Sports

MOSCOW — Brazil just barely managed to get everything ready in time for the World Cup. Russia insists it won’t have any such problems in 2018, although the country faces other issues ahead of football’s next showcase tournament — including the threat of racism and violence.

Just like in Brazil, the sheer size of Russia is set to cause logistical challenges for organisers and fans alike for the 2018 World Cup, with thousands of kilometres separating some of the host cities. But the successful staging of February’s Winter Olympics without any major organisational problems has raised Russians’ confidence in producing a high-class tournament.

After the games, Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko told parliament that Russia would avoid the “Brazilian scenario” of massive construction delays.

Of the 12 stadiums in 11 host cities, two are complete but must be reconfigured to host football games. A third, the Spartak Stadium in Moscow, will open in September. The others, including Moscow’s 81,000-capacity Luzhniki where the final will be played, are brand new projects where construction has either started or will begin this year.

The Russian government insists it will complete the stadiums on time, although Mutko told local media in March that some aspects of the design process “gave cause for disquiet” as deadlines were missed.

“That is normal working concern,” organising committee head Alexei Sorokin told The Associated Press in a recent interview. “That does not mean we are lying down calmly and waiting for things to happen. It suggests that we are... attentive to it.”

Six stadiums still need to go through a design certification process before construction enters full swing.

“All of the projects are being developed pretty much at the same speed, with one or two exceptions,” architect Peter Lavelle of the Populous firm, which designed the Kazan and Sochi stadiums and is working on the Saransk and Rostov-on-Don arenas, told The Associated Press.

But as long as projects remain uncertified, delays are inevitable, warned construction analyst Vitalie Iambla of consultancy firm PMR.

“We will have also stadiums built a few weeks or months before the first whistle of the tournament,” he said, adding that rising building material costs and the ruble’s decline against other currencies over the last year are likely to cause cost overruns.

The government’s model for the new stadiums is the Kazan Arena, which opened on time last year costing around $400 million and will be a World Cup stadium. The St. Petersburg stadium, however, is a sign of what can go wrong. The 69,000-capacity arena, which will host a 2018 semi-final, is scheduled to open in 2016, far beyond its one-time finishing date of December 2008. During that time, construction has been marred by delays while costs have soared to $1.1 billion, something Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has labelled “disgraceful”.

But a bigger issue may be fan racism, after several incidents in Russian club football in recent years.

Monkey chants aimed at Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure by CSKA Moscow fans during a Champions League game in November earned the Russian club the first of two UEFA racism sanctions last season, and highlighted Russian football’s problems with discrimination and violence. Last season also saw a swastika flag waved at a Spartak Moscow game and a violent pitch invasion by Zenit St. Petersburg supporters in which an opposition player was punched in the head.

“Russian football is a making certain efforts towards combating [racism],” Sorokin said. “This thing exists everywhere, we are no exception. So we are going to do what we can.”

Some Russian clubs’ fans have shown they are “on a different planet in terms of their mindset”, said Piara Powar, head of anti-discrimination group FARE, which is monitoring Russia ahead of 2018. “We have football fans going on the rampage, looking to attack visible ethnic minorities. So in that sense, I think that the whole shebang is there and it’s getting worse.”

Last year, Russia passed its fan law, which introduces stadium bans for troublemakers at sports events. Powar said the law is “very stringent” but needs to be accompanied by education initiatives.

The budget for the World Cup has been set at 660 billion rubles ($19.24 billion), but the question of total costs is thorny. The official figure covers the stadiums and some stadium-related infrastructure, but not other developments such as around $20 billion of rail upgrades linked to the World Cup preparations by the Transport Ministry.

Another worry for Russia is the performance of its team, which was knocked out in the group stage in Brazil without winning a game. That poor performance has put coach Fabio Capello’s job in question, while renewed focus is being given to developing young players for 2018 and even naturalising foreign talent, a suggestion that in recent months has been mooted in government.

However, one thing is on Russia’s side. As host, it will not need to qualify.

RIO DE JANEIRO — Argentina captain Lionel Messi won FIFA’s “Golden Ball” award as the best player of the World Cup after leading his team to Sunday’s final and Colombia’s James Rodriguez finished as the tournament’s top scorer with six goals.

Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, who kept a clean sheet as his side beat Argentina 1-0 in extra time to claim their fourth World Cup, was awarded the “Golden Gloves” as the tournament’s top keeper.

Four-time world player of the year Messi had a quiet game by his standards on Sunday but was the driving force behind Argentina’s push to their first World Cup final since 1990.

He scored four of their six goals in the group stage, set up Angel di Maria’s winner in the last 16 against Switzerland and shouldered the burden of slotting home Argentina’s first penalty in their shootout win over the Netherlands in the semifinals.

