Rio di Janeiro - Argentina defender Javier Mascherano admits the agony of
losing Sunday's World Cup final is not a feeling that he will soon be able to
shake.
The Barcelona midfielder saw his side's charge for glory come to an end as
Mario Gotze's goal in extra time gave Germany a 1-0 victory and with it the
title of world champions.
Argentina had endured an energy-sapping run to the final, requiring extra
time or penalties in three of their four knockout matches. As such, it was
perhaps no surprise that they found themselves tiring in the second period of
extra time.
However, this will do little to ease the pain of coming so close to achieving
their goal.
"Unfortunately the pain will be there for life because this was our chance,"
said Mascherano.
"It is difficult to explain. It escaped from us at the last minute, we did
everything to try and win. We had the best chances until we ran out of gas,"
he added.
"The pain is immense because we wanted to take the World Cup back to
Argentina but we gave everything. We are empty, we gave what we had and
we are sorry for ourselves, for the people that came here and for the people
that are in Argentina.
"Football is like this and we have to raise our heads and deal with the pain."