Goalkeeper:
Iker Casillas (Spain) - Picking a best goalie was difficult. This World Cup was marked by a lot of goalkeeping errors. Casillas and Neuer for Germany were probably the only ones that didn't make obvious mistakes and Casillas saved a penalty and saved the Robben one-on-one to win the Cup for Spain
Honorable Mention: Howard - tough to blame Ghana's first goal on him despite positioning that could've been better, amazing otherwise, Steklenberger (NED) - mistake vs Forlan, but great tournament otherwise, Vincent Enyeama (NIG) - lots of spectacular saves in his three games, but one glaring mistake against Greece.
Defense:
Carlos Puyol (Spain) - The World Cup is a short selection of games. Many say Pique was better than Puyol, but Puyol made the huge play against Germany, the one people will remember.
Per Mertesaker (Germany) - Mertesaker was brilliant against Spain. Seriously check out the game and see how many times he intervened in dangerous situations. Great against England and Argentina as well.
Gio Van Bronckhorst - Goal of the tournament? If not, then pretty close. Held it down for the runner-up, but people will remember the goal.
Honorable Mention - Lugano (Uruguay), Pique (Spain), Ramos (Spain)
Midfield:
Thomas Muller (Germany) - Golden Ball winner and Young Player of the Tournament
Xavi (Spain) - Pulling all the strings for the Champion
Iniesta (Spain) - Great tournament, but it was the winning goal in the final that secured his place here
Wesley Sniejder (Netherlands) - Got some lucky goals, but it was his overall play that guided the Dutch to the final.
Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany) - Ballack who? Schweinsteiger was the most instrumental player for the most enteraining team of the tournament. Check out the Argentina highlights if you don't believe me.
Honorable mention: Donovan (USA) - three goals and the driving force of team USA, Ozil (GER) - coming out party for Ozil, was amazing versus Australia, Ghana, England, and Argentina, but faded at the end
Strikers:
Diego Forlan (Uruguay) - Player of the tournament, did more for his team than probably any other player.
David Villa (Spain) - 5 goals, seemed to score them when Spain needed them most.
Honorable Mention: Asamoah Gyan (Ghana) - one penalty away from making the starting line-up, but his goal against the USA really showed America what we are missing, Luis Suarez (URU) - handball saved his team, but the goal against South Korea was pure class, Miroslav Klose - this guy just scores World Cup goals, the opener vs England was sublime, exactly what you want a center forward to do, too bad he missed the 3rd place game.
No comments:
Post a Comment