I was wrong! The Germans whipped Maradonna’s team. There may have been talk about a close game beforehand but deep into the second half of the game one could only hope that the Argies would score even just one goal. It was not to be. Good grief, what a score, 4-0. I thought this was international football not cricket. I can argue that the Argie side weren’t up to scratch on the day but the real reason is that the Germans are up to scratch. And they will continue to be up to scratch. These guys are juggernauts and I really don’t think the Spanish have a chance. Actually the Germans have a very good chance of taking the world cup. A lot of noise is made about the fact that Argentina were playing against second string teams up to the final rounds but the fact is that they are rated high under FIFA for a reason. The Germans didn’t just beat them, they annihilated them – it was a total humiliation. The news media are obviously going to have a field day and Maradonna is going to be square in their eye but he wasn’t on the field – the players were on the field and were outplayed and outclassed.
“1954, 1974, 1990…” ran the headline on Sunday’s Tagesspiegel daily, the Germans already gearing up to thrash Spain in a revenge game after losing to them in the final of the 2008 UEFA European Championship. With names like Schweinsteiger, Kiessling, Badstuber and Mueller bouncing around it sounds like a panzer regiment under Rommel. And Rommel was fearless like this team!
All eyes on them as they take on Spain on the 7th in Durban and the Netherlands against Uruguay on the 6th in Cape Town. Could it just just be that a European country will finally get a FIFA win. My money now backs a Dutch – German final. My heart is on the Dutch but the brain tells me that the Germans are going to win this. Are the Dutch nervous? If they aren’t, they should be.
