Messi, Maracanã and Memories

As someone who has been following football since childhood, there are indeed a handful of matches whose memories bring a smile to my face. The unforgettable scenes of Aguero smashing it in virtually at the last moment of the game and the season to seal Manchester City’s first-ever Premier League title and FC Barcelona’s incredible comeback against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League are some of the matches that reinforce football’s claim as the most beautiful game. But here I would like to talk about another game that evoked yet another spectrum of human emotion: the Final match between Argentina and Germany in the World Cup 2014, which I still can’t reminisce about without choking up, feeling what could have been.

The 2014 World Cup final took place on 13 July (1.15 IST) at Brazil’s iconic Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro. At that time, I was in an Entrance coaching centre where things were pretty serious and strict, as mobile phones were practically banned in our hostel, and we weren’t allowed access to TVs to keep us focused on our entrance preparations. So, out of desperation, three other guys, who, interestingly, were not even my friends but were united by a common passion for the game, and I decided to illegally jump out of the hostel and visit a nearby club where the match was being screened. As planned, we bunked the hostel by 12 am, despite knowing the hefty consequences; we walked almost 4 kilometres and reached the club, which was already packed to its rafters with more than 100 people. Tea and snacks were served before the match, and a guy was selling jerseys for both teams. I bought an Argentinian jersey and sat in the front rows so as not to miss a single second of the game, since it was extremely crowded and loud.

Germany, presumably the most powerful of the two teams, had a better tournament overall, knocking out the hosts, Brazil, in the Semi-finals in a humiliating and scary 7-1 defeat. The historical perception of German efficiency was never in doubt here either, as the German team worked as a well-oiled machine, overcoming everything and everyone on its march to glory. Argentina, on the other hand, had barely scraped into the tournament from the qualifiers and had to grind out wins to reach the finals. Fortunately for them, they had individual talents studded across their squad who had the skill and potential to turn games on their head in a split second. Mascherano’s sliding tackle on Robben saved Argentina in the semis, and they won the match in the penalty shootout courtesy of their much-underrated goalkeeper, Sergio Romero. But as an ardent optimist and utter believer in Messi’s magical capabilities, I believed my team had it in them to pull off one more miracle and thereby bring on the ultimate humiliation for Brazil fans, watching their own arch-rivals crowned right on their homeland.

As the match kicked off, the Argentinian supporters, who were the vast majority in the Maracanã and at the Club, created an enthralling atmosphere, further boosting our collective hopes. We were happy with the performance in the initial moments of the game. The best chance of the first half and possibly the best one for Argentina fell into the feet of Gonzalo Higuaín, who unfortunately couldn’t convert the golden opportunity. Higuaín eventually had the ball in the net soon, which was ruled out by offside rules- though his prolonged celebrations made us celebrate like fools. By the end of the first half, Germany also missed a chance, when defender Howedes headed onto the crossbar.

The match, and thus the World Cup, were evenly poised, and both sets of fans had their hopes set on ultimate glory. The second half was a continuation of the end-to-end battle, with both teams looking a bit exhausted after the month-long carnival. My high hopes on Messi came crashing down as he moved around the pitch as if he was carrying the weight of the entire world on his shoulders. Chances which he would have buried without half a thought were missed, passes that he would have completed without batting an eyelid were miscued. The signs were all pointing towards heartbreak, but we kept hoping, and we kept praying because we knew something had to give, and that something was a 21-year-old named Mario Götze.

As the match moved into extra time, Germany’s coach, Joachim Löw, pondered his bench options and made a baffling decision: he chose to replace his primary striker and the greatest goal scorer in the history of the World Cup, Miroslav Klose, with young talent Götze. This instinctive decision proved to be the game-changer as the unflappable Götze demonstrated perfect technique and commendable calm to chest down André Schürrle’s (coincidentally another substitution) pass and sweep in a left-foot finish with the prospect of a penalty shootout just seven minutes away. With what was probably one of the most delicately constructed and efficiently finished goals in the history of the World Cup finals, Götze successfully managed to seal the 4th World Cup in Germany’s history and reduced Argentinian fans across the world, like me, to a state of wishful thinking of what could have been.

The culmination of that World Cup might look brighter to me, probably because it was a threshold moment in my life, with so many things uncertain. But looking back, watching that final in such exciting circumstances and observing the effect that it had on me just reasserted in me the capability of football to surpass all boundaries and influence the lives of so many in such intense ways, and I can assure you for sure that this particular match occupies a huge role in bringing me much closer to this beautiful game.

The writer is a student at IISER Bhopal. The article is part of a series called ‘Most Memorable Football Match in My Life’ by our readers.

 

 

Read more – La Remontada: The Biggest Comeback in Footballing History

Also see – The St. Bernard and the Pub Owner: Manchester United Through Ages

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