THE LONG cry that begged Spain to report for duty at this World Cup was finally answered here in Durban. Of the teams left in South Africa only Europe’s champions could claim to represent an artistic ideal. South Africa needed their light. The last days of this tournament craved one big night of dreams.

Brazil could not provide it, nor Argentina. Lionel Messi was ghost-like. So, too, Cristiano Ronaldo. Germany thrilled on the counter-burst and Holland entertain in patches. But what the World Cup needed was a show of sustained Spanish mastery: the low-slung, quick-footed passing game that swept them to the European title in Vienna two years ago.

That triumph could never be called an end in itself. With all that talent, Spain were honour-bound to hunt the grander prize. The players were the first to say so. Men of Barcelona, of Real Madrid, they required no lecture to see that the Spanish system had blessed them with a chance to achieve world and European domination, as France had in 1998-2000.

They were imperious in qualifying for South Africa but then came an opening-game defeat to Switzerland which bore a grim omen.

No team had lost their first World Cup match and gone on to raise the trophy. Spain’s play had spluttered but now they have the big win that proves their pedigree.

Victories had been hacked from stone. The great World Cup audience waited for the real show to start. And waited, until the dropping of Fernando Torres for this semi-final against Germany rebooted the Spanish heartbeat. The quick, slick midfield passing was back.

There was cheek and cheer in the dinked balls to Sergio Ramos, their overlapping right-back, and a return of the old conviction in the way Xavi and Andres Iniesta combined with David Villa, who needed one more goal to equal Raul’s all-time national scoring record of 44.

Patience in Torres expired after the narrow quarter-final win over Paraguay and so it fell to Pedro Rodriguez, the young Barcelona flier, to fill the boots of El Nino, whose tame form affirmed that there is a gulf between being physically sound and World Cup fit. Between the repair and the full recovery falls the shadow.

Vicente del Bosque, the Spain manager, who looks like a police inspector weighed down by a particularly complex homicide, faced a challenge that had defeated Fabio Capello (England) and Diego Maradona (Argentina): how to stop the German counter-strike and knock the sparkle out of Joachim Loew’s starlets, who were granted too much freedom in the demolitions of the English and Maradona’s badly structured side.

The answer was to play like-for-like in a 4-2-3-1 formation that mirrored the German set-up. By dropping Torres (who came on for 10 minutes), Del Bosque was able to switch to a lone-striker system that gave him an extra body in midfield.

One glance at their opponents’ two previous wins would have persuaded Spain’s coaching staff that they needed to curtail the German midfield romp. No easy task, this because this young Germany team have abundant spirit to go with their speed and energy.

Bastian Schweinsteiger had scattered Argentina’s lightweight midfield, but here he had more orchestrated creativity to deal with. Where Ozil had skipped through English and Argentinian gaps, this time he was confronted by the formidable midfield screen of Xabi Alonso and Sergio Busquets.

This Spanish generation have such deep knowledge of what it means to play in a dominant national team (and at the highest reaches of the Champions League) that it felt absurd to imagine them suddenly forgetting how to conquer lesser opposition.

But a side this gifted isn’t allowed to advance by stealth. Sooner or later they must parade their class, and there could be no better opportunity than against a team packed with former under-21s.

Spain clocked on, all right. After the interval Pedro tore Germany’s defences open with a piercing run and Alonso miscued two cleverly set-up shots. Villa was finding space to make his darts and the exemplary Xavi pressed up behind him in support.

For the first time at this tournament Spain could smell blood. Germany, without Thomas Muller raiding on the right, left them less to worry about defensively. Yet all the time the Spanish finishing was off the money, they invited the unjust German goal against the run of play.

The breakthrough, though, was coming. From a corner taken by Xavi, Carles Puyol, who was heroic in defence in the final minutes, stole into the German penalty box and headed past Manuel Neuer. Then Pedro wasted a gilded chance to extend the lead.

But Spain were awake, alive, victorious. The Netherlands will quake. This World Cup has recovered what it perhaps lacked. Imagination.

- Guardian Service