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There can be no greater contrast in football than the two semi-finals at the 2014 World Cup.
From ‘I can’t believe I’m watching this’ to ‘I can’t believe I’m bothering to watch this’, Germany and Argentina will contest the final at the Maracana.
First, the totally unexpected. Germany’s 7-1 win over Brazil broke records in every conceivable way, not least being the number of mocking memes online following Brazil’s wet-tissue defensive resistance.
Brazil’s heaviest international loss, the biggest win in a World Cup semi final, Miroslav Klose’s record-breaking World Cup goal haul, the craziest six minutes in World Cup history where Germany scored four times… The stories from Salvador were seemingly never-ending.
In truth, the result of that game might have been expected, even if the manner of its execution left everyone stunned. Brazil have flattered to deceive in their home tournament. They staggered past Chile and Colombia to make the semi-finals and were reliant solely on the attacking brilliance of Neymar to find a way to goal.
When he was closely marked in the Colombia game (before the injury) Brazil reverted to unnaturally direct methods to open up the Colombians. Clearly, they missed Thiago Silva even more than Neymar against the Germans.
Germany played within themselves against France in the quarters, possibly due to the flu bug that had affected a number of players. Back to full health against Brazil, they were unstoppable, and even an organised defence would have struggled to contain them. Brazil’s chaotic back four were never in the race and we got a match that will be talked about for generations.
It’s hard to believe that the Netherlands beat Spain 5-1 at this World Cup, or even that they played in one of the most thrilling games of the group rounds against Australia. Their tactics against Argentina were beyond negative, most of the time playing a 6-3-1 and hardly ever looking to go forward when they won the ball.
Argentina tried to play but seemed to eventually give up as the orange wall showed no signs of budging. Only late in normal time did the Dutch construct anything like a meaningful attack, and if Arjen Robben had won the game in the 90th minute rather than being blocked by Javier Macharano, it would have been a triumph for almost all that is wrong with the game.
It beggars belief why Louis van Gaal would not give some licence to his attacking players. Robin van Persie was clearly not 100 per cent, but this is a Dutch team capable of wonderfully swift and sweeping attack.
They were thoroughly neutered by their coach’s seeming obsession with defensive totality rather than the total football of their predecessors, even of their own early rounds.
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