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FIFA World Cup 2010 The FINAL Match
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NETHERLANDS VS. SPAIN
FIFA World Cup 2010 Match Live Online
FIFA WORLD CUP TROPHYThe World Cup 2010 being held in South Africa,
from the 11th June untill the 11th July.
The best football once every four years.
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NETHERLANDS VS. SPAIN
FIFA World Cup 2010 Final Match Watch Live Online
Final Match
FIFA World Cup 2010
Venue: Soccer City, Johannesburg
Match Schedule:
Sunday, 11th July 2010
19:30 (BST) / 20:30 (Local Time)
2:30pm (ET)
The two top teams on the planet will square off Sunday, with an opportunity to win each country’s first ever FIFA World Cup. But when the Netherlands and Spain get together on the pitch, who should be THE World Cup CHAMPS.
The culmination of a month of toil, jubilation and heartbreak is set to come to a showpiece head in the magnificent surroundings of Soccer City in Joburg on Sunday, as both the Netherlands and Spain will compete to be crowned world champions.
One certainty that lies in store is that there will be a new name engraved on the World Cup trophy come Sunday evening, as both countries – despite their continued prominence in world football – have never lifted that 6 kilograms of 18 carat gold before – despite their rich histories.
For the Dutch, they remain the hottest team in the world, as they’ve now won 25 straight matches as a side dating back to 2008, and have yet to lose in this World Cup.
Their star has been diminutive Wesley Sneijder, who has played much larger than his 5’7 frame in this tournament. The midfielder who recently won a UEFA Champions League title with Inter Milan, has continued his world class play this summer, as through six Dutch wins, he’s scored five goals, including two in a quarterfinal win over Brazil, and one against Uruguay in a 3-2 semifinal victory.
Sneijder is joined by Arjen Robben, a skilled midfielder, who is just getting fit after a pre-tournament injury, and has scored two goals for the Oranje in their last three matches.
As for Spain, while they may be the more talented overall side in this tournament, they’ve relied heavily on one man to get them this far, striker David Villa.
What Villa has done in this World Cup is simply phenomenal, as heading into the final, he is tied with Sneijder with five goals. However, seemingly, all those goals have been do or die, last second scores, such as his 83rd minute goal to lift Spain to a 1-0 victory in their quarterfinal win over Paraguay. Most recently, Villa was held quiet by Germany, but not before defender Carles Puyol put in a header to clinch their 1-0 semifinal win.
So heading into the final, which side has the advantage? Despite what the results say, it’s actually the Spanish.
As was previously mentioned, this is the deeper side, with the explosive Villa up front, but more importantly a boatload of skill in the midfield with Andres Iniesta, Xabi Alonso and Xavi in the midfield. Also, for all the talk about their feared offense, keeper Iker Casillas has been phenomenal, as he has yet to give up a goal in the knockout rounds. That stat is even more important, considering Spain has won their last three matches 1-0.
The Dutch on the other hand enter this match playing good but hardly great soccer, a big point of contention with the Orange Army. Dutch fans believe their countrymen have yet to play their best match, but will do so Sunday against Spain.
The only problem is this: As great as Sneijder and Robben have been, quietly, keeper Maarten Stekelenburg has been struggling. He has given up at least one score in four straight games, and two against a Uruguay side that was without one of their best offensive players- Luis Suarez- in the semifinals.
Expect a thrilling and exciting final, but ultimately, expect La Furia Roja from Spain to pull it out. They have the better overall talent, the better keeper and the best player in this match. And with the wide open style the Dutch like to play, for the first time all World Cup, Spain’s offensive weapons will be free to do what they do best, make plays.
Another surprising statistic is that neither side have ever met in major international tournament football before, so there is no tangible previous form to draw conclusions from – leaving us with a very unique prospect on our hands.
Bert Van Marwijk’s men were faced with the unenviable task of having to make their way past perennial underdogs Uruguay in the semi-finals, and eventually did so at a relative canter after a barren opening period.
After taking a breath-taking lead through Giovanni Van Bronckhorst’s superb angled drive, the Dutch (as we’ve seen throughout their World Cup campaign) once again laboured to capitalise on their advantage – looking decidedly short on ideas in the process.