Messi also won four successive man-of-the-match awards against Bosnia, Iran, Argentina and Switzerland.

A despondent Messi took little consolation in the award.

“It’s a sad prize which I won, because we wanted to lift the World Cup trophy for Argentina.”

While some pundits thought Messi looked jaded after the group stage and did not influence his team as much, Argentina coach Alejandro Sabella said he was a deserving winner.

“I think Lionel reached the pantheon of the greats a while back,” Sabella told reporters. “Yes, I think he deserved it. He played a great World Cup to get us where he did.

“I think it’s very deserved.”

Germany forward Thomas Mueller was runner-up to Messi and Netherlands winger Arjen Robben was third.

Mueller also came runner-up behind Rodriquez for the Golden Boot award. The Germany forward finished with five goals, one behind the Colombian attacking midfielder.

France midfielder Paul Pogba was named young player of the tournament, while Colombia took the Fair Play award after receiving just five yellow cards in five matches in Brazil.

FIFA also praised their positive play and the behaviour of their players and officials.

BERLIN/RIO DE JANEIRO — It’s been a long wait, and now Germany is basking in its fourth World Cup title.

The Die Welt newspaper celebrated Monday with a three-word headline in the national colours of black, red and gold that read simply: “It is true,” while Der Spiegel magazine’s website listed Germany’s titles: “1954. 1974. 1990. 2014!”

Midfielder Mario Goetze, who wasn’t born when Germany won its last World Cup, sealed the title with his extra-time goal. “THANK GOETZ! World champions!” screamed the mass-circulation daily Bild.

“Super Mario gets the fourth star!” read the headline in Berlin tabloid Berliner Kurier.

German astronaut Alexander Gerst congratulated the team from the International Space Station on its “top performance”. He tweeted a picture of himself in a Germany jersey with an extra fourth star — “as experts on stars, we already got one”.

Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer said after the match: “All of Germany is the world champion.”

The theme was picked up by a top official in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party, Peter Tauber, who tweeted, “Good morning, you world champions out there!”

Merkel and President Joachim Gauck, who travelled together to the final in Rio de Janeiro, posed for pictures with the team and the trophy. And there was another selfie with a beaming chancellor for forward Lukas Podolski, weeks after Merkel dropped into the dressing room during a visit to Germany’s opening match.

It’s Germany’s first World Cup title as a reunited nation, though that fact drew barely any attention in German media. West Germany’s 1990 win came with the country just three months away from reunification; united Germany won the 1996 European Championship.

About a quarter of a million fans celebrated into the night at the packed “fan mile” in front of Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, while car drivers blasted their horns into the early hours of the morning.

The party resumes on Tuesday morning, when coach Joachim Loew’s team is due to land at Berlin’s Tegel airport and then celebrate its triumph at the Brandenburg Gate.

The finance ministry said it will issue a special “Germany World Cup champion” postage stamp. But don’t expect Germany to declare a national holiday in celebration.

“There is no serious discussion of this,” government spokeswoman Christiane Wirtz said. 

United as one

United they stand, right at the top of the football world.

And right on South American soil.

Germany won its fourth title, but its first since a country torn apart by political divisions at the end of World War II was finally glued back together.

“It was always my dream to get on the summit and look down,” said Miroslav Klose, a Polish-born Germany striker who is a perfect example of the country’s unification and its diversity. “Incredible.”

The Germany victory at the iconic Maracana Stadium was special for another reason, too. The Germans became the first European team to win a World Cup in the Americas, coming after they humiliated host Brazil 7-1 in the semifinals and then got the best of Argentina and Lionel Messi 1-0 in the final.

Along the way, Klose set the record for World Cup goals, scoring his 16th in the rout over Brazil to push himself ahead of Brazil striker Ronaldo.

Klose didn’t score on Sunday at the Maracana, however. Instead, it was the man who replaced him in the 88th minute, Mario Goetze, that did.

Goetze’s moment of brilliance, chesting the ball to control it and then volleying past Argentina goalkeeper Sergio Romero deep in extra time, was just another sample of the teamwork that has lifted this tightly knit Germany setup to the top.

“The team did it beautifully,” said Manuel Neuer, voted the best goalkeeper of the tournament. “At some point we’ll stop celebrating, but we’ll still wake up with a smile.”

After winning the World Cup title in 1954, West Germany turned itself into a powerhouse on the field. The west side of the divided nation later won the 1972 European Championship and then the 1974 World Cup, playing as the host.

Another European title came in 1980, followed a loss to Italy in the 1982 World Cup final. The West Germans again reached the final in 1986, but lost to an Argentina team led by Diego Maradona in Mexico. They got their revenge four years later, beating the Argentines in 1990 to win the World Cup for a third time.

