They were labelled as two of the favourites of the tournament and they have made their road to the final. Argentina and Germany will face each other tonight at 21 (CET) to earn their glory at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. Purely based on statistics, no European team has ever won the Cup when the Championship was held in the American continent.

Germany and Argentina play a very different concept of football. Argentina probably has the strongest player in the world, la pulga (flea ed.) Lionel Messi. Germany, instead, worked as a collective and was not depending on one player. “Being champions is really something very important for a country and also for the players, who have sacrificed so much to get here”, says the Argentinian coach Alejandro Sabella. “Become champions in Brazil would be an even greater pride”. From his side, Joachim Löw, Germany’s coach, says that “Argentina is not only Messi, this team is better than four years ago, much better organized. But if we exploit our quality, we will win”.

In fact, this is not the first time Germany and Argentina will face each other in the final. In Mexico 1986 it was Argentina who won 3-2 and four years later, in Italy in 1990,  Germany took his revenge winning 1-0. Today, it is the third final that both teams will play in the legendary Estádio Maracanã with the Italian Nicola Rizzoli chosen as the referee. Five is the number of World Cups currently owned overall by both teams (three for Germany, two for Argentina).

But what happened during the direct elimination matches?

Round of Sixteen

Brazil won over Chile 4-3 (after penalties) in a very well-balanced match. Colombia showed their strengths (and confirmed themselves as one of the surprises of the tournament) after beating Uruguay 2-0 thanks to two goals by James Rodríguez, one of the best players seen in the Cup. Mexico was initially winning against Netherlands, but Wesley Sneijder and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar overthrowed the results. Ticos from Costa Rica beat the Greek team after penalties, and lead the American team to the quarterfinals. Germany and France defeated the surviving African teams, 2-1 against Algeria and 2-0 against Nigeria, respectively. Argentina won 1-0 after extra-time to Switzerland, whereas the last qualified for quarters was Belgium, who beat the US after extra time on 2-1, reaching their first quarterfinal since 1986.

Quarterfinals

Germany – France, the great European classic, finished with a 1-0 result that allowed Germans to reach their thirteenth semifinals in the FIFA World Cup history (the fourth in a row). The Colombian dream came to an end against Brazil after losing 2-1. But the Seleção (Brazilian team nickname ed.) paid a very high price: Neymar was hit by Zuniga and rushed to the hospital. For him, the Cup was over and Brazil lost his most promising player.

Argentina- Belgium was already written and the Albiceleste won for 1-0. The last quarterfinal saw the favourite Netherlands struggle to win against the ‘cinderella’ Costa Rica. After the extra time, the result was still 0-0 and the Dutch coach Louis van Gaal replaced  the goalkeeper Cillessen for Krul in the very last minute. Krul saved two penalties, and brought the Netherlands to the semifinals.

Semi-Finals

Brazil and Germany, a déjà-vu for most football lovers, finished in the most unexpected way: 7-1 for Germany. Five goals from the Germans in 30 minutes against a Brazil that seemed far away from the field. Without Neymar, Brazil appeared disband and unable to finalize anything.

Exciting as the first semifinal was, the second one was dull and soporific instead. The game was not decided either in the regular time or within the 30 additional minutes of extra time, and closed at 0-0. During penalties Argentinian goalkeeper Sergio Romero neutralized the penalities kicked by Ron Vlaar and Wesley Sneijder. On the other hand, Argentinians did not miss a shot, winning 4-2 and heading to the finals.

Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Venezia

Once every four years it’s time for the biggest soccer event again: the World Cup of soccer. Many AEGEEans will be watching, which can also be done together in the Facebookgroup, but not all of them will be soccer fanatics in their daily life. Especially for those people, the AEGEEan has created a guide: how to survive the World Cup without soccer knowledge. Do you watch soccer because your friends and family are watching too, are you the one asking a lot of questions during the game or do you really only watch the European and World Cup games (and maybe not even all)? Then this guide is meant for you!

Before the game

The easiest way to deal with a lack of knowledge, is to find a group of friends or family who have the same (or even less) knowledge about soccer as you. This way, the walking soccer encyclopedia’s don’t have to get annoyed at your – in their eyes – dumb questions, and you don’t have to feel stupid, because in your carefully selected group nobody will know the name of all players on the field ánd the reserves. Who needs to, anyway? However, if you don’t know how many players are in a team normally and you therefore can’t find people who know less than you (likely to happen sadly), it might be good to look at some Soccer for Dummies pages, like this one.

Since World Cup matches are normally watched with a group of diverse people, the chances are high that you will still encounter a few ‘professionals’. Keep calm and read on, because we have some tips ready! First of all, look up some trivia facts about the World Cup or match of the night to impress your fellow fans with. Did you know that every time a South American country hosted the World Cup, the trophy went to a South American country too or that The Simpsons dedicated an episode to World Cup 2014? Neither did I, but now you do! The true soccer fans, who can name all the scores of the last twenty years, might already know this, but in general there will be some fun trivia facts you can impress people with, leading to them thinking that you do know something about soccer (and that’s a secret we will keep). Find more trivia here.

During the game

First of all, if you are planning to watch a match, it’s important to make sure you are wearing the right colors. Don’t be the Dutchie who shows up in red to the match Spain – Netherlands, because you will be disliked no matter how much carefully prepared knowledge you have to share. Once you are present, wearing the right kind of colors, there are two options to use during the game: ducktape or ‘fake it until you make it’. The first option doesn’t need much explanation, since it’s a simple matter of applying ducktape (preferably in your national colour too) to your face, and shutting up for the rest of the match. The second option is a combination of copying what the commentators, your friends (the ones with knowledge) and newspapers say, while screaming at the right moments. Rooting for the wrong team and wearing the wrong color are a close call, so make sure you know on what side your team is playing (and what color they are wearing) to prevent yourself getting killed.

After the game

Whether or not you have watched, if you want to keep the conversations going with your soccer loving friends it’s important to have some basic knowledge about the match. If you won’t miss your friends that much, you can always just book a holiday and come back after the finals, but if you do, it’s mostly important to know the score of the game. Luckily, Google is always there and looking up matches isn’t that hard (unless you need a course of Google for Dummies too, but then you probably wouldn’t be reading this guide either). Besides, it might also be helpful to have a memory of the highlights (watched live or not), which luckily FIFA has made a page for with videos, to be found here.

Is your head spinning with knowledge to gain? Don’t worry, most important about the World Cup is to have fun, watching the games with your friends and enjoying some nice drinks and food. Besides, at the end of the day people might just be happy that you are the one asking dumb questions, even if they roll their eyes, since at least that means they are smarter. If nothing works, you can always make people feel good about themselves and have another drink. Keep calm and watch soccer (even with a lack of knowledge).

Written by Svenja van der Tol, AEGEE-Nijmegen