What a finale. I genuinely thought Germany were gone there.
Early on, it looked like Low was a tactical genius for using the referee as a sweeper. When Toivanen scored I was amazed me the goal wasn't ruled out for handball. In the end, though, Sweden's inability to keep the ball better in the second half worked decisively against them. Although Durmaz proved a ruinous substitution, its arguable that waiting until the 74th minute to make any changes didn't do anything to help a team that was clearly flagging.
But I thought Germany's second half performance was more fuelled by desperation than coherence. As for the first 45 minutes, they simply crashed the same car they drove into a ditch against the Mexicans. I've read that in 1974 Helmut Schon suffered what approached a nervous breakdown following the DDR defeat, and Beckenbauer practically took over running the team. If the holders are to prosper this year, it feels as though the players will pretty much have to lock the coach out of the dressing room. Whenever the cameras cut to Low on the touchline his body language resembled a school coach who ran out of ideas months ago.