“After all he has given to the team to score a goal like that is well deserved,” remarked teammate Joan Capdevila afterwards.
And while, Puyol was making waves, Fernando Torres was left on the bench after a disappointing tournament in which the Liverpool striker, still looking to regain his sharpness after a knee injury, has failed to score. Instead, Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque turned to Barcelona’s Pedro to provide a youthful thrust on the flank while also freeing top-scorer David Villa to play in his preferred central position.
“It was a difficult decision,” said Del Bosque. “Fernando is a boy everyone likes, a strong personality and a good player. But we took a decision on the basis of what we thought was best for this match.”
Spain still thirsty for more
Although they may already be champions of Europe and in their first World Cup final but Xabi Alonso said Spain will not be satisfied unless they land the major prize.
“We want more, we’ve come a long way and now we’re in the final. We want to celebrate something really big,” said Alonso. Meanwhile, Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque has urged his team to keep their feet on the ground.
“I won’t single out individual players. I think all of them were extraordinary,” said Del Bosque. “But we have to be careful, there is still one match to play. We know all about Dutch football and it will be a very difficult final.”
Del Bosque praised his players for sticking to their task until their domination finally yielded the winning goal 17 minutes from the end of regulation time.
“The triumph is even bigger because of the size of the opponent. You could say Germany was less strong than expected but was because our team did a great job. The bottom line is we played better than they expected.”
All is not lost for Germany
Three-time champions Germany must now pick themselves up for Saturday’s third-place play-off against Uruguay.
Germany coach Joachim Loew admitted it was a game too far for his young team who had scored four goals against both England and Argentina in their previous two games.
“Compliments to Spain,” said Loew. “They played well, they pushed us to our limits.”
“The players are devastated but I would still like to congratulate them on the way they played throughout the tournament.”
Loew also expressed confidence that Spain would beat the Netherlands in the final and complimented the quality of Spain’s passing game and accepted they had deserved their 1-0 semi-final victory.
“They played very well and over the last two or three years they have been the most skilled team of all.”
Asked if Spain deserved to be regarded as the world’s best, the German coach replied, “Yes, I agree. They won the European Championship (in 2008) in a very convincing way.”
“It is as if they are playing on auto-pilot now and I’m fairly confident they are going to go on and win the title.”
PSYCHIC
‘Octopus oracle’ keeps perfect record
Paul, Germany’s now world-famous “Octopus oracle”, has maintained his perfect record. The “psychic” creature has correctly predicted all six of Germany’s World Cup games. Paul might be predicting the final, but only if his hefty workload has not exhausted him. The mollusc medium, who stunned Germany by tipping Spain, will make his prediction for the third-place Germany match with Uruguay.
Spain coach Vincent Del Bosque
We will not be blinded by success. We will enjoy this and tomorrow we start preparing for the final. There is nothing more difficult or precious than to win a World Cup. But we still have to play the final. We cannot start bragging or get too conceited yet
Published in The Express Tribune, July 9th, 2010.
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