The World Cup came to a boil in the cooking pot that has come to symbolise the rainbow nation of South Africa.
The World Cup came to a boil in the cooking pot that has come to symbolise the rainbow nation of South Africa.
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When Spain created history at Soccer City by beating the Netherlands with Andres Iniesta's dramatic extra-time winner to lift their first-ever World Cup, a great tournament finally got closure with a triumph for the team that plays the beautiful game.
It was an ugly game, thanks to the negative tactics employed by the desperate Dutch.
In the end, referee Howard Webb, who had an exceptional game blew his whistle for 46 fouls, and issued 12 yellow cards and one red.
Even the magic of Nelson Mandela's long-awaited appearance failed to ignite the occasion. South Africa's first democratic president, well rugged up for the chilly night, made his way onto the Soccer City pitch moments after the closing ceremony, but was home before kick-off.
"It was a terrible game," said Holland legend Ruud Gullit. "The Dutch must blame themselves."
The Netherlands carried this ominous slogan on their team bus - 'Don't fear the big five, fear the Orange eleven'.
That is exactly what they set out to do ufffd putting in nasty, crunching tackles on the Spanish passing maestros that robbed the game of real footballing pleasure.
All night, they seemed to have one gameplan: resort to brutal tactics to stop their more skilful rivals from playing their possession game.
Thankfully, the football gods did not feel like Holland deserved a World Cup breakthrough after back-to-back heartbreaking losses in the 1974 and 1978 Cup finals.
Spanish fans, outnumbered in Johannesburg by the Orange tide, erupted as the final whistle went.
'Los Campeones del Mundo' (Champions of the world) went the cries even as their classic chorus 'Ole, ole, ole ufffd' rose above the drone of vuvuzelas.
Diehard Spanish supporter Salinas beat his drum furiously. "I have been following this team for the last few tournaments, and this is heaven," he said.
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