ISHMAEL N. DARO
Sports Writer

This Sunday’s World Cup final between Spain and the Netherlands marks several important milestones in football history.

The first is that “soccer” is finally being called by its proper name: football. Although this is undoubtedly going to vanish as soon as the CFL and NFL seasons get exciting, it’s a nice role-reversal for fans of the beautiful game.

The second milestone is that Canadians (and Americans) are increasingly embracing the sport and taking it seriously. Of course, people say this every four years when the World Cup comes around, but even if football’s popularity waxes and wanes it is definitely enjoying a long-term upward trend. The numbers help illustrate this. ESPN has seen its ratings double since the 2006 tournament. In Canada, the CBC reported over a million combined television and web viewers for many of the games.

There have been numerous other surprises to come from South Africa that have made it hard to sustain a narrative about the tournament. Hosted for the first time on the so-called “Dark Continent,” this was supposed to be Africa’s time to shine. However, five of the six African teams languished in the group stage despite fielding some of the world’s best players. Only Ghana progressed to the knockout stage, where they lost in a nail-biter to Uruguay.

South American teams didn’t fare much better. Only a week ago, many people expected an all-South American final between powerhouses Brazil and Argentina, but that too was not to be. Other traditional powers like Italy, France and England also put forth disappointing efforts, which led to the very unlikely final match this Sunday between Spain and the Netherlands.

Spain has long been an underachiever in international football. Despite being home to one of the most competitive leagues in the world, Spain only recently made its mark as a national team, winning the European championship in 2008. Since then, Spain has been a favourite to win the World Cup as well, but superstitious football observers will be quick to note that history matters — and history hasn’t been a friend to the Spanish national team.

Another team labouring under history’s weight is the Dutch side. The Netherlands also has a European championship to its name — from 1988 — but it is their 1974 and ”˜78 World Cup appearances that continue to cast a long shadow over the team. The Dutch played a fiercely offensive style in both competitions known as “Total Football” and managed to reach the final both times, only to be denied by host nations Germany and Argentina.

Total Football allows players to seamlessly trade positions, where each player is a potential goal-scorer in a relentlessly attacking style of play. This tactic had its greatest cheerleader in Dutchman Johann Cruyff, who exported it to Spain where he was wildly successful both as player and coach. Watch the Spanish side’s quick, short passes while they suffocate their opponents with possession and you can see that Cruyff’s legacy lives on, albeit in a more modern form. And despite a rocky start to this tournament, Spain finally looks like it might be ready for a World Cup trophy.

The Netherlands, meanwhile, has largely abandoned the free-flowing tactics it made famous and adopted a more deliberate, cautious style of play. For years, promising Dutch squads would ride into tournaments pressured to both win and look good doing it. Faced with sides more worried about winning, the Dutch would inevitably fall to opportunistic counter-attacks or be defeated in penalties, earning a reputation as “beautiful losers.”

This time around, however, coach Bert van Marwijk has taken great pains to disavow Holland’s Total Football past and has actually produced results, propelling the Dutch to their first World Cup final in 32 years.

Sunday’s final will see the World Cup finally go to one of the two biggest underachievers in football, but regardless of who hoists the trophy, it has definitely been a historic and exhilarating journey.

– –
image: Flickr