If you've never watched a soccer - known to some as football - game in your life, then the World Cup final between the Netherlands and Spain on Sunday probably wouldn't have been a good time to start.

It may be called the beautiful game, but it was pretty ugly at times in that match, despite the fact that these are two of the best teams on the planet right now. Spain, after all, are also the reigning European champions and, until the World Cup final, the Netherlands had won their past 14 games and were one of the highest-scoring teams in the World Cup tournament.

In the end, it all worked out as it probably should. Spain, the masters of playing keep-away, held on to the ball enough to finally get their chance to win and the Netherlands, thanks largely to their inability or unwillingness to muster any kind of sustained pressure, cemented their reputation as the best team to have never won the World Cup by losing in the final for the third time.

It could have turned out otherwise.

The Netherlands came so close to taking the lead about one hour into the game, when Dutch striker Arjen Robben broke in alone on net, only to be stopped by the foot - well, really only the little toe - of Spanish goalkeeper and captain Iker Casillas.

It's easy to find fault with the work of the referee, who missed what should have been an ejection when a Dutch midfielder jabbed his cleats into the chest of a Spanish attacker, and possibly another when Robben was interfered with on his way to another point-blank shot with only the goalie to beat. Presumably, he just wanted to avoid being the deciding factor in the biggest game of the past four years. It's actually too bad that the Dutch didn't score when returning the ball to the goalkeeper as a courtesy after he booted it out of the field to allow medical staff to attend to an injured player. Would the Netherlands have shown the graciousness to allow the ball to be kicked into their net to even things up with the world championship on the line?

For those who aren't fans, watching the final probably wouldn't have brought them into the pro-soccer camp. It took nearly two hours before a goal was scored and there were multiple offside calls that resulted in the play being blown dead just as it looked like it might be about to get interested. And, true to stereotype, it ended in a 1-0 game. It likely won't be helpful to try to explain that it's about the build-up and anticipation for a long-awaited big play, or that even the world's top players can't totally control the ball using only their feet.

But lovers of the game shouldn't worry. It's almost inevitable, given immigration patterns and participation levels in youth soccer, which in Thompson and elsewhere in Canada are usually the highest of all minor sports, that soccer will one day become one of the most popular sports in the country. Years ago, when I lived in Victoria, the high school down the street from my house was a veritable United Nations, where recent and not-so-recent arrivals would gather every Sunday night for game. Later, when I worked as an English teacher in South Korea, all the expatriates would meet every Sunday at the sand field on the university grounds for Sunday afternoon games that stretched until evening. Practically every time, a group of Korea players were there to challenge us to a game. No schedule, no refs, no jerseys, no team names. Just a ball, two nets and a couple dozen smiling faces.