By Andrew Warshaw
July 12 – If a hurt and bruised host nation thought it couldn’t get any worse, the sight of Argentina’s players emerging for Sunday’s World Cup final will dig the knife in even deeper. Especially at Rio de Janeiro’s ‘s iconic Maracana stadium.
No prizes for guessing which team this nation of 200 million, still in collective shock at the sheer scale of their semi-final humiliation, will be rooting for when their greatest rivals take on Germany for the biggest accolade in world sport.
The prospect of Lionel Messi lifting the famous trophy in their own backyard will make an already bitter pill even more unpalatable to swallow for a vanquished nation, many of whom might not even be able to bear to watch. Yet for the Argentine captain, his team and the thousands of blue and white-clad fans pouring into Rio as well as the millions back home it would be as close to euphoria as it was in 1978 when the Argentines beat the Dutch with that ticker-tape celebration in their own River Plate Stadium.
Argentina won again in 1986 but have not, in truth, had the look of world champions about them this time, at least not in terms of scintillating football. Better than most perhaps but pragmatic rather than adventurous. The reality is they have reached the final with a mixture of Messi’s magic (absent though he was for large parts of the semi-final) and strong organisation.
Will they save the best till last?
That depends on how well-oiled the Germany machine still is. Much has been made of the fact that no European team has ever won the World Cup on South American soil but never will a team have a better chance of rewriting history. Germany are hungry. Big time. It has been 24 years since they were last crowned world champions and they are the only team who have looked the part on a consistent level, the only team with as many world-class players.
They will start favourites and rightly so but having dissected and destroyed Brazil, can they get up for one last hurdle? Being Germany you’d like to think so but Argentina, under their low-key coach Alejandro Sabella, have a mighty tough spine.
Both their last World Cup triumphs came against each other, with Germany crowned champions after defeating the Argentines in 1990, and the South Americans triumphing four years earlier. German manager Joachim Low is fortunate enough to be able to name the same line-up he did against Brazil while Angel Di Maria still remains extremely doubtful to start for Argentina.
“All of us are hoping for support from the Brazilians,” said Germany defender Benedikt Howedes. “We know that we’re considered the favourites. The team is clever enough to avoid being led astray by that tag. We’re not going to let any external factors distract us. When we play together tightly even a great player like Messi will have a hard time. If we can defend decently as a team we’ll contain him.”
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