So Spain it is, a victory for football by all accounts. The final, while not a great game of football, was crammed full of incident and drama, amazing refereeing decisions and even crazier challenges by players (see above photo) so Webb never stood a chance, and therefore the Dutch daring to have a go at the ref is just stupid. My major gripe with the Dutch is that they could have easily have won that final if they tried to play football for a few minutes, Spain's defence showed on a number of occasions they weren't up to scratch and could easily have been got at, but van Marwijk must have decided he had too many average players and decided they couldn't do it. So my prediction of 2-1 fell arseways again, but that was down to masterful goalkeeping at both ends rather than anything else.
The third place playoff turned out to be a cracker with both teams going gung ho, and I must admit it was a little bit heart wrenching to see Forlan's free kick in the last second bounce back off the crossbar and deny him the Golden Boot, but he got the Golden Ball in the end so fair's fair I suppose.
So now for the shola amawaster World cup 2010 award winners:
BEST MATCH
Germany 4-1 England (come on it was very funny) - Runner Up: Slovenia 2-2 USA
BEST GOAL
Van Bronkhorst (Netherlands V Uruguay) - Runner Up: Villa (Spain V Honduras, first goal)
BEST FREE KICK
Honda (Japan V Denmark) - Runner Up: Endo (Japan V Denmark)
BEST PUNDIT
Edgar Davids (ITV) - Runner Up: Kevin Kilbane (RTE)
BEST SAVE
Suarez (Uruguay V Ghana) - Runner up: Kewell (Australia V Ghana)