Spain's narrow victory over the Netherlands in the World Cup final at Soccer City was one for football over cynicism.
Nobody could doubt that Spain has been the best side in the world over the past four years and so it proved on the biggest stage as football's most famous duck was broken thanks to Andres Iniesta's 116th-minute strike.
The margin between success and devastating failure was impossibly thin, but that's the way Spain has sailed in the tournament, perilously close to the wind, from its shock opening 1-0 loss to Switzerland, to the four 1-0 wins which guided it through the knockout stage and to glory.
Despite the tension and the sense that Spain never quite put its dominance on the scoreboard, Vincent Del Bosque and his players always remained committed to the football, to playing a style of game which no other team could emulate at this tournament.
A bit like Italy four years ago, it was all about keeping the ball, but unlike the famous Catenaccio, Spain resolved to posses the ball in its attacking half. It condensed and frustrated opposition defences, and trusted that its skill and patience on the ball would eventually break teams down.
It worked spectacularly well. Every team which came up against Spain in this tournament had its style dictated to them by the Spaniards. In the semi-final a German side which had charmed everyone in its powerful march through to the final four, was rendered helpless. Starved of possession, the well ran dry as Spain killed the Germans with a thousand passes.
The Dutch team went to school on that match and there is no doubt they also changed their game plan for the final. While Spain was showing all the attributes of the famous Total Football honed by the Dutch side of the 1970s, Bert van Marwijk's side showed the brutality usually reserved for a powerhouse southern European side.
The Dutch, who conceded both the most amount of fouls and most amount of cards in the competition, attempted to kick the life out of Spain in the first half and while several players found themselves in Howard Webb's book, it was a plan which almost seemed to work.
Twice in the second half, Arjen Robben could have given them the lead as the middle of the park suddenly belonged to those in orange. But poor finishing is poor football and their wastefulness was to prove their downfall.
The key point of the match, apart of course from the goal, was the arrival of Cesc Fabregas into the game just before the end of 90 minutes. Having had an underwhelming World Cup until that point, the Arsenal captain took back control of the midfield and Spain dominated extra time.
The fact it was Iniesta who scored the goal was both appropriate and ironic. He has been the embodiment of the Spanish style at this tournament and has been at the heart of almost everything they have created. His distribution of the ball was the power behind Spain's World Cup and no-one deserved that special moment more than him.
But there was also a sense of irony in his hero status. The one thing he has been criticised for all tournament has been his unwillingness to shoot. Minutes before his moment in the sun, he had a chance to win the game, but did not pull the trigger.
However, Rafa van Der Vaart's slip put him both in the clear and in an onside position. He finished it like one of the hundreds of well-hit passes he delivered over the past four weeks, and a whole nation exploded in celebration.
After a World Cup dogged by refereeing errors, Webb did an absolutely superb job in the final, keeping control of a match which threatened to boil over on several occasions. The Dutch protested that he missed a corner in the lead-up to the goal, but at that stage they could count their lucky stars that they weren't reduced to nine men.
Johnny Heitinga had already seen red, while Robben should have got a second yellow for kicking the ball away. Sensing the moment, and knowing a red card to such a key player so late in the final would be heavily scrutinised, Webb exercised his discretion.
It didn't stop the Dutch players surrounding him after the game, but he can be happy with what he and his team had done. He wanted the final to be about the football and not the officiating - and it was.
Spain made it about the football all along and in the end got the ultimate reward.
Like the possibility of a Spain World Cup victory, the concept of a World Cup in South Africa drew a high degree of cynicism. But Spain has showed the world that you can win a World Cup by being committed to playing football, while South Africa has shown the world that this is a tournament without boundaries.