Germany basks in World Cup win as Goetze sinks Argentina

Germany basked in the glory of their fourth World Cup title
on Monday after a nail-biting 1-0 victory against Argentina
crowned them the first European team to win football’s top
tournament held in South America.
Bleary-eyed fans awoke after late-night street parties, fireworks
and honking motorcades across the country, with ecstatic
supporters singing ‘Oh, it’s beautiful!’ and chanting ‘Super
Deutschland!’ into the early hours.
Bayern Munich star Mario Goetze struck in the 113th minute of a
gripping battle at Rio de Janeiro’s Maracana Stadium as Argentina
superstar Lionel Messi’s hopes of emulating Diego Maradona
ended in defeat.
“It’s unbelievable what we have achieved. Whether we have the
best individual player doesn’t matter at all. You just need to have
the best team,” said delighted Germany captain Philipp Lahm.
Newspapers hailed “Super Mario” Goetze as the country’s new
“football god” and showered praise on the new national heroes, the
first to win the title for a reunified Germany, who are due to be
welcomed home Tuesday at Berlin’s landmark Brandenburg Gate.
“It Is True”, headlined Die Welt daily, with the three words printed
in the national colours of black, red and gold. “What a match, what
a fight, what drama.”
Some 34.6 million Germans were glued to their screens to watch
the game, an all-time record.
The German finance ministry said it would this week issue a
special “World Champion 2014″ stamp, of which it had
optimistically printed five million before the final.
With four World Cups, the European powerhouses are now just one
behind Brazil’s record tally of five.
The tournament earlier saw Germany crush Brazil by a humiliating
7-1, and the hosts lost Saturday’s game for third place 3-0 to the
Netherlands, sealing the fate of national coach Luiz Felipe Scolari,
whose contract Brazil’s football confederation decided not to
renew, according to local media reports.
Germany’s win nonetheless sparked an explosion of joy in Brazil,
which had been dreading the prospect of South American rivals
Argentina winning the title on its territory.
“Thank God, thank God that Germany won,” said Caio Ferraz, 45, a
Brazilian looking up at the stars on Rio’s Copacabana beach.
Argentines reacted with tears, cheers and violence after the dream
of a third World Cup title slipped through their fingers, as clashes
between hooligans and police ended a massive Buenos Aires
street party.
Twitter said the game generated more than 32 million tweets
worldwide — more than 600,000 of them in the last minute.
However, the figure was below the all-time record of 35.6 million
tweets sent during the Brazil-Germany match.
- Goetze volleys home -
The dramatic finale came after a month-long footballing carnival
widely regarded as one of the most exciting World Cups ever.
Goetze’s winner equalled the record tally for goals at a 32-team
World Cup. The 171 goals from 64 games matched the number set
in France in 1998.
Fittingly, Goetze’s strike was another memorable effort in a
tournament brimming with spectacular individual goals.
A gripping final before 74,738 spectators, which included German
Chancellor Angela Merkel, looked destined for penalties after both
sides had failed to break through stubborn defending with the
scores deadlocked at 0-0.
But with just seven minutes of extra-time remaining, Andre
Schuerrle burst clear down the left flank and crossed for Goetze.
The 22-year-old took the ball on his chest and then volleyed past
Sergio Romero to spark delirium amongst Germans and Brazilians
alike.
With seconds remaining Messi had the chance to conjure an
equaliser, but a difficult free-kick sailed high over the bar.
It was a bitterly disappointing end to the tournament for Messi,
who was named player of the tournament despite the loss.
But the prize was scant consolation for the 27-year-old four-time
World Player of the Year, who had been keen to emulate Maradona
by guiding Argentina to World Cup glory.
“The truth is it doesn’t interest me at this moment,” Messi said of
the award.
“We wanted to win the World Cup for all the people in Argentina
and we couldn’t do it.”
- ‘We had more chances’ -
Argentina coach Alejandro Sabella was left ruing his team’s
missed chances as he reflected on a final defeat that mirrored the
South Americans 1-0 loss to West Germany in 1990.
“They had more possession, but we had more cutting edge, more
chances,” lamented Sabella.
“When there are chances in a game that is so evenly balanced, you
have to take them. We lacked a bit of efficiency.”
Sabella, meanwhile, defended the contribution of Messi, who failed
to conclusively end the debate surrounding his position in the
pantheon of football’s greats.
“It is a very demanding tournament and it drains everyone
physically,” Sabella said.
“He is already among the greatest of all time.”
Messi’s failure to add his tally of four goals in the first phase
helped ensure that Colombia’s James Rodriguez finished the
tournament as top-scorer to win the Golden Boot with six goals.
Germany’s Neuer won the Golden Glove award for the
tournament’s best goalkeeper.
The 28-year-old Bayern Munich player was presented with the
award moments after the final whistle.
“It is unbelievable, and an awesome experience,” said Neuer.
“Germany are world champions. I don’t know how long we will
celebrate, but we will go about it with big grins.”