Johannesburg

It began with a clunk off the post. Of course it did. Nothing has been easy and very little has ever been good for Spain in the World Cup, so it was no wonder that a promising moment, maybe a seminal moment, could be punctuated with a solid bounce off the left post.

This was no way for Spain to try to qualify for the first actual semifinal match in its otherwise glorious history. The home of Real Madrid, the land of Barcelona, had never played a semifinal. And now a sub named Pedro was bouncing a gimme off the post after a nifty pass from Andrés Iniesta.

Spain is probably soccer’s most underachieving nation. Make a list of the countries that have qualified for the semifinals — both Turkey and South Korea in 2002 come to mind, and all right, South Korea was the host. But still, Spain had never been there. For Spain, something always hit the crossbar of life.

But this time, the ball deflected straight to David Villa, the hot man of this tournament for Spain, and he plunked it into the net in the 83rd minute for the only goal of the night, the goal that put Spain where it has never been.