After his verdict came through correctly for predicting Spain winning the World Cup for the 2010 edition, here is Alex commenting in whether Spain deserves the win and round up other key facts during the journey of this edition's World Cup.
As the World Cup came to an end after extra time, the Spanish team were all emotionally sank to their feet as finally, they won soccer's most coveted trophy for the very first time in history. As I have predicted correctly as stated in my previous post that Spain has just about enough depth overall to lift the trophy, some may feel that Netherlands were robbed in the finals. But I tend to think differently in why Spain deserve to win the cup.
Many would have wrote off Spain as they lost to Switzerland in their opening round and would have predicted a downfall but I always felt that Spain were unlucky to lose that match and true enough, they came back strongly and won their other two matches to qualify as group winners. While Brazil, Argentina and Netherlands were favorites heading to the knockout stages, Spain were still off the radar as many though that they barely qualified and a win over Portugal in the knockout stage silenced their critics.
In the quarter finals, favorites Brazil and Argentina were upset by their underdog opponents, which were Netherlands and Germany respectively. Spain again barely got passed the quarters with a one goal victory over Paraguay. Germany, who previously upset Argentina in the previous round, started off as favorites but got outplayed by the Spaniards and eventually Spain won 1-0. Many still believed that Spain were still not good enough to win the cup even though they managed to qualify for the finals.
In the other half of the draw, Netherlands took the whole world by storm when they handed Brazil a shocking defeat which caused the sacking of their coach, Dunga for yet again failing to bring home the cup. Many thought that it would be Netherlands year as they had a relatively easy path to the finals. In the semis, they defeated Uruguay 3-2 and one step closer to the coveted trophy.
On the final day of the World Cup, the much anticipated showdown between Spain and Netherlands. Whoever wins this would have their country's name written in history. It would be a first for either teams. The match started rather boringly and by full time the score was tied 0-0. The turning point of the match was when John Heitinga was red carded and eventually led the Spaniards to their breakaway goal through Andre Iniesta in the 116th minute. There you have it, your champions for 2010! Spain!
Many would not have predicted this shocking result but to me, they thoroughly deserved it. Before the World Cup began, Spain were already criticized and labeled as a one hit wonder by media. By winning the World Cup, Spain once again proved the media wrong and wrote their names to the history book as one of the champions of soccer most coveted prize. The reason for them being able to win the cup was them never willing to give up and stop believing after their opening day upset, and for them to keep going and pushing for glory they achieved to the end, that spirit is what many will want to admire. Congratulations champions of the World Cup 2010, SPAIN!
Signing off,
Alex
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