would have predicted them to be the world champs after their initial loss to Swiss. But they bounced back from that set back spectacularly. They improved game after game. By conceding just 2 goals and scoring 8, they have become the lowest scorning nation to ever to win the cup. They stuck to their passing game no matter what and ground the teams to score winners very late. Most of their score lines read 1-0. But they had the highest number of shots on target. Probably their finishing was not as efficient as the Germans.

Getting back to the final game, if the Dutch had won, it would have been bad for the game because the way they approached the match was just not in the spirit of the game. The Dutch played beautiful football until the finals. It's one thing to have a game plan, be organized and get men behind the ball, but kicking your opponents off the pitch is absolute disgrace. The Dutch played to a game plan that was off beam. They had few breakaways but their approach was to stop the Spanish playing and I personally didn't want to see that, I wanted an open game. By the end of the match, the entire Dutch team apart from Maarten Stekelenburg and Wesley Sneijder were on yellow card. They had a player sent off as well. They in fact were lucky that De Jong was not sent off early in the game, for that wild kick on Xabi Alonso. It might not have been the best final but Spain have been the best side for the last three years and they always tried to play the game in the right way and they for me were the worthy winners on the night.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The Good:

1)      Spain, Uruguay, Argentina and Germany

2)       Iniesta taking off his blue Spain jersey to reveal a white T-shirt bearing the words, "Dani Jarque: siempre con nosotros" — "Dani Jarque: always with us.”Jarque collapsed and died at the age of 26 on a preseason tour of Italy last year, one month after being named captain of Espanyol. Iniesta and Jarque were teammates on Spain's under-17, under-19, under-20 and under-21 teams.

The Bad:

1)       The final game with umpteen yellow cards

2)       England, Brazil and Italy

3)       Jabulani 

The Ugly:

1)       Play acting

2)       Horrible tackles (Van Bommel kicked anything that moved)

3)       France

4)       Annoying vuvuzelas

Feel free to pour in your comments.