Football

"a victory for football" followed by "the ref may have made a mistake on a winning goal"

Hmmmm....

Did ITV show the game as well? I bet even their punditry wasn't that bad. Did I miss Shearer et al slagging off the Dutch at half-time for apparently playing anti-football or did they just decide to take that tone after the Spanish scraped another win?

And weren't they all lambasting the Spanish for being negative and having no cutting edge before the semi's??

Spain are the now the winners that have scored the least goals in a tournament. I think they've been cack.

also no undefeated team.

for the last ten years or so i've had a little suicide 'o'meter going on between gazza and maradonna. it has swung between the two with both of them making extraordinary efforts to be the first to die. Maradonna has been closest but although he is probably upset about going out of the WC in the quarter finals it seems Gazza is teetering perilously close to the edge with his phone call to ITV concerning the Moat affair....
..."He added: "He was like a gentleman - someone must have wound him up. Obviously he's killed someone and shot two, which is not nice really."
come on maradona...you're
falling behind

also no undefeated team.

New Zealand!

I should be happy, but I feel like Kevin Spacey in that movie... Meh... Bit of a disappointing WC if I'm completely honest...

I think you should lighten up and enjoy it! Victories are rarely flawless.

Jesus fucking Christ Joe, my missus is going bananas!

Secretly wishes it was England on the winner's podium

England weren't good enough.

Spain, deserving winners, and though villa was enough to get them to the final, shows how much they miss an on form torres. They looked a whole load more dangerous when fabregas came on, and he should have won it earlier with his one on one.
Like sequels being worse than the original, world cup finals are generally not as good as the third place game that precedes it, just too much pressure involved, and as always in football an early goal changes everything.
At least holland made an effort to break forward and score, but they never seemed able to impose themselves on the game.
This Spanish team have another tournament in them at least, maybe even the world cup in 2014.
Well done Spain for conquering the fear and playing to win, now upto other sides to man up and figure out how to attack them, rather than surrendering possession and defending, and trying to sneak a goal.
Roll on opening day of the premiership, spurs city! Early start in NYC for me...

Spain + Howard Webb = dull dull football.

Spain set out to win by playing dull strangulation football and were assisted on their way by one of the most embarrassing refereeing performances of the tournament. The whole thing, including especially the inanity of the commentators and pundits, was a disgrace.

Man of the Match: de Jong for his impressive handling of Alonso.

i'm absolutely raging mad at the BBC coverage of that game yesterday

how the could cut to some dodgy blokes lifting 5kg of gold when fernando was there lying on the pitch with his hamstring in his hand i just cannot fathom..... get your priorities right bbc
i feel they completely missed the most important, the key event of the evening

well there goes our £100mn and our season injuries anyone ?

dicki, that was the only enjoyable bit of the game. Talk about the World Cup as a shop window. Sometimes, it's better to leave stuff in the stockroom and flog it on EBay.

yeah 1-2 months out for one lousy sprint down the wing, i blame del bosque he should have started with him

i'm absolutely raging mad at the BBC coverage of that game yesterday

how the could cut to some dodgy blokes lifting 5kg of gold when fernando was there lying on the pitch with his hamstring in his hand i just cannot fathom..... get your priorities right bbc
i feel they completely missed the most important, the key event of the evening

well there goes our £100mn and our season injuries anyone ?

I can't see Chelsea wanting him now. Like I say, he needs to keep it shut and concentrate on getting fit.

I thought the Dutch were an absolute disgrace and should be ashamed of themselves. In the end, I was glad Spain won as at least they wanted to win the game and not just butcher the opposition

What an awfull final, all the ref did was blow his whistle, didnot see any football at all, no more orange madness here in the streets which is kinda nice :)

Did he stay laying down on the pitch then when Spain were lifting the cup?

Possibly still there now.

hopefully it will focus his mind on champions league position and premiershit with liverpool
buck yer ideas up torres and lets see you back at your world class best

he seemed genuinely heartbroken that he got another injury
i guess the club over country issue raised it's head right there
he looked sad even when spain had won the world cup
knowing a " dream move in the summer might be scuppered "
htfu torres you just won the world cup ( even if you didn't play much ! )

i did see him up there collecting his medal but he wasn't bouncing with the rest of the team
subdued you could call it

i did see him up there collecting his medal but he wasn't bouncing with the rest of the team
subdued you could call it

Maybe because he didn't score the winning goal?

Possibly still there now.

This made me laugh. I can imagine the caretakers going round with the brooms and picking up litter and him still laying there.

he needs to grow his hair long again
he is always better when he has long hair

Was that the worst World Cup ever? No real standout team and the worst final in living memory.