JAMES LAWTON despairs at the hype of Brazil 2014 when only the eventual winners offered any kind of comparison to the great teams of the past

Mario Gotze scores the winner

It was not such a small mercy, not when you thought about it. Mario Gotze, after all, did a lot more than ensure that the best, most grown-up team in a grotesquely hyped World Cup carried off the prize with his beautifully taken winner deep into the second period of extra time.
First of all he prevented still another of those shoot-outs which more than ever before are trumpeted as football’s ultimate drama w...