Their lone major title as a united country came at Euro 96, when they beat the Czech Republic in the final at another of football’s grandest venues, Wembley Stadium. But they have come very close many times since, losing to Brazil in the 2002 final and reaching the semifinals in both 2006 and 2010.

Argentina has now come up short against Germany in three straight World Cups. The Argentines also lost to the Germans in the quarter-finals at the last two tournaments.

“This was our chance, and we felt that way,” said Argentina midfielder Javier Mascherano, perhaps the team’s most important player behind Messi. “We couldn’t do it. We have to lift our head and suffer the pain.”

For Brazilian fans, still hurting after the drubbing by Germany and still sad about the broken back that ruled Neymar out of the final games of the World Cup, Sunday’s result comes with a sigh of relief.

The five-time champions have now hosted the World Cup twice, and come up short both times. In 1950, Brazil lost to Uruguay in the final match, forever known around here as the Maracanazo. This year, after getting trounced by Germany, many Brazilians believed a win for Argentina, Brazil’s biggest rival, would have hurt almost as much.

Germany, by way of Goetze’s goal in the 113th minute, took care of that problem.

“You just shoot that goal in, you don’t really know what’s happening,” Goetze said. “And then at the end of the match, having a party with the team, the whole country... it is for us, a dream come true.”

This time, it’s for all Germans.

RIO DE JANEIRO — It’s the day of the last World Cup finale in Brazil. Pele is nine years old. Back then, he’s just Edson Arantes do Nascimento.

Edson has been playing outside. He rushes into his house and notices his father is crying. Brazil has just lost to Uruguay at its sacred Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro. The nation has been thrown into mourning.

“Eight years later in the World Cup in Sweden I saw my father cry again but with happiness because we won the World Cup,” Pele said on Saturday, the eve of the final’s return after 64 years to the Maracana.

He adds: “I have luck.”

With that first World Cup triumph in Stockholm in 1958 (the 17-year-old Pele scored twice in the final), a footballer and a team of Brazilians began a World Cup legacy that captured five titles, three of them for the man now known as Pele. No team or player can match that record.

Pele told the AP he picked four teams to do well at this World Cup: finalists Germany and Argentina, and Brazil and Spain. Spain, the defending champion, was knocked out in the first round.

“I missed on Spain but I think everyone missed.”

For Pele, Germany is the best team and should win the World Cup, and he insisted his opinion was not based on Brazil’s fierce rivalry with Argentina and the possibility that they could lift the trophy at Brazil’s Maracana.

“We are neighbours. No problem. We are brothers,” he said, laughing now. “But, of course, if you be reasonable, honest, Germany is the better team. A more organised team. But this is the game: You never know what is going to happen.”

Brazilian star Neymar’s back injury, which ruled the man who now wears Pele’s No. 10 shirt out of the semifinals, was the most memorable moment of the tournament for Pele for the wrong reasons. And Brazil’s 7-1 semifinal rout by Germany was “a disaster”, he said.

“When you have a disaster, there’s no reason, no explanation,” he said. “You cannot have an answer for that. No way. This is football. A box of surprises.” He said he still thought Brazil’s football federation should stick with coach Luiz Felipe Scolari and the young team.

There was “no doubt” in Pele’s eyes that Brazil’s World Cup was an overall success: “We hope to finish the way we’ve been [going]... with peace, beautiful games, a lot of people in the stadium.”

The interview ends with the recollections of 1950 and his father, who was also a footballer, but only for a local team. And then Pele switches back to this World Cup. He just can’t seem to shrug off that heavy loss to Germany.

“This World Cup, I thought I don’t want my son to see me cry,” Pele said. “He didn’t see me cry but very sad.”

RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazilians already downhearted at missing out on reaching the World Cup final watched in dismay Saturday as their national team lost to the Netherlands 3-0 in the third-place match.

Across the nation, fans hoping for some measure of redemption were crushed as Brazil failed to score and said their only solace was that the country managed to put on a good World Cup show for the world.

Brazilian soldier Julio Cesar Carioca compared his connection with Brazil’s team to life itself.

“You go into things with great expectations, but rarely do those expectations play out in reality,” Carioca said. “It’s football. Things happen.”

In Rio, tens of thousands of fans watched the game on a massive TV on Copacabana Beach and the mostly Brazilian crowd stood in silence as the Netherlands knocked in one goal after another.

Argentine fans who have flooded into the city ahead of their country’s final match against Germany on Sunday cheered and chanted songs mocking Brazil’s football prowess.

At the Alzirao street fest in Rio where thousands cheered Brazil in earlier tournament games, only a few hundred showed up on Saturday and small business owner Angelica Morellato Seabra was among them wearing Brazil’s national team jersey. She was disgusted with the outcome.

