EXACTLY TWO YEARS AGO TODAY, SPAIN CONQUERED THE WORLD, WINNING THEIR FIRST EVER WORLD CUP TROPHY:TODAY IN SOCCER.

It was July 11, 2010, as the World applauded the showmanship and the near perfect host which South Africa played in staging the world's biggest soccer event, Andres Iniesta chose the night to produce the one crucial moment of pure brilliance to seal victory for the team of the tournament and the first Spanish team to lift football’s ultimate prize, thus putting a magical end to an enchanting competition proudly hosted in Africa. Talk about players who rise to the big ocassion when called upon.

Prior to the final the Dutch team were on a streak of 25 games unbeaten. This included all their World Cup qualifying games plus the friendly games in the run up to the tournament. In the World Cup proper they won all six games they played up to the final. This included a quarter final defeat of Brazil and this would have been a major boost to their confidence as Brazil were one of the big favorites to win the trophy. During the tournament Holland had a number of top stars playing well. Wesley Sneijder had been in great goal scoring form. Up front Arjen Robben and Dirk Kuyt had been linking up well and at the back the team captain Giovanni van Bronckhorst had been marshaling the defense well. Considering the current winning run that they had achieved, Holland entered the final in confident mood.

Iniesta Fires Home The Winner After Extra Time To Hand Spain First World Cup Trophy.

For underachievers, Spain, 2010 was their first ever World cup final appearance. They had started their 2010 World Cup campaign in disappointing fashion by losing to Switzerland, although they bounced back from this in excellent fashion to win the other five games they played to make their way to the final. This perhaps showed the character of the team and they had a number of world class players in great form. The likes of  David Villa up front who had been in great goal scoring form and his goals helped propel Spain into the final and then Iniesta and Xavi,arguably the best midfielders in the world.

The final game was filled with so much expectation considering the fact that both the Dutch and Spanish teams played a sweet brand of free flowing "Total Football" as it is called and so the fans were dead sure it was going to be a night of pure, classy champaigne football on parade. Holland, quite unlike them employed a negative approach to the game and thwarted the La Furia Roja's efforts at playing their passing game. In all, the referee, Howard Webb from England handed out a total of 13 yellow cards and 1 red card to set a record of the most yellow cards shown in the final game of the World cup.



Iniesta Pays Tribute To Deceased Espanyol And Spainish Player Dni JArque After Scoring The Winning Goal.

David Villa and Sergio Ramos both came close to scoring for Spain in the with the normal time of the game but it was Holland's Arjen Robben who came closest to scoring for the Dutch side after breaking free to find himself in a one on one situation with Iker Casillas who denied him a goal with a superb save. It wasn't until 4 minutes to go in the extra minutes of the game that Spain carved in through to present a chance to Andres Iniesta to fire home from 10 yards and thus hand Spain their first World cup title, the second straight international competition to be won by their golden generation.