World Cup Blog: The Final

Spain vs. Holland

Well, we're finally here. After 63 games we are hours away from the World Cup final in Soccer City, Johannesburg.

If you had told me these would be the two teams to contest the final 5 weeks ago I would have said "thank you very much, I'l take it!"

Although Holland have not been the exciting "total football" package we would have hoped for we still have seen moments of genius from Sneijder, Robben and a wonder strike from Giovanni Van Bronckhorst.

I reckon Holland have more chance of beating Spain than they would Germany.

Spain thrive on keeping the ball through slick passing and inter-change and as much as I don't admire his style of play, Mark Van Bommel is the man that could stop that. His hard approach and chopping could deny the Spanish from getting the ball in midfield.

If they can stop Spain from passing they may have a chance because they have some amazing attacking players. Sneijder and Robben could be the key for the Dutch on the break today.

But for all the building up of the Dutch I'm doing, Spain are still clearly the favourites. One thing I only noticed at this world cup is that: Spain are very solid defensively!

Pique and Puyol have had an excellent tournament and even Capdevilla hasn't been the weak link we thought he might be. I still don't rate Sergio Ramos that highly though, he's an average player.

The big question today is: Will Torres start? In my opinion, I don't think he should. Pedro had an excellent game against Germany and added something different to the Spanish play, that was something they were lacking when Torres was starting.

All in all, this game has the potential to be a classic, but usually World Cup finals disappoint so i'm expecting a tight affair with very few goals.

Its a hard one to call, but i'm going to go with Spain to win 1-0 with the winner coming late in the second-half, a bit like the Germany game although I expect the Dutch to get more of the ball than Germany did.

I'l be supporting the Dutch as they remind me a bit of our beloved Mayo. After losing 2 World Cup final's previously, hopefully 3rd time lucky will apply to them. They could do it, after all their not playing Kerry!

Frank McCann is Le Oranje for today.