“I’m trying to forget the whole thing, but it’s going to be difficult,” said Seabra, 56. “If you draw you forget, but if you lose like we do, forgetting is impossible.”

On Copacabana Beach, university student Luiz de Almeira shook his head in dismay each time Brazil seemed like it would score but missed opportunities.

“I’m proud of being Brazilian but I’m mad because we could have been making history,” the 20-year-old business major said. “The team has not shown what it is capable of doing and the only salvation is that Brazil has managed to show it could pull off a good World Cup.”

Nathalia Gomes, an 18-year-old high school student, said she hoped Brazil’s World Cup would be remembered more for the people’s hospitality than for the national team’s losses, especially Brazil’s 7-1 thrashing by Germany.

“This World Cup should go down in history for the friendliness of the fans, for the party we through and not for the 7-1 defeat,” said Gomes, who watched the game from Alzirao.

Artur Jose, a 33-year-old administrative assistant, said Brazil’s team for the 2014 tournament will be remembered as its worst ever.

“We didn’t have any sort of strategy, no cohesion, no game and only one good player,” he said, referring to Neymar, who was knocked out of the competition with an injury. “The one good thing that might come out of this humiliation would be if people remember this feeling at the ballot boxes during the elections” in October to select a new president.

“Brazil is going through hard times: On the pitch and off,” he said.

Concerns that Russia’s preparations for the 2018 version could suffer due to the political crisis in Ukraine were dismissed on Saturday by Vitaly Mutko, Russia’s sports minister who is also a member of FIFA’s executive committee.

“I can’t see any major issues,” he said in Rio de Janeiro. “It’s a different subject and one that will not interfere in the preparations for the World Cup at all.”

While many Brazilians objected to the billions spent to put on the World Cup, few protests materialised during the event. But 66-year-old Magali Garcia Linares said the team’s terrible performance reinforced her opposition to big spending by Brazil for international sporting events. The country next hosts the 2016 Olympics.

“How can you hold an event like this in a country with zero health, zero education?” she asked. “The quantities that were spent were vast and in vain. For this World Cup, the only things that were done were the visible things that foreigners would see and notice. The invisible things, things that really matter, were left undone.”

‘Life goes on’

Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari is leaving his future in the hands of the country’s football federation.

Scolari led Brazil to their fifth World Cup title in 2002 and has lost just four times in 29 matches since taking over in November 2012, but many fans have been calling for his head in the wake of Brazil’s heaviest ever World Cup defeat on Tuesday.

“That has to be decided by the president of the confederation,” Scolari told a news conference when asked about his future.

“When we started we had a deadline to make our jobs available at the end of the World Cup regardless of the result,” added the 65-year-old.

“And that is exactly what we’re going to do with a final report for the president.

Whoever is tasked with the goal of taking Brazil back to the summit of world football faces a massive job.

Minus the mercurial talents of injured forward Neymar, Brazil look bereft of ideas and far short of the level needed to challenge the likes of Argentina and Germany.

Defenders Thiago Silva and David Luiz were guilty of early mistakes on Saturday as the Dutch scored twice in 16 minutes, sparking fears of a repeat of Tuesday’s 7-1 humiliation.

Goals from Robin van Persie, Daley Blind and Georginio Wijnaldum secured third place for the Netherlands.

“Today’s match... for us was the best way to end this tournament,” said man of the match Arjen Robben. “We also fully deserved this third place the way we played this tournament.

“Nobody expected us to be in the last four.”

RIO DE JANEIRO — The best player in the world goes up against the ultimate team machine, on the world’s biggest stage.

When Lionel Messi’s Argentina takes on Germany in Sunday’s World Cup final, it looks at first glance like a meeting between brilliant individual scoring talent and the tight discipline of a collective unit.

But this game will be about much more than that.

Argentina has shown that it can play just as tactically as the Germans, eking out narrow victories and doing whatever is needed to win. Germany, meanwhile, has put on two of the most explosive displays of the tournament — beating Portugal 4-0 in its opening game and then demolishing host Brazil 7-1 in the semifinals.

Add in the rich history between these two teams — who faced each other in two straight World Cup finals in 1986 and 1990, winning one each — and it’s anyone’s guess who will come out on top at the Maracana Stadium.

Here is a look at how the two finalists compare:

Goalkeepers:

Manuel Neuer’s reputation as one of the best goalkeepers in the world has only grown in Brazil, where he has been one of Germany’s best players throughout the tournament, especially in the knockout rounds. Aside from being a first-class shot stopper, the Bayern Munich goalkeeper showed his versatility by repeatedly rushing out to help the defence in the second-round win over Algeria. He then made key saves to deny Karim Benzema an equaliser for France in the quarter-finals, and a number of impressive stops against Brazil.

