Deserving champs

Twenty-four years of painful and often frustrating wait ended for Germany on Sunday night in Rio when they finally laid their hands again on the most coveted trophy in football. The most consistent nation in World Cup history has often fallen at the doorstep in recent times but the signs were all perfect this time.

Talent and skills can only get you to a point, but to take the final step, oodles of determination and a touch of experience are vital.

The German team in Brazil manifested all these virtues as they humbled another footballing giant in Argentina. The Mario Goetze goal that broke the Argentine hearts in extra-time after a no-holds barred battle, showed the never-say-die German spirit.

Glimpses of this German side’s potential were visible in the 2010 tournament but Joachim Loew’s bunch of young men needed to taste the bitter medicine called defeat.

Loew, a hardened pro, built his team with players who came through the highly acclaimed German youth system and their strength and depth were apparent right from the moment they took the field against Portugal for their opening game.

A 4-0 victory turned the spotlight on the three-time champions but largely workmanlike performances followed in subsequent games against Ghana, the United States and Algeria before that explosion of goals against a mentally-fragile Brazilian team underlined the fact that Germany were primed to become the first Europeans to win the World Cup in the Americas.

In the course of the month-long fiesta, Loew’s Germany struck that delicate balance many a time, with supremely confident individuals forming a collective force of destruction.

If Thomas Mueller’s big-match temperament – he has 10 goals in two World Cups, that too at the age of 24 – served the Germans fine in the early phase, Andre Schuerrle, Matt Hummels and Mesuit Ozil all chipped in with goals at the right moment, guided along by the experience of Phillip Lahm and Bastian Schweinsteiger.

Of course, Germany also possessed that goal-scoring machine Miroslav Klose, whose international career will end with a record tally of 16 World Cup goals.

Towering above all of them was Manuel Neur, a thoroughly deserving winner of the Golden Glove prize for the goalkeeper of the tournament.

With these riches, had Germany failed to triumph in Brazil, it would have been a travesty, and even Lionel Messi would agree that the European team were the most deserving of champions.