So Did Someone Win the World Cup?!

Last night saw the 2014 World Cup final between Germany and Argentina. For many of the players this represents a once in a lifetime opportunity and although we are still waiting for the exact viewing figures to be collated World Cup finals tend to be watched by in excess of 1 billion people which is roughly 1/7th of the entire population of the planet. As a result World Cup finals tend to be massively nerve wracking affairs for all concerned meaning that the quality of the football can suffer somewhat.

In the run up to the game the USA seemed intent on maximising the pressure on Germany by dispatching the pop-star Rihanna to the stadium. Due to the antics of their fans during the Group G match I think that the USA thought the Germans were taking Rihanna's reputation as a jinx more seriously then they actually were. So in the run-up to the game Rihanna posted pictures of herself wearing a black and white "Trapstar" T-shirt that could be mistaken for a Germany shirt. However Rihanna waited until about 5 minutes into the game to fully declare that she was supporting Germany. If this had unsettled the German side and Argentina had gone on to win this would have made for a very interesting VIP section where German Chancellor was sitting alongside Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. Not least because the US seems intent on driving Argentina into debt default and bankruptcy by the end of the month.

Ironically the US' efforts to unsettle the Germans were rendered irrelevant when their key mid-fielder Sami Khedira injured himself in the pre-match warm-up and had to be replaced all of five minutes before kick-off. As a result the game plan that the Germans had no doubt been practising since Wednesday's (9/7/14) semi-final had to be scrapped. Things got even worse for Germany when Khedira's replacement Christoph Kramer was briefly knocked out in a clash with an Argentine player in the 18th minute and had to be substituted in the 32nd minute as he was still concussed. This of course forced Germany to suddenly change their game plan once again.

Amid all this early disruption it should come as no great surprise that Germany were unable to establish the dominating rhythm that has been their trademark throughout this tournament. They were not helped though by the fact that Argentina decided to start playing as proper football team for possibly only the third time in this tournament. As a result they very clearly set out to press the German's hard in order to prevent them from establishing that rhythm. However seeming to have learnt their lesson from the penalty shoot-out against the Netherlands in the semi-final the Argentines showed no fear of being worn out by the Germans and set about trying to score. The result of this was a a very open and flowing match (by World Cup final standards) in which both sides created genuine scoring opportunities.

Unfortunately the pressure of the occasion seemed to unsettle the players meaning that all of these chances went to waste. For example in the 20th minute a weak headed back-pass by Germany's Toni Kroos put Argentina's Gonzalo Higuian one-on-one with the German 'keeper only for him to fluff his shot putting it well wide of the goal. In the 46th minute (45+ 2mins stoppage) Germany's Benedikt Höwedes headed onto the post following a Kroos corner and throughout the match a lot of both German and Argentine players were caught off-side when perhaps calmer heads would have allowed them to time their runs better.

The pressure of the match also clearly got to the Italian referee - Nicola Rizzoli - who although he did make an effort to be seen to be punishing the European side didn't so much make a series of mistakes as completely opted out of making any tough decisions. For example around 40 minutes Germany's André Schürrle was having his shirt pulled so severely by Argentina's Lucas Biglia that he almost had it ripped off. As this took place in the penalty area it should have been a penalty to Germany but the referee instead awarded a free-kick against Schürrle presumably because his shirt was impeding Biglia in some way.

Fortunately the referee was consistent in his abdication so in the 57th Germany's 'keeper - Manuel Neuer - collided hard with Higuian inside the penalty area leaving Higuain needing treatment. This was a much tougher call because although there is a suggestion he may have been reckless there was clearly no intent on Neuer's part leaving it debatable whether it should have been a goal-kick or a penalty. However the referee ended up awarding a free-kick against Higuain presumably for headbutting Neuer on the knee.

The fact that the referee was clearly avoiding tough decisions did have a negative effect on the game which at points got so bad tempered that you were worried it might turn into a repeat of the 2006 quarter-final between the two teams that ended up in a fist fight.

