Mark van Bommel holds the key for Holland to unlock the Barcelona, errr, I mean Spanish midfield not just for his leadership and crunching tackles but because of his experience.

Van Bommel is not an Arsenal fan favorite because he won the Champions League with Barcelona back in 2006 and that’s fair enough. He’s also not the type of silky holding midfielder that Arsenal fans tend to like and again, that’s a fair a assessment — especially at this point in his career. Back when Arsenal played Barcelona he was second fiddle to Edmilson who played the holding role. He’s more of a destroyer these days and if this World Cup and Champions League final is any indication he’s pretty damn good at what he does.

A lot has been made about what MvB has been able to get away with in this World Cup but much of that comes with experience. Knowing when to leave a foot in what looks like an innocuous tackle to the ref but leaves a lump on the opponent is a skill, whether us Gooners like it or not. I can tell you that Robin van Persie will enjoy playing with Mark van Bommel for the exact reason that he knows if the Barcelona, there I go again, Spanish back line give him a kick van Bommel will be sure to get them back.

So, just in general, he’s 33 and had played football all over the world. He’s played against Spanish teams, English teams, in the World Cup, and in the Champions League in several finals. Unlike a guy like Felipe Melo, van Bommel will know exactly when to “ride” a tackle to let his opponent know he’s there. In fact, don’t be surprised if he gets under Busquets’ skin and the Spanish midfielder is either taken off or sent off tomorrow well before van Bommel even gets a yellow.

The other thing that makes him dangerous to the Spaniards is that he played in the Barcelona system, alongside Xavi and Iniesta. He knows exactly what they are going to do and if anyone on that team can make a difference defensively against Xavi it will be van Bommel. Whether he has it in the tank to keep up with Xavi for 90+ minutes remains to be seen though I suspect that the Dutch coach will use both MvB and de Jong to try and mark Xavi and Iniesta out of the game.

But his ace in the hole is this year’s Champions League final where he played with Bayern against Inter and Howard Webb was in charge. Webb is probably going to have a similar match to that one in that Spain will want to play like a better Bayern and Holland a bit like Inter (though Inter’s defense is better and Holland’s counter not as good). So, you’ll get a bit of a rematch there and van Bommel will look back to Webb’s performance and be careful not to get that early yellow that Webb likes to give defenders.

Spain, on the other hand, will be looking at the match they lost 1-0 to Switzerland where Howard Webb was in charge and will be dreading the appointment of the Englishman to the finals. I fully expect Spain to be on edge all game and ready to explode at the slightest hint of a bad call by Webb.

I also expect Mark van Bommel will be in the center of the incident, casting a wry smile in the direction of the Holland bench, smug in the knowledge that he’s gotten to the Spanish midfielders and unraveled their cool demeanor.

Well, either that or he’ll get sent of f in the first half as Spain pick apart their defense with perfect passing. Either way, van Bommel will be at the center of the controversy as far as I see it.