Twitter Reacts to Mario Goetze's Performance vs. Argentina

Mario Goetze lived every footballer's dream on Sunday, scoring the winning goal in Germany's 1-0 victory over Argentina in the 2014 World Cup final.

The pint-sized forward was a late substitute for his country, replacing legendary striker Miroslav Klose ahead of the match going to extra time. Both teams had played each other hard, but chances hadn't been easy to come by.

Goetze's initial impact on the match was limited, acting as a nuisance for the Argentine defence and using his speed to open up the wide spaces.

But with less than 10 minutes left to play in the second half of extra time, Andre Schurrle broke free on the left flank and played a ball into Goetze, who controlled it beautifully and slotted past Argentina goalkeeper Sergio Romero.

Squawka had the Vine:

It was a truly stunning strike, and it came at a time when everyone expected both teams to take things easy and prepare for penalties. The pundits in BBC One's studio went berserk:

The Daily Telegraph's Paul Hayward thought it was a fitting description of Goetze's 2014 World Cup:

Sports Illustrated's Liviu Bird saw a beautifully worked team goal, even if all the plaudits would go to the scorer:

As shared by The Transfer Bible, Goetze's goal gave Argentina their first deficit of the tournament, and it would ultimately prove to be their last:

ESPN's Taylor Twellman could only imagine what had to be going through the player's head at that particular moment, doing what every footballer dreams of doing:

Goal's Carlo Garganese thought the goal was beautiful enough to qualify as a World Cup-winning goal:

No epic social media moment is truly epic without a lame pun about the player's name, though:

The Plain Dealer's Tom Reed assumes the winger will be getting a warm welcome when he returns to his native Germany:

Germany hadn't lifted the World Cup in 24 years, and the golden generation faced quite a bit of criticism coming into the tournament. Anything other than the trophy would have been seen as a failure back in Germany, but Die Mannschaft were by far the most consistent team all tournament long.

They struggled against a rugged Argentine defence, but ultimately, a single kick from Goetze gave the German people something they'd been waiting for for a very long time—the World Cup.

Gary Lineker once said, via FIFA.com: "Football is a simple game; 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans win." It looks like the former England international was right.

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