World Cup - Ugly win will be good enough for Robben
Published:Saturday | July 10, 2010 | 12:00 AM
JOHANNESBURG (AP):
Considering it was a move of beauty that jeopardised his World Cup, it comes as little surprise Arjen Robben does not really care how the Netherlands beat Spain tomorrow. As long as he can lift the trophy.
"I'd rather play an extremely ugly game and win, instead of a beautiful one and lose," Robben said.
Winning ugly is fine, especially after what happened on June 5.
In a warm-up match against Hungary, he tried a delicate back-heel flick, a flash of flair for which the Dutch are famous, when he suddenly flinched in pain and fell to the ground with a left hamstring injury.
Suddenly it seemed that the Netherlands had lost one of their best players, less than a week ahead of the World Cup opener. Tender hamstrings are notoriously difficult to play with.
Unbelievable
"If you would have told me then what would happen here, I simply would not have believed it," Robben said ahead of the final.
The Dutch squad even left for South Africa without him as scans still needed to show he was fit to play.
Yesterday, just over a month later, he was nominated for the World Cup Golden Ball for the best player of the tournament. This despite starting in only three of the six Dutch games and playing only 267 of a possible 540 minutes. He completed his first full training only three weeks ago.
Yet in less than half the possible playing time, he has become a star of the World Cup.
Without him, the Dutch forward line was in trouble as the team struggled to early wins.
Robben's first touch of the ball came in the last group game, against Cameroon, in the 73rd minute, and it took him only 10 minutes to make a difference.
With his trademark move that also highlighted his season at Bayern Munich, he cut inside, beat defenders and curled a long-range drive that came off the post, allowing Klaas Jan Huntelaar to easily poke in the rebound.
The Netherlands won by a single goal, 2-1, and his World Cup was launched.
Robben was named Man of the Match and scored his first goal when he made the difference in the second-round 2-1 win over Slovakia.
His toughest playing time came against Brazil when Juan and Michel Bastos denied him the space to cut inside to move the ball to his left foot.
It only was a momentary blip. Robben was essential again in Tuesday's semi-final. Leaning far back to receive a cross from Dirk Kuyt, he still managed enough power and precision on it to head it in the low corner in a 3-2 victory.
Past World Cup winners
- 2006: Italy 1 France 1, Italy won 5-3 on penalty kicks
- 2002: Brazil 2 Germany 0
- 1998: France 3 Brazil 0
- 1994: Brazil 0 Italy 0, Brazil won 3-2 on penalty kicks
- 1990: West Germany 1 Argentina 0
- 1986: Argentina 3 West Germany 2
- 1982: Italy 3 West Germany 1
- 1978: Argentina 3 Netherlands 1, extra time
- 1974: West Germany 2 Netherlands 1
- 1970: Brazil 4 Italy 1
- 1966: England 4 West Germany 2, extra time
- 1962: Brazil 3 Czechoslovakia 1
- 1958: Brazil 5 Sweden 2
- 1954: West Germany 3 Hungary 2
- 1950: Uruguay 2 Brazil 1 (deciding match of final group stage)
- 1938: Italy 4 Hungary 2
- 1934: Italy 2 Czechoslovakia 1, extra time
- 1930: Uruguay 4 Argentina 2