The experts predicted that Spain was the favourite to win this year’s World Cup and they were right! On Sunday, Spain took on the Netherlands in a closely contested match and neither team was able to score during the game.

It was only in the dying minutes of extra-time, when Spain managed to score through Andrés Iniesta after Cesc Fábregas set it up with an exceptional pass. The Matadors were ecstatic in their celebrations as they knew it was too late for the Dutch to find an equalizer. Iniesta pulled of his shirt to show the world a message that he had for the late Espanyol captain, Dani Jarque who passed away last year after suffering a heart attack during a training session.

Iniesta told reporters after the game “We wanted to pay tribute to him and this was the best opportunity to do so. I really can't believe it yet. It hasn't sunk in. I've made a small contribution in a very tough game, a very rough game – there were all sorts of things happening out on the pitch – but Spain deserved to win this World Cup. It's something we should all feel very proud about. Incredible!”

The game was everything a world cup final should be. Both teams played attacking football and created many chances. The Dutch should have scored twice when Arjen Robben broke the Spanish defense but was stopped by Iker Casillas. Spain’s captain created history for becoming the first goalkeeper since Italy’s Dino Zoff led his team to a World Cup triumph. FIFA also voted Casillas as the best goalkeeper of 2010 joining the ranks of Fabien Barthez (France) in 1998, Oliver Khan (Germany) in 2002 and Gianluigi Buffon (Italy) in 2006.

The match was extremely physical causing the referee to award a total of 14 yellow cards which included two to Johnny Heitinga. Arjen Robben was not happy with the match referee Webb. He told reporters “When I got my second chance, the referee should have given us a free kick and Puyol a (second) yellow card," Robben said. “He gave the advantage, but there was none as I could hardly move and the goalkeeper (Iker Casillas) was too close already. When you play in a World Cup final, you also need a world-class referee.”

Spain’s coach Vicente del Bosque was extremely proud of his team’s achievement. He said “It was a very intense game, balanced and even. It was rough at times but that's part of football. They made it very difficult for us to play comfortably. There was pressing from both sides but football is moving forward. The reward today was for beautiful football.”