Preview of the World Cup final 2010 – Netherlands vs. Spain
With Netherlands and Spain facing each other in the World Cup final, there is a whole set of “firsts” that are certainly going to happen. Most notably for the European continent, it will be the very first time a European team has won the World Cup held outside the European continent and the first time since 1938 when teams from Europe will go on to win consecutive World Cups in football history. Most importantly for the teams, it will be their first ever taste of glory which will mean that there will be a name added to the list of seven previous winners of this ultimate prize in the world of football.
Netherlands have contested the World Cup final before and will now be making their third appearance in the final after a long wait of 32 years. During their golden period of the Total Football generation, Netherlands featured in consecutive World Cup finals in 1974 and 1978 but lost on both occasions to home advantage in West Germany and Argentina respectively. None of the current Dutch players may have the legendary status of Johan Cryuff just as yet but the likes of Wesley Sneijder and Arjen Robben can certainly make a claim if they come out victorious on 11th July.
On the other hand, Spain’s best ever finish in the World Cup is a fourth place in the 1950 tournament held in Brazil. The winner in that tournament was decided after a round robin group phase among the four group winners. As a result, South Africa 2010 was the first tournament for Spain when they played in a semi-final match. The phrase “under-achievers” sound synonymous with Spain when it comes to football but the reining European champions could do them a world of good come the final whistle of the 2010 World Cup.
Looking at the results, Netherlands is the form team at the moment that is on an incredible streak of 25 undefeated matches which started back in 2008. Of these 25 matches, there were 14 competitive matches (others being friendlies) which were all won by Spain. These 14 matches include 8 World Cup qualifiers and 6 World Cup matches in South Africa. However, the record of most undefeated matches in a row is shared by Brazil and their opponents Spain who played 35 matches without a defeat from 2007 to 2009, including 32 wins. This undefeated streak along with a winning streak of 15 matches was ended in South Africa when they lost to the USA in the semi-final of the 2009 Confederations Cup. Netherlands and Spain were the only two teams in the world to have won all their qualification matches for the 2010 World Cup.
Only three World Cup finals were decided in the extra-time with the last coming in 1978 when Netherlands lost to Argentina. The match was tied at 1-1 at the end of the regular 90 minutes. Rob Rensenbrink came agonisingly close for Netherlands when he hit the goal post. However, the Netherlands ended as second best for the second time running as Argentina scored two goals in the extra-time period.
Only two previous World Cups have been decided on penalty shootouts before i.e. USA 1994 when Brazil beat Italy and then Germany 2006 when Italy overcame France. Netherlands do not pose a very good record in the penalty shootouts. They lost their first four tie-breakers in the major tournaments which include three semi-finals. They finally broke their duck in Euro 2004 with a quarter-final win over Sweden. Spain’s record in the penalty shootout is slightly better but still unpredictable. Their last shootout came on their way to winning Euro 2008 against the then world champions Italy.
There will also be some interesting individual battles on the pitch. Wesley Sneijder and David Villa will be looking to add to their 5 goals in South Africa 2010 so far to win the Golden Boot. Xavi, Andrea Iniesta and Arjen Robben could also make a claim for the Golden Ball with their influential performance in the title winning match.
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