The Netherlands’ struggled to come up with anything convincing in their bid to put Uruguay to the sword, and La Celeste duly pulled themselves back into the tie when Diego Forlan’s 25-yard effort ‘knuckled’ it’s way past Maarten Stekelenburg with just five minutes of the first-half remaining.
Although they had been markedly better in the early stages of the second-half, Van Marwijk’s men were still struggling to make in-roads through the staunch Uruguayan defense, that was until the increasingly stagnant flow of the game was altered tellingly in the 70th minute.
Just as during their 2-1 quarter-final victory over Brazil, the Dutch had to wait to be spurred into action by a timely piece of serendipity – and again it was their midfield talisman Wesley Sneijder that benefited.
After looking up to see his route to goal littered with sky blue shirts, the Inter Milan star fired off a speculative effort that was heavily deflected twice and just managed to evade the touch of the offside Robin Van Persie before nestling tamely in the far corner of Fernando Muslera’s net.
With the game now swung in their favour, the Dutch regained possession almost immediately after the restart and pushed in search of a third goal to effectively neuter Uruguay’s latent threat.
Just three minutes after Sneijder had restored the Netherlands’ lead, Arjen Robben extended it – leaping to head Dirk Kuyt’s pinpoint cross home via the far post.
Uruguay resolved to notch a well-worked 92nd minute consolation goal through midfielder Maxi Pereira, but it was a case of too-little-too-late for Oscar Tabarez’s side – who were forced to watch on as the pulsating hordes of Oranje-clad supporters celebrated at the final whistle.
Spain, who are incidentally vying to become only the third team in history to hold both the European and World champions title at the same time (after West Germany in ‘72 and ‘74 and France in ‘98 and ‘00), come into the final off the back of an (almost) exemplary run of results – but not necessarily on a high.
The prolific striker David Villa has already netted five goals at this World Cup.
It was Germany that stood before them in the semi-finals, but La Furia Roja eased past Joachim Loew’s resurgent young team by registering a deceptively narrow 1-0 victory (thanks to a powerful Carles Puyol header) over Die Mannschaft after again dominating the proceedings with their self-indulgent passing display.
The Netherlands will be without Demy De Zueew (suspected broken jaw) for the final, but seeing as though he was only brought in as a replacement for the temporarily suspended Nigel De Jong, that shouldn’t be much of an issue.
Highly-rated right-back Gregory Van der Wiel will also be returning after serving a one-match ban, meaning that Khalid Boulahrouz will be demoted back down to the bench.
Vicente Del Bosque will face a tough decision on the fitness of Fernando Torres, after the Liverpool striker again looked leggy despite only coming on for the last ten minutes of the Germany game.
Torres’ replacement in the first string, Pedro, did his chances of securing a starting berth in the final no harm after putting in a lively shift but some late-stage wastefulness may be enough to persuade Del Bosque to go with a more experienced option.
This upcoming final should be a delight for all connoisseurs of football the way it should be played, but if this South African World Cup has taught us one thing and one thing alone, it is to expect the unexpected.
With so much riding on the game for both countries. A single goal may be enough to swing it either way, but with so much attacking talent on display, it shouldn’t be too optimistic to hope for an entertaining game for the millions and millions of neutrals tuning in worldwide.
David Villa has scored six of Spain’s last eight goals at World Cup finals. And he is on 43 goals, just one goal away from joining Raul as Spain’s top scorer of all time.
Spain have been the good boys of the World Cup, receiving just three yellow cards, the fewest in this summer’s finals. Holland, by contrast, have had 15 bookings.
Xavi, of Spain, has created 25 goalscoring chances – an impressive eight more than any other player.
And if Spain win the World Cup they will become the first team ever to be World champions after losing their opening game.
Expect Spain to use Carlos Marchena at some stage. The veteran now holds the World record for consecutive appearances without loss, his latest against Germany in the semi-final being his 54th game without tasting defeat.
Interestingly, either Holland or Spain will make history. No European team has previously won the World Cup outside of Europe.
Holland are on a roll: The Oranje have won their last 14 games in the World Cup qualifiers and finals, an all-time record.
Spain are bidding to copy their success at Euro 2008 and, in David Villa and Xavi, they have two of the best players at the tournament.
But the new-look Orange know how to win games and may just have enough, albeit by one goal.
Paul the octopus disagrees.
