They came, they saw, they conquered...

Despite the hype (which I began) regarding the South American dominance of the earlier knockout stages in SA 2010 it was their original ancestral counterparts who passed, defended and shot their way to victory as the Spanish took over Johannesburg with a fine Andres Iniesta strike in the dying minutes of extra time. Spain were worthy winners and have become the second side in history after France to have won the European Championships and World Cup in successive years. It was the same story in so far as their defence led by Carles Puyol remained solid conceding but two goals in their 7 game campaign, their hotshot striker David Villa emerged as one of the leading scorers again and their midfield miracle of Iniesta and Xavi proved again to be the most potent threat in world football. To think that Puyol, Pique, Xavi, and Iniesta have since 2008 won a European Championship, a Champions League, 2 Spanish titles and now the World Cup is quite remarkable. How is adding Villa to that particular equation fair?

On the topic of fairness there has been and will be much talk of Howard Webb's performance. To be honest and controversial, the man didn't do a great deal wrong. Whilst Holland's smash mouth style in the first half left little to be desired the tackling was in the majority late, clumsy and reckless as opposed to dangerous, synical or dirty. Van Bommel could certainly have gone for a second yellow well before Heitinga eventually did but let me raise a familiar point to this little blog of mine. What do the so called experts of Premier League Football say every week about Howard's decisions on such challenges every on Match of the Day or Sky Sports when they are commited by players at big clubs such as De Jong (Man City) and Heitinga (Everton)? It certainly isn't "he should be sent off Martin" when a top four player kicks one of the Steven Fletcher's of this world in the head whilst attempting to fish the ball out of a satelite orbit. Quite the contrary in face. Its passionate, desire-ridden, gutsy, brave and a tad clumsy, merely accidental, just a warning - good decision referee. So let's not all jump on our high horses and condem an exciting counter attacking side with some great and tenacious attacking players for a few rough tackles on the best midfield I've seen since Madrid's Galacticos in 2003.  Holland were second best to a worthy champion and Webb did exactly what he was praised highly for by pundits for doing in the League Cup final be allowing Nemanja Vidic's professional foul of Gabi Agbonlahor to be punished only by a penalty kick - not ruining the game / using the rules. Whatever the weather and whatever your opinion some consistency in feedback would be just lovely thank you Mr. BBC.

So are Spain 2008-10 as good as France 1998-2000? That's a bit of a non brainer I guess. Their goalkeepers less temporamental yet less of an enigma that Mr. Barthez. Whilst Puyol and Pique looks a far cry from Blanc and Desailly they conceded the same amount of World Cup goals and neither are set to retire anytime soon. However on the flipside of the coin were they to retire through injury or turn rubbish overnight - Spain don't have Lilian Thuram to step into their big boots although Raul Albiol has indeed enjoyed a decent year with Madrid and is learning his trade at the Bernebau quickly.
The midfield maestro of Xavi and Iniesta backed up by Alonso and Busquets is so dissimilar to France's engine room of Vieira and Petit really its untrue. The impeccable Zidane of course was the Golden Boy of the FFF and whether Xavi is quite capable of that greatness is up for debate. I'm very biased towards Zizu - to me the man's God and Xavi might just be one of his many angels. Either way their both cracking players.

The youth of Pedro on the wing reminds me starkly of a young Robert Pires in some fairly subtle ways despite their physcial and stylistic contrast. Robert was a deceitfully physcial player who was by no means afraid to get stuck in and Pedro is like a bulldog when he's not in possession of the ball himself. What Spain do have over France veterans is a hotshot striker with consistency in David Villa - a title which internationally can't be given to the great French club marksmen of this period: Henry, Trezeguet and Anelka.
For me Spain have the potential to win another Euro title in 2012 and surpass this generation of French dynasty rather than crash out of their next major tournament as France did in 2002. Although with youth still just about on their side this may make them a little better - I will stand by my previous posts rather than jump on the Iniesta bandwagon. Whatever happens differently to the French 2002 campain for Spain in 2012 - not one of this side will be carrying them to a final off his own back 8 years 6 years later in 2016 in a tiring encore for the nations last surge of greatness. Xavi and Iniesta are the best midfield pair in the world today and could dominate for a few more years to come. But whilst in 2006 Zidane was vintage, I fear that Xavi may well be an antique. Whilst Iniesta is his natural sidekick, Fabregas is his natural understudy. However there is a clear reluctance to break away from the Madrid-Barca dominance in the Spanish selection process which is of course understandable. Villa the only real exception other than Capedevilla with Torres, Silva and Cesc all playing little football this time around it may well be necessary for Wenger's prodigy to return to Catalonia should he ever want the chance to prove his genius on a national stage. From what I saw of the lad this season live from the Molineux - he still isn't Zidane, but he's got the talent to be his own player, his own man, play for his own team and maybe, just maybe, win his own World Cup.