It’s The Final Of The Firsts After Spain Shut Down Germany!

Spain have booked their place in the World Cup final with a classy 1-0 win against Germany, guaranteeing a new team will win the World Cup. The Dutch, despite making it to two finals in a row(1974, 1978), have never won the competition and Spain … well it was the first time they’d reached the semis.

Carles Puyol’s thumping second-half header was enough to send Spain into their first World Cup final, and to ensure there will be a new name on the trophy when they dace Netherlands on Sunday. The European Champions dominated possession and barely gave the Germans a chance, although a slow, bobbly pitch at the Moses Mabhida Stadium took some sting out of both teams’ attacks. Germany will rue the moment Sergio Ramos appeared to catch Mesut Ozil as the playmaker ran through on goal in first-half stoppage time. Any contact took place just outside the box but a harsher referee than Viktor Kassai might have shown a red card. Thereafter it was all Spain, who passed the ball relentlessly. David Villa just failed to make contact with a low cross in front of goal in a move similar to Paul Gascoigne’s against Germany at Euro ‘96. It took Puyol to break the deadlock on 73 minutes, converting emphatically from a Xavi corner. Spain should have finished it off late on when they raced through two-on-one, but Pedro inexplicably failed to pass to an unmarked Fernando Torres. It was another triumph for Paul the Octopus, who has correctly predicted the result of all six Germany matches. Spain have won all three games in the knockout rounds 1-0.

Uruguay, Italy, West Germany, Brazil, England, Argentina, France… on Sunday an eighth team will win the World Cup. Will it be twice beaten finalists Netherlands, widely acknowledged as the best football nation never to have won the tournament? Or will it be Spain, who have never finished better than fourth before, but who are European champions and favourites?

The World Cup has been a remarkably closed shop, with only the occasional win for the hosts spicing things up. If you discount tournaments won by the hosts, the list of winners looks like this:

Italy (1938)
Uruguay (1950)
West Germany (1954)
Brazil (1958)
Brazil (1962)
Brazil (1970)
Italy (1982)
Argentina (1986)
West Germany (1990)
Brazil (1994)
Brazil (2002)
Italy (2006)

The World Cup-winners’ club is a tough one to break into - on Sunday a new nation joins the gang. It will also be the first victory for a European nation outside their home continent.