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You have to believe that his name was down before the tournament started. No goals and nothing particularly special in the previous games and then when it really mattered snuffed out completely by the Germans. If they had a list of the ten biggest disappointments that would be more appropriate.
Whilst he was nowhere near the best player of the tournament his nomination isn’t a crazy as it seems.
He was never going to be the top goalscorer (his reputation made him the price he was) simply because he never plays as a striker for Argentina – he sometimes plays out wide and sometimes plays behind the front two.
So given that he effectively played as an advanced midfielder in this tournament he did pretty well. In fact he did everything but score in most of the games, hit the post endless amount of times, created many chances and was far from being disappointing (apart from the Germany game).
Like I say, he was nowhere near one of the best players of the tournament but I bet his successful dribble stats, chances created stats, and assists, amongst other stats, are right up there.
I actually thought messi had a decent world cup without personally scoring himself. The team surrounding him always looked poor though. But think messi’s opening up of defenses, through the amount of players needed to neutralise him, made many of the players around him look better than they were. I think that the argie team without him wouldnt have warranted a price lower than 100-1 at the very least. Higuains goal in the 76th minute against South Korea, involved him getting the ball rolled to his foot 1 metre from the goal, with no-one in his way (including the keeper), on-side. How many players can create those sort of chances 4 team mates. Messi is used to being surrounded by class players so i think adapting to playing with an inferior team is a job in itself (dont think john terry really adapted to not having players of the class of carvalho or ferdinand playin next to him), but think messi convinced a lot of people that argentina were better than they were. Also thought he stayed very composed when greece tried to mark him out of the game and recurrently fouled him, which for a young guy is pretty commendable, rooney, by contrast looked like he wanted to kill people when slovenia done a good job of marking him. Think messi hasnt had a bad world cup as an individual player but needs to have a better team around him to make an impact at this level. Maybe next world cup perhaps, I mean Juan Sebastian Veron was getting 2 play a lot of the matches which tells me that maybe they need 2 bring up some younger players next time…
As it’s "The Golden Ball" and assming that means the offical tournament beach ball, then it can only be be Diego Forlan, the only player who seemed to have no trouble striking it at pace without the ball flying into Row Z and to my mind the player of the competition, runner up David Villa
Messi had a very good WC and showcased what he’s all about, apart from being the prolific goalscorer. Higuain scored most of their goals, but was he in the same parish as Messi for even a second? Not a chance. The best player on show at the tournament, for me. He was magical.
As it’s "The Golden Ball" and assming that means the offical tournament beach ball, then it can only be be Diego Forlan, the only player who seemed to have no trouble striking it at pace without the ball flying into Row Z and to my mind the player of the competition, runner up David Villa
Indeed, Forlans attempt to almost single handedly drag his team to a WC final deserves huge credit. He was awesome.
Messi had a very good WC and showcased what he’s all about, apart from being the prolific goalscorer. Higuain scored most of their goals, but was he in the same parish as Messi for even a second? Not a chance. The best player on show at the tournament, for me. He was magical.
Please don’t think I don’t appreciate Messi, for me he’s in there with a very select batch of players that, for me, are the only real contenders for the best ever…Pele, Eusabio, Stanley Matthews, Jim Baxter and George Best, I just feel Forlan really produced the goods on this occasion
Given his reputation if that’s doing it at a World Cup I am watching a different game. He scored plenty of goals during the season but none at the World Cup despite someone mentioning that he had more efforts on goal than any other player which would suggest that it was poor finishing rather than the position he was playing in. Greats like Pele and Maradona had the ability to turn a game on their own. When it mattered most Messi made no impact whatsoever against Germany.
But Stilvi, that’s like saying that if Holland lose to Spain tomorrow (for example) then Sneijder has had a bad World Cup because he did nothing to change the game against Spain.
Just because Messi did very little against Germany doesn’t mean that he has had a poor World Cup, just the same as Sneijder having a bad game tomorrow doesn’t mean he’s had a bad World Cup.
In the four games before Germany, Messi was quite brilliant in parts and definitely deserves his nomination in the Golden Ball. He won’t win it, don’t get me wrong, but he is deserving of his place.
And regarding Pele and Maradona they played in exactly the same position for their club as they did for their country. Messi doesn’t. For Argentina he is often out wide right or sometimes behind the strikers. He very rarely plays as a striker for them, unlike where he plays for Barcelona.
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