Venue: Soccer City - Johannesburg
Weather: Cloudy
Attendance: 83,561
The most anticipated match of the competition brought together two European countries, that definitely proved themselves to be the most powerful national teams of the tournament, Netherlands and Spain.
Stekelenburg vs. Casillas (GK)
Van der Wiel vs. Ramos (DR)
Heitinga vs. Puyol (DC)
Mathijsen vs. Pique (DC)
Van Bronckhorst vs. Capdevilla (DL)
Van Bommel vs. Sergio (DMC)
De Yong vs. Alonso (DMC)
Sneijder vs. Xavi (MC)
Robben vs. Iniesta (AMC)
Kuyt vs. Pedro (AMC)
Van Persie vs. David Villa (ST)
Both Van Marwijk and Del Bosque went for an identical tactical display, both hoping for a creative spark from their offensive players that could make the difference. Ad they weren't wrong. The Netherlands put themselves one up when Robben's genius cross from the right met the head of Kuyt, leaving Iker with no other chance that to watch the ball as it went in off the underside of the bar. 1-0. That was the half time score and people start wondering is Paul the octopus' finally lost his intuition or if it it Torres that could save the lucky guesser?
It was indeed Torres that finally managed to equalize with 20 minutes to go but it wasn't a moment to last as Wesley Sneijder though about challenging Van Bronckhorst wonder goal from the semifinal with Uruguay. Same place, same foot, but far more cheers after the ball reached the net, after taking a deflection from Iker's right hand. 2-1 and Spain couldn't do anything more to change that. THE WORLD CUP GOES TO AMSTERDAM!
MoM. Wesley Sneijder
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