A first for the winner of World Cup final

The 32 national teams that made it to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa had one dream in common: to lift the cup in triumph in the grand finale.

Now, only Spain and the Netherlands keep that dream alive.

The teams will face each other Sunday in an unprecedented final that, regardless of the winner, will produce a first-time world champion.

For the Netherlands, this will be its third World Cup final, losing in 1974 and 1978.

The Netherlands dazzled at the 1974 World Cup in Germany. With an overwhelming game, the Dutch kept defeating any adversary in their path with such forcefulness that they earned the nickname "The Mechanical Orange."

That was the Netherlands of stars Johan Cruyff, Johan Neeskens and company who presented an innovative game style known as "total soccer," a type of game in which the players don't have a predetermined position on the field. If a player moves out of his original position he is immediately replaced by another who covers him to keep the team's game structure intact.

Though everyone thought the Netherlands would win in 1974, it lost 2-1 to Germany in the final.

At the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, playing with the base team from the previous World Cup but without Cruyff, the Netherlands reached the final once more and lost in overtime, again to the hosts, 3-1.

After that marvelous decade, the Netherlands only managed to win the European Championship in 1988, defeating the Soviet Union 2-0.

Now in South Africa, the Netherlands will no longer face the hosts but will encounter a surprising team from Spain that, despite losing its first match against Switzerland 1-0 in the group phase, has regained its style of short and accurate passes. Spain's soccer is highly technical and marked by changing rhythms, precise control and movement of the ball, the same recipe that crowned Spain winner of the European Championship in 2008, when it beat Germany 1-0.

And Germany was precisely Spain's last victim at the semifinals in South Africa.

Spain - "La Furia Roja" - had never reached a World Cup final before, despite that two Spanish clubs - Real Madrid and Barcelona FC - have won multiple trophies in Europe and are considered among the best in the world.

Despite the well-earned prestige of Spanish soccer, until now it has failed to win a world championship and its best result goes back to the 1950 World Cup in Brazil, when it finished fourth.

No matter who wins Sunday, this final is already a victory for those of us who love the game of attack and great technique. In a South African world championship that has been characterized by the dominance of defense over offense, both Spain and the Netherlands have demonstrated that they are not shy in seeking the opponent's goal.

In this deciding game, the Netherlands will seek to assert its effectiveness in finding the goal. With 12 goals in this championship, the Netherlands has already exceeded Spain's 7 goals.

Spain's main weapon will be its control of the ball. The Iberian team has come to have an average ball possession of 60 percent per game, the highest in South Africa.

We hope this World Cup will finish with a bang, and that both teams will give us a great show of soccer.

My forecast? Given the similar level of both teams, I would not dare make one. Besides, that job is reserved for the famous Paul the Octopus Oracle.