Spain became the eighth country to win the World Cup, beating the Netherlands by 1-0 before 85,000 fans at Soccer City in Johannesburg and millions of television viewers around the world.
Iniesta’s goal, the latest ever scored to win a World Cup final match, broke up a rugged, foul-filled game that was headed to a dreaded penalty-kick contest. Among the multitude of yellow cards — 14 of them, 9 to the Netherlands — handed out by referee Howard Webb, both teams were saved by their fine goalkeeping. Spain keeper Iker Casillas stopped two breakaways from Arjen Robben, including one in extra time, and Netherlands keeper Maarten Stekelenburg stopped a breakaway by Cesc Fabregas and, early in the match, dove to turn aside a header from Sergio Ramos.Spain’s victory, in their first World Cup final, made them only the third team ever to reign simultaneously as European champions and world champions. The Netherlands lost the final for the third time, after falling to the host country in the finals at West Germany 1974 and Argentina 1978.
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