World Cup Final: Germany vs. Argentina

By Alex Ortiz on July 14, 2014

Lionel Messi vs Germany - ©sdhansay via Flickr

                                                                Lionel Messi vs Germany – ©sdhansay via Flickr

We are now down to Germany and Argentina. It is the World Cup’s best player versus the tournament’s best team.

Even though the host nation’s team bowed out in the most unceremonious of ways (to be polite) and a dynasty came to an end, how this World Cup will culminate seems most appropriate. And we should have seen it coming, but it is a beautiful thing about soccer that we did not.

Lionel Messi has been playing out of his mind, but real fans know that this is business as usual for “la pulga” (Spanish for “the flea”). Messi has been the driving force behind Argentina’s fist appearance in the World Cup, the final appearance since 1990.

It is a surprise that the Argentinians have done no better than the quarterfinals in the last five World Cups, but players like Messi only come along once in a generation. The blue and white are lucky they have just so happened to get two in a row.

Diego Maradona is right up there in the conversation for best player of all time. His performance (as controversial as it might have been) in the 1986 World Cup is legendary. He led his squad to a world championship and cemented his spot on the Mount Rushmore of soccer gods.

Lionel Messi is widely considered next in line, if not already right up there with him. Obviously the one glaring absence on his resume is a World Cup trophy.

What makes the narrative ever so poignant is Messi’s relationship with his country. He has lived in Spain via the Barcelona academy system since he was a youngster and is not adored by Argentina the way you might expect. His numerous shortcomings with the national team have not helped matters. But now Messi has the opportunity to erase all of that with one win.

Unfortunately for him, he is up against the most lethal and efficient football machine of the tournament: Germany.

Germany has always been a legitimate threat in international tournaments but they have not captured the trophy since 1990. (Interesting to note that American manager Jürgen Klinsmann was a key player on that squad.)

Armed with the all-time leading scorer in World Cup history in Miroslav Klose, another lethal scoring threat in Thomas Mueller and one of the world’s best defensemen, Philipp Lahm, Germany is poised to have another dominant performance. The team’s 7-1 thrashing of Brazil was a surprise and a definite outlier but it is a clear indication of Germany’s ability to dominate.

It will really be up to Germany if it wants to display the type of defensive discipline and offensive firepower it is capable of. If it does, it will surely walk away with trophy in hand. But Argentina won’t go down without showing the flare and scoring ability it has.

Gonzalo Higuain will help Messi in attack while Javier Mascherano should be able to continue his solid play on the backline for Argentina. Unfortunately for them, Angel Di Maria, a spectacular and speedy midfielder, will probably still be unavailable. His loss will be important.

The story for Lionel Messi is such a juicy and exciting prospect but Germany seems to be too much and will be the first-ever European squad to capture the trophy on South American soil.

Sorry Argentina.

Prediction: Germany 3, Argentina 2

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