Sergio Romero has answered most sceptics who questioned whether he was good enough to play for a top team in a World Cup. Romero was only a backup for his club Monaco this past season, but came through big in the penalty shoot-out against the Netherlands with two saves to send his team into the final. He has kept three straight clean sheets in the knockout rounds, but will face his greatest challenge yet against the clinical Germans.

Advantage: Germany

Defence:

Germany’s defence has improved vastly since coach Joachim Loew took captain Philip Lahm out of midfield and put him back in his favoured position as right back after an erratic display against Algeria in the second round. Mats Hummels has been a steady anchor in central defence, and Germany had little trouble neutralising the explosive attacks of both France and Brazil. Whether they can deal with Messi is another matter.

Argentina’s defence was seen as its main weakness going into the World Cup, but the team has now gone 330 minutes without conceding a goal in the knockout rounds — including two extra time periods. The back four, which includes Manchester City duo Pablo Zabaleta and Martin Demichelis, made Dutch strikers Arjen Robben and Robin van Persie look plain ordinary.

Advantage: Germany

Midfield:

This is Germany’s biggest strength, a unit without weakness that plays together as a well-oiled machine. Bastian Schweinsteiger and Sami Khedira shore things up defensively while Toni Kroos and Mesut Ozil direct most of the attacks going forward. Germany’s ruthless display against Brazil was orchestrated by the clinical efficiency of its midfield, and a similar display on Sunday might just be too much for Argentina to handle as well.

The Argentines, meanwhile, are hoping that Angel Di Maria will recover from a thigh injury to play in the final. Di Maria’s pace and ability to take on defenders on the wing was sorely missed against the Netherlands, when his team struggled to find ways forward. Defensive midfielder Javier Mascherano was one of the best players on the pitch against the Netherlands and is the key to keeping Germany in check.

Advantage: Germany 

Attack:

Germany has the highest-scoring player in World Cup history in Miroslav Klose. But Argentina has Messi, and two other top forwards to boot. While Messi hasn’t scored in the three knockout games, his four goals in the group stage reminded everyone of why he’s a four-time world player of the year. Even with Sergio Aguero and Gonzalo Higuain in the team, Messi has always been the key to Argentina’s success — and never more so than in the biggest game of his career. For Argentina to have a chance, Messi will have to create goals — either for himself or for his teammates.

Germany aren’t bad up front either: Klose netted his 16th career World Cup goal against Brazil, and his teammate Thomas Mueller already has 10 in just two tournaments.

Advantage: Argentina

RIO DE JANEIRO — Germany expects them the experience that runs through its team to give the edge over Argentina in Sunday’s World Cup final after admitting they restrained themselves when they thumped Brazil in the semifinals.

Germany ruined the samba nation’s dream of winning the World Cup when it hammered Brazil 7-1 on Tuesday but forward Thomas Mueller revealed it could have been worse.

The Europeans were leading 5-0 at halftime and decided during the break that they would not embarrass the hosts by showboating with fancy passes or trick shots.

“With the score the way it was, we said we should avoid being arrogant and to refrain from humiliating the opponent,” Mueller said on Friday.

“There was this agreement and it came from the players themselves.”

Mueller, one of 10 names short-listed for the Golden Boot award given to the best player of the tournament, said Germany was anticipating a much tougher match from Argentina so could not afford to let up at any stage against the South Americans.

“I’m not expecting that we’ll be ahead 5-0 at halftime again like against Brazil even though that would be nice,” he said.

“It could end up being a tight match like against Algeria or France. But it doesn’t matter. We know what we have to do.”

Germany captain Philipp Lahm also said there was no room for sentiment in the final, adding that his team was single-minded in their approach to the game.

“We’re here to win the World Cup,” he told reporters at Germany’s secluded training camp at Santo Andre. “The experience we’ve got all the way through our team is definitely an edge for us.”

End of an era

Regardless of the result, Sunday’s match will mark the end of the road for Argentina manager Alejandro Sabella, who is stepping down, according to his agent.

A former midfielder who was capped eight times by Argentina, Sabella got involved in coaching after he retired as a player in 1989 and took on the national job in 2011.

“He’s going. He’s leaving whatever happens. Whether they are champions or not, a cycle is ending,” agent Eugenio Lopez said.

Argentina was fined 300,000 Swiss francs ($336,000) by FIFA on Friday for failing to bring players to four pre-match news conferences during the World Cup.

However, the sport’s world governing body did pick three of their players — Lionel Messi, Angel Di Maria and midfielder Javier Mascherano — for the Golden Boot shortlist.

