Under its taskmaster coach, Dunga, Brazil ditched the Beautiful Game for a counterattacking strategy that relied on power and athleticism more than flair and technique.
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Playing to win was the rationale used by more than one traditional powerhouse in this World Cup to justify a retreat from creative, attack-minded soccer-or a full abandonment when facing Spain. But then again, you do play a game to win." "Spain is the best soccer country of the past few years, and we really need to have a top day to be able to beat them. "It's still our intention to play beautiful soccer, but we were also facing a very good opponent," he explained. When a Spanish journalist asked Van Marwijk about "the tough, ugly image that Holland has left on the field in this final," the Dutch coach argued that it was the only way his team could prevail. In the end we were left to ponder a system in which Iniesta received the same yellow-card punishment for his goal celebration (removing his jersey to reveal a T-shirt honoring the late Spanish league player Dani Jarque) as De Jong and Van Bommel got for their game-shaping acts of cynical aggression. Robben had two second-half breakaways saved by Spanish goalkeeper Iker Casillas, while Iniesta could have drawn his own card for a frustrated retaliation takedown of Van Bommel. Realizing they couldn't match Spain's skill and possession-a revealing concession considering that the Dutch roster was stocked with elite attackers-the Netherlands tried to rely on quick strikes through midfielders Arjen Robben and Wesley Sneijder while using hardmen De Jong and Van Bommel (the Eddie Haskell of soccer) to throw the smaller Spanish players off their games. You could joke that the tone was set when security forces punched and subdued a man who ran onto the field before the game and tried to put a stocking cap over the World Cup trophy, but that would be letting Dutch coach Bert van Marwijk and his thuggish players off the hook. By swallowing his whistle early on, Webb allowed the nastiness to dominate the final. Webb's main failure? Not handing deserved red cards to Dutch midfielders Mark van Bommel (who viciously cleaned out Iniesta with a tackle) and Nigel de Jong (who fly-kicked Xabi Alonso in the chest) in the first half. English referee Howard Webb handled the final like a substitute high school teacher, losing control of the game despite issuing 14 yellow cards, eight more than the previous record for soccer's crown jewel. Iniesta's 116th-minute goal saved everyone from enduring the third penalty-kick shootout in the last five editions of the World Cup final, and if he wasn't right about his small contribution-that was his backheel pass too-he was dead-on when he described the encounter as overly physical.