After three unsuccessful tries (2002, 2006, 2010) when Germany lost in the final hurdle (Brasil, Italy, Spain) finally they achieved the most important, glorious reward in Football, THEY ARE WORLD CHAMPIONS for the fourth time in the history! It was a well deserved victory culminating the hard work started by DFB in the beginning of 2000 when Germany hit the lowest point. It has proved once more than with hard work, persistence and a high team spirit you can achieve the maximum.
There's already a lot of information on the web about the final, the statistics, etc, so I'm just putting some links below:
After the World Cup, there are two important news related with "die Mannschaft": First that Toni Kroos moved to Real Madrid, which I believe it will be a huge loss to Bayern. Kroos has really matured in a World Class level.
Second and most important, the captain Philipp Lahm announced his retirement from "die Mannschaft". It will be a huge loss to the team, but it's the perfect choice to retire after winning the biggest price. So I would like to say thank you to Lahm for 10 great years in the National Team and wish him all the best!
After 62 mostly spectacular matches, we now have the finalist of the 20th World Cup, Germany vs Argentina. To most people born before the 80s it will ring bells of the two classic finals in 1986 in Mexico and 1990 in Italy. I was only 6 years when Germany was beaten by Argentina in 1986, but I still remember it and it's one of my first memories. However this time, I hope history will repeat 1990 instead :) Getting back 24 years ago there are quite a lot of similarities:
- In 1990 Germany started the tournament by demolishing Yugoslavia 4-1, while in 2014 they demolished Portugal 4-0.
- In 1990 Germany was for the third time in a row in the Final (first time in history), while in 2014 they are for the fourth time in a row in the semi-finals (first time in history).
- In 1990 Argentina was completely depended on Maradona, in 2014 they are completely depended on Messi.
- In 1990 Argentina was missing Caniggia in the final, in 2014 they will most probably miss Di Maria.
- Finally, Germany won the World Cup in '54, '74 so they have to win it in '14 :)
So Good luck to Germany to add that missing fourth star!