Germany had four players selected, Mueller and Lahm plus Mats Hummels and Toni Kroos, while Colombia midfielder James Rodriguez, Netherlands forward Arjen Robben and Brazil’s Neymar, who was injured in the quarter-finals, were also nominated. 

Italian connection

Nicola Rizzoli of Italy will referee the World Cup final.

With a European and South American team playing, many had expected FIFA to appoint an Asian referee for Sunday’s game. But Rizzoli got the call to work his third Argentina match at this year’s World Cup.

“It is unbelievable for me,” Rizzoli said in a video interview released Friday by FIFA. “I represent Italy in this moment. I want to be one of the best for sure, and I will.”

He is the second Italian to referee the final in the past four World Cups. Pierluigi Collina refereed when Germany lost to Brazil 2-0 in the 2002 final in Yokohama, Japan.

Now head of UEFA refereeing, Collina has been a strong supporter of his compatriot’s career.

Rizzoli was the referee for the all-German Champions League final in 2013, when Bayern Munich beat Borussia Dortmund 2-1 in London.

FIFA Refereeing Committee Chairman Jim Boyce said earlier Friday that Rizzoli would get the duty.

“We choose the best referees for the best matches, and the Italian will referee the final,” Boyce said.

Rizzoli has already worked three matches at this year’s World Cup, including Argentina’s quarter-final victory over Belgium and a group win over Nigeria. He also handled the high-profile match between the Netherlands and Spain on the second day of the tournament.

FIFA head of refereeing Massimo Busacca also said that match officials have improved the football at this year’s World Cup.

Busacca said their understanding of the game helped increase the number of goals scored and playing time per match from four years ago in South Africa.

Meanwhile, referees have awarded fewer fouls and yellow cards in Brazil than in 2010.

“Football won in this competition,” said Busacca, a former World Cup referee.

FIFA also said the 95 injuries at this World Cup, seven classed as severe, were a reduction of 40 per cent.

“When we compare all the matches we can be really satisfied,” Busacca said.

SANTO ANDRE, Brazil — Germany coach Joachim Loew believes Brazil’s players were overwhelmed by the pressure of trying to win the World Cup at home, a sentiment expressed by several current and former players after their 7-1 semifinal mauling.

Germany, who have had a sport psychologist with the team since 2004, have also gone to great lengths to shield their players from the pressures at the World Cup, setting up their base at a fortress-like purpose-built compound on a remote beach in rural northeastern Brazil.

The relaxed and always-composed deportment of the Germany players stands in sharp contrast with the emotions exhibited and tears shed by Brazil players at the tournament, scenes that have amazed some Germans.

“Perhaps the pressure was just too much,” Loew said in an interview on the German football association website when asked why Brazil had imploded in the first half when Germany scored five times.

“The expectations on the team in their home country might have crippled them. We know all about that from our own experience in 2006,” he said, referring to Germany’s heart-breaking semifinal 2-0 loss to Italy.

“That’s why I feel for my coaching counter-part Luiz Felipe Scolari, why I feel for the Brazil team and the whole Brazilian nation,” he said.

News emerged earlier in the tournament that Brazil started using a sports psychologist to help the team amid worries about their mental state after keeper Julio Cesar and captain Thiago Silva cried in front of millions of TV viewers.

“I talked with Dante the other day he told me the team was riding on only emotion,” said Giovane Elber, a former Brazil and Bayern Munich striker who works as a pundit for German TV, referring to the Brazil defender.

Raised eyebrows

Germany’s psychologist Hans-Dieter Hermann had been part of the team since 2004, when he was brought on board by then-coach Juergen Klinsmann. There were some eyebrows raised at first but Hermann quickly became part of the furniture and no one in Germany has ever questioned his contributions since.

Mehmet Scholl, a former Germany midfielder, said the Germany players were mentally focused and strong enough to deal with setbacks without falling apart.

“If a team that lives off emotion meets a team like Germany that has its whole act together, that can deal with setbacks and lots of quality, then emotions alone won’t be enough to win,” he said.

Germany coaches have talked at length in Brazil about their secret weapon — which they call “Nervenstaerke”, or “strength of nerves” — that has helped them get to the two of the last four World Cup finals and two other semifinals.

Former Germany goalkeeper Oliver Kahn said he was astonished to see Brazil players crying on the pitch so often.

“I don’t know how much weight the boys from Brazil were carrying on their shoulders,” Kahn said.

“But they weren’t able to come to terms with it. This team didn’t have enough experience to come to grips with the pressures of this big tournament in their own country.

“We witnessed a collective implosion of the Brazil team,” he added.

SAO PAULO — Traditional Dutch frailty in penalty shoot-outs again proved their Achilles heel when they lost 4-2 on spot-kicks to Argentina after a goalless World Cup semifinal on Wednesday.

