my (over)simplified take on this match.

This is the kind of game which each side were afraid to lose than wanting to win. Defense wins the Championship, some NBA guys said so, Klinsmann and Pekeman so heard.

And both teams did well on defense.

Two teams combined for only three chances, all headers, with two of them converted. The non-converted one was off Ballack's header on a Schneider delivery in the 1st half. Aside from these, both goal keepers weren't really challenged. Yes, the ARG goalie got his ribs broken by Klose. But Klose was not in the position to head in that ball at all.

ARG didn't play the fluent football that they did againt Serbia-Montenegro. So you think that their offense is off. They could've done much better if they used a different tactic, or played Messi, or some other guys.

The thing is, what makes you think they can play fluently against Germany ? I mean, their offense was way "off" even against the mediocre Mexican team. And German defense is better than the Mexican one, right ?

It's impossible for them to break German defense like tha SM one simply because Germans are much better.

ARG lost because they were not much better than the Germans within 120minutes and much worse in the penalty shoot out.

I know I am over simplifying here. But I don't think the woulda-coulda-shoulda arguments can be proved in any way.

With this said, I do think the Argentina was stronger than Germany in today's match because, you know, the socalled "host advantage".

I think the referee was very biased.

Let's see:

Klose broke ARG goalie's rib with his knees dangerously pointing forward, the referee didn't even whistle for a foal. It's clearly a yellow card. Remember Schumacher knocking down Battiston ? This was not as bad. But I am always annoyed by Germans chopping down opponents and getting away with it. What's worse is that some ppl would argue that Germans were hard but mostly were just attacking the ball and opponents getting hurt is somehow just some kind of unimportant byproduct.

ARG was yellow carded for diving in the 2nd half. Minutes later Ballack dove in ARG's box with a Henry like performance. He should've been yellow carded but he got nothing.

There were no biased calls or no-calls that would've directly changed the score. But it definitely put more pressure on the ARG therefore ARG was playing handicapped.