The road to the final has been tough for both teams, with Germany getting through a tough group stage topping their group, and then fighting off a gallant Algeria in extra time before defeating France 1-0 in their quarter final. The biggest shock was the Semi final against Brazil who were tipped to win the Cup by many experts. The Semi final was possibly the most one sided Semi Final in history, with most pundits calling for possibly extra time, but Germany had other ideas and were ruthless in front of goal. Muller the hero as he is still in the running for the golden boot. The German's struck 4 times in the first 25 minutes and ended up totally outclassing the Brazilians with a shocking 7-1 score line to surly make them favourites for the Sunday night clash in Rio!!!
Germany have not won the competition since Italia 90, when West Germany actually defeated Argentina in the final. In 1986, it was the reversal as Argentina defeated West Germany with the infamous hand of God goal by Maradona.
Argentina have had a quite similar path to the Final except they did have to get there via a penalty shoot out in the Semi Finals. Argentina also topped their group with fairly convincing displays and dispatched Switzerland in extra time in the 2nd round to win 1-0. Their quarter final was built as a massive showdown, as they took on the highly fancied Belgium squad, and once again won 1-0. The Semi Final was a massive chance to reach their first Final in 24 years and they didn't disappoint however chances for both teams were ever present in extra time.
After a scoreless 120 minutes, the chance to join the Germans in the Final came down to penalties and with the Dutch missing the first, that put Argentina in a great position. The Dutch were not as ruthless as their previous penalty shootout and the Argentineans' will party hard into the night with their team on the brink of creating history.
The 3rd and 4th play off is Sunday morning Australian time and Final is Monday morning to complete the 20th World Cup!!!! Germany are aiming for their 4th World Cup and Argentina's 3rd Cup victory. The Record books have Italy on 4 World Cups and Brazil currently hold the record with an impressive 5 World Cup titles.
Wesley Tronson is a bank manager on the Gold Coast and lived in England for seven years to 2010 in banking and soccer.
Wesley Tronson's previous articles may be viewed at www.pressserviceinternational.org/wesley-tronson.html