World believes Germany will reign supreme
... but Maradona likes Argentina’s underdog status
RIO DE JANEIRO — In those crushing first moments of realization, wrapping his head around another gutting disappointment inflicted so agonizingly late in the day, Dutch dandy Arjen Robben, television camera jammed nearly up his nostrils, outright dismissed the side that had only minutes before relegated his Oranje once more to the World Cup waste bin.
“Germany,” Robben guaranteed with flat finality, “is going to win the World Cup. No doubt about that. The Argentines will not stand a chance.”
Peevish? Yes. Heat-of-themoment stuff? Surely. But he’s far from alone in the assessment.
The incredible, indelible images of a shattering Tuesday night in Belo Horizonte, the ease with which Joachim Low’s men strung their famous yellowshirted Brazilian hosts up to the tune of 7-1 and stripped them bare in front of friends, loved ones and admirers, is for many ample evidence of Sunday being a foregone conclusion.
Too deep. Too structured. Too clinical.
The sight of Toni Kroos, Thomas Muller and Miroslav Klose virtually walking balls into Julio Cesar’s net, casually knock- ing it around a rubbernecking Brazilian defence as if lollygagging in a training ground pickup game, was, quite frankly, dazzling.
If Muller doesn’t beat you, Kroos can. If Klose misses a couple of opportunities, well, then there’s always the off chance Mesut Ozil will at last awake from his Rip Van Winkel-esque slumber. Manuel Neuer is a force field net. Few can top the indomitable Bastian Schweinsteiger in orchestrating a midfield.
Even factoring in the unmatchable Lionel Messi leading the opposition charge, the consensus seems to be that there’s little chance Argentina can actually win this final. And while a La Albiceleste victory wouldn’t be a jaw-scraping-pavement shocker along the lines of, say, Buster Douglas over Mike Tyson in Tokyo or Shakespeare in Love toppling Saving Private Ryan at the 1998 Oscars, it’d surely count as a big surprise.
Germany seems to be everyone’s choice. Leave it to loony old Diego Maradona, hardly an unbiased witness, though, to cast a dissenting vote.
“The match against Germany,” said the Argentine star who helped deflate German hopes in the ’86 final at Mexico City, “will not be a mission impossible. It is not impossible to beat them. German egos will be enlarged by their 7-1 win over Brazil.
“Their overconfidence could be a good thing for Argentina.”
Banking on smug German satisfaction catching Low’s boys off guard might be somewhat unwise.
“We enjoyed the game against Brazil,” said Klose. “But we ticked it off after 24 hours. In the next game we have to again play to the best of our abilities. It feels really awful to lose a final so it’s our time to win one.”
Defender Benedikt Howedes seconds that motion.
“Many people are giving us slaps on the back and we love the compliments but we can’t make the mistake that it’s already over. Far from it. People are saying in Germany that the title is almost in our pocket but the Argentines will fight to take the title home.
“We also know the time is ripe now and if we don’t (win), the semifinal victory will just be consigned to the archives of history,” Howedes said.
The Germans fully understand that the Massacre at Mineirao, while showcasing their vast capabilities, was in fact a one-off. One of those inexplicable days where the sun, the moon and the stars align just so and even the most complicated things seem so absurdly simple. They’re not stupid. They saw how Argentina worked the Dutch, limited Robben, won in a unified manner.
Still, Argentine coach Alejandro Sabella was only too happy to thrust his opponents into the role of prohibitive favourite.
“Germany, throughout their entire history,” he said following the semifinal victory, “have always shown physical might, tactical and mental prowess and have always had players with a certain South American tough.
“The match is extremely difficult. Germany is always a very difficult hurdle to overcome.
“We’ll see if it’s a minor issue, the fact we played after (Low’s side) and the Germany game was decided in the first 45 minutes, so they could ease off in the second half, whereas we had to spend all the effort and every last drop of sweat to reach the World Cup final.”
And sweat — for both the highlyfancied Germans and their famed South American rivals — will also be what it takes to win one.