From 2008 to 2012 a very strange change in football European and World championchips occured.

The referees would sanction any marginal foul with a yellow card if it was even slightly dangerous or in any way of tactical value at all. Germany got almost kicked out of the group phase in 2008 because that resulted in a yellow-red card for Klose, one of the least fouling pro-strikers in the world.

At the same time in these years a new team saw its rise: Spain. Now unhindered by anyone who tried to stop them could do beautiful ball play without anyone being able to get in their way.

In 2014 FIFA made a 180° turn and now didn't give any yellow cards unless the fouls started getting really outrageously annoying. Descriptive for that was the struggle of the Japanese team when opposing players would ram their small bodies, make them fly several meters through the air and the referee wouldn't even bother to blow the whistle because overall it was just a little healthy contact.

Spain was completely lost in this kind of environment where the only thing that could stop them were many fouls to undermine their game play early. At the same time a new team had risen to power and one that had perfectly adapted to the new playstile: Brasil.
The most rutheless and brutal team of all bashed their way through the tournament and it happened what had to happen. Some teams fought back and the bullies got hurt. The ref had seen the action and like before, just as if to accommodate Brasils unique play stile he didn't even see a foul. It was just a little rough contact.
Now anyone with a sense for reality would probably think: Oh well, we had it coming, maybe next time we shouldn't play like pricks if we don't want to be treated the same way. Not so Brasil, an outcry rippled through the nation and the whole world. Kill the perpetrator.

At the same time Germany prepared for their next match. Germany that had learned from losing Klose so many years ago had honed and refined its ball play to perfection. Created a play stile without any fouling they had remained loyal to throughout the tournament. But although the Germans knew how to play well, this is not the Germans nature. Somebody once said, if the Germans were a bloodbowl team they would have to be Ogres. Germany loves contact, Germany thrives on contact, they want to bash through with brute force, screw pretty, shoot the ball at its target where it belongs. If you don't believe me, ask them yourselves.
FOr the first time in so many years Germany stopped playing nice and unleashed their full potential. Ruthelessly they stomped the Brasilian players into the ground, undermined their offense, strikers blocking off their defense.

What can we learn from this? If you run one of these green-yellow woodie teams, maybe fouling ain't the best strategy, you're just running a highly overpriced av7 team. And out there there are certainly teams that are better at it.
Also, when you do 16 fouls throughout two halves, stop freaking whining when your star player gets hurt. It just makes you look worse. Man, I'll cheer for Italy next time, at least they aren't such babies.