CLOSER TO CALL THAN MOST IMAGINE

Nearly a billion people will watch the World Cup final between Holland and Spain on their television sets around the globe.Its still a mind blowing figure.Spain in their first final will be favourites and most lovers of football will want them to win.Holland,my dark horses to be World Cup champions,are well organised but not so much flair although they have key players in Arjen Robben and Wesley Sneijder.There are so many great players in the Spanish team with ace scorer David Villa but its been that sort of tournament with upsets galore along the way.At the outset I predicted in my blogs that it would be one of the three usual suspects,Spain,Brazil or Argentina but I also had a strong fancy for my dark horses Holland.My big worry for the Dutch,though,is not so much the football Spain play but whether Mark van Bommel will avoid a red card.He has survived quite a bit so far but now he comes up against English referee Howard Webb who I am sure will give van Bommel every chance but eventually enough will be enough.Lets hope for a red-card free final,a good match and the team that deserves it wins.I remember hoping Holland would win the first World Cup final I attended,1974 in Munich,when Holland and Johan Cruyff played total football but still lost to Garmany.That day I sat in the ITV commentary seats behind two legends,Sir Alf Ramsey and commentator Hugh Johns.Both would turn in their graves if they knew how England had played in this World Cup.