The not so obvious reasons why Spain won the final!

Apart from the obvious brilliance of Iniesta and Casillas and the Howard Webb factor and the ill shooting of Robben, there were several nuggets of play which helped Spain cross the final hurdle. Here are some points that I observed which helped Spain overcome the Oranje brigade:

Defend from front: Due to the outstanding skills which Spain midfielders and attackers possess, it is often forgotten how hard they work for the team. One reason why the Dutch were not able to build up any attacks is because Spain always had at least 3 forwards marking the Dutch defenders! So the Dutch defenders never got time to pass the ball between themselves and they build the attack through Sneijder and vanBommel. Spain forwards were always under their nose due to which they had to either clear the ball or play a long ball instead of building up the attack. Playing long balls is not exactly what Dutch’s forte with vanPersie, Robben and Kyut upfront. This was the reason why Dutch were never really able to bring Sneijder into play and dominate the proceedings at any stage. All credit to such top stars to not mind doing the dirty work.

Capdevila was not too bad: Before the game I was discussing with my friend that a possible weak link in Spanish defense is the LB Capdevila. With Robben at their disposal I was quite sure that the Dutch would bombard the right flank. That is exactly what happened. But for most of the game, Capdevila stood his ground well against the trickery of the Glass Man. Also the tactics from DelB to stop Robben were spot on. When attacking from the flank, Robben was never one-on-one with Capdevila. Also, normally Robben takes on 2 defenders on the flank and cuts past both of them. But there always was Puyol or Pique to stop that cut which Robben normally uses so effectively. Ideally this should have given more space to vanPersie, Kyut etc. But since Robben was blocked so well, he was not able to find his team mates on most of the occasions.

The Master Stroke of Navas: I have been thoroughly impressed with the substitutions which DelB has used throughout the WC. At the start of the 2nd half, Dutch were starting to look more and more dangerous and threatened to dominate the proceedings while Spain were not able to build up much. A lesser coach would have just put in Fabregas and hoped for the best. Instead, DelB changed the shape of the team. He put on Navas in place of the brilliant Pedro. That changed the game completely. With his dazzling pace and crossing ability, Navas exploited the lack of pace and energy of vanBronckhorst to the fullest. After that sub, for next 30 mins or so, almost all the Spanish attacks came from the right flank and they looked dangerous. That was a master stroke from DelB.

The Ultimate Art: Winning so many games 1-0 is an absolute art. I believe that if a team can consistently win games 1-0 then they might not look that attractive, but will be mighty effective. To get so many 1-0 victories, you have to be mentally very strong. And all credit goes to DelB here. He mainly had players from Barca and RMad who are not used to the 1-0 scorelines. But I believe he instilled the mental fortitude in the players to win 1-0 even when you are not at your best. Kudos to DelB!

Where was the Plan B: I was very disappointed with the Dutch tactics going forward. After seeing that their primary tactic, letting Robben run wild on the right flank, fail, vanMarwijk should have tried something different. In fact the Spanish defense was opened up on the 2 occasions when Robben was more central than on the flank. VanMarwijk could have brought on Huntelaar or someone like that and tried to play more centrally. He did bring on vanDerVaart but that was never going to make any difference if they continued their right flank strategy. They did not seem to have plan B which is detrimental in such huge games.

Was that marking a joke: It was nothing short of a miracle that Spain did not score from a set piece. Let’s put things into perspective. Spain has 3 main target men for the set-pieces. Puyol, Pique and Ramos. All 3 are big strong and great headers of the ball. Dutch had gone with man-to-man marking which was the right thing to do. But as a coach I would have put my 3 best heads to mark these 3 men. However, on several set pieces I saw vanPersie marking Puyol. Calling this a mismatch is a huge understatement. With this match, Puyol is going to keep winning headers all day long. This was the reason why they looked dangerous on almost all the set pieces and were quite unfortunate not to score on one.

Far Post please: Dutch got several free kicks and I feel that they had a good plan in place for all of them. For several indirect free kicks they had 2 or 3 men unmarked at the far post. It was a shame to see all the free kicks being under hit. Had they got some of those free kicks to the far post, I am sure they would have nicked one.

After all, it’s all in the mind: Almost all the Spanish players know very well what it is to play in big finals. All of them have played in either CL finals or Euro finals etc. So they know how to calm their nerves and stick to their style of football in big games. That cannot be said about the Dutch. A very few Dutch players have really experienced the atmosphere of playing in a final. So it was no surprise that Spain looked the more relaxed team. That goes a long way as far as dominating a game is concerned. A short pass in a normal game becomes a long ball in big finals due to the nerves which makes you lose the possession. This was pretty much the story of the final for Dutch.

So apart from the obvious on the field heroes, huge credit must also go to DelB. For me, he was the real star!