Reina said of his prediction, “With Oscar Cardozo, I knew how he took penalties as I’d faced a few of them. In tight, tense matches he’d always choose his safe side – always to the left of the goalkeeper.”

Casillas held all of his faith in his backup, “With Pepe’s help, I knew he’d go that way.”

The tables soon turned in the match, and it was Spain who was awarded a penalty. After Xabi Alonso slammed the ball out of the keeper’s reach and into the back of the net, Spain celebrated like three-year-olds on Christmas. They had finally reached the semi-finals of a World Cup – or so they thought. The referee whistled the penalty away, accusing the Spanish side of encroachment. Now, Alonso would have to score against the Paraguayan goalkeeper for the second time in under a minute. He says of the situation, “With the second penalty, you have more doubts. Should I go down the middle again or should I go a different way.”

After a tense run-up, Alonso’s shot was blocked. Spain was back to square one.

In the 83rd minute, Spain finally broke the deadlock thanks to, who else, David Villa – his fifth goal of the competition.

Vincente Del Bosque emphasized the relief of reaching the semi-final to the character of the national team: “We’d overcome what had been a barrier for our national team for years – getting past the quarter-finals. I think when we broke that barrier, we broke old ways of thinking that we were inferior to other nations.”

The semi-finals presented a rematch of the European Championship Final against Germany from two years earlier. After 90 minutes, the match finished with the same score. After halftime, with the game still scoreless, Carlos Puyol told Xavi, “We’ve taken three or four corners. If you put the ball near the penalty spot, I’ll come running in, and we can cause a problem.”

Xavi executed his orders and, in the 73rd minute, Puyol headed Spain into the World Cup Final with a thunderous effort.

After the match, Joachim Low, Germany’s head coach, who would lead his country to a World Cup of their own four years later, met with Vincente Del Bosque to praise the Spanish side. He said, “Congratulations. You’re the best team in the world – not the best team in the world – the best team I’ve ever seen.”

On July 11th, 2010, Spain took the field in Johannesburg alongside the Netherlands. Though the Dutch have been heralded in the past for their stunning method of “total football,” they adopted a physicality based approach for the final. With crunching tackles flying around the field, vuvuzelas swarming the stadium , and no goals in the first 90 minutes, the game was by no means a thriller. It was a brutal affair. Fourteen yellow cards were awarded (nine to the Netherlands and five to Spain) as well as a single red card that was given to John Heitinga. The most notable tackle, which absurdly only received a yellow card, came in the form of Nigel de Jong’s studs-up kick into the chest of Xabi Alonso. As tackles go, de Jong’s “flying lotus” would be more suited to a Karate Kid movie than to the World Cup Final.