You Are The Champions, My Friends...

Oh well, last night we were witnessed the new history as Spain became the 8th country to win the FIFA World Cup after beat Holland 1-0 at Johannesburg, South Africa. The game started quite intimidated as both teams were never won any World Cup before, so of course, they were aimed to win and looked like ready to do anything hence Howard Webb, the English referee, risked repetitive strain injury showing 14 yellow cards, a record for a World Cup final. He also sent off Holland's John Heitinga as the Dutch suspended their artistic heritage.
To be honest, the game started greatly with a lot of tackles and attempts from both team, but according to my opinion, Spain did better and created more chances. Seriously, they did. However, both team showed great defends as Holland with their Van Bommel whom specialized himself for those killer tackles that really killed Spain’s attackers and Spain with their greatest goalkeeper who seemed to me appeared as a God in last night’s game.
Toward the end, the game became more aggressive as the players were probably felt a little bit frustrated for their unsuccessful attempts. And I won’t lie to you, actually during extra time, I thought Holland played better than Spain. And yeah, I was sweat myself a bit at that point. But, my highest appreciation was for both goalkeeper, Casillas of Spain and Netherlands’ Maarten Stekelenburg, who were stood as tall as they could and did a very brilliant job on the final match at Johannesburg last night. They are an ultimate hero for their team and their country.
Well, all in, Spain did wait for the last minute to claim their victory as Andres Iniesta became an executor for the team at the 116th minute after Holland’s Heitinga got sent off for (still questioning) his awful tackle against Iniesta. I said still questioning because of, definitely Heitinga’s hand is on Iniesta’s shoulder, but only very briefly and certainly not when Iniesta goes down. So was Heitinga’s sending off too harsh? Netherlands ability to disrupt Spain’s passing left the field with Heitinga. Because it’s hard enough to contain the tiki-taka passing with 11 men. With 10? Forget about it, and seven minutes later Andres Iniesta had won the game. So it’s fair to say the result of this final was heavily influenced by Heitinga’s sending off. So yeah, maybe it is an important moment and worth a second look. But however, it was only a game and passed already. Let’s just move on and enjoy the moment.
Now, let’s talk about achievements on this year’s World Cup series. Seriously, I was like screamed my head off when Bosque replaced Villa with Torres in extra time. I mean, why? He had his chance to win the golden boot if he stayed in, but then again, I believe the decision was made for the team rather than for the player. I hate to admit it, but indeed, Villa didn’t do much in the game last night. Besides, Torres was not a bad replacement after all. Even though I was kind of objected with Fabregas came in for Alonzo as I thought Alonzo did pretty well job. But yeah, again, maybe fresh foot was needed hence the decision made. So yeah, congratulation to Forlan for winning the golden ball, Thomas Muller for golden boot and best young player (what did he win for this? Golden iPod, maybe? Hah!), Casillas for golden glove, and Spain for FIFA fair play award (they only got 8 yellow cards in 7 games which 5 came in the final!). And…oh yeah, Spain also wins a thing called the World Cup trophy, for beating all the other teams (except Switzerland) Hah!
^_^