The Golden Ball award went to Lionel Messi, but it was Rodriguez who made the biggest impact in Brazil. Highest scoring game: Germany’s 7-1 win over Brazil on July 8.Īverage attendance: 53,592 MAN OF THE TOURNAMENT Top scorer: Colombia’s James Rodriguez (6 goals) Moments later, Italian referee Nicola Rizzoli blew his whistle, and the Germans won the World Cup for a fourth time.
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Late in extra time, Messi had a free kick, but he hit it over the crossbar. The Bayern Munich star collected it on his chest and then hit a sweet, left-footed volley past Argentina goalkeeper Sergio Romero. The breakthrough finally came in the 113th minute when André Schürrle, who came on for Kramer, delivered a cross to Mario Götze from the left flank. Ninety minutes of pretty mundane soccer gave way for extra time, where both sides carved out scoring opportunities, including Messi who fired wide from inside the penalty area. Gonzalo Higuain squandered a golden scoring chance in the first half when he dragged his shot wide after capitalizing on a mistake by Germany’s Toni Kroos to break in on goal. Kramer ended up suffering a head injury after colliding with Argentina’s Ezequiel Garay early in the game, and although he kept playing he had to come out in the 31st minute due to a concussion. More than 74,000 fans jammed into Rio’s iconic Maracana Stadium to watch a final pitting what many considered the best national team (Germany) against the world’s best player (Lionel Messi).īoth sides named unchanged starting line-ups from their semifinals, but German midfielder Sami Khedira suffered a calf injury in the pre-game warmup and had to be replaced by Christoph Kramer, who made only two brief substitute appearances during the tournament. Both sides won their respective groups, with the Germans hammering Brazil in the semis and the Argentines outlasting the Netherlands to get to the final. THE FINALįor the third time at the World Cup, Germany and Argentina squared off in the final. The top two teams from each of the eight groups advanced to the knockout round.