Yes, amazing how the Adidas sponsored Golden Ball award went to a player who plays for an Adidas supplied country and has a massive personal Adidas sponsorship contract.
Messi getting the award over Kroos, Hummels, Robben, Lahm, James and Mascherano is an absolute joke... but hey atleast now we know who will win Balon D'or this year.
when Messi was announced as the Golden Ball wineer, I was like WHHAAA..?? he's not even in the top 10 best player in this tournament, let alone the best! it was like a slap in the face! the golden glove was given to the best keeper but the ball was given to the most over rated player in this tournament!
It is total Bullshit, James R or Robben had a more stellar appearance in the cup. The only credit I give him, is the fact that he single handily took Argentina to the final, cause all of Argentinas games were extremely boring to watch, minus the final. Everytime Argentina won was at the last minute by some luck and a play started by Messi, had Messi not been there, Argentina would have been out on the first round, they suck as a team, period.
Great match! Congrats to Germany. Soon as Goetze came on I had a feeling they had a goal in them. It was pretty much Bayern against Argentina at that stage. Argentina's first mistake at the back and Goetze hammers it home, well taken. Argentina didn't take their chances. Pity they have to play Messi so far back. Gutted for him at the same time. Fantastic World Cup overall.
Congrats to Germany, best team in the tournament... Clearly not on the night. Argentina were superior in the 90 minutes, just Über wasteful. ;) Messi's final freekick was laughably bad though.
This however, guarantees Ronaldo getting Ballon d'Or.
Here some perspective; Sami Khedira, injured most of the season, only played 23 games for club and country, yet is a Champions League and World Cup winner in the same year! Insane!
the best team of the world cup won it!! key word: TEAM...not relying on a handful of players to score. everyone treated as equals in the squad.
schweiny for me was man of the match. man looked like he was willing to die on that pitch. played with heart and played hard. that goal from gotze was worthy of a match winner.
well done to argentina as well. second in a world cup is still a good result. im glad they made a match of it and didnt play like they did against holland. higuain missed a glorious chance too but thats the world cup, dont take your chances, you get punished.
Look at Argentina's team then look at Germany's and you have your reason. If not for Messi Argentina wouldn't have made it to the quarters and he made the winning goal against Belgium as well. He had a solid tournament. Didn't reach his standards in the semis and tonight though!
argentinas team may not be that powerful, but neither was the group they were in or the round of 16 match. unless of course, switzerland, bosnia and iran rank highly on your toughest countries to beat. everyone expected argentina to walk over all those teams but they struggled. that doesnt mean messi played harder than the golden ball nominees.
@ben asmith said messi made the goal against belgium (as in assisted), not that messi scored the goal himself.
@Kingpin, yeah their group wasn't as strong but this World Cup was full of shocks and surprises. Everyone expected Argentina to beat them well but like it or not it took some special moments from Messi to see them through. It was very much Messi vs <insert team here> for all of Argentina's games and he came through in most of them. Got four man of the match awards as well and was statistically the best player of the tournament. http://www.whoscored.com/Re... Gotta love people who ignore hard facts because they don't like them, like most people around here!
I thought he did very well considering he came to this World Cup off the back of a bad season for him. So yeah, it's not about how hard you play but what you do for your team and in that regard Messi dragged Argentina through the group and set up their path to the semis at the very least. Scored his penalty against the Dutch as well.
Like you say though Germany were a TEAM and it's teams that win competitions. You can see how well their league translates to their national team. Nearly all players playing for top German clubs. Other nations could take a hint.
@Ben Dover, he held the ball up in midfield against two Belgians before passing it on which led to Higuain scoring.
Who knew Costa Rica was going to lead the group which had.. Uruguay... wait for it... England... and wait for it.... Italy.
Every big team had to struggle against the smaller teams this world cup. "Lost the game. Won our hearts" being the regular anthem this time.
as for Argentina i never expected them to reach this far. i was quite surprised that Germany didn't score 5-0 or something like that. Argentina has poor poor strikers. 2 out of the 10 shots were on target. that's a very bad record.
What a load of rubbish, Argentina had the best defensive unit out of any team at the World Cup, including Germany.
Argentina have lacked only in their attacking but I'm sure in your mind Messi had nothing to do with that... if it wasn't for their solid defense they'd have probably gone the way of Portugal.
All of Argentinas games were so boring, barely winning everytime, by 1 goal or tied, they never dominated a single team they played against. Messi was the only one that shined from the 23 Argentinian players. If Messi had not