Spain step up pace to reach first final

WORLD CUP SEMI-FINAL - GERMANY 0 SPAIN 1HAVING DONE themselves proud by accounting for a couple of long-time rivals when so little had been expected of them, Joachim Loew's young and gifted German side bowed out of the World Cup last night. They were beaten by a Spanish team who, when it was required, produced their best performance to stay on course for a first world title.

Though Carles Puyol’s goal 17 minutes from time was officially all that separated the sides, the gulf in quality, as it had been in Vienna two years ago, was much wider. The European Champions dominated their rivals on just about every front, be it possession, passes completed or attempts on goal.

In the latter category they had a near monopoly.

And while the Germans had their chances – a strong penalty shout in the first half, a fluffed close-range shot in the second – Spain might easily have won by a greater margin. David Villa and Pedro went close to beating Manuel Neuer on more than one occasion.

The pair did well together, but Pedro, given the chance to start in place of Fernando Torres, must have been heartily relieved poor decision-making on his part late on didn’t prove more costly.

There were few enough surprises over the course of the 90 minutes. The way in which each side would attempt to secure their place in the final had been well known and both sought to follow the script.

Spain, as expected, tried to take the game to their opponents by passing the ball through the midfield to their front men, while the Germans , at least until late on, when they found themselves forced to chase things, allowed Spain to pressure then aimed to hit back on the break.

Through the first half, though, the contest was more subdued than might have been anticipated. The European champions, aware, no doubt, of the risks of attacking in the way they had against a couple of lesser opponents in earlier rounds, took a more cautious approach so that their opponents rarely had much open space to run into.

Vicente Del Bosque’s men had close to 60 per cent of the possession over the first 45 minutes, having completely dominated the opening half hour. But there was little enough to show for it, aside from a close-range chance for Puyol and a couple of half-chances for the frontmen.

Pedro, at least, had a positive impact on the attacking side of things for Del Bosque’s side. The 22-year-old looked more of a threat around the opposition box than the Liverpool striker had during his outings, and switched more easily with David Villa in what was in effect the lone striker’s role and the left wing.

On the right flank, Sergio Ramos found plenty of space to advance into, and Jerome Boateng struggled at times to contain the Spanish right back.

But there was little by way of end product from the favourites, who couldn’t seem to find a way of opening their opponents up without running the risk of exposing themselves to the danger of a sweeping counter-attack.

Sure enough, on one of the occasions they came close, a German interception sparking a flood of white shirts towards Spanish terrain. Briefly, it was five against three, but at the critical moment a pass was misplaced and Sergio Busquets was able to extinguish the threat.

Overall, the midfielder and his side looked close to coasting, and yet seconds before the break calamity almost struck when, for the second time in 10 minutes, Mesut Ozil worked his way forward from midfield and Ramos, in pursuit, clipped the back of his rival’s leg just after he had moved into the area.

The contact looked accidental and the German ultimately tripped over his own legs, but the cause was clear and the Hungarian referee should have pointed to the penalty spot.

With the prospect of a first appearance in a World Cup final dangling in front of them, the Spanish set about capitalising on the stroke of good fortune and began to look far more threatening. The passing between Xavi, Xabi Alonso and Andres Iniesta in midfield started to flow and the German defence seemed a little less sure at times whether to come or stay as the strikers floated.

Thirteen minutes in Spain came within a whisker of securing their breakthrough when Pedro forced a fine save from Manuel Neuer with a low drive from outside the area that was scrambled away after the goalkeeper’s parry.

The follow-up was swift, with Alonso back-heeling the ball into Iniesta’s path only for the 26-year-old’s ball across the face of the goal to fly a foot or so beyond the extended leg of Villa.

The Germans hit back and Toni Kroos should have done better when he met Lukas Podolski’s cleverly looped cross from the left with a first-time shot. As it was Iker Casillas saved well, but in truth he shouldn’t have had the opportunity.

Still, the young midfielder wasn’t as culpable as Pedro a little while later with the 22-year-old Barcelona striker blowing an outstanding chance to double the lead as the game moved into its final 10 minutes. Initially sent racing clear, he slowed up as two defenders chased back, but he passed up an easy opportunity to set up the recently arrived Torres, opting instead to try to cut back inside Arne Friedrich.

The centre back looked to catch his leg but the Spaniard stumbled, stayed up and then stopped playing without being awarded anything by the referee. As he was hauled off five minutes later by a coach who didn’t look at him, he was still apologising to his fellow striker.

In between the two misses, Puyol’s goal was rather more elementary stuff. Xavi pumped in a corner from the left and the big centre back arrived late and from a long way back to rise high above team-mate Gerard Pique and power the ball home for just his third goal in 89 internationals.

It was impressive rather than beautiful in the way that some of Villa’s efforts over the last few weeks have been.

It mattered not. The important thing is that it was enough.

Gracious Loew tips Spain to overcome the Netherlands

JOACHIM LOEW bowed graciously out of the race for the World Cup last night, hailing Spain as the planet's best team and predicting they will go on to lift the title by beating the Netherlands at Soccer City this Sunday.

"Of course we're disappointed," said the German coach, "but I have to congratulate the Spanish team on their performance tonight. Over the last two or three years they have been the most skilful team about and they showed that again tonight.

"They passed the ball around very well and prevented us from playing the sort of game we wanted to. So they won the game and they deserved to win it. "Whenever we won the ball we lost it again very quickly. There didn't seem to be the confidence to complete a move forward at all and I can't say why that was."

His opposite number, Vicente del Bosque, proved as good a winner as Loew was a dignified loser, but made no bones about the fact that his side deserved to be going back to Johannesburg

"I think it has been a noble semi-final between two great teams and I think we looked for the best way to play, to take the ball and keep it and I think our players have fulfilled that task in a magnificent way.

"I think that Germany were less strong than expected because our team did a great job."

Spain's midfielder Xavi said: "I'm very happy and I think it was deserved. We did a great job, we dominated the game, expressed our personalities, had the ball virtually all of the time and controlled things even before we had the good luck of the corner and the header from Carles Puyol."