With a single goal in extra time, Spain defeated the Netherlands to lift the World Cup and become only the eighth country to do so in the eponymous tournament’s 80-year history.
Deserving winners? Yes, unquestionably.
A team with nine players from clubs in New Zealand and two without clubs entirely left its mark by scoring first against a team picked from the ranks of the Italian superpowers. It entered the final group game with a realistic chance of qualifying for the knockout stage, and while that ultimately did not happen, the Kiwis probably found a few new fans along the way.
They may not have dazzled us with skill, but they stayed together and never gave up in a performance made all the more admirable by the antics of global superstars like the French, who petulantly imploded as the world’s media watched on.
And Stanford can be proud of this. Proud that its first ever representation at a World Cup, All Whites players Simon Elliot ’99 and Ryan Nelsen ’01, left with heads held high, undefeated!
No comments:
Post a Comment