Good luck to the Dutch and Spanish fans. Try to remain calm, this will be wild!
they must have had 5 good chances ...
combo of great keeping/shitty finishing/ and lack of a left foot has kept this game scoreless
Fabregas has seemed to make a huge difference ... thats spains huge advantage ... pulling top line players in the world off their bench fresh in late games because they are so deep
id say spain. casillas is an animal.
their keeper is considered one of the best in the world after brazil's ...
the dutch keeper wouldnt even be starting if van da sar (sic?) from man u wasnt retired from international competition
10 on 11 now ...
the dutch have to pray to survive to pks now
Netherlands, now down to ten men.
dive
smart time wasting by Robben. I really do hate him but he's doing a job.
GOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLL!!!!!!!!
...Espana!!!!!!!!!!!!
BAMMM!!! Spain!
spain
they really deserve it to be honest
robben will be thinking about that miss forever
looks like the octopus was right again
Never doubt the octopus
GOAL! CLUTCH!
...is now the national hero of Spain. He'll never have to buy a drink again in his life.
how much time the ref spends telling players to stop complaining but almost never really puts any weight behind it.
why spain got the goal kick to lead to that break out and goal...
should have been a corner to holland .... free kick clearly went off spains wall
Awful officiating down the stretch. Missed the ridiculous dive by Iniesta and the obvious corner to Holland. Spain pretty much immediately came down and scored after that.
...for World Cup winners turning into never-never land for the Netherlands?" Priceless.
...sounds scripted no matter what he says. So, yeah.
saying anything but "Michigan wins." And even then I'd rather hear the news from somebody else.
...Spain are world champions.
and the only undefeated team of the 2010 world cup ... your New Zealand Kiwis
congrats to spain i dont like em but they have been the best for a long time and deserved to win
No blow jobs I guess
Spain controlled play in the second period after an uneventful first half, but the refs have a lot to answer for. Robbens was so clearly held, and one must assume Holland would have scored on the penalty. Fun to watch, but. . . ouch--get a replay, soccer.
I'm all for replay, and was rooting for the Dutch, but they should have been a man down after the Kung-Fu kick to the chest.
of non-calls as the ref struggled to keep enough men on the field in the second half. . .
So we're just going to ignore not giving a red card for the drop kick? If that's properly given, this isn't even a game.
Both sides got robbed at some point or another, i'm just happy the better team won.
Robben was held as he moved to score, and would likely have made the penalty. For me it was the most egregious reffing move of the game. And yeah, Spain is the "better" team talentwise, but it leaves a bad taste. Not a pretty match from MOST angles, and Spain did not play well for much of the match, so being better is kind of different from "deserving," don't you agree?
That was far from egregious, to me it looked like they were jostling for position and Robben won.
Agreed. Holland should've gotten a red card for the drop kick and Van Bommell was lucky not to be sent off as well. The Dutch don't have much to complain about, they played very negatively and Spain deserved the win.
Spain are deserving World Champs. Winning the Euro and the World Cup back to back is a rare feat. Iniesta grabbing the winner is fitting too, he's been amazing. Deserving winners.
To be fair, The Oranje probably should have been down to 10 way earlier.
http://tv.gawker.com/5584376/dutch-player-literally-drop+kicks-spaniard-in-world-cup-final
I don't deny that there were missed calls around, but my counter to your counter is that while those missed calls are at least somewhat typical of soccer matches, kicking a guy straight in the chest while the ball is clearly a foot above should net you a red card 99 times out 100. Spain played hard, dominated possession, and made the plays when they needed to. I do think that something should have been called on Robben's run toward the end of regulation.
But Spain won both Euro 2008 and the WC - they are not a fluke, and played well enough to win.