Game # 64 - Final Germany vs Argentina
Jul. 15th, 2014 12:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
catalyst2As finals go, this was a damn good one. Too often these are tentative affairs where no-one is willing to take a risk so no-one does anything effective. Instead, both sides attacked for a good proportion of the time (Germany more than Argentina) but both sides had strong and well organised defences that dealt with most attacks before they really got going - shots were 10/7 for Germany and 10/2 for Argentina.
It was concerning to see an obviously concussed Kramer sent back on, only to be taken off about 15 minutes later, visibly distressed and disoriented but then I suppose the stakes were high. It was good to see Messi regain some of his running form - ironically, he scored no goals in this game but I think this was probably the closest to peak performance that I have seen from him all tournament. I suspect that that, had Di Maria been playing, this would have been a very different game. Germany took advantage of every opportunity and when a slim one finally came, Goetze put home the only goal of the game in the 113th minute.
Suddenly it was done - Germany are World Champions and Argentina are runners-up. Probably a fitting result, considering the form of all the teams in the tournament with Germany scoring the most goals and Argentina conceding the fewest.
It was concerning to see an obviously concussed Kramer sent back on, only to be taken off about 15 minutes later, visibly distressed and disoriented but then I suppose the stakes were high. It was good to see Messi regain some of his running form - ironically, he scored no goals in this game but I think this was probably the closest to peak performance that I have seen from him all tournament. I suspect that that, had Di Maria been playing, this would have been a very different game. Germany took advantage of every opportunity and when a slim one finally came, Goetze put home the only goal of the game in the 113th minute.
Suddenly it was done - Germany are World Champions and Argentina are runners-up. Probably a fitting result, considering the form of all the teams in the tournament with Germany scoring the most goals and Argentina conceding the fewest.
