World Cup 2010 Final Prediction: Netherlands Vs. Spain

Kick-off: Sun July 11, 7.30pm BST

The eight-legged psychic Octopus known as "Paul" has predicted that Spain will defeat the Netherlands in Sunday's World Cup final. However, Mani, a seven-year-old parakeet from Malaysia, has predicted that the Netherlands will defeat Spain. Which guru should we trust? Mani has been predicting the future and giving advice to people for a longer time and his pick may be more accurate. Sorry Paul...

After more than three weeks of highly entertaining soccer, we've finally arrived at the World Cup final with two teams who have never won the World Cup before. Both teams hope to join Uruguay, Italy, Germany, Brazil, England, Argentina and France as the only teams to win the World Cup. While Spain may have the best individual talent, Holland plays more like an all-around team. They have not lost a match in over 25 games and often find themselves winning by one score. Spain has lost two times in their last 25 games.

Surprisingly the two teams have only met each other on the field nine times in 90 years. Because of this fact, this game will be difficult to predict. Considering these teams rarely play each other, there's not much modern data that could be used to predict an outcome tomorrow.

Previous 8 meetings:

1957: (Madrid, Friendly): Spain 5 Holland 1
1973: (Amsterdam, Friendly): Holland 3 Spain 2
1980: (Vigo, Friendly): Spain 1 Holland 0
1983: (Seville, ECQ): Spain 1 Holland 0
1983: (Rotterdam, ECQ): Holland 2 Spain 1
1987: (Barcelona, Friendly): Spain 1 Holland 1
2000: (Sevilla, Friendly): Spain 1 Holland 2
2001: (Rotterdam, Friendly): Holland 1 Spain 0

With the past meaning very little, the only way to predict an outcome is to look at the current World Cup happenings and the individual players who are making things happen. Spain does have a talent edge, but Holland has more of a team theme going. Sneijder v Xavi may be the most looked at match-up. Both could be considered equals when you look at the stellar year both players have shown us to this point. The key to a Dutch victory will be keeping David Villa under control. He has scored six of Spain's last eight goals and could easily be considered Spain's MVP.

Final Prediction:

While Spain is trying their best to copy their success at Euro 2008, Holland has steam and momentum in their corner. You don't win 25 games in a row without a lot of momentum. This game will probably come down to the end, but the superstars Villa and Xavi will not be enough to overcome Holland's coaching and teamwork. The new Dutch team knows how to win games and they will defeat Spain by one point.

Netherlands - 3

Spain - 2