World Cup final: Argentina are no Brazil; Germany needs to forget the 7-1 result

At half-time in the semi-final match against Brazil, the German players shook hands and congratulated themselves. The scoreline read 5-0 and their job was done. It was, simply put, the most incredibly unexpected 45 minutes of football you will ever see. “We just made it clear that we had to stay focused and not try to humiliate them,” Germany defender Mats Hummels said of the talk in their dressing room during the break. “We said we had to stay serious and concentrate at half-time. That’s something you don’t have to show on the pitch if you are playing. You have to show the opponent respect and it was very important that we did this and didn’t try to show some magic or something like this. It was important we played our game for 90 minutes.” Everyone, who was not Brazilian or didn’t hate the Germans, expected Germany to win. But nobody expected them to win in this manner. Nobody expected humiliation to figure in the conversation. [caption id=“attachment_1613865” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Germany’s Andre Schuerrle, right, celebrates with teammate Thomas Mueller. AP[/caption] The Brazilians approached the game in an emotional, passionate manner. Hoping that adrenaline would work instead of skill. The Germans soaked up the initial pressure and then went about efficiently destroying everything that Brazilian football stood for. Joachim Loew pumped up his arms for the first three goals but after that he almost wore a disinterested look; as if he was already thinking about the final… about what he would need to set right to win a trophy that Germany last won in the previous century. But come the final, they need to wipe the slate clean and start all over again. Their rivals aren’t emotional, they don’t concede goals and they have Lionel Messi in their ranks. If Germany go into the game swayed by the semi-final result, they could be in for a rude shock. Argentina have conceded just three goals during regulation play in this tournament. A goal against Bosnia in their first match of the tournament and two goals against Nigeria in their last group match. That’s it. The talk has centered on Messi but the defenders and goalkeeper Sergio Romero have been immense. If the Brazilians were emotional, the Argentinians have been pragmatic. The flair has been provided in patches by Messi and Angel Di Maria. The rest have gone about doing their job in an almost workmanlike fashion. They will be much more difficult to break down. In nothing else, Germany should do well to remember that they beat France only 1-0 in the quarters. And Ghana drew 2-2 with them. The win over USA was also just a 1-0 affair and Algeria, in the round of 16, gave them a really tough fight as well. It hasn’t been as smooth sailing as we might be deluded into thinking after the semi-final. Germany have done well to hide their emotion so far. But when they take the pitch at the Maracana – with the crowd cheering them on (for they won’t cheer Argentina) – staying focused will hardly be easy. The Brazil result is freakish and even though Germany have mentioned that they are not going to get carried away multiple times, it will be hard to stop thinking about it. It will even be harder to not think about the 24 trophy-less years.