Posted on 07/13/2014 10:37:26 PM PDT by Berlin_Freeper
Germany won the World Cup. Host Brazil won a world of new friends.
The now four-time champions, the first European team to win the World Cup on Latin American soil, earned the honor of lifting the most recognized trophy in sports with a tooth-and-nail 1-0 victory in a final as terrifically entertaining as the tournament itself.
For a 32-day showcase of football at its best, the winning goal was beautifully appropriate. Mario Goetze controlled the ball with his chest and then volleyed it into the Argentine goal, making difficult skills look so simple. Scored in the 113th minute, the mortal blow left Argentina too little time to recover.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, sitting in the VIP section, waved a clenched fist as Goetze celebrated. When referee Nicola Rizzoli blew the final whistle a few minutes later, Vladimir Putin reached across and shook Merkel's hand. The Russian president's country hosts the next World Cup in 2018.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
One of the cards he gave to a German player was not warranted, to much rough play was allowed, and there was a bit too much grabbing and pulling allowed.
To me, Mark Geiger of the U.S. was the best ref. He was highly rated after every match and I think he was passed over for the final because he is not a European or South American. Geiger established a very good tone early on by calling a few fouls for pushing and grabbing. As a result, the players knew they wouldn’t be getting away with that type of stuff. His matches were not marred by numerous arguments and the play flowed well.
His only contoversy was giving a yellow card on the one sliding tackle that could have easily been a straight red.
The Italian wasn’t bad, but not all that good. The Germans were not happy that he was the referee designated for the match. Aside from the one bad German tackle, the calls did seem to favor Argentina a bit.
Hunting, fishing, 4-wheeling, rally, nope, not even soccer.
Soccer though, being ever so slightly less boring, than, say, curling.
I think of most "sports" as a complete waste of time and money.
Can you imagine if we took all the dough wasted on sports and applied it to the space program?
By now, we'd be generating electricity in space, beaming it down to earth, have a colony on the moon, and be mining the asteroids.
You wait for rally cars to go by on closed dirt logging roads at 130 MPH, sideways on corners, spewing rocks and dirt.
You have a good list there.
And somehow I don’t trust NASA, or at least today’s NASA, with whatever revenue is generated by sports.
Also, suppose the distraction of sports didn't exist?
People might actually pay attention to the present destruction of their country and do something about it.
They might have paid attention in the first place and zero would never have been elected.
The Argentinians head hit him on the cheek bone.
Never saw that coming. /sarcasm.
Bett he had a good night.
She never lived to see a united Germany but I know this day would have been a special one for her.
Your mother was from Germany? My Mom, sister and even my BIL (the Netherlands) cheered on Germany.
Thanks. Had never heard of it. I agree rally cars are more exciting than most of the games shown on TV.
Yes. I had a German mother. I am German by descent.
Soccer was invented by European women to keep them busy while their husbands cooked dinner.
I played a good amount of soccer when I was little. Its a fun game running around and scoring etc.... But boring as heck to watch especially on TV. I can’t understand the patience of those who can do it. They must be semi-comatose or low-IQ
We’ve been together for 55 days but we started this whole project ten years ago. Our great strength is that we’ve been able to continually improve over that time. If anyone has earned this victory then it’s this team. Today there was only one deserving winner, and that’s this team. They’ve developed incredible team spirit and unbelievable willpower over the past few weeks. This deep feeling of happiness will remain with us all forever. It makes us all proud.
Thanks for all the pings throughout the World Cup.
(you taking lead on Euro 2016?)
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