Germany!

Day 32. What happened in Brazil today.

The best team won, the best player didn't, and the best World Cup for a long time is over.

Germany looked good, very German good, right from the get go with the 4-0 win against Portugal. They stumbled a little bit against Ghana, but overall they always looked like they knew what they were doing. In hindsight, it was like they allowed the likes of Colombia, Belgium, Chile and Brazil to grab the attention early on, to be the flashy, noisy partyers, while they sat in the background waiting for all the teenagers to leave before they came out and showed the world how to really get a job done.

Germany were maybe not at their greatest yesterday, looking a little uneasy at times. Some may even say they were lucky that Argentina seemed determined to not score. The best goalkeeper in the world proved himself by having to make zero saves. I guess it was his mere presence that threw off Higuain, when Germany practically said to him, go ahead and score, and Messi, who didn't think it would be polite to make Neuer have to dive, and Palacio, who made sure that even without Fred we still had a striker in the final who is spectacularly unable to do what his country expects him to do. Can somebody cut off that ridiculous pony tail now? If you're good, a world cup winner and world cup final scorer, you can get away with things like that.

On the other side, the man who looks like a 12 year old, Goetze, showed the Argentinians that with a bit of skill and the knowledge that if you shoot right at the goal there is a better chance of the ball going in, you can win a Fifa Adidas Macdonalds Budweiser World Cup. And so it was that the Argentinian defence went walkabout 6 minutes from the end of extra time, thus ensuring that not another final had to be determined on penalties.

For added late drama, Argentina had a free kick in the last minute well within Messi range. As the world waited for the expected flash of brilliance, Messi maintained the Argentinians consistency for the night and hit the ball so high that there was absolutely no chance of Neuer, not only not having to dirty his gloves, but also having to even worry about making a save. And that was that. Germany were champions, and nobody could say they didn't deserve it. The only person who looked like he would mark the German exam "could do better ", was the manager, Low. Somebody teach the man how to celebrate. You just won the World Cup, Joachim. Stop brushing your hair forwards with your hand.

Before the World Cup presentation Neuer was awarded the golden glove award and Messi the golden ball, as best player. I could go on and on about all the reasons why Messi shouldn't have won this, but I'll spare you. All I'll say is put your hand up if you really, honestly think he was the best player out there. If he didn't have his name on his shirt and wore a disguise, and the commentator didn't say his name, how many times would we have noticed him in a match. Take James Rodriguez, who really made a difference and there you have a great player. His downfall was that he won the golden boot, as top scorer, so Fifa had to spread out the wealth a little. The record books will say: Messi, best player at 2014 World Cup. No matter what the experts may say (and I will never imagine myself as being one), that he is listed in the same record books as Maradona and Pele is an insult to the record books and to those two, truly great players.

And on day 33 and 34 and.....I rested. It's just under 3 years before my next countdown starts. It's been an amazing 4 weeks. If we ignore that Iran-Nigeria happened, the first round was spectacular. From then on it was a different kind of excitement, more the intensity, fear of losing kind. Let's hope that in Russia in 2018, the teams come to play again.

I've had fun. This was always supposed to be fun, but thank you for all your comments. Now if anybody wants Tour de France updates, it now has my full attention.