FoG

Argentina were the oldest squad at this years World Cup and the final pitted them against one of the youngest squads.  Indeed 7 of the German squad weren't even born the last time that Germany won the World Cup in 1990 - including the goal scorer tonight Goetze and Schurle who set up the goal.  Argentina had 8 players over 30 on their squad to Germany's 3.  Maybe it was the toll of a long tournament on the old tired legs of the Argentinians, especially considering that they had one day less rest than the Germans.  But in the end youth won out over experience. Or did it? If you look a little deeper Germany's youthful team have experience way beyond their years.  They are the fourth most capped squad in the tournament.  Young players like Muller not only have seen it all before but excelled - young Muller (only 24) was involved in 2010 when Germany beat Argentina 4-0 in the World Cup and he also was the top scorer in that tournament.  Youth and exp...

There is the little matter of the third place play-off tomorrow, but today I'm going to focus on the main event - Germany vs Argentina.  This fixture is a regular on the World Cup calendar.  This will be the 7th time that the teams have met in the World Cup Finals tournament.   Brazil and Sweden are the only pair of teams to have met as often.  It will be the 3rd Final contested between the two - Germany took the trophy in 1990 and Argentina in 1986.     This will also make it three World Cups in a row that Germany and Argentina have locked horns.  Germany have the better of those meetings in that they beat Argentina in South Africa 2010 and won through on penalties in Germany 2006.   However if you look back further and also consider friendlies then Argentina have the better head to head record. In terms of goals there is nothing between the teams having scored 28 each in a total of 20 previous meetings - an average of 2.8 g...