It was by no means the most fascinating finals ever and was marred by an exceedingly high number of fouls resulting in a record number of yellow cards. In fact, Dutch Defender John Heitinga had to be given a red card after being booked for a second time. This was perhaps the defining moment, as minutes after his expulsion Spain took the lead and that was enough to sail Spain home. This definitely looked headed towards a penalty shootout as none of the sides looked like scoring a goal even in extra time. Had Heitinga not been shown the red card, we perhaps might have had a different result. 

However, the Spanish side has to be credited for keeping its nerves and holding on till the last moment. This Spanish side has scored the lowest number of goals amongst all champions so far but one must confess that they have produced some breathtaking football throughout the tournament. Though they haven’t scored as many goals as they would have liked to but there is no denying that they have done everything right to be crowned the champions. It definitely looks that the Spanish team has finally lived up to its potential.

Not many would have imagined seeing two European sides fight it out for the coveted trophy and almost no one would have anticipated a “Spain vs Netherland” final. But here we are nearing the end of the greatest sports extravaganza and are about to witness the unlikeliest of World Cup final. 

Although Spain has always been considered a great side, it never really fulfilled its true potential. They have always been termed as the biggest underachievers of world football. Netherlands on the other hand are the surprise finalists. Although they have a decent side with some very good players, not many would have put their money on them. But they have shown immense character and resilience to come this far. Even Brazil couldn’t halt their terrific run as they breezed to the finals. Spain defeated Germany on route to the finals, whereas Netherlands beat Uruguay to make a place in the finals. 

This year’s world cup has been seen turn around as many top sides faltered and the lesser teams marched ahead. Spain, however was favorite along with Brazil, but going by their performances in the world stage, many had doubts if Spain could come this far. 

Netherlands has never succeeded in winning the World Cup, although they have made it to the finals twice. It remains to be seen if they can get lucky this time. This should be a great finale as both these sides are capable of playing some breath taking football and as a football fan we hope they play to their potential and give us a final to remember.

The World Cup never ceases to spring in surprises. Paraguay, for the first time in its football history has qualified for the quarter finals. They defeated Asian giants, Japan in a breathtaking contest which was decided by a penalty shootout. Paraguay will now face Spain, who defeated Portugal in their pre-quarterfinal match.

Japan was hoping they would make it to the next round after qualifying for the last 8 during the 2002 World Cup. But for Yuichi Komano’s unfortunate miss, they could have very made their way into the quarter finals. The defender’s strike hit the cross bar and Japan could not come back from this set back, as they went on to lose 3-5.

After his sides dismal performance against the relative minnows New Zealand, Paraguay’s coach made several changes in this match. Carlos Bonet, Antolin Alcaraz, Lucas Barrios, Edgar Benitez and Nestor Ortigoza replaced Victor Caceres, Nelson Valdez, Julio Cesar Caceres, Denis Caniza and Oscar Cardozo. On the other hand, Japan retained the same side that beat Denmark 3-1 in its group match.

The match was very closely fought with both teams creating several opportunities and there was very little to separate the two sides. Although some would like to believe that Japan played better football until the penalty shootout and were unlucky to miss out on a quarter final spot.

Paraguay stayed focused and converted each of the penalty strokes, which eventually took them to the next round. It remains to be seen if this South American side manages to cross the next hurdle and make it to the semi finals.

After a treble with Inter Milan, Jose Mourinho has decided to move to Real Madrid as their new coach for the coming season. The formalities were completed after the two sides agreed upon compensation package for the  move. Presidents of the two clubs met in Milan last Friday to finalize the deal. Mourinho will take over from Manuel Pellegrini, who was released of his duties after a disappointing season with Madrid failing to win a single title. 

Mourinho is in much demand after his side’s splendid performance this season and Inter was determined to charge a whopping 16 million Euros as releasing fee which was mentioned in the contract. However, Inter confirmed that transfer was sealed at approximately 8 million Euros.

