Congratulations to Germany for their fine World Cup win. All in all the best team/squad won and that should be celebrated. As should the feat of being the first European side to win in the Americas.

The winning goal from Mario Gotze was one that would be welcome in any final. A nice early cross from Andre Schurrle was expertly controlled by  Gotze on his chest before he volleyed the ball beyond Argentina’s keeper and into the far side of the net. Wunderbar!

Although the Germans worked well as a team unit throughout, you cannot say Argentina didn’t give the new world champs a good game. If anything Argentina had the better chances with Lionel Messi, Gonzalo Higuain and Rodrigo Palacio all going wide.

German keeper Manuel Neuer (Golden glove winner) made some decent catches but was rarely startled. The Bayern man has certainly proved why many believe he is now the worlds best goalkeeper at this tournament.

Special mentions should be made for Bastian Schweinsteiger and Javier Mascherano. Both were true warriors for their nations. They seemed to cover every blade of turf, made some superb challenges and blocks and help keep the ball moving. Yes Mascherano may have been lucky not to get sent-off in extra-time but it would have been a sad end to a great tournament to see that.

Maybe a bit surprisingly, Lionel Messi won the golden ball award. Whether you feel he deserved that accolade or not, he did finally turn up and produce at the greatest stage of them all. Is he up there with Pele or Maradona? I have no idea, but he is the best of his generation.

Once again Toni Kroos gave a solid, consistent high performance, much like the games throughout the competition. Seems like he’s off to Real Madrid and that can only be good for the Champions League winners.

Wee should also remember a lot of this German success is down to the management team, both past and present. The foundations were in place back in 2004 when Jurgen Klinsmann took over as head coach. His philosophies of playing good, efficient football with a mix of older stalwarts and youthful talent has stuck with his former number two Joachim Löw you replaced Klinsmann after the World Cup in 2006. He has taken those tools left by Jurgen and made the national team better and better with each year. It was a plan that worked and the end goal was always a World Cup triumph.

One thing I would like to point out is the European domination of the World Cup since 2006. In the last three World Cup’s we’ve had three European winners. In that same space of time five out of the six finalists have been European with only Argentina have actually made a final as a non-Euro side in that time too.

The tournament has been a massive success. We’ve seen plenty of goals, great skills, drama and excitement. Their was little in the way of protests and the Brazilian fans were great even in defeat.

We had a surprise package in Costa Rica and that was fun. We had the shockingly bad performances of England, Portugal, Italy and Spain. We also saw hosts Brazil totally humiliated 7-1 in a semi-final. Although I still don’t get the need for a 3rd place play-off, no one wants to play it or watch it.

The new goal-line technology worked as did the disappearing spray. So grudgingly I say well done Fifa for that.

So thank you for the memories Brazil, here is to Russia in 2018 and gut gemacht Deutschland!

Posted on July 14th, 2014 by scott
Filed under: Article, World Cup