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A new champion will be crowned at the World Cup on Sunday, when Spain meets the Netherlands in a final, which has the potential to be a classic. Well-organised and experienced but blessed with finesse and flair, Spain has the players to outplay any team in the world.

The Dutch have forwards, wingers and midfielders capable of slicing through any defence. The first World Cup final to be staged in Africa should be a memorable one if both teams bring their best game to Soccer City. Although some of.

Its stars looked short of fitness and form in the early stages, Spain produced its best performance in Wednesday’s 1-0 semifinal victory over Germany. It looked more like the side that brushed teams aside to win the European Championship two years ago.

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Germany coach Joachim Loew thinks the only way to beat Spain is to get them to defeat themselves. Spain has been the most consistent national soccer team of the past two or three years.

And is the favorite to win the World Cup title, Loew said Monday, two days before the Germans and Spanish meet in a tournament semifinal in Durban.

But he believes Germany can overcome any opponent, including a Spain team with a passing game he praised as a model for his own style.

"They make almost no mistakes but we have to force them into making errors," said Loew, who devised great game plans to beat England and Argentina, seizing on the teams' defensive liabilities.

Now comes Spain, which beat Germany 1-0 in the final of the 2008 European Championship. "We are not speaking of revenge.

That hasn't been on my mind at all," Loew said. "We lost the final in 2008 because we were beaten by the best team of the time.

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There are but four games remaining in World Cup 2010, and we shouldn't even count the third/four place game, which is about as pointless as putting your money on England to win the whole shebang in the first place.

It's arguably worse to lose the semi-final than the final itself as, from the fans' perspective, you have a day to remember and if you're lucky enough to be participating, it might add a zero to your transfer valuation. But enough of such frivolities!

This may well be a blog but that doesn't mean we take these games lightly. Far from it: so let's look ahead to whether the Dutch can continue to dominate or if Uruguay will usurp them. And will it be ground-breaking Germany or the slightly stuttering Spanish? Alliteration be damned! Here's your semi-final preview.

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There’s been a sense of deja vu about Argentina’s World Cup campaign to date, and that will only heighten when they meet Germany in Saturday’s quarter-final encounter in Cape Town. Just like in 2006, Diego Maradona’s side have made a good start to the competition, and just like in 2006, they follow a last 16 victory over Mexico with a testing encounter against die Mannschaft.

Four years ago in Berlin, Germany stifled the potent attacking threat of the Albiceleste to pinch a late equaliser through Miroslav Klose, before winning on penalties. Typical Germans. Maradona’s reign has been punctuated by bizarre tactical decisions, leading the Argentines to really stumble through to the finals. The mercurial coach has certainly got something right in the early stages of the tournament, although there’s still an air around the camp that suggests they can self-destruct at any moment.

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Xabi Alonso is keen to play down the sense of "euphoria" already accompanying Spain's World Cup campaign as they seek to add to their Euro 2008 triumph. Spain overcame their Iberian rivals Portugal with a narrow 1-0 victory in their last-16 clash in Cape Town but Alonso is concerned about the mentality of fans back home.

"We have been very patient and have been clever enough not to rush into things. We let the goal against Portugal come at the right moment, without any panicking," he said. "After the goal, we had more spaces to play our game.

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The AP headline is: “US soccer pres: We failed to meet expectations.” There’s not much else in the story, apart from a statement that Sunil Gulati “will likely meet with Bob Bradley to “discuss the coach’s future.” I expect it lies somewhere other than head coach of the national team.What baffles me is the US team’s strange combination of never-say-die spirit and tactical naivety.

I can only infer that Bradley was excellent at melding the former and weak on the latter. His player selection for the match against Ghana brought gasps and howls in this household, as I expect it did across the country, and his first two substitutions were an admission of a horrible mistake. One that will mark the end of his reign, I suppose.

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Carlos Alberto Parreira's side become the first host nation to fail to reach the second round of the tournament but they can hold their heads high after a performance full of spirit and endeavor. Goals from Bongani Khumalo and Katlego Mphela gave Bafana Bafana hope of qualifying at the interval, but they ultimately ran out of steam as they chased the goals they needed to overhaul second-placed Mexico.

France, who had Yohann Gourcuff harshly dismissed before the break, did manage to pull a goal back through Florent Malouda, but Raymond Domenech's men never looked like rescuing what has been a shambolic World Cup.

Rumors of a rift in their squad developed into a fully-fledged row that saw Les Bleus striker Nicolas Anelkas sent home in disgrace on Saturday for arguing with Domenech - and the fall-out from that incident saw captain Patrice Evra dropped for this game.

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CRAIG Brown knew this World Cup was in trouble when Brazil pulled back every man behind the ball against mighty North Korea. And the former Scotland manager produced a statistic which summed up the tournament.

Brown, who has been summarising for Al Jazeera, said: "On average, there have been less than six shots on target per game - less than three for each team. That's nowhere near good enough. "Too many teams have been negative.

They all get as quickly behind the ball as possible when they lose it - even Brazil. "I couldn't believe it when they all got back against North Korea the other night. It was almost as if they were too scared against a team who shouldn't be able to live with them.

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About 1,000 police officers stood in for the stewards at the game, between Italy and Paraguay in Cape Town. Fans said there appeared to be no security problems at the match, which ended in a 1-1 draw. Earlier, riot police in Durban fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of stewards protesting over pay.

South Africa's World Cup chief, Danny Jordaan, said it was "unacceptable" for the stewards to be trying to disrupt the games.He said it was an "employer-employee wage dispute".

Protesting stewards in Durban told reporters they had received 190 rand (£17; $25) for their work, but they had been promised much more.The firm employing the stewards, Stallion Security, told AFP news agency that the workers had been "misled" by jealous commercial rivals who failed to get the World Cup tender.

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South Africa started the day in shock but ended the first day of the World Cup with a smile after the Bafana Bafana earned the respect of the footballing world. The metropolis of Johannesburg was nearly bursting with excitement as the nation awoke to the biggestsporting event in Africa's history, but suffered a major reality check when the news filtered through of the death of Nelson Mandela's great grand-daughter in a Soweto car crash.

South Africa paused to share the grief of the Mandela family, but the millions who had been given the afternoon off work and brought city to a standstill, soon refocused on Soccer City. On approach, the massive calabash-shaped stadium sounded like the world's largest beehive as the thousands of vuvuzela horns produced the noise of a billion bees.

Just when you thought the racket could not get any louder, three fighter jets from the South African Air Force blasted over the top of the stadium to signal the start of the opening ceremony, temporary drowning out the deafening sound of the country's favourite instrument.

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