I think Howedes will do fine if Maria isn't fit in time.

Boatang and Hummels will be the ones covering messi for most of the game. 

Khedria will also help on him.  They should be able to keep him quite for the most part. 

I think Germany wins if Neuer makes the saves when he is called upon.

I would like to see Argentina win the match though. 

The Silver Goal was useless, but of the matches I saw back when they still had the Golden Goal rule (mostly I remember a couple from France '98) it at least made it a bit more tense, and the rest of overtime was spared on all of us if someone scored. And spared on the team that really wanted to win when they scored. Today, extra time usually is boring to no end and I just want it to be over already. Teams that aim for the penalty shootout have always been around, it makes little difference imo.

Fifa rankings Portugal was 4th and Brazil was 3rd. Argentina should be an easy win considering Germany beat Portugal by 4 goals and Brazil by 6 goals respectively. Argentina are currently ranked 5 according to Fifa rankings. 5 goal win for Germany sounds about right! Germany looks invincible and has scored 18 goals from 6 matches. I do not see Germany losing for quite a while. Euro 2016 and World Cup 2018 also look like they have Germany's name written all over them. Three titles in a row: 2 World Cups and a Euro in between to beat Spain's impressive two Euros and WC won between 2008 to 2012.

5 goals inside 30 minutes was German Blitzkreig.  Germany has humilated quality top sides but struggled when playing against lower ranked teams.

I agree no extra time at all is probably not the best idea, but isn't a reward for playing like shit precisely what a team gets with a second chance in a penalty shootout after holding out in extra time? A Golden Goal would prevent that while rewarding the attacking team with a shorter effort. The other team in my eyes forfeited their right to equalize again the moment the match was allowed to go into extra time. Equalizers are for regular time.

When both teams play like shit or don't like yesterday then yes, they deserve to suffer .

LOL. 

Portugal never were any good... it's Cristano Ronaldo and 10 guys on a pitch.

They needed a playoff to get to the World Cup... they are top 20 at best xD.

Fifa rankings are broken.  Do you think England is worthy of the 10 spot?  Switzerland 5?? 

Yeah, Germany humiliated a emotionally broke down Brazil side which gave up after 10 mins. 

But to say Germany is going to score 5 on Argentina is ridiculous. 

Argentina has one of the best defensives at the tournament. 

They derailed the Belgium hype train, and made robben look lost.

I very specifically said "in a league/group set up", because it seemed to me that Dark_Lord wanted penalties for normal games, which I think is bad, because in football it's an achivement to win over your opponent in 90 minutes and that should be rewarded - if all games were decided by penalties the game would probably become even more defensive, especially in the lower regions of the table, as you get a pretty much 50% chance to win by just putting all your men in the back.

By the way, officially teams that won penalty shoot outs didn't win the football match, it's a draw.

Yes, of course. I'm certainly not against the penalty shootout .

The Golden Goal rewards the attacking team if they manage to score. I only feel that's fairer than having them ride out the entirety of the rest of the extra time.

Same exact one was used when we kicked Spain's ass with 5-1

Well, there goes my prediction score. I bet on Netherlands from the beginning, yet again to see them lose in heart breaking fashion.