World Cup Wrap-Up: Spain downs Dutch in overtime
The hometown fans, recalling their nation’s Dutch heritage and their own Dutch roots, favoured the boys from the Netherlands, turning out in the Dutch national kits and colors. The skirmish with the well-prepared and exquisitely coached Spaniards kept the 85,000 noisy fans on the edges of their seats in Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, going deep into overtime and threatening to go to a shoot-out.
Just four minutes from the expiration of overtime, Spain’s Andres Iniesta took a perfect pass from Fabregas, volleying it to the the far post. Although Netherlands goalkeeper stretched to touch the ball, he neither could control nor deflect it. With the Netherlands players screaming Iniesta had gone off-sides, referee Howard Webb signalled the goal for the Spanish side. The goal changed the pace and tone of a penalty-ridden game—twelve yellow cards total, eight of them to the Netherlands. Brilliant goal-keeping kept the score at zeroes until the one last-minute shot eluded Stekelenberg’s reach.
In a move nearly as stunning and spectacular as his goal, Iniesta tore off his kit, displaying a t-shirt emblazoned “Danu Jarque siempre con nosotros.” Later explaining his tribute to former Spanish defender Jarque, victim of a heart attack nearly a year ago, Iniesta repreated, “Dani is always with us. This for Dani, for all of my family, for all of the people. It is the result of hard work over a long time and some difficult moments.”
Spain’s World Cup championship goes into the history books as only the third time the reigning European champion has doubled as the world champion. By a similar rule of threes, the Netherlands’ second place finish marks the third time in that nation’s history the squad has ended the tournament’s runner-up.
Americans learn that, yes, true football fans watch the consolation round.
On Saturday, Americans advanced to the intermediate stage of their instruction in worldwide football, discovering that devotees cherish the consolation game almost as much as the championship. A record global viewing audience tuned-in to watch Germany defeat upstart Uruguay, 3-2. Playing for national pride and handsome medals, contenders for third place honours played at least as fiercely as the finalists. Sami Khedira broke a 2-2 deadlock with just eight minutes left in the game, pushing in a well-placed header off of a corner kick.
Watching the game at a crowded Chicago sports bar, surrounded by a genuinely international crowd, American sports journalist Abby Sandburg figured out, “Around the world, football fans feel the same way perennial baseball fans feel as they say they stick with their hometown teams, ‘lovable losers’, because they love the game. There’s just as much enthusiasm for the consolation game as the championship, because the true fans just genuinely love this game.”
