World Cup 2014 final, Germany vs. Argentina: Die Mannschaft lift their fourth

Richard Swarbrick is an artist and filmmaker, and a supremely talented animator. You might recognize his recent work from ESPN’s NBA Finals Vine series.

Like this? I recommend a spin through Swarbrick’s his timeline (@RikkiLeaks) for more animated World Cup moments, like Mario Gotze’s World Cup-winner.

But he won’t be remembered for that. He’ll be remembered for this free kick.

Messi had an opportunity to step up and deliver the goal or assist of his life in the 123rd minute. Instead, he hit the ball a mile high and wide of the near post. He couldn’t have hit it much worse, and it’ll be the defining image of this World Cup for him.

Germany were crowned World Cup winners for the first time in 24 years with a 1-0 victory over Argentina in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday.

An incredibly close match went all the way until extra time before Mario Götze finally broke the deadlock with a winning goal in the 113th minute.

Germany has won the 2014 World Cup. It took a late goal and extra time, but they deserve all the credit for a thrilling performance over the last month.

This is footage from the Brandenburg gate in Berlin following Germany’s thrilling goal late in the World Cup final to give them a 1-0 lead over Argentina.

Argentina have been brilliant defensively thus far, but it only took one slip-up for Germany to capitalize. And really, they did more than just take advantage of an error here. That’s a brilliant run by Andre Schürrle, an even better cross, and Götze’s touch and finish were even better than that. It’s a goal fit to win a World Cup final.

This happened when he got nailed by Sergio Aguero, who is on a yellow card. Aguero did not get a second yellow for this. That’s a missed call.

What

Had to:

Gonzalo Higuain scored! Until he didn’t.

You see, he may have put the ball in the net, but he was a yard and a half offside and the assistant’s flag went up. He just didn’t realize it until he was done celebrating.

Kramer took a shot to the head well before he was substituted, but was allowed to continue the match. He played for around 10 minutes before Joachim Löw made a switch, and based on the blank look on his face when he left the pitch, he had absolutely no business being out there for as long as he was.

This is very, very good news for Lionel Messi.

Oh noooooooooo.

Pipita, what are you doing?!? Let’s check in with Manu Ginobli.

This look like it hurt a lot, and I’ll be stunned if Christoph Kramer doesn’t have a broken nose, a concussion, or both.

UPDATE: Kramer left the game and was replaced by Andre Schürrle.

President of FIFA Sepp Blatter. President of Russia Vladamir Putin. Best Friends forever. Cool seats. Love soccer! Totally chill bros. Nothing shady to see here. Probably talking about Rihanna and Pele or something.

Oh, whispery Bond villain conversation? HAHAHA right, right of course.

UPDATE: Kramer was subbed out of the game after taking a shot to the head and playing for 10 more minutes. Andre Schürrle took his place on the pitch.

He’s been ruled out of the match, and replaced in the starting lineup by 23-year-old Christoph Kramer, who was only included in their squad as a backup. Now, he’s thrust into the biggest game of his entire career.

If you want, or need, to watch the match online in the USA, you have two options. The first is WatchESPN, assuming your Internet or TV provider allows you access to the service. They’ll have both an English and Portuguese feed, along with a tactical cam.If you can access WatchESPN, or prefer a Spanish language feed, try Univision En Vivo.

In Canada, CBC Sports will be streaming the match online, while in the UK, you can watch on the BBC iPlayer. There are listings available for other countries as well at Live Soccer TV.

Shakira will perform at today’s World Cup closing ceremony, most likely performing her World Cup anthem “La La La (Brazil 2014).” a reworked version of her song “Dare” with lyrics about the world coming together to watch something and a video featuring Messi and Neymar and Kun Aguero and James Rodriguez. It is a damn earworm.

That is not in itself notable. Big sporting events have performances like this.We’ve already had one this World Cup, featuring Pitbull.