FIFA World Cup final in Rio...Can Germany make it four

How time flies! Exactly a month ago when the FIFA 2014 Brazil World Cup kicked off, it was thought the final on July 13 was a long way off. But, at last, tomorrow marks the end of the tourney and the crowning moment of the new rulers of world football.

It will either be Argentina or Germany, the two teams that face off in the grand final at the famous world theatre of football in Rio de Janeiro,  Estádio do Maracanã.

And by the end of the game tomorrow night, Germany could be four times world champions or Argentina three times titlists, but with none reaching the heights attained by the crest-fallen hosts, Brazil, unprecedented five times winners of the most prized trophy in football. 

Behind Brazil are Italy with four wins and, whose achievement would have been equalled by a German triumph but still be a trophy away with an Argentine victory. However, an Argentine win will be putting them at par (3-3) with the Germans, and that is one other reason tomorrow's contest will go down to the wire.

Apart from that and, perhaps, more important, is the fact that tomorrow's final will be the third between the two teams, and who wins it after the two previous clashes had gone either way? Argentina won the first encounter 3-2 in Mexico in 1986, but four years later in Italy, Germany struck their just revenge with a 1-0 win. 

Who wins this super clash? To this question Germany and the World Cup's all-time top scorer, Miroslav Klose (on 16 goals) provided a quick answer to the press yesterday: "This time, it is our turn". Perhaps, Klose must have been convinced by their 7-1 beating of Brazil in the semi-finals that they are destined to prevail in South America this time around, a place which has remained a no-go area for World Cup championship dreams by European teams. 

None has won here before and may, partly, be why the German players have begun the psychological game, appealing to Brazilian fans to support them against their neighbouring rivals, knowing the deep-seated football rivalry between Argentina and Brazil. Indeed, following the embarrassing 1-7 defeat last Tuesday, it was the Argentines who went to town taunting the Brazilians most and not the Germans. 

But the Germans' appeal for Brazilians' support may have hit a snag with the counter from the iconic and injured Neymar Jnr publicly wishing Argentina to win because of his Barcelona teammates, Lionel Messi and Javier Mascherrano. There are other dimensions to this historic final which even include the political leaderships of the two competing countries.

This might seem innocuous, but the rival arguments out there include the fact that the German leader, Angela Merkel, had knocked out her Brazilian counterpart, Dilma Rousseff, whipping her 7-1 last Tuesday, and on her way to effect the coup de grace on another female leader, Cristina Kirchner of Argentina tomorrow, to become the supreme autocrat of the women's football summit in Brazil. 

That may just be the lighter side of the big game the world awaits tomorrow, but on a more serious note, both teams are letting nothing to chance. While the Argentine coach, Alejandro Sabella, has built his team around his captain Messi, German captain Philip Lahm is also the cog around which the wheels of the team are fixed by coach Joachim Loew.

But these are two teams whose players are known to each other, most of them having the privilege of plying their professional trade in various big clubs in Europe, namely Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Manchester City, Borussia Dortmund, Lazio, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, among other clubs. 

However, the pursuit of the individual ambitions of some of these players will be what will push their sides to the highest limit or pull them down. While Barcelona's Messi will want to rise to his calling as four times world best player, with the returning Angel Di Maria also asserting himself as one of the key players in the Real Madrid European title-winning team this year, their German counterparts in Bayern's Thomas Mueller and Klose of Lazio, will want to up their reckoning for the top scorer award at the end of the tournament. 

All told, it looks like a German triumph for the first time outside Europe even though Argentina can pull the brakes. In the match for third place in Brasilia tonight, the Selecao can appease a broken-hearted nation with the bronze medal should the Orange be a bit empathetic towards drying the tears off the eyes of the injured Neymar. At least, that is the wish of Brazilian coach, Felipe Scolari, that they "are going to try to win the third place match". 

Even though Scolari "will be remembered as the coach to lose 1-7 on home turf of the World Cup", he wouldn't want to be remembered also as the coach to lose the third-place match.