Coach Louis van Gaal was forced to use defender Ron Vlaar as his first penalty taker and he was also left to regret being unable to send on his expert spot-kick saver Tim Krul for the shoot-out.

“I asked two players to take the first kick before deciding on Vlaar because I thought Vlaar was the best player on the field and I thought he had a great deal of confidence,” Van Gaal told reporters.

“But it goes to show, when push comes to shove it is not easy to score a penalty kick. Everybody knows that.”

Van Gaal did not name the other player he had asked to take the first kick, a task handed in the quarter-final win over Costa Rica to striker Robin van Persie who was substituted in extra time against Argentina.

Arjen Robben and Dirk Kuyt scored their penalties but midfielder Wesley Sneijder also missed while the Argentines converted four out of four to reach Sunday’s final against Germany.

The Dutch have now lost two out of three penalty shoot-outs at World Cups as well as three out of four in European Championships.

“When you take one you have to score and that didn’t happen, so it wasn’t good enough,” Vlaar said.

“I would never walk away from my responsibility. I wasn’t nervous, I was focused. But it must go in and it didn’t.

“It’s tough, but that’s what sport is about,” he added. “It really hurts, a dream which gets put out.”

Van Gaal also rued the fact he could not use substitute Krul in the shoot-out as he did so successfully against Costa Rica.

First-choice Jasper Cillessen had failed to stop any of the 13 penalties he has faced in his professional career and that number increased to 17 on Wednesday. 

Fine saves 

Krul made two fine saves in the shoot-out against Costa Rica but Van Gaal had used all three substitutions against Argentina so Cillessen had to stay on the field.

“If I had had the opportunity to substitute Jasper I would have done that but I had already used three substitutes so I couldn’t do that,” the Dutch coach told reporters.

“I thought it was necessary to get Van Persie out because he was on his last legs,” he added. “My feeling was that [Klaas-Jan] Huntelaar would make the goal.”

Argentina keeper Sergio Romero emerged as his team’s hero by saving two of the four Dutch spot-kicks and he is a player Van Gaal knows well.

“The penalty series is always a matter of luck,” the Dutch coach said. “And, of course, I taught Romero how to stop penalties so that hurts.”

Van Gaal brought Romero to AZ Alkmaar in 2007 when he was coach and although he later said his comments were made in jest his hurt was evident.

“It is the most terrible scenario to lose on penalties at the very least we were the equal party in the match if not the better team so that of course is a big disappointment,” he said.

Biiter rivals

Brazilians might have thought that their World Cup nightmare couldn’t possibly get any worse — and then bitter rivals Argentina reached the final in their own backyard Wednesday.

Still agonising over their traumatic 7-1 semifinal defeat to Germany just 24 hours earlier, Brazilians will now have to watch Argentina and their superstar Lionel Messi battle for the trophy in Rio de Janeiro’s legendary Maracana Stadium on Sunday.

Many Brazilians rooted for the Netherlands to beat their South American neighbours in Wednesday’s semifinal. But Argentina saw off the dogged Dutch 4-2 in a penalty shoot-out after a 0-0 draw in 120 minutes of attritional stalemate.

“Seeing Argentina in the final in our home hurts, especially after the Selecao’s worst ever defeat,” said Marcio Carneiro da Silva, 36, a mailman drowning his sorrows with a beer on the terrace of a Rio de Janeiro restaurant.

His friend Cesar Augusto, 37, already picked a new team for Sunday.

“Now I’m German,” he said.

Brazilians noted that the final will be in the same stadium where Brazil lost the decisive game of the 1950 tournament to Uruguay, a defeat that traumatised the country.

We are all Germany 

“The nightmare continues,” wrote O Dia newspaper in its online edition.

“In addition to not being able to dream about a sixth title, Brazilians will have to live with the real possibility of one of its main rivals triumphing in the ultimate football temple,” it said.

The sports daily Lance used a Twitter hashtag for its title, #SomosTodosAlemanha! (We Are All Germany). Argentines responded on the social media website by repeatedly typing the number 7, reminding Brazilians of their humiliating defeat.

Argentines were on cloud nine, singing and chanting at the stadium in Sao Paulo and in bars across Brazil.

“Reaching the final in Brazil is the best thing that could happen to us, although I would have preferred to beat them in the final,” said Miguel Martin, 32, a truck driver wearing a hat in Argentina’s blue and white colours who watched the game at a public screening in Sao Paulo.

Brazil and Argentina have battled for football supremacy in South America for decades.

Brazilians flaunt their record five World Cup titles at Argentines, whose team has won the trophy twice.

