Deutschland 1-0 Rest of the World - Ola Adeotoye (22/07/2014

Ladies, gentleman and all those with a passion for the beautiful game it's officially over, the world bid farewell yesterday to the greatest sporting show on earth. As fans we put in so much effort into gearing ourselves up for the World Cup in Brazil, the spiritual dwelling place of football. After four weeks of end to end action, a gluttony of goals, heartbreaks, disappointments, jubilation and Kodak moments belonging to keepers and outfielders, it will be another four years before the Jules Rimet trophy is held aloft, in the not so exotic surroundings of Russia. I think most of us can agree that the World Cup in Brazil has been one of the best to date; personally it's the best one I have watched since France'98. A complete improvement on the drab affairs seen in South Africa.

But getting to the point of this article the new reigning champions of the world are Joachim Loew's Germany side, a team I tipped to win the tournament from the start (as well as the Netherlands). They were ruthless, physical, highly organised and efficient, everything you come to expect from a German side. All traits were on show in their semi-final match unfortunately for the hosts Brazil and their 7-1 dismantling stood them in good stead of the Final against an Argentina side lead by Lionel Messi. I won't give a full review of the match itself, however in a nutshell Argentina spurned multiple chances via Higuain and surprisingly even Messi.

In a cup final of any sort against high quality opposition such a thing is criminal and is punishable by the conceding of goals. In a final against Germany it was likely that the longer things went on the more dangerous Loew's side would get, and in the last minutes of extra time (just when everyone was gearing themselves for penalties) substitute Mario Goetz finished what was probably the hardest chance of the match. Taking a incoming cross on his chest the Bayern Munich man controlled and volleyed the ball past an onrushing Sergio Romero. With that Germany now have four stars stitched onto their team shirts, just one behind the once great Brazil teams. At this rate however it’s highly possible that they could level with and overtake the Samba boys. Both are moving in different directions while the Germans look set to rule the world and Europe (in a way their predecessors Spain did for five years), Brazil have to have a complete restructuring of how they coach their players at academy level.

Germany has a whole has benefitted from years and years of planning and emphasis on giving their brightest talents playing time at their domestic clubs (something unfortunately England fails in miserably at the moment). The German FA and their domestic teams in the Bundesliga have such a good relationship with each other; you could mistake them for being husband and wife in a metaphoric sense of course. In the long term they have reaped the rewards, they entered the World Cup with an average age of 26 and a squad of players who are the envy of Europe and now possibly the world. Many of whom are going to be around for the World Cup in 2018 and beyond. So basically the Germans stand to gain a lot more success in the future and retain their place at the summit of European and World football.

All that remains to be said is that as an England fan, is that I hope those at the FA and our BPL sides adopt the emphasis the Germans placed on having their youngest and brightest talents given a fair crack at the first team. But first and foremost from a young age they'll have to be coached the right way (an increased focus on technical ability), then and only then will it be possible for the 'three lions' to reap any such success on the European stage let alone the World stage.