There was a lot of speculation regarding this transfer and Jose, who is not new to controversy, was blamed of ending his term in Italy in a bad note. He has been accused of asking Madrid to lure several Inter players and Inter confirmed that they were willing to sell their players so long the price was right. One of the players that Mourinho has primarily targeted is the Maicon, the Brazilian International. 

However, the fans are unlikely to take the signing of Inter players too warmly. Italian clubs are well known for their defensive tactics and Madrid fans completely abhor this style of playing. It remains to be seen if Jose Mourinho would live up to the expectation from this great club, which has in spite of having many great players in its arsenal has struggled recently.

David Beckham suffered a serious injury in the dying moments of the match between AC Milan and Chievo, which ended with the score of 1-0 in favor of AC Milan. Beckham was almost certain of making it to the World Cup squad in South Africa. His attempt at proving his fitness to Fabio Capello, the England coach was foiled by the injury which had Beckham in tears as he limped to the touchline.

The injury, surprisingly did not involve any physical contact from the rivals. Beckham has had a tremendous career with Manchester United and Real Madrid and also represented his country on 115 occasions. The AC Milan coach confirmed that Beckham had indeed suffered a terrible injury which may take a long time to heal.

The future for the 34 year old star looks bleak as it is difficult to make a comeback from such an injury at this age. Leonardo was very disappointed at the turn of events and said that the injury was the most terrible thing to have happened to the English star with the World Cup being around the corner. Beckham instantly knew that he had broken his Achilles tendon.

The injuries to Aaron Lennon, Ashley Cole and Owen Hargreaves and the retirement of Wayne Bridge had already left Capello much worried about his team’s chances ahead of the World Cup. The injury to Beckham may open the doors for Shaun Wright-Phillips or Theo Walcott. Neil Webb, John Barnes and Yakubu are some of the leading star who has suffered from the Achilles tendon injury.

The current champions Barcelona finished with a 1-1 draw against Stuttgart in the Champions League clash. Stuttgart took the lead in the match with the help of the header by Brazilian striker Cacau but Zlatan Ibrahimovic of Barcelona leveled the score with a crucial goal. The draw means that Stuttgart now has the difficult task of scoring in the Camp Nou if they are to reach the quarterfinals.

Barcelona seemed to be missing the boat in the first half of the match. However, they were able to make a strong comeback in the second half. Andres Iniesta of Barcelona accepted that their team really found it tough going in the initial stages of the match and though they were delighted at the outcome of this encounter they still have another tough one coming ahead.

Andoni Zubizarreta, the former goalkeeper of Barca and Spain felt that Barcelona played like real champions putting their character and quality on display. The crowd gathered at the Mercedes-Benz Arena went absolutely crazy with the kind of intensity that was shown by Stuttgart as they fiercely attacked the Barcelona team. 

After the initial frenzy, Barcelona took full control of the match with the second half seeing them have over 63 percent of possession with the Stuttgart players looking tired from their first half exertions. There was also a weird incident just 20 minutes before time when a shot by Ibrahamovic seemed to have hit Cristian Molinaro’s arm but there was no penalty given by the referee.

The Winner of the World Cup 1998 and also the finalists in 2006, France team is not among the top eight seeded teams for the draw that was held this Friday. The news was announced by FIFA and Jerome Valcke when  its general secretary made it clear at a news conference that it was due to the world rankings that France missed out a place and not because of the controversy that has been surrounding the side since the infamous handball goal against Ireland.

South Africa, Italy, Brazil, Argentina, Germany, England, Spain and Netherlands are the top eight seeds. France is on dangerous grounds as they can be drawn in any one of the groups from the top eight seeds. The 32 participating teams would be divided in to four groups of eight and would be placed in such a way that teams of the same continent do not come across each other. They will be placed in four different pots. The first pot will have the top eight seeded teams and South Africa is most likely to open their campaign at Soccer Stadium in Johannesburg on June 11.