The match was marred further in the 88th minute when the pitch was invaded by an American who I feel I have already given far too much coverage already. However I should point out that in the UK invading a football pitch is a criminal offence under Section 4 of the 1991 Football Offences Act which can carry a 5 year prison sentence. So I see no reason why the Brazilian authorities should hold back on this occasion.

With the score still at 0-0 at the end of 90 minutes the match went into 30 minutes of extra-time. Despite both sides creating chances the game still remained goal-less after the first 15 minute period. Then in the 113th minute substitute Mario Götze scored for Germany. True to my own long-standing footballing curse I was outside having a cigarette at the time so missed the goal. However having seen it since Schürrle put in a cross from the left-wing which Götze chested down and struck on the volley carrying the ball across the 'keeper and into the right-hand side of the net for a goal that was worthy of winning a World Cup. No doubt the time spent sitting on the bench taking it all in allowed Götze to get over the nerves that had effected everybody else on the pitch.

With Argentina unable to find an equaliser in the remaining 7 minutes Götze's goal turned out to be the match winner with Germany winning the game 1-0. In the process they won the World Cup for the fourth time and became the first European side to win the World Cup in South America.

Following the end of the match and before the awarding of the trophy there was the controversial ceremony  for the FIFA awards that I will cover after dinner.

16:45 on 14/7/14 (UK date).

Edited at around 18:45 on 14/7/14 (UK date) to add;

As I mentioned above prior to the awarding of the World Cup there was a quick ceremony to hand out the FIFA awards for individual merit. These were;

• The Adidas Golden Glove Award for the best Goal Keeper of the tournament: This distinctly ugly looking trophy was obviously awarded to Germany's Manuel Neuer. Throughout the tournament Neuer proved himself to be a capable shot-stopper who was more than equal to either Mexico's Guillermo Ochoa or Costa Rica's Keilor Navas. As such he played a key role in making sure that Germany conceded just 4 goals in the entire tournament while teams like Spain and Switzerland both conceded 5 in a single match. What really marked Neuer out though is that he also proved himself to be a somewhat capable outfield player which allowed him to act as more of a defensive sweeper mopping up loose balls behind the defence. It was this that allowed Germany to play so far up the pitch with five in mid-field creating their domineering style of play.

• The Adidas Golden Ball for best outfield player of the tournament: Controversially this was awarded to Argentina's Lionel Messi. Although Messi is clearly one of - if not - the greatest players of his generation and as such is capable of producing moments of sublime brilliance he - much like the Argentine team - massively under-performed in this tournament. For example in the second half of the final it was difficult to remember that Messi was even on the pitch. He of course did produce four or five moments of brilliance throughout the tournament and the majority of these were match winning goals. By contrast though the Netherlands' Arjen Robben was consistently excellent and had four or five moments of brilliance in every single game he played in. As such I think Robben was robbed and the Golden Ball was only awarded to Messi under pressure from Qatar so they could boast in future marketing campaigns that the 2014 Golden Ball winner plays for Barcelona - the Spanish club of which they are the main sponsors.

• The Hyundai Young Player Award: This went to France's Paul Pogba. While I consider myself quite knowledgeable about football I don't think I'm knowledgeable enough to sit on FIFA's technical committee. Also I was watching the tournament for entertainment rather then to specifically scout players. However Pogba did really impress me in France's games against Honduras, Switzerland and Nigeria. So I think it was either between him or Columbia's James Rodriguez and the competition was so close it could have been decided on the toss of a coin.

• The Adidas Golden Boot for top goal-scorer: Decided by simple maths this award went to Columbia's James Rodriguez who scored 6 goals ahead of Germany's Thomas Muller who scored 5 and Brazil's Neymar who scored 4.  

The silver medals were then awarded to the Argentine runners-up while the gold medals were handed to the German winners who finally got the lift the trophy for the first time in their lives and the fourth time in their nation's history.

I must say though that as an England fan it is proving increasingly hard for me to maintain a footballing rivalry with Germany when the England football team clearly gave up a long time ago.