What is up, people of the internet? So, you may know that the World Cup is just around the corner and we here at BFW are putting together a series of articles about Germany in the build-up to the tournament itself. Teddy is already working on the top 10 goals that Germany has scored in World Cup history, so I proposed an idea that we should relive the best wins that Die Mannschaft has experienced. Which is why I’m here to introduce my top 10 Germany wins at the World Cup.
For this, I’m going to include
matches that I know and watched in person (live, on the TV, haven’t got the facilities to watch Germany live in the stadium yet) and I will also rank each match based on how special the match is to me.
6. Germany 4-0 Argentina, 2010 World Cup Quarterfinals
With Germany’s massive win over England at the 2010 World Cup confirmed, this earned them a Quarterfinal showdown with Argentina, coached by national icon Diego Maradona. You’d think that Germany, having avenged their 1986 final defeat to Argentina in the very next tournament, there was another reason why Germany had to beat them. In March 2010, after Germany hosted Argentina in a friendly match at the Allianz Arena (which ended in a 1-0 Argentina win), Maradona was at the post-match press conference where he was joined by some skinny young lad that evidently came from the German camp.
Maradona was confused and believed the guy to be a ballboy, so he objected to doing the presser and demanded that a coach or someone else take that person’s place. Someone then told him that the guy in question is a newly capped German national football team player, by the name of Thomas Müller who plays for local club Bayern Munich.
The former FC Barcelona and Napoli great might’ve felt embarrassed, yet he stood firm and didn’t want to do the presser anymore and stormed out. There was an awkward air in the conference room that day but Müller, who merely laughed off the incident, didn’t forget this.
Fast forward to the World Cup later that year, and the Quarterfinal match between Germany and Argentina has kicked off. The South Americans haven’t won the World Cup since Maradona himself was a player, and they hoped that he would be the one to end the long wait for another World Cup trophy. They must’ve been daydreaming at that point, and so too were the Argentine players because they just conceded a goal inside three minutes. The one who scored it was none other than the ball boy himself Thomas Müller.
Germany began the match with purpose and won a free kick after just two minutes when Lukas Podolski was bodychecked by Nicolas Otamendi. Bastian Schweinsteiger swung the ball in where Müller got ahead of both Otamendi and Gonzalo Higuaín to head the ball past Sergio Romero for the opening goal of the match. It was Müller’s fourth World Cup goal in his debut tournament.
Imagine what Maradona felt at that moment: the same player he dismissed three months ago came back to score against his team after less than three minutes of playing. By the 12th minute, Germany got more chances and were inching closer to scoring a second goal before Argentina even had a chance to threaten Manuel Neuer and the German defense.
Argentina did get forward and got a few chances of their own, but none of them were as threatening as Carlos Tevez’s chance after Lionel Messi played him in. Neuer got the ball and Tevez was offside anyway. The Germans went on the attack after that where Müller got the loose ball from a challenge by Argentinian left-back Gabriel Heinze and crossed it to Miroslav Klose who fired well over.
Argentina responded with a dribble from Messi and shots from Heinze, Messi (from a free kick) and Ángel Di María, but neither of them came close to scoring a goal. Higuaín then joined in on the fun, except it wasn’t fun it was frustration, as his shot was saved by Neuer. The game became more even from both teams, and it looks like either of them could score a goal. Argentina won a free kick, and the ball was passed around and landed at the feet of Higuaín who tapped it into an open net. Just one thing: every Argentinian player involved in that sequence apart from Heinze who took the free kick was offside. Higuaín was denied a goal against Germany because he was off (subtle foreshadowing).
Podolski later tried a shot of his own that went inches wide of the far post. Özil, Müller and Schweinsteiger all followed suit in the minutes after Podolski’s shot but none of them could hit the target either. Messi thought he’d give it a go too but sent the ball to Row Z. Müller’s early goal is the only thing that split the two teams, so it could go either way in the second half. With everything to play for, the match resumes and the first chance fell to Di María whose flying left-footed shot just missed Neuer’s far post. Mertesacker later denied Tevez with a shot to the head and the score remained 1-0 to Germany.
After several attempts by either side—with Neuer fairly busy stopping opposition attacks—someone finally made the (second) breakthrough and it was Germany who scored. Khedira plays the ball central to Müller who, despite being hauled down by Martín Demichelis, managed to play it forward to Podolski who squares the ball through Romero and Nicolás Burdisso to Klose who simply tapped it into the open net. Podolski and Klose weren’t offside, so maybe Higuaín could’ve learned a thing or two.
Klose notched his 13th World Cup goal at that time and Germany were looking good for the Semifinals of the 2010 World Cup. Argentina was running out of time and needed at least a goal to get themselves back into contention. Unfortunately for them, Germany wasn’t satisfied with two goals and continued to push for more. Schweinsteiger took on four defenders and laid the ball on a plate for Arne Friedrich to score his first and only international goal despite the best efforts of Romero and Heinze to diffuse the dangerous attack.
Maradona watched on as his team sank lower with no way of getting back. Friedrich was a virtual nobody as far as he’s concerned, and he just score a third goal for Germany with 15 minutes left. From that point onward, Maradona’s team looked more frantic and exhausted as the Argentines haven’t experienced the Germans continuously arrive at their area for the first time since the 19th and 20th centuries. It didn’t stop as a minute from normal time, Özil crossed the ball for Klose who took the shot first time to increase Germany’s lead to four and his overall World Cup tally to 14 which put him level with German legend and Thomas’s namesake Gerd Müller.
The final whistle came to condemn Argentina to their biggest ever World Cup loss since 1974 (ironically held at then-West Germany) and condemn Maradona to the sack as the Argentine Football Association deemed him not worthy enough to lead the country to World Cup glory. Germany would eventually go out to eventual winners Spain, but the wait would eventually end for Die Mannschaft.
I don’t think he thinks I’m a ball boy anymore… I don’t think he knew me back then, but he does now
– Thomas Müller after the match
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