World Cup 2010: Day 31

The end is nigh. After tonight there is no more World Cup, well, not for four long years. Africa's first tournament has brought us some good football, some not so good football, some strange refereeing, some stranger goalkeeping, enough incident to fill sportspages around the globe - even in the US - and some very late nights. Has it been a classic World Cup? Is there such a thing unless your nation wins it? What's for sure is that this will have been lots of people's first taste of the World Cup - true even of adults in Beijing - and hopefully it won't be their last.

Win a Retro Shirt
It's the last chance to win a GongTees retro shirt. All you have to do is to be the first to email in with the correct prediction of the score in tonight's final. Answers to editor@thebeijinger.com. Best of luck.

Tonight's final has all the makings of a classic match. Two footballing sides that both owe a debt to Johan Cruyff and the respective academies of Ajax and Barcelona meet for an encounter sure to please neutrals. Will it be a first World Cup for the land where you don't have to pay for tapas or will it go to the land where you can pay to tap ass? It's the asphyxiating passing game of the Spanish against the newly pragmatic and resilient Dutch. One of them has to become the first European time to win outside of Europe and someone has to be the player to do that. Is the man to settle it the long under-appreciated David Villa or will it be the opinion-dividing smurf Sneijder? Pino the Chimpanzee has opted for the Dutch from his Estonian zoo if that helps to clear things up.

Interestingly, Rafael Van der Vaart says this of Sneijder: "Every ball he shoots on goal, it flies either through one or two legs of an opponent or off someone's head. I suspect he has a gold vuvuzela in his pants." Rafael obviuously falls into the camp that thinks wee Wes would make a fitting World Player of the Year rather than the camp that thinks he's an obnoxious dwarf who mostly scores deflections. Not as interesting as the soon to retire Giovanni Van Bronckhorst saying he won't waste his time with a post-match doping test.

Sneijder and Villa were joined on five goals at the top of the scoring charts by Mueller and Forlan last night. The German and Uruguayan grabbed a goal each, and good goals at that, in Germany's third place victory. The odd goal in five separated the teams in a pulsating encounter. Highlights below.

Germany's feats last night makes them the best World Cup performers by some way. Three times World Champions, four times runners-up and four times third place. Impressive stuff and if they can keep their young squad together they may well add to that when in Brazil in 2014.

Watch Barcelona in Beijing
If you like the way that Spain plays then you may well want to see the seven Barcelona players from their first XI in the flesh. They play Beijing Guoan at the Bird's Nest on August 8th. Tickets are priced between RMB 480-1680 and they are available from ClubFootball. Contact them at 5130 6893/4/5/6, and pr@wanguoqunxing.com. Also for those who don't like football tickets are available for Guoan's game against Birmingham City on July 21. They cost RMB 100-880.

Where to watch the World Cup Final
Sanlitun SOHO is set to be abuzz with the Dutch, Kokomo and the Pavillion too. If it rains it will be interesting. Spain have been rolling up their jeans in Paddy O'Shea's and 1F but expect town to be buzzing if the weather holds off. Otherwise anywhere with a roof will do.