Spain and Germany met again 737 days after, in Vienna in 2008, a solitary goal by Fernando Torres gave the Spaniards the second Eurocup on their record. This time they were going to be measured in the semifinals of a World Cup. Vienna can never be forgotten. Neither on the Spanish side nor on the German side.
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VINCENZO PINTO
AFP
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David Villa was the offensive trick of the Del Bosque: he had four consecutive games scoring. If it did against Germany, it would equal the number of five games in a row scoring, a milestone made by players like Eusebio in 1966, Müller (1970), Schillaci (1990), Stoitchkov (1994) and Rivaldo (2002). And he would still have a chance to match Fontaine (1958) and Jairzinho (1970), who scored in six consecutive games.
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AS newspaper
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Joachim Löw kept his tricks the day before the semi-final between the Germans and the Spanish. For the German coach, one of the keys to the match was going to be in who dominated midfield: “We are going to go out and attack and try to cut Spain's game. No one has to be explained how Spain plays, but without attacking there is no chance of beating them. They have great players in the center of the field and we cannot let them make their football. ”
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JOHN MACDOUGALL
AFP
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The semifinal was played on July 7, the feast of San Fermín, a big day in Spain. Coincidentally, both the father and brother of the coach were named Fermín, as well as the co-patron of Navarra. For Del Bosque, having reached the semifinal meant “a great opportunity. We have a great generation of soccer players and we must take advantage of it. We cannot go down in history as the culprits of not going through to the end. We would like to take a step forward, but Germany is better than 2008: they are more direct, more vertical. It is well built from behind… ”.
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JUAN FLOR
DAILY AS
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Iker Casillas accumulated 223 minutes without receiving a goal and was 60 minutes from the unbeaten record of a Spanish goalkeeper in the history of the World Cups: Eizaguirre and Ramallets kept it since the World Cup in Brazil-1950, that is, it already lasted 60 years. Then both goalkeepers established it in 282 minutes. It had started in the 17th minute of the first Spanish game in Brazil-50 (Spain-United States, 3-1). Ghiggia stopped that streak in the 30th minute of the Spanish's fourth game in the World Cup (Uruguay-Spain, 2-2). Now it was Casillas' turn to keep his goal to zero to beat this record …
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JUAN MABROMATA
AFP
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Xavi Hernández and Sergio Busquets had become the Dynamic Duo in the midfield. The first led the table of players with the most passes correctly and the second was the player with the highest number of balls recovered and the midfielder with the most kilometers traveled in each game. Next to him was Xabi Alonso, who appeared in second place with the highest number of accurate passes. A trio to stop for the Germans …
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CHEMA DIAZ
DAILY AS
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The only drawback Del Bosque had to measure against Germany was Cesc. The Spanish Arsenal player had suffered a blow at the end of a training session that had affected the fibula in his right leg. At first it seemed that it was not important, and the rest of the sessions had been exercised with total normality with the rest of his companions. Performed medical tests, these ruled out any type of break. A blue strip wrapped around the touched area.
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JUAN FLOR
DAILY AS
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Andrés Iniesta was the other great protagonist of the semifinal for the Spanish side. The manchego, who had started with doubts and a muscle injury that had prevented him from shining in the first phase of the tournament, had only one idea in his head. “I only think about lifting the Cup. It would be the greatest. But for now we have the goal very close. It is a unique situation, but it does not enter my head to think only about this match against Germany… ”
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LLUIS GENE
AFP
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Bastian Schweinsteiger made double news: on the one hand, he was one of the best players in the World Cup and on the other hand, his name sounded stronger and stronger to reinforce Real Madrid. José Mourinho had put his name on the table and executives from Bayern and Madrid were beginning to talk about a possible signing. In the World Cup, Basti had exploded playing with a double pivot alongside Khedira. He was the faithful representative of the German midfielder school: sober, very strong, hard-working and long-distance.
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JOHN MACDOUGALL
AFP
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Ottmar Hitzfeld, born in Germany and coach of Switzerland in the World Cup in South Africa, advised his compatriot Joachim Löw about possible failures of the Spanish team. Not surprisingly, the Swiss team had been the only team that had defeated the Spanish in the first match of Group H. For Hitzfeld: “The Spanish defenders tend to go up, leaving spaces that the Germans have to take advantage of …”.
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PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU
AFP
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One of the other great protagonists of the World Cup in South Africa was a fortune teller. But not just any fortune teller: he was an octopus, named Paul, who lives in the Sea Life of Oberhousen (near Dusseldorf) and who was hitting the result of all the qualifying rounds that were being played: they put two mussels in his tank, each representing the contending teams in each match. And this was done before the semifinal between Spaniards and Germans, as had been done on other occasions. The cephalopod passed his sentence: he ate the Spanish mussel, which was to say that La Roja would beat the Germans …
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WOLFGANG RATTAY
REUTERS
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The Netherlands would reach its third World Cup final by defeating Uruguay in a fast-paced encounter that was resolved in the last 20 minutes of the match, where three goals were scored. The ‘oranje’, led by Sneijder and Robben, had completed a formidable championship. For Gullit, one of the great aces in the history of Dutch soccer, it was incomprehensible that Real Madrid had sold them: “They are soccer players of enormous quality. Why let them escape? It's inexplicable”.
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FRANCK FIFE
AFP
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The Netherlands struck first with a spectacular goal from Gio Van Bronckhorst. The left back caught the ball in the center of the field, advanced a few meters and released a whip from about 30 meters that entered like a shell at the goal of Muslera, who came to touch the ball slightly …
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CARLOS BARRIA
REUTERS
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With five minutes to go before the end of the first half, Uruguay tied the game thanks to another whiplash, in this case by Diego Forlán, who in the vicinity of the area, was outlined and shot, beating Stekelenburg. A passionate second part began between Dutch and Charrúa …
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DYLAN MARTINEZ
REUTERS
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With 20 minutes to go until the end of the match, the Netherlands took the lead again. This time through his most charismatic player at the time: the ball fell to Sneijder in front of the area. The Inter player, after snapping, released a low shot that slipped between the legs of several players. One of them is Van Persie, who did not touch the ball, but deceived Muslera, who could only see how the ball entered the Uruguayan goal …
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DYLAN MARTINEZ
REUTERS
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Just three minutes after Sneijder's goal, the Netherlands would sentence the game with a third goal, Robben's work: Kuyt rode on the left wing of the Dutch attack, took a cross with the right and Robben, with a good turn of the head, beat Legband. Holland was in the final.
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MIKE HUTCHINGS
REUTERS
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With almost all liquidated, Uruguay drew strength from weakness to try to achieve the tie. In the 92nd minute, a shot by Maxi Pereira became the Uruguayan's second goal of the match: Stekelenburg, covered by a mountain of players (teammates and rivals), could not stop the launch … PUBLISHED 07/07/10 NA MA22 2COL
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CARLOS BARRIA
REUTERS
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An euphoric Van Maarwijk appreciated the effort of his players: “It is an award for the work that we have been developing for a long time. 32 years have passed, a long time without playing a World Cup final. We should be proud of such a small country. All Dutch people have to be proud. It is a moment for history and it must be celebrated, although we cannot celebrate anything because we have not yet won the World Cup. From now on we focus on that only and specifically. Then we will be aware of Germany-Spain ”.
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PAULO WHITAKER
REUTERS
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‘The Master’ Óscar Washington Tabárez sought the honor of the fallen: “We were one of the four best teams in the world. The other three are great European football powers. I am proud of my players. We gave what we could and accepted defeat. I think we dignified the game with the desire not to lose, although the Netherlands' second goal was offside. But they are things of the party that the judge can arbitrate or not ”.
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RODRIGO ARANGUA
AFP
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The third final for the Netherlands
For Holland, this would be their third final in World Cup history, after having played in the finals of Germany-74 and Argentina-78. And both times they fell in the final against the host country. In Germany-74, the Dutch went ahead on the scoreboard two minutes after the start of the game: they took the field and after a long play of 22 passes, Cruyff was knocked down by Vogts. However, the Germans managed to turn the score around. Four years later, it was the Argentines who managed to prevail in overtime to finish 3-1. Since then his greatest success had been the conquest of the Eurocopa de seleciones in 1988.
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PEDRO UGARTE
AFP
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With the victory of the Netherlands over Uruguay, and the other semifinal that Spain and Germany were going to play, Europe would dominate America in conquered titles. Until now, both soccer powers were equal to nine titles: for America they had won the Brazil Cup (five times), Argentina and Uruguay (two titles each), while on the European side they had won the title Italy (four times), Germany ( three), England and France (one title each). In addition, for the first time in history, a European team was going to win the world title outside the European continent.
SEMIFINAL
URUGUAY HOLLAND
PUBLISHED 07/07/10 NA MA56 1COL
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MIKE HUTCHINGS
REUTERS
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