The German God ran riot over Maradona’s God. Even Arne Freidrich got a goal.
You know what is frightening about this German team- they are just going to get better. The average age of this team is just above 21. Mesut Oezil is going to be 25 years old when the Germans get to Brazil. Think about that.
This match almost seemed like a set up. Give Argentina a perfect run in the group stage, get Maradona going with fist pumps, bear hugs, and his oracle like predictions. Everyone starts talking about how good the Albiceleste look- they could go all the way. Leave it to Germany to expose Argentina as a band of individuals with few tactics. This team is getting good at snuffing out pretenders.
The Germans played AS a team. Bastian Schweinsteiger was immense. Miroslav Klose, Thomas Mueller, Sami Khadira, Mesut Oezil, Lukas Podolski, Per Mertesacker, Arne Freidrich, Jerome Boateng, Philip Lahm, and Manuel Neuer. They pulled up their socks and played all 90 minutes for each other. They were all over the field. Schweinsteiger was a machine – his heat map must be all over the place.
For all of Tevez and Messi’s industry, Argentina created very few chances. For Messi, this World Cup was supposed to be a coronation but his trademark cut and thrust was hemmed by a swarming German defense. He was still the best player on the field for Argentina but on this day it was not going to be enough. He needed a team, they needed a team. Unfortunately, they just did not seem to recover from the shock of that 3rd minute goal given up Sergio Romero. After the second goal by Klose, the deflated Argentinians looked ready to walk off the field and even Maradona’s incessant fingering of the rosary stopped. He too had made connection with reality.
Europe 2 South America 1. This World Cup could very well have three European semi-finalists today with just Uruguay standing between them. The clock has turned towards the better organized teams.