Spain coach Vicente del Bosque left Fernando Torres out of his starting lineup for Sunday's World Cup final against Netherlands, replacing the misfiring striker with Pedro for a second straight match.
Torres, who returned from knee surgery shortly before the tournament in South Africa and has not scored in six appearances, lost his place to Pedro in the semi-final against Germany and came off the bench late in the second half.
Pedro will partner striker David Villa, joint top scorer at the finals on five goals with Dutch midfielder Wesley Sneijder, Uruguay striker Diego Forlan and Germany forward Thomas Mueller, in a twin-pronged attack.
Netherlands coach Bert van Marwijk restored right back Gregory van der Wiel and holding midfielder Nigel de Jong to his starting lineup after the pair were suspended for the 3-2 semifinal victory over Uruguay.
They replace Khalid Boulahrouz and Demy de Zeeuw respectively, who drop to the bench.
Teams
Netherlands: 1-Maarten Stekelenburg; 2-Gregory van der Wiel, 3-John Heitinga, 4-Joris Mathijsen, 5-Giovanni van Bronckhorst; 7-Dirk Kuyt, 6-Mark van Bommel, 10-Wesley Sneijder, 8-Nigel de Jong, 11-Arjen Robben; 9-Robin van Persie.
Spain: 1-Iker Casillas; 15-Sergio Ramos, 3-Gerard Pique, 5-Carles Puyol, 11-Joan Capdevila; 14-Xabi Alonso, 8-Xavi, 6-Andres Iniesta, 16-Sergio Busquets; 18-Pedro, 7-David Villa.
Referee: Howard Webb (England)
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Octopus Paul Allen predictions for the Fifa World Cup 2010 finals:Spain to win

PAUL THE Octopus or Paul Oktopus is a 2 year old octopus with a history of correctly predicting the results of major German international football matches, especially in the 2010 FIFA World Cup. This total rate of 11 out of 12 games constitutes a significant deviation from what a flipping coin would suggest, using a Binomial test. Paul was born at the Sea Life Park in Weymouth, England but currently resides at the Sea Life Aquarium in Oberhausen,Germany.
Octopus Allen is sixth time right with the prediction as Germany lost against Spain in the second Semifinals of FIFA WORLD CUPFINAL 2010 by 1-0. Carles Puyol scored for Spain.Yet another prediction by Paul Octopus, now is the six on six prediction favoring Spain's win in the finals. As per Paul Octopus’s prediction, Spain cam into the finals of the World Cup football. After this forecast, German fans are looking with trapped heart.
Paul the Octopus correctly chose the winner in each of Germany’s six matches in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, including Germany’s loss to Serbia during the group phase, and a loss to Spain in semifinals.The Germany’s Paul Allen the Octopus baba has become an online observable, for his mysterious capability to pick winners of FIFA world cup 2010 in South Africa.
This World Cup, whatever forecasts were predicted by ‘Paul Octopus’, has proved right. Spain who are the favorites, displayed thier best performance 60 years back in 1950, when they reached the quarter-finals.
Now, Paul the Octopus is going to hog the limelight till Sunday’s epic World cup final clash. Till now he has only predicted in games involving Germany, so it is not clear whether his psychic powers are limited to games involving Germany or they also go beyond that.
Whatever said and done Paul, the Octopus is the biggest winner and star of this Fifa World Cup
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
PAUL THE OCTOPUS MAKES THE HEADLINES AGAIN
PAUL MAKES THE HEADLINES AGAIN BY PREDICTING THE WINNERS OF SEMI FINAL AS SPAIN...
NOW PAUL CAN BE TRUSTED FOR EVENT THE FINAL RESULTS.
SPAIN =1 GERMANY=0
SPAIN 1ST SEMI FINAL WINNERS
NOW PAUL CAN BE TRUSTED FOR EVENT THE FINAL RESULTS.
SPAIN =1 GERMANY=0
SPAIN 1ST SEMI FINAL WINNERS
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Octopus Paul picks Spain over Germany

But there could be hope for the Germans.
The only time the usually-prescient Paul erred in the past was in picking a Germany-Spain matchup in the 2008 European Championship, when he picked Germany and Spain prevailed.
Otherwise, Paul correctly predicting Germany's wins over Argentina and England, and also foretold the victories over Australia and Ghana and the country's loss to Serbia.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Once again Paul the octopus picks it right
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