Gotze's volley gives Germany its deserved reward

Thank goodness for Mario Gotze's superb volley seven minutes before the end of extra time in the World Cup final last night. It saved us from the depressing spectacle of a penalty shoot-out which would have been an awful way to end an otherwise very good World Cup tournament.

There could be little denying that Germany deserved to win the trophy, although there was never any chance that they were going to put Argentina to the sword as they has done with Brazil four days earlier. Argentina put up a much stiffer test, although their inability to get a single shot on target - even with eventual Balon D'Or winner Lionel Messi in their line-up - suggests that they struggled to make any inroads into the German defence. However, that hides the reality of misses by Higuain, Messi and Palacio, as well as the dominating presence of Manuel Neuer in the German goal.

Gotze's chest control and volley on the turn were worthy of a World Cup final winning goal. It was just a pity a goal didn't come early to potentially spark the final into life. It never quite lived up to its billing.

Germany now join Italy on four World Cup wins and with this young team, there's no doubt at all that they will be challenging again in Russia in four years time. They also become the first country, apart from Brazil, to win the World Cup away from their home continent. Full credit should go to Joachim Low, but also to Germany as a whole for the rebuilding plan they put in place after the failure at the 2004 European Championships.

If only England would do something similar.

Argentina v The Netherlands - an inevitable damp squib

I suppose it was inevitable that the second semi-final would be a damp squib compared with the first. Nothing could match the dramatic happenings of Brazil v Germany on Tuesday.

It is nevertheless disappointing to see another 0-0 draw after penalties and the cop-out of a penalty shoot-out. This time there was no Tim Krul to save the Netherlands and Argentina progressed to their fifth World Cup final, and the third offering of a Germany v Argentina final.

I suppose it will be fitting to see one of the World's top players - Lionel Messi - gracing the occasion, but let us hope that Germany's brand of football prevails.

More importantly, let us hope we don't have to rely on penalty kicks to conclude proceedings. Nothing was as dreadful as the 0-0 final between Brazil and Italy in 1994, eventually ending with a Brazil shoot-out victory.

Argentina have some great players - Messi, Aguero, Mascherano, Di Maria - but their team has not quite come together during this tournament. Despite that, they have managed five wins and a penalty shoot-out victory - and that's a recipe for success.

Onward to Sunday's final, and we want better than this semi-final gave us.

South America has the edge in semi-finals

And so we come to the Word Cup semi-finals.

South America v Europe in each case. As the competition is based in South America and no European team has ever won there, it would surely be foolish to call an all-European final. But are the South American teams good enough to beat their European opposition?

The truth is that no team has glowed consistently brightly throughout the tournament.

Brazil's results have been 3-1, 0-0, 4-1, 1-1 (won on penalties), 2-1.
Germany: 4-0, 2-2, 1-0, 2-1, 1-0.
Argentina: 2-1, 1-0, 3-2, 1-0, 1-0.
Holland: 5-1, 3-2, 2-0, 2-1, 0-0 (won on penalties).

No team has lost a game (which sometimes happens. Spain, for example, lost their first game in 2010, yet went on to win the trophy). But only Argentina have won all their five games. Sometimes late in the game!

Germany and Holland both started the competition with big wins, but have not been quite as impressive of late.

Argentina and Brazil have shown, shall we say, typical South American resilience, and buoyed by huge and loud local support, I'm going to go with them to make the final.

Who's going to win the World Cup?

And so, it's finally here. The four-year wait is over and the World Cup begins today. South Africa has the privilege of being the first African nation to host the tournament. For the next month The Beautiful Game will bring the world together for the greatest show on earth!

Yesterday I wrote off England's chances, but who will win it?

Let's look at the evidence.

The winners of the 18 tournaments have been: Brazil (5), Italy (4), Germany (3), Argentina (2), Uruguay (2), England (1), France (1).

The finalists in the last 6 cups (since 1986) have been: Brazil (3), Germany (3), Argentina (2), France (2), Italy (2).

FIFA's current top ten rankings are: 1. Brazil; 2. Spain; 3. Portugal; 4. Holland; 5. Italy; 6. Germany; 7. Argentina; 8. England; 9. France; (10. Croatia).

Note that the last six finals have been contested by only five countries. Could Spain, Portugal or Holland upset the continuum? Spain might just creep in, but their record in World Cups is worse than Engalnd's! In my opnion it is hard to see beyond these four: Brazil, Germany, Argentina, Italy.

It is also interesting to note that only South American teams have won the Cup on another continent.

Thus, though they may not contest the final, I suggest you look no further than Brazil or Argentina.

Twenty-three World Cup qualifiers

We now have 23 nations through to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Four more countries were added to the list yesterday.

Switzerland only needed a point to qualify, and duly got it in a 0-0 draw with Israel.

Slovakia made it through to their first final tournament with 1-0 win in Poland  to clinch their group ahead of Slovenia.

Having struggled for much of the qualifying competition, Argentina clinched their spot with a 1-0 win in Uruguay, who face a play-off.

Honduras made it through to the finals with a 1-0 over El Salvador.

Countries in the European play-offs will be: Russia, France, Portugal, Greece, Ukraine, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Republic or Ireland.

The other 19 are:

Ivory Coast
Germany
Denmark
Serbia
Italy
Chile
Mexico
United States
England
Spain
Paraguay
South Africa
Japan
Australia
South Korea
Holland
North Korea
Brazil
Ghana