The first-time champion Spain deserved to win, and that was never in doubt.

They were the more talented team. Going into the game, I predicted it’d either end in a shootout ­— the winner having three or more goals — or a grind-it-out defensive game.

What we got was a 0-0 tie well into the late stages of extra time — not what the Dutch are used to playing. If the Spaniards were more free flowing, as the Dutch would have preferred, the game could have had a different outcome.

Although Holland put together the most impressive run in the tournament, the talent always existed on the Spanish side. Spain had some struggles early on in the tournament, but the talented squad was able to put it all together when it counted.

They didn’t win any game overwhelmingly despite their loaded roster, but they won, and isn’t that all that counts?

My desire to see the Dutch, USA or an African or Asian team win was not fulfilled. But the tournament was enthralling, and I’m sad it’s over.

It all started a month ago, with a goal by a South African named Siphiwe Tshabalala and a little jig from Archbishop Desmond Tutu. As soon as I saw that dance, I knew the month of soccer was going to be great.

The U.S. played admirably and gave Americans plenty to cheer for. The team achieved its goal of making it to the Round of 16.

Sure, Americans wanted more out of the powerhouse nation that so often dominates the world in sports, but truly the team did as much as we could have hoped for.

I made it clear I wanted to see teams outside South America and Europe do well, and they did.

South Korea and Japan showed well, making it past group stages. Ghana made a run to the quarterfinals, with a win over the USA.

All in all, with great play from South Korea, Japan, Ghana and the USA, it shows there is hope for the world to see a champion from outside the powerful soccer continents.

That being said, I was highly disappointed by many of the African nations. Many of them had high hopes — and with good reason. A few of the African nations have extremely talented squads but just couldn’t put together strings of great performances.

Even South Africa, a team no one really expected anything from, almost advanced with strong games in the group stages.

There have been only eight teams to win the World Cup since its beginning in 1930. As the game of the world, there hasn’t been a great diversity in winners.

I hope the powerhouse mentality in soccer continues to dissolve and we start seeing more evenly played matches like we saw in this year’s World Cup.

With strong performances throughout this year’s World Cup, the youthful German squad surely is going to be a favorite in Brazil in 2014. But I hope some youngsters in Africa, Asia and the USA took notes and aspire to be world champions and dethrone Europe and South America.

This World Cup deepened my somewhat newly found affinity for the sport. I’m now completely intrigued by the leagues in Europe and the international tournaments held every year. I’ll be following closely, like I do college basketball and Chicago Cubs baseball, for the rest of my life.

I’m also thoroughly interested to see where the World Cup in 2018 and 2022 in December. From campaign videos I’ve watched, I hope Qatar receives the 2022 bid — they have some amazing stadiums on the drawing board if selected. For 2018, I would love to see the U.S. get another shot at hosting, as it did in 1994.
So it’s over now, and my pick, the Netherlands, didn’t win. But at least we can say the Americans beat the 2010 World Cup Champions in summer 2009.