Germany won the 2014 World Cup final on Sunday evening when 22-year-old Mario Götze chested down a gorgeous ball from 23-year-old André Schürrle and buried a left-footed volley in extra time, giving the team a 1-0 lead it would hold onto.
The goal also illustrated perfectly why Germany deserves to be World Cup champion.
Both Götze and Schürrle were substitutes in the game, and their ability to generate a moment of brilliance like that off the bench shows just how deep this Germany team was. The team ran 23 men deep, and even when injuries and yellow cards took the team’s starters out, the Germans had an answer.
Take the start of the final. Sami Khedira, one of Germany’s most important midfielders, had to pull out at the last moment with a calf injury.
In stepped 23-year-old Christoph Kramer and Germany didn’t miss a beat.
Then, disaster struck again. Kramer took a hard shot to the head and left the game, appearing dazed.
How many teams in this World Cup could handle the loss of not one, but two key midfielders in a game? Germany subbed in Schürrle, who provided the moment of brilliance on the cross for the goal.
All that doesn’t include the fact that another German midfielder who might have started, Marco Reus, didn’t even make the trip to Brazil due to injury. It didn’t matter. Germany had stockpiles of midfielders. When one went down, the next stepped up. They kept charging.
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