¡Los campeones del mundo!

Photos via Fox Soccer, UEFA, and etc.

Or of Europe, at least. Was I the only one who thought it was funny that they were playing Queen after the trophy presentation?

Anyway, a mildly interesting final from Spain and Germany. A goal from Fernando Torres in the 33rd minute was all Spain needed to secure what was, as we've been reminded over and over in the build up to this game, their first victory in a major tournament in several eons. Mostly, though, this game could be summed up as having given almost everyone exactly what they deserved. Fernando Torres got a goal, Michael Ballack got headbutted in the eye and bled profusely, and the side that played better in this game and throughout the tournament came away with a victory.

One notable exception to the theory of just desserts was the awarding of yellow cards. Casillas and Ballack may or may not have deserved the cautions they got, but Torres almost certainly should not have been carded - his challenge for a header in the 74th minute didn't look at all out of the ordinary - and David Silva most definitely would have earned a card had the ref chosen to award him one following the headbutt Silva gave Lukas Podolski.

By the time the final whistle blew, both sides looked rather weary. Germany's defending, never pretty to begin with, only seemed to get sloppier. There were far too many unnecessary, ugly fouls from both sides, yet not even Germany, whose skill with set pieces was widely remarked upon before the game, managed to score from any of the resulting free kicks. Honestly, the only reason the Germans were not beaten by a much wider margin was that Spain's attack was for the most part equally messy. Though they passed quite prettily to each other, when it came to the point they didn't have that extra fraction of energy and focus needed to score. Really a shame, considering how dominant the Spanish looked in the other two-thirds of the field.

In the end, though I would have hoped for a higher scoring game, Spain did play some pretty football, attractive men got sweaty and angry (though none of them were kind enough to take off their shirts save Sergio Ramos, who was wearing a flag for a little while instead), and the team that I wanted to win did.

Highlights, low lights, and bizarrities (in vaguely chronological order):

- Jens Lehmann's flying leap to prevent an own goal by Mertesacker. This was easily his best save of the night. If the Spanish had ever aimed for any part of the goal other than the posts and the keeper, Lehmann might have been in a lot of trouble. He let the ball get away from him on several stops, allowing Spain to get a chance for a second or third shot. However, after Torres scored, he did manage to get to every long ball he went out for.

- Torres's early header that bounced off the left post. In my opinion, a better episode than the one that resulted in the winning goal. But, as seems to be the trend for this tournament, Torres did everything beautifully except actually managing to score.

- The repeated shots of Iker Casillas's midsection. Yes, he's quite attractive but, um, why?

- Ballack's bleeding face, the result of running into Marco Senna's head as they fought for a header. I was disappointed when I learned that he would not be sitting out for this match, but somehow he became almost hot (I can't believe I'm using that word to describe Michael Ballack) with blood all over his face.

- Sergio Ramos, who is supposed to be a defender (though you'd never know by watching him most of the time) nearly scored with a header after a free kick from Xavi Hernandez. All right, Lehmann didn't do so badly here, either.

- Senna's slide across the pitch as he missed Guiza's pass entirely. That should have been a second goal for Spain, but despite (or perhaps because of) his efforts all over the rest of the field, Senna just couldn't get to it. The commentator was kind, ascribing the miss to the bounce of the ball, but really, he should have done better. It made for a highly entertaining replay, though.

- Ramos, again finding himself immediately in front of the opposing goal, managed to deflect a sharp shot from Silva away from the goal. Lehmann, though, looked like he might have actually stopped this one, too. (Oops, I think this happened before the header from Ramos. Oh well).

- The celebrations of the Spanish team and fans after the final whistle had blown. I was kind of hoping they would drop Aragones, who is the part of the Spanish team I like least, but even though they didn't it was all quite entertaining. The players seemed incapable of keeping their hands off each other. Again, I would have liked a few more of them to have gotten excited enough for shirts to come off, but I'll settle for ten minutes of man-love if I have to. (I couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for the Germans, though, who no doubt would much rather have been off drowning their sorrows in the vast beer reserves Austria had set by for the tournament. Instead, they were forced to stand around watching the victors celebrate while they waited to be awarded their runner-up medals.)

- Finally, the grin on Iker Casillas's face as he went up to accept the trophy for Spain. I would leap in front of a thousand speeding soccer balls to be that happy.