Germany overcomes valiant Argentine effort to win fourth World Cup title

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Argentina only trailed its opponents for a grand total of seven minutes during the 2014 World Cup. Unfortunately for them, all seven of those minutes came at the end of the World Cup final.

Germany won its fourth World Cup title and first as a unified nation when substitute Mario Goetze came off the bench in the 88th minute and ended Argentina keeper Sergio Romero's 485-minute goalless streak – the third longest in World Cup history – with a brilliant volley. This marks the first time a European team has won the World Cup in South America and it also continues a string of misery for Argentina at the hands of Germany.

After beating the Germans in the 1986 World Cup final, the two met again in 1990 and West Germany got revenge. And now Argentina has become the first team to get knocked out of three consecutive World Cups by the same opponent (Argentina lost to Germany in the quarterfinals in both 2006 and 2010).

[Pictures: Argentina fans crushed by World Cup defeat]

Argentina will surely rue several missed scoring chances in the final, but Germany was a deserving winner. Starting the tournament with a convincing 4-0 win over Portugal and providing the most memorable result in beating Brazil 7-1 in the semifinal, Germany had several points in between where it looked beatable. Yet even with star midfielder Marco Reus getting injured just before the tournament, Germany was, without a doubt, the World Cup's best team.

Though Germany has consistently reached the final rounds of the World Cup for decades, this trophy is the culmination of 10 years of reworking the country's football system from the youth level up started by Jurgen Klinsmann and current Germany manager Jogi Low. But what's scary for everyone else is that this could only be the beginning of a dominant stretch. Even with 36-year-old Miroslav Klose, this was still one of the youngest teams in the World Cup. So you might want to get used to celebrating Germans.

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