Beautiful? Try brutal. Spain is world champions for the first time, and in Barcelona and Madrid they will be celebrating like never before.
Few will dispute that 'La Roja' are the world's best team, or this victory was deserved. The hard part was to prove it.
It wasn't until the 116th minute that Andres Iniesta did just that. A grinding, niggly, nasty, affair decided by a goal which just had to be shrouded in controversy. It was that sort of night at Soccer City.
This, supposedly, was the World Cup final the purists couldn't lose. In the end, it was a win for the dark arts. As a showpiece, a game FIFA will quickly want to forget.
The world's greatest man had blessed the world's biggest game, but even the magic of 'Madiba' couldn't deliver a spectacle to match the occasion.
Nelson Mandela had ventured out of the Johannesburg chill for a rare public appearance, but he was home by the time the game kicked off. Chances are he was well and truly asleep by the end.
End-to-end this was not. By the time Howard Webb ended the marathon he had blown for 46 fouls and issued 12 yellow cards and one red.
Of the offending parties, only Sergio Ramos should feel he was hard done by the rest were well and truly deserved.
The agent provocateur was who else but Mark van Bommel, although Robin van Persie's hatchet job of Sergio Busquets inside the first few minutes set the tone.
The Dutch game plan, quite clearly, was to kick the Spanish off their stride. Literally. It worked.
Spain, as always, had the bulk of possession. But this time they struggled to do anything with it. Any hint of danger was snuffed out by desperate Dutch defending.
That Wesley Sneijder made more tackles than passes says a lot about the way the 'Oranje' set themselves up. And when the structure broke down, more rudimentary tactics were used.
Van Bommel, van Persie and Sneijder all produced tackles of the X-rated variety. Spain wasn't innocent, but it was less guilty. Inevitably it was also drawn into the conflagration by the end.
Webb was vilified by the Netherlands team, including striker Dirk Kuyt.
''We are angry because we were so close,'' Kuyt said. ''The referee was slightly more for them than for us. That ultimately cost us the cup.''
But the English referee did well under trying circumstances. It wasn't until the 109th minute that he produced a red, and while John Heitinga's challenge on Andres Iniesta was on the soft side someone was bound to test his patience one step too far. It was the players, not the officials, who let themselves down.
Spain will lift itself up, having crossed the rubicon into the promised land of World Cup winners. Only the eighth in history.
The Dutch know all about that history. This was their third defeat in a World Cup final. Painful, but not to be pitied.
In the 1970s, they lost with style, and grace. This time they did neither. They can't be blamed for trying it on, for this was a game of massively high stakes. But neither can they complain about the outcome.
But to the victor, the spoils, and Spain has been spoiling us with its football for the last four years. Now, quite rightly, they've got their reward.
''There is joy of being 50 days with this group of players who have given us the world title,'' Spain coach Vicente del Bosque said.
''We started well, then they got the match under control. In the second half, there was a chance by Robben, and Casillas saved us from the worst. Afterwards, I think that we were slightly better.''
Goalscorer Andres Iniesta said words couldn't describe how he was feeling.
''After my goal, I thought about my family and all the people who I love. But the victory is the fruit of a lot of work.''
Source: The Canberra Times
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