Valcke confirmed that there had been an agreement to base the seedings on the FIFA world rankings which was done in agreement with the UEFA president Michel Platini. This system provided far more fairness to all teams as the numbers of qualifying games were same for all the European teams. The speculation that France may be punished by FIFA were put to rest when Valcke confirmed that the decision on how the seedings and pot grouping would work was taken much before Franc’s controversial game against Ireland.

Sergio Aguero is apparently very happy at Atletico Madrid, though he has also insisted that he is very pleased at the fact that he is being linked to Chelsea. The speculations ran high over the summer that Aguero was moving to Stamford Bridge and that Atletico had refused a bid of £35 million. Sergio Aguero made the most of the opportunity to impress Carlo Ancelotti, the Chelsea boss, the other night when he played beautifully to score two stunning goals against the Premier League club in a match that ended in a draw with the score of 2-2.

The Gael Kakuta affair means that Chelsea are presently unable to sign anyone until 2011, but Blues will be able to sign players once the Court of Arbitration for Sport confirms that the punishment has been lifted. Lifting the punishment pending an appeal hearing would mean Chelsea would be able to sign players in January. Chelsea having lost players like Didier Drogba and Michael Essien would look to strengthen their squad once the transfer ban is lifted in January. The club is most likely to rope in Aguero but the Argentinean is not likely to take any part in Champions League until 2010-11.

Aguero admitted that he had heard about Chelsea tracking him over the summer in addition to the other teams, though nothing came to him. However, he expressed his happiness at Atletico. Aguero is not thinking much about playing in any other team and is looking for a long tie with the club.

Fabio Capello, the England manager, made it very clear that he is open to speak to any player who feels unhappy at being left out from the team. England has already qualified for the World Cup next year by achieving an emphatic victory over Croatia last Wednesday. They beat Croatia 5-1 at Wembley. The England manager has enjoyed 100% success so far in the qualifying Group 6 having already made it to South Africa with another couple of games to spare.

The manager owes the success to the mutual understanding that he has been able to build with his players. The best thing about him is that he is very approachable and players do not hesitate to walk up to him to clear any doubts. He confirmed that he had to enlighten as many as three players as to why they could not make it to the team. Capello played for the World Cup qualifiers back in 1978 but unfortunately could not make it to the squad. So he is not taking any chances to his 23- man squad either. However, he confirms that his decision would be based on the current form of the player.

According to Frank Lampard, Fabio is an exceptional manager who has been able to unite the team and make them perform to the best of their abilities. He has maintained a degree of discipline with the players and has taught them to maintain a level head irrespective of the result. Fabio Capello has shown that a little detail and change can bring about a lot of changes to the fortune of the team.

James Milner, the English winger has denied any theories that may suggest that Luka Modric was intentionally injured before the all important world Cup qualifier slated at Wembley next week.

The Croatian midfielder suffered the injury in a tackle with Lee Bowyer who plays for Birmingham. The midfielder broke his leg in the process and this has come as huge upsetting news for the Croatian officials as they know their next match against England can very well decide their fate for the World Cup.

Arsenal’s key striker Eduardo also broke his leg playing against the same opposition in 2008 and this incident is being seen by many as a deliberate attempt to remove Modric before their crucial tie against the English side. Vlatko Markovic, the Croatian FA supremo finds it hard to accept the incident as an accident citing what had happened to Eduardo. However, opinions are different in the camp of Fabio Capello.

Milner, the Aston Villa star considered it as a bad luck which is how things sometimes go in football. He said that the incident had been exaggerated and said players never target anyone in particular, all they think is how they can win the ball. He also accepted that Modric is a remarkable player and would really be missed.

Milner who has a record 46 caps at Under 21 level is eagerly looking to make a big impact when his team plays against Croatia and Slovenia at Wembley. Milner has the distinction of being the youngest goal scorer of the Premium League.