Spain is finally Europe's pride with 1-0 defeat of Germany

2008-06-29T17:40:00.001-07:00

By Rob Hughes International Herald TribuneSunday, June 29, 2008The long wait in Spanish soccer is over. By defeating Germany, more emphatically than the 1-0scoreline in the Austrian capital suggests, the Spaniards thoroughly deserve to be called champion of Europe.They won it with victories every time they took the field, they won it majestically in front of their King Juan Carlos, and their near septuagenarian coach, Luis Aragonés, could now retire knowing he has disproved the myth that Spain's fractured regions could never learn to like one another to form a combined and victorious national side.Aragonés intends no such thing. He might rest for the weekend, but he then takes on the task of managing Fenerbache of Istanbul. At 69, he lives for the game, and his game on Sunday night repaid him.This, right from the off, was a real Cup final - brisk, workmanlike, high speed and high quality. The contrast in styles is cultural, inbred, and for every succession of Spanish passes and matador sways there was a German willing to thrust through from midfield.Initially it was possession to the Spaniards, direct running from the Germans. Three times inside the opening 10 minutes, Germany applied pressure on what they clearly viewed as a weak spot, the space behind the often impulsive Sergio Ramos. The right back mis-hit a slack pass, straight to the lurking Miroslav Klose but as the German darted for the line Carles Puyol chased back and harassed him into error.Then Michael Ballack strode down that flank. The fluidity of his run, the speed with which he won the ball, then checked back to try to dodge the overworked Puyol told us plenty. Germany's captain had stretched our disbelief through the bulletins all weekend long that he might not appear because of a swollen calf muscle - now he stretched that muscle with impunity.If the right limb wasn't injured, the right eyebrow was when Ballack and Marcos Senna went for the same ball and bumped heads. Stitches for Ballack, a rueful shake for Senna, and the Brazilian born midfielder played on.Gradually, slowly, Spain exerted its control of the ball. After the semifinal, the Russian team coach, Guus Hiddink, had said that this was Spain's weapon, that the Spaniards played so many passes, with such accuracy and almost lethargic skill, that they were exhausting the opponent, waiting to strike when he grow weary.It was beginning to build. Exactly halfway through the first half, Ramos showed that he is at his finest on the counterattack. David Silva, who had been moved from left to right to give him more protection than Andrés Iniesta could, accelerated and crossed from the right, Ramos took the pass and chipped it for Fernando Torres to leap like a salmon.So high did he go, with such sweet timing that he met the ball fully 12 inches above Per Mertesacker. No ordinary feat this because Mertesacker is 1 meter 96 centimeters, or 6 feet 5 inches. The header beat goalkeeper Jens Lehmann but rebounded off the base of his post, and Silva's shot from the rebound was wide.The athleticism, and the determination to pursue every ball by Torres is well known to followers of his first club, Atletico Madrid, and now his second, Liverpool. So is the finality of his finish.On 33 minutes he scored a goal that was the product of both. Why Germany's central defenders - the biggest physical specimens in European soccer - went absent without leave presumably will bring an inquest after the event. But, too late.When Xavi Hernández looked up and released the ball along the ground, he set up a race between Torres and the smallest German, Philipp Lahm. Torres had a meter to make up, and as he did so there was a momentary coming together in which the forward's hand was on the arm of the defender. The Italian referee, who seconds earlier had marvellously waived the advantage without stopping play after a German foul, was silent again.So on went Torres, out came Lehmann to the only place where a goalkeeper has a chance to cut down the angle of a forward's approach. Torres saw him, let the goalie dive, and immaculately drove the ball right-footed across the keeper and inside the far netting.A goal to savor from every aspect.Up to now this final had been a defiance of the hot night air, and a statement that these two committed nations were playing to their own styles, within the rules. Little cynicism, next to no feigning, respect for the talents of opponents and for the referee.It faltered, slightly toward halftime when Ballack, his eye stitched up, played rough with Cesc Fàbregas, presumably because the playmaker was beginning to exert a similar inventive influence to Xavi. In the melee that followed, Ballack was booked for the foul, and Iker Casillas, the Spanish keeper for rushing to remonstrate. In one flash of yellow card, Signor Rosetti had taken the name of both captains.Whatever Aragonés is on should be marketed. This Spanish coach, a child of the Franco era, will be 70 in July. He was on the touchline the whole game long, exhorting players young enough to be grandsons to seek that second goal, to chase, chase, chase because these are Germans they are playing, and Germans never give up the pursuit of a late goal.It happened to him in his playing career 34 years ago, and has happened time and again to most nations, including Turkey here. But with the old man pulling master switches, with the Spanish spirit as strong as the German, the extra flair in the red jerseys was telling.Hiddink was right: Tiring work trying to stay with the Spaniards when they pass the ball so much better. In truth, Spain created and spurned the major chances, not the least one missed by Senna nine minutes from time. Normally the anchor of midfield, the naturalized Brazilian exuded personal ambition when he burst into the goalmouth. A cross from one substitute, Santo Cazorla, was headed across the goal by another, Daniel Güiza, but with the net gaping, Senna slid in a fraction too late.He made no contact; it made no difference. The goal by Torres got what it deserved, the greatest prize in Spain's long and beautiful soccer history. The king and his queen did so enjoy it, as they had in leaping out of their VIP seats when Torres's goal went in.http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/29/sports/29vienna.php

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Spain is finally Europe's pride with 1-0 defeat of Germany