So, finally that day has arrived that every football fan on this world would have been waiting for with bated breath. It’s the final matchday of the World Cup 2014!

This World Cup has been breathtaking to say the very least and arguably has been the most exciting World Cup tournament in the last two decades.

With the surprising entry of Costa Rica, Colombia, and Belgium in the quarter finals stage to the heartbreaking exits of Italy, England, and Spain in the group stage tells a lot about this tournament.

Maracanã, the stadium in Rio de Janeiro which will host the final match, is understood to be cursed by the Brazilian community. It was in 1950 when Brazil hosted the World Cup last time and the stadium hosted the final that edition too. Brazil lost in front of their home crowd to Uruguay in the final, a result which is still considered a national tragedy.

This time again, Brazil couldn’t give its football-crazy country a World Cup trophy at home and lost in a heartbreaking fashion to the World Cup favourites-to-win Germany, losing for the first-time at home since losing the 1975 Copa America final to Peru and the last time when they lost at home in the World Cup, was when they lost in that 1950 final.



Germany is coming into the match after completely routing Brazil in the semi finals (7-1) and the odds are in their favour. The team’s USP is that they have not relied on an individual but have played together as a team. Much credits of that should go to their clinical coach Joachim Loew who has not let a feeling of insecurity creep into a squad full of stars.



The side is a proper balance between the experienced and the youngsters. Young guns like Schurrle, Hummels, Kroos, Gotze have shone alongside the experienced members Klose, Ozil, Muller, Khedira. Their goalkeeper, Manuel Neuer, is one of his own kind with his extraordinary saves and is calmness personified.

On the other side, Argentina is coming into the finals after an outstanding show of defence in their semifinal match against Netherlands. Netherlands were denied clear goal-scoring chances by the their strong defenders like Marcos Rojo, Garay and Zabaleta. The outcome of the match was decided in the fateful penalty shootouts with the South American team edging out their opponents.



Argentina’s chances in this World Cup have been hinging on the performance of their star striker Lionel Messi. While Messi produced brilliant goals in the initial stages, he has seemed lackluster in the latter half of the tournament barring the assist to Angel Di Maria in their Round of 16 match against Switzerland. But Messi is the kind of player who can play to his potential anytime and his presence on the field can’t be dismissed easily. It will be interesting to see if Messi is able to find a way past Manuel Neuer.



Germany’s counter attack has been phenomenal while Messi leads the attack for the Argentines and it will be interesting to see how the defence of the two sides cope with the pressure to thwart their opposition’s chances.



This will be the third World Cup final between Germany and Argentina. They met in successive finals in 1986 and 1990, with each team lifting the title in those encounters. If Muller succeeds in giving his best performance today he might become the first player ever to win two successive Golden Boot awards.



No European team has won the World Cup in South America before and Germany has a chance to break that record today.



No matter which team wins this edition of World Cup, I think no one can deny that this tournament will be missed by all the football fans across the world for the kind of roller coaster ride it has been.