Amid a shower of confetti, the Spanish team celebrates with the World Cup trophy after winning the FIFA World Cup 2010 Final match against the Netherlands, 1-0, in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Sunday, July 11, 2010. (AP)

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Spain's place among world football's all-time greatest teams was assured Sunday when Andres Iniesta scored with four minutes of extra time remaining to beat the Netherlands 1-0 and clinch his country's first World Cup.

With the teams facing a penalty shootout after an often ill-tempered game of few clear chances, Iniesta collected a sliding pass into the area from substitute Cesc Fabregas and smashed the ball across goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg and in at the far post.

The goal clinched Spain's fourth straight 1-0 victory in South Africa and made the team only the third to be world and European champion at the same time.

“This really is quite a cup, ” Spain goalkeeper Iker Casillas said. “The European Championship was the most important moment of our lives, but today is much bigger than anything else.”

At the final whistle, the Spanish players hurried to swap their blue shirts for their more familiar red colors in time to collect the trophy. They donned shirts decorated with a single gold star to mark their triumph, becoming the eighth nation to receive the honor in the tournament's 80-year history.

“I can't quite believe it yet,” said Iniesta, who was voted man of the match. “I had the opportunity to score that goal which was so important to my team. It's something absolutely incredible. I simply made a small contribution to my team in a match that was very rough.”

The Dutch players trudged forlornly to collect their runners-up medals, the third squad from the Netherlands to finish second in football's biggest game.

Netherlands coach Bert van Marwijk took off his silver medal as soon as left the podium, with a look of disgust on his face at having failed to better the “Total Football” generation that lost the 1974 and '78 finals.

“We had our plan and of course we tried to play our football, but Spain is a very great team with a lot of great players,” Netherlands winger Arjen Robben said. “We tried to stop them offensively.”

“We've done everything we could today.”

It was a less-than-classic performance by Spain and both teams created few clear chances at Soccer City, although the game opened up slightly after a cagey opening hour.

The Netherlands broke up Spain's attempts to get its famous passing game going with physical play that brought nine yellow cards.

Defender John Heitinga got his second yellow and was sent off in the 19th minute of extra time to become only the fifth man to get a World Cup final red card.

World Cup cash pot
Champion: Spain — $30 million
Runner-up: Holland — $24 million
Semifinalists: Germany and Uruguay — $20 million each
Quarterfinalists: Argentina, Brazil, Ghana, Paraguay — $18 million
Second round losers: Chile, England, Japan, Mexico, Portugal, Slovakia, South Korea, United States $9 million each
First round losers: Algeria, Australia, Cameroon, Denmark, France, Greece, Honduras, Italy, Ivory Coast, New Zealand, Nigeria, North Korea, Serbia, Slovenia, South Africa, Switzerland — $8 million each

Previous World Cup winners
1930: Uruguay 4 Argentina 2
1934: Italy 2 Czechoslovakia 1 (after extra-time)
1938: Italy 4 Hungary 2
1950: Uruguay 2 Brazil 1
1954: West Germany 3 Hungary 2
1958: Brazil 5 Sweden 2
1962: Brazil 2 Czechoslovakia 1
1966: England 4 West Germany 2 (after extra-time)
1970: Brazil 4 Italy 1
1974: West Germany 2 Netherlands 1
1978: Argentina 3 Netherlands 1 (after extra-time)
1982: Italy 3 West Germany 1
1986: Argentina 3 West Germany 2
1990: West Germany 1 Argentina 0
1994: Brazil 0 Italy 0 (after extra time; Brazil won 3-2 on penalties)
1998: France 3 Brazil 0
2002: Brazil 2 Germany 0
2006: Italy 1 France 1 (after extra time; Italy won 5-3 on penalties)
2010: Spain 1 Netherlands 0 (after extra-time)