BRAZIL: FOOTBALL/SOCCER - WORLD CUP 2014 - Argentina depart training base for World Cup final

Record ID: 449130

  • Title: BRAZIL: FOOTBALL/SOCCER - WORLD CUP 2014 - Argentina depart training base for World Cup final
  • Date: 12th July 2014
  • Summary: VESPASIANO, BRAZIL (JULY 12, 2014) (REUTERS) POLICE ESCORT OUTSIDE ARGENTINA TRAINING BASE BUS DRIVING OUT OF TRAINING BASE WITH SEVERAL POLICE CARS / PLAYERS WAVING FROM INSIDE THE BUS VARIOUS OF BUS AND POLICE ESCORTS DRIVING AWAY ON THE WAY TO AIRPORT
  • Embargoed: 27th July 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Brazil
  • Country: Brazil
  • Topics: General,Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVABK6AJZLNM5DMSP4ZMBR6XYVQC
  • Story Text: Argentina's players left their training base in Vespasiano, just outside of Brazil's third largest city, Belo Horizonte, for the last time on Saturday (July 12), the eve of the 2014 World Cup final.
    The players were escorted from Cidado de Galo, where they have been based for four weeks, to catch a private flight to Rio de Janeiro, where they are to meet Germany in the iconic Maracana Stadium on Sunday (July 13).
    It is certainly not the final that the host nation wished to take place in their soccer temple, but the showdown between Argentina and Germany will certainly provide soccer fans with a nerve-jangling climax to what many have deemed the best tournament in history.
    Whether this match is a high-scoring thriller like the teams' 1986 encounter in Mexico City which Argentina won 3-2, or more resembles the dire spectacle of West Germany's 1-0 1990 win in Rome is difficult to predict.
    The trend in recent finals has been for tight, cagey, defensive games with narrow, low-scoring victories and those finals of 1986 and 1990 reflect the dividing line in the finals story.
    The six finals up to and including 1986 produced 27 goals, the six since 1990, when Argentina became the first team to fail to score in the final, have produced nine.
    And there is every indication that, paradoxically, this goal-laded World Cup -- which has produced 167 goals so far and could beat the all-time record of 171 set in France '98 -- will be won by defensive steel rather than attacking brilliance.
    Lothar Matthaeus, the last German skipper to lift the World Cup in 1990, said this week: "There is an old saying in Germany that defences win titles, while the attack wins the glory," - words which could yet be borne out in the intriguing finale.
    According to his agent, this will be Argentina coach Alejandro Sabella's last match in charge -- win or lose -- and he will leave the job a national hero if his team triumph in the third final between the European and South American heavyweights.
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