Puyol sends Spain to first-ever World Cup Final

BBC | WED 7 JULY 2010

Spain reached the World Cup final for the first time after a second-half header from Carles Puyol secured a narrow victory over Germany after an intriguing match in Durban.

Vicente del Bosque's side won their fourth straight game 1-0 and will now play the Netherlands in Sunday's final at Soccer City.

Spain deserved their victory after controlling huge periods of the match, but once again it was far from a vintage performance.

Del Bosque's team improved on their scrappy performance against Paraguay in the previous round but still struggled to carve out clear openings.

The winning goal came when Puyol showed great determination to atone for a poor first-half miss by heading home Xavi's corner with 17 minutes remaining.

The Euro 2008 champions, who defeated Germany 1-0 in the final of that competition, should have scored a second after striking with the sort of counter-attack that had been a trademark of their opponents' play in this competition, but Pedro failed to pick out a completely unmarked Fernando Torres.

Germany had invited pressure by adopting an increasingly deep defensive line as the match wore on - and may regret not taking the game to their opponents more while it remained goalless.

Joachim Loew's team scored four against both England and Argentina in their previous games and had illuminated the competition with their bold play.

But they had few opportunities to strike on the counter against Spain and so Germany taste defeat at the semi-final stage for the second successive World Cup.

Spain coach Del Bosque chose Wednesday's tie to drop the out-of-form Torres, drafting in Barcelona's lively young forward Pedro and deploying David Villa as a lone striker.

And while Del Bosque's team certainly looked comfortable as they worked the ball around midfield, Germany showed excellent shape and discipline, and were rarely dragged out of position.

Spain did occasionally pick holes in the German defensive structure, with Pedro playing in Villa only for keeper Manuel Neuer to deny him after only five minutes.

Puyol headed over from a firm Andres Iniesta cross, wasting an excellent chance, while a raking cross-field pass from Xabi Alonso found Sergio Ramos in space, only for the Real Madrid full-back to drill his ambitious shot wide.

Germany did not have the opportunity to launch a counter attack until the 22nd minute, but that broke down after a miscommunication between Mesut Ozil and Lukas Podolski.

Loew's team looked increasingly threatening as the half wore on and had what initially appeared to be a strong penalty appeal in injury-time, after Ozil went down under a clumsy challenge from Ramos.

Ozil was certainly in a very threatening position after collecting a pass from Miroslav Klose and looked to be fouled, but replays suggested the initial contact had been made outside the area.

The start of the second half was a repeat of the first in that Spain passed and probed - but this time they started to seriously threaten Neuer's goal.

Alonso twice shot wide from distance, as did Villa with a low effort he tried to curl across goal, but the impressive Pedro did force a sharp save from Neuer.

Germany were dropping ever deeper and would have fallen behind but for two near misses. The first saw Villa come within inches of converting a low Iniesta cross, while Ramos was likewise agonisingly close to converting from Alonso's angled pass.

Loew brought on Marcell Jansen and Toni Kroos for Jerome Boateng and Trochowski as he tried to change the game in his team's favour.

And Kroos forced a save after a deep cross from Podolski, but shortly afterwards Puyol struck and Spain were able to close out the match to seal their place in the final and ensure that the World Cup will have a first-time winner in 2010.

Great year for Green Park School, Clarendon

Excerpts from address by Mr O'Neil Ankle, Principal, Green Park Primary and Junior High at the School's graduation recently.

One writer once said that “education’s purpose is to replace empty minds with open ones”. If that is true I believe we here at Green Park are achieving such a measure. The truth is the teachers here have a burning desire to see children learn. It’s a passion to inspire our children into their God given greatness. Today, we celebrate with our Graduates, Parents, teachers, friends, the wider community and well wishers on the bumper harvest that we have had throughout the 2009-10 academic year.
Ladies and gentlemen: let me say and you will hear me say this over and over again, Green Park Primary and Junior High School is no longer the school that you knew 5-6 years ago. Green Park has become a preferred primary and Junior High school for many. Many parents have told me that they selected Green Park as their preferred GSAT School for their children. Ladies and gentlemen we must be doing something that is different as a primary and junior high school…Teachers of Green Park please to take bow…I know I have been a hard task master at times however to get to where we want, none of us can be too comfortable.

Agriculture
Our Agricultural programme is one that all of us can be more that proud of. Ladies and gentlemen I believe we have the best Junior High school farm in all of Clarendon and perhaps Central Jamaica and I think we can challenge the entire island. This year under the outstanding leadership of Mr. Balmore Mannings we started our poultry unit – providing the school’s canteen with over 2865 lbs of chicken meat and 100 lbs of trotters (foot) and with the price of chicken today you can do the math ($372,450). In addition, some 50 lbs of chicken meat and 400 pounds of chicken foot, liver, gizzard and neck were given away to students as incentive for their participation in the project. This year also saw an expansion and diversification in the crop area, where cash crops such as scallion, thyme, beetroot, and raddish among others were produced which helped to increase sales in the department by over 15%-self sufficiency is where we heading. Ornamental plants sale also helped the department to raise over $11000. With this kind of performance, we are expecting to break new grounds with our fisheries unit come September. We want to rear some 200 lbs of fish ever 3-4 months. We also want to further develop the ornamental plant unit by expanding the Green House during the next school year. We aim to be different as a junior high school…. We want to also congratulate Lamure Bolton of 9 Wealthy who walked away with the top student award in poultry care and management at the Clarendon 4-H Clubs Achievement Day.

Guidance and Counselling
This year in an effort to ensure continuity the Guidance and counselling department once again staged another successfully Residential Behavioural Change Camp for boys for the second year running. This year the boys went to the Kendal Camp Site in Manchester for three days and two nights. Sixteen boys participated in the camp.

GSAT-2010
Our performance this year is the best in the 40-year history of the institution. For the first time in our history no student will return to us and let me tell you is a plan that we have worked for the past 4 years. This year we sprint past the national average in all areas of the GSAT. In Mathematics we have a 67% average a 12% improvement over last year, national average 57%. In science our school has a 76% a 23% improvement over 2009, the national average 60%. For social studies our school’s avg. is 71% a 15% improvement over the previous year, national average 58%. Language Arts we are at 68% a 12% improvement over last year, national average 58%. In Communication Task our school’s average 75% a 17% improvement over 2009, national average 67%. Help me congratulate the teachers for their dedication and sacrifice. Please note that of the 54 students who sat the examination 20 have gained averages of over 80%. Secondly only 5 students failed to get over 50% and above. This year many of our students got in the 90s in many of the individual subject areas. The outstanding individual performers you will see receiving their awards in a moment.
Ladies and gentlemen Green Park has come of age and you have not seen the best of us yet. We are the toast of Region 6, persons are asking what are we doing differently why for the past four years our grades just keep trending up; and this does not only go for GSAT, but GNAT and our reading programme-led by Ms Joan Edward and the teachers at grade 7 are working miracles. I can safely say the Reading Resource Center-(Library) under the guidance of Mrs. Amoy Hay is contributing tremendously to our overall improvement and performance.


Graduates
To the graduates as you leave the hallowed and holy walls of this institution I want to challenge you to continue being the best that you can be. My sons and daughters this world especially this country can no longer support mediocrity/slap-dash performance; you have to be at your best at all times. Graduates you can’t be ordinary and survive, you must be extra ordinary, so don’t sentence yourselves to a life of poverty when God has called you to a higher level of blessings.

Serena's Victory

Photo shows Serena Williams after her Fourth Wimbledon victory today.

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