EL of a Final!!:Holland disgraced the Final!!

THEY were the finalists who died of shame.

The finalists who disgraced both a tournament and European football.

The finalists who made the world fall out of love with Dutch football.

It is almost beyond belief it all came to this.

We had four classic quarter-finals, everything you could have asked of a World Cup. Then two stunning semi-finals, brimful with excitement and incident.

The closing stages of a major tournament had rarely been better. And then we had last night.

The only comfort is that Spain's name is on the trophy for the first time, after Andres Iniesta spared the new world champions the lottery of a penalty shootout.

Brave, admirable Spain, who stuck to their footballing principles on the night Holland deserted theirs.

Had Vicente Del Bosque's side not won, it would have been one of the greatest travesties of all time.

Had Bert van Marwijk's cynical Dutchmen taken the trophy home, no one outside Holland would have been cheering.

Stuck in the middle of it all was referee Howard Webb, the unfortunate Englishman drawn into the eye of a hurricane.

He ended up booking 14 players - including five in one mad, 13-minute first-half spell - and sending off Everton's John Heitinga with 11 minutes left. But do not blame Webb.

Sure, it takes two to tango. Yet it was the Dutch who both started and continued it.

The mean-spirited, bad-tempered Van Marwijk had said earlier in the tournament that no one would win anything these days playing Total Football. Apart from millions of friends. Instead, here he chose to send in his Clogs of War.

What a betrayal of Johan Cruyff, Johan Neeskens, Ruud Gullit and Marco van Basten.

No wonder Cruyff, no fan of the Van Marwijk school of football, had said: "I may be Dutch but I support the football Spain play. It is the best advertisement we have for the World Cup."

If only they had been allowed to show more of it. Then, again, that was the point of the Dutch 'tactics'.

Yes, the Spanish retaliated but only to show they would not be subjected to gross intimidation.

As soon as Spain grabbed the initiative, with three chances in the opening 12 minutes, the Dutch started to kick anything that moved - usually Spanish playmakers Xavi and Iniesta.

The tackle from behind from Mark van Bommel that almost cut Iniesta in half after 22 minutes was bad enough. But the studs-up 'challenge' that saw Nigel de Jong's boot rip into Xabi Alonso's chest six minutes later was grotesque.

As bad in many ways as the infamous Zinedine Zidane headbutt on Marco Materazzi that besmirched the 2006 final in Berlin and saw the French skipper sent off.

Both Dutchmen should have joined him in the Hall of Shame. And all this in front of a global TV audience of one billion, of 84,490 inside the Soccer City stadium and millions of South Africans who had been celebrating the glorious success of their World Cup. All this after the euphoric appearance of Nelson Mandela not long before kick-off.

We had expected a final to relish. Instead we got one to abhor.

How could it have come to this after Holland's epic quarter-final victory over Brazil? How could we have ended up with this distasteful little playground brawl for grown-ups after Spain's glorious victory over Germany in the semi-final?

Well, perhaps we should not have been surprised bearing in mind Dirk Kuyt's words on the eve of battle. That if Holland played like Germany did against Spain, they would lose. That the Germans were afraid of Del Bosque's glittering array of talent.

So the Dutch decided they would show no fear - by lashing out from the first blast of Webb's whistle.

Yet it should never have been like that - this meeting between the two greatest footballing nations never to have won the World Cup.

Spain, just two defeats in 53 games and 4-7 favourites. Holland, unbeaten in 25 and on a run of 14 straight wins.

It was a wonderful atmosphere, with helicopters thundering overhead, searchlights criss-crossing from one side of the stadium roof to the other and the Oranje Army in full, booming voice.

And then the sight of the iconic Mandela giving the whole night, and the whole of South Africa, the greatest boost of all. The 91-year-old, waving happily, was driven on to the pitch in a buggy and Soccer City exploded. Protected against the cold night air, he wore a bearskin hat, a heavy overcoat - and a smile that lit up the entire stadium. It was a special moment at a special World Cup.

And the one highlight until Iniesta moved on to a Cesc Fabregas pass at the death to drive past Maarten Stekelenburg and remove some of the bitter taste left by the previous 115 minutes.

Spain tore into Holland from the start, with Sergio Ramos and David Villa going close. Then the kicking started, with occasional outbreaks of football.

The second half was not much of an improvement, though Arjen Robben had a great chance to give the Dutch a 62nd-minute lead only for Iker Casillas to produce a tremendous save at his feet.

Villa, Ramos and Fabregas could all have settled it before, thankfully, Iniesta brought a late silver lining to one of the blackest clouds ever to descend on a World Cup final.

Full credit to Spain for saving us from an abomination.