Throughout the World Cup, Argentine fans chanted in stadiums that football legend Diego Maradona was better than Brazilian great Pele.

But the competition goes beyond the pitch. Argentina was a leading emerging nation in the early 20th century but it was eclipsed by Brazil in economic and political might in recent decades.

Unbearable nightmare 

At the official “Fan Fest” in Sao Paulo, some Brazilians wore the Dutch team’s orange colours, applauding every time the Netherlands were close to scoring.

Now they have to cope with the possibility of President Dilma Rousseff handing the trophy to Argentine captain Messi.

“I can’t imagine Dilma giving the trophy to Argentina at the Maracana. This can’t happen,” said Marcos Raimondi, a 44-year-old economist wearing the official Dutch team jersey. “It’s worse than what happened yesterday. It’s a nightmare. Unbearable.”

Amadeus Marques, a 27-year-old doctor also in Dutch regalia, was equally dumbstruck.

“This is incredible. I feel the same sensation as yesterday. Since the fourth German goal I was already hoping that Argentina would not go through and that we would play them for third place.”

But not all Brazilians were rooting against their South American peers.

Leonan Freitas, a 33-year-old bank worker, was the only one among a group of friends sipping beers at a Rio bar who cheered for Argentina.

“Argentina is a neighbour. I want South America to win,” he said to his friends’ disapproval. “I was more scared of losing the third-place game to Argentina.”

Germany striker Miroslav Klose became the World Cup’s all-time record scorer with his 16th goal during their semifinal against Brazil on Tuesday, eclipsing former Brazil striker Ronaldo in the record books with his 23rd minute strike.

The 36-year-old, playing in his fourth World Cup, had already equalled Ronaldo on 15 goals with his dramatic strike in Germany’s 2-2 draw against Ghana in the group stage before moving ahead on Tuesday in the match in Belo Horizonte.

The goal was his first in a World Cup semifinal and arguably one of his most important as it put Germany 2-0 up in the last four clash.

A humble man who plays for Lazio after earlier spells at Kaiserslautern, Werder Bremen and Bayern Munich, Klose is the best German striker of his generation whose tremendous sense of fair play has won him admirers in his homeland and in Italy.

The soft-spoken striker, who was born in Poland and spoke almost no German when he moved to Germany with his family as an eight-year-old in 1986, is the antithesis of flamboyant and the epitome of Germany’s star-less World Cup teams.

Standing 1.82 metres tall, Klose is almost unstoppable in the air and is known for his superb timing and leaping ability having worked hard to develop those skills.

He has been consistently lethal in front of goal in the last three World Cups and contributing to his record-breaking tally has been the fact he has played in 23 matches due to Germany having reached the final and semifinals twice in that time.

While he is for the most part understated, Klose used to let loose with a spectacular somersault earlier in his career to celebrate important goals. It was a trick he stopped performing until he did it again after equalling Ronaldo’s record.

Klose’s somersault in Salvador was less than perfect, as he did not quite land upright on his feet, but the fact that he attempted it reflected his joy at having equalised within two minutes of coming on as a substitute.

“Twenty [World Cup] matches and 15 goals isn’t bad at all,” said Klose, who often brings his nine-year-old twin boys to train with the Germany team at their World Cup training ground in Santo Andre in northeastern Brazil. 

Golden boot 

As well as being the World Cup record scorer Klose is also Germany’s all-time leading scorer with 71 in 136 games.

A trained carpenter, Klose has been hammering in goals for years. He spent five years as a child living in France, where his father Josef played for AJ Auxerre.

His mother Barbara Jez is a former Poland international at handball and Klose’s family speak Polish at home.

Klose headed the winner on his Germany debut to earn a 2-1 victory over Albania in 2001 that avoided an embarrassing draw.

He began his World Cup career in 2002 with five headed goals as underdogs Germany reached the final, where they lost 2-0 to Brazil with Ronaldo scoring twice to reach eight for the tournament.

Four years later with Germany as hosts, Klose won the Golden Boot when he scored another five goals in leading Germany to the semifinals. In 2010 he scored four more in South Africa.

Alongside his inspiring longevity for a striker, Klose has been the beneficiary of outstanding crops of attacking midfielders who have set up many of his 71 goals for Germany.

He has seen off challenges from a number of younger strikers eager to replace him, including Mario Gomez.

Indeed, Klose is the only specialised striker in Germany coach Joachim Loew’s squad in Brazil after Gomez was dropped.

Alongside his record-breaking goal tally, Klose will long be remembered for his sportsmanship with his acts of fair play making headline news in Germany.

He told a referee in Italy in 2012 to disallow a goal he had just scored because he used his hand. Seven years earlier, playing for Werder Bremen, he declined to accept a penalty because he did not think he had been fouled.