So many close chances in the final! I was rooting for Argentina and there seemed to be so many times I was on my feet! Congrats to Germany though - spectacular last ET goal!
And maybe, hopefully, this game will put an end to the whole American (mostly) critique of 0-0 matches. This was a ridiculously entertaining match without any goals until in the 2nd ET.
I think Messi is getting far too much criticism. He was basically Argentina’s only avenue of attack throughout the course of the tournament. That, coupled with Messi having to play deeper and deeper, really blunted Argentina’s attack.
Aguero was atrocious as was Huguain. Marcherano played very well but he also impacts how Argentina play.
Best team won though. Schurrle and Kroos were also immense.
How does Gotze’s goal rank among goals in recent World Cup finals? I think it may be the best I have seen. Ronaldo’s goal in 2002 was good but I think this finish was more difficult and there was certainly more match pressure.
Agreed.
He virtually carried the team through the group round on his shoulders. Argentina tallied six goals in the three games: one was an own goal scored by Bosnia & Herzegovina; one was scored by Rojo; and Messi got the other four. And in addition to the goals, he completely controlled most of the Argentinian attack.
In the first elimination game against Switzerland, he was once again Man of the Match, and set up the only goal of the game. In the win over Belgium, he was central in the lead-up work for the only goal in the game. Higuain scored the goal with a lovely strike, but it was Messi who looked dangerous all day.
Even in the final two games, when he was pretty effectively covered by two of the best defenses in the world, he still looked dangerous almost every time he got the ball. In today’s game, he frequently dribbled past or through two or three defenders, only to have the play break down after he passed the ball. If Messi didn’t dominate the game as people have come to expect, it’s because there was so much focus on him by the defenses of Holland and Germany, and if Argentina didn’t do as well in those games as they should have, it’s because he didn’t have enough people around him who could take advantage of the fact that he was so heavily marked.
Huh? I liked it. After the first 30 seconds there is plenty of football and a world cup isn’t just about the on-field action anyway.
Incidentally for those who want to see the Gotze goal it’s there at 2:47.
I don’t think Messi’s getting criticized much at all. He was just voted best player of the tournament! I think a lot of people were hoping for the best player of a generation to do the impossible, and win the tournament by himself. It’s like going to a movie that’s been getting rave reviews. It might be a fantastic movie, even if it didn’t live up to the hype you built up for it in your head.
Agreed: this was like going to see The Hangover after everyone you know tells you it’s the funniest movie of all time. Well, it was great, but didn’t come close to the hype.
Messi didn’t come close to the hype (or to the level of his club play) in this tournament - and especially in the final. Yeah, he made some lovely runs in the first half, but in the second half he just kept running at the German defenders and giving the ball away. Frankly, he was not a deserving Golden Ball winner. I would have given it to Sammy Khedira or Macherano.
I didn’t much care for Neue as Golden Glove winner either. Ochoa and Tim Howard had better tournaments (honestly, Neue didn’t have that much to do for much of the tournament) and Howard was certainly more important to his team’s success.
Well, I got the final score right, but the final was far more interesting than I was expecting it to be (and the goal came far later). I’ve grown up in an era where World Cup Finals have invariably been tight, chippy affairs (1998 is the only exception that springs to mind) but this match was loose and flowing (except for Argentina’s play in the attacking third.)
ETA: Gotze’s goal was the best final goal (and definitely the best final winner) I can recall. Lovely control and a perfectly located finish.
Well, this is heartbreaking :(.
The place where I watched the game had English commentators during the game, but switched to the Latinamerican commentators for the after game, and those were split about who should’ve won those titles. One of them would have given the Golden Glove to Navas, from Costa Rica. And about the Golden Ball, one of them definitely thought it should’ve gone to James Rodriguez, the Colombian player, and winner of the Golden Boot.
Speaking of James, I wish he could have been there to receive it along with the others, although that prize understandably had to wait until the last game was played, and James’s team was not there anymore.
I tried to Google for “Gotze pictures” but got rather unexpected results. Must remember to turn SafeSearch back on.
I would have been fine with Navas and James Rodriguez taking the awards. I thought Rodriguez would win the Young Player award but apparently that went to Paul Pogba.
I’d just like to publicly apologise. I’ll do it for this response but it is directed at everyone.
I came home from the pub rather worse for wear. Amusingly because I’d spent the day drinking and playing Wiffle Ball in the sun.
I should not be allowed near computers in these situations.
Nah, I wasn’t grumpy. In my mind I was being silly but, well, what I posted just up there ^^^^.
In other news, very glad that Germany won. I’ve held an “anyone but Argentina” position since that cheating shit Maradona in 1986.
I do, however, very much agree with the chap writing The Guardian’s minute by minute regarding (a) the FIFA shambles of an effort to hand out prizes, taking an utter age and making Argentina stay on the pitch when they just wanted out of there, and (b) poor Messi being forced to go up and receive that award. Other awards to players in teams not from Germany nor Argentina got their awards separately and those two players should have too.
The FIFA suits do love a bit of procedure, eh? But to go against every fibre in my being and give Sepp Blatter a small bit of credit, when some fellow suit was being particular about where Phillip Lahm stood to receive the trophy, it seemed to me that Blatter snapped, said “just give him the damn cup”, grabbed it off him and handed it to the Brazilian president for the presentation.
And she just handed it over with no sense of poise or anything. It looked like an “oh fuck, I guess here you go, take this away from me please”.
She didn't even smile. I mean how hard is it to do? Hold cup, pause for a moment, smile, look the person you are giving the cup to in the eye, say "well done" and hand it over.The Duchess of Kent shows how to do it properly here:
The look on Messi’s face when he got the Golden Ball was classic. The look on his face when he had to pose with Neue for pictures was even better.
That example chosen completely at random, of course 
Oh totally
I disagreed with the TV announcers who kept repeating this and I’ll disagree with you here. Every final in every sport has a presentation ceremony. Everybody who doesn’t come in first has to deal with their disappointment, wait and line up to get rewarded for being second(or, the horror, third) best in the world. It certainly didn’t seem to me like the presentation ceremony here took an undue amount of time to happen, especially given that this is one of the largest sport events in the world. Maybe I just have different expectations from cricket, where presentation ceremonies like this one (but which include an interview with the losing captain) are the norm.