Germany defeated Argentina in the extra-time of the exciting world cup final played at Maracana on Sunday, courtesy to Mario Gotze’s late goal deep in the extra time. Argentina looked intent and showed composure well in the normal time, but eventually lost the physical strength to compete in the game in the extra time. We, Soccersouls have listed some of the observations that mostly led to the lose of Argentina and paved the way for the victory of Germany.
1. Alejandro Sabella was extremely wrong in replacing Ezequiel Lavezzi with Sergio Aguero at half-time, but had been extremely accurate to make the final substitution inside the normal playing time. Lavezzi, with his pace caused continuous troubles to German defense down the right flank and even one of his crosses resulted in Argentine goal, which was eventually ruled out after Higuain was caught offside. Lavezzi’s substitution was extremely harsh and it almost changed the course of the game as Aguero had turned out to be completely ineffective in the Argentine attack. The final substitution which was amended before the extra time gave some time for Gago to be involved in the cohesive unit.
2. Sabella persuaded two major changes in his starting line-up on the course of the tournament, preferring Lucas Biglia and Martin Demichelis over Fernando Gago and Federico Fernandez respectively and both of his changes were turned very effective.
3. Gago is a fantastic player of the slow game, but after brushing up his mind to play quick counter attacking football, Sabella picking Gago over Maxi Rodriguez wasn’t be given credits. Sabella failed to learn why Zdenek Zeman didn’t exercise the option to buy Gago in 2012. Moreover, Gago, the central midfielder was forced to play in the left side of the midfield, the decision of Sabella which should take heavy blame.
4. Gago could turn out to be a surprise target for Barcelona during the summer window as the coach Luis Enrique be the long time admirer of the Argentine. Enrique signed Gago from Real Madrid in 2011 during his days at Roma, but both were forced to leave Rome in the following summer.
5. Javier Maschereno is found more effective in the midfield rather than in the defense. If all of his crucial tackles have been made in the midfield, there would be no danger of conceding the penalties even in some occasions, if his tackles turn out to be violent. Maschereno’s run from the midfield to block Robben’s shot in the closing stages of normal time in the semi final, which kept Argentine in the competition was widely remembered. Enrique should sign a defender in the summer window, prompting Mascherno to operate from the defensive midfield.
6. Preferring the fully fit Enzo Perez over unfit Angel Di Maria was a wise decision taken by Sabella. Ronaldo, who had been declared unfit for the world cup final against France in 1998, was forced to play the game but the striker failed to make any impact on the field which resulted in Brazil lose. Sabella, learning from the past, made a wise move and as to the standards of matching up his expectations, Perez had a great game down the left flank.
7. Rodriago Palacio should have done better than what he had delivered in the one-on-one situation with Manuel Neuer in the early minutes of extra time. Controlling the ball very well from Rojo’s cross, the Inter striker failed to chip it over the heads of Nueur. Player of such an elite caliber, shouldn’t have missed that.
8. Miroslav Klose , once again proved age isn’t the factor to decide the success. With such an incredible work rate, Lazio striker signed off the world cup as world cup leading goal scorers.
9. Mario Gotze’s finish was brilliant. His well controlled shot made the Germans the well deserved World Champions.
10. Finally, Italy were not the part of the final, but eight Serie A players represented their nations in the world final, which is thought to be the good news for Italian Football.