Dead wrong in public ONE LAST TIME.

My prediction was the Dutch would be a little rougher than the Germans and maybe a little more talented that the Krauts minus Thomas Müller and prevail against the highly favored Spanish, who have a history of choking in big games.

Oopsie.

While my former roommate and current blog buddy Abu Scooter has a Hispanic surname (Velasquez, not Scooter), he also has pointy headed intellectual tendencies, and he picked Spain to win with a late goal in regulation. Spain actually won with a goal in overtime before penalty kicks, so he was only off by a few minutes.

Now I explain why I am currently dining on Crow Carbonara. I thought the Dutch would be a little rougher than the Germans. They were a LOT rougher than the Germans, and even their strikers were getting yellow cards, every one of them deserved. Worse than that, the Dutch player Nigel de Jong kicked a Xavi Alonso IN THE CHEST and the referee gave him a yellow card. (The picture is nicked from the ABC website, via the Ghost Grey Cat.) If FIFA is serious, both de Jong and the ref are not allowed in international competitions for a very, very long time.

The Dutch had seven yellow cards before they collected their first red card late in overtime, again completely deserved. There were some real chances for both teams to score, but the Spanish scored because midfielder Andrés Iniesta made a perfect finish. The small midfielder was not the first choice to be the lone goal scorer in the Grand Final, but 24 minutes into extra time, he hit it perfectly at the end of a long run, the Dutch goalie Maarten Stekelenburg defended perfectly to get a boot on it, but Iniesta was just a little bit better.

The better and cleaner team won, and I'm glad I was wrong. In Europe, a pro-thuggery intellectual can be a Communist, but in the U.S., pro-thuggery intellectuals are pro-Pinkerton or pro-police brutality or maybe pro-Black Panther back in the day. That isn't me. I was hoping the Dutch would be a little rough in the defense and a little clever up front, but that wasn't the case. Congrats to the Spanish for breaking through and winning their first World Cup when they clearly had the team in the world that deserved it.

One last thanks to La Estrellita for being my neighborhood bar of choice for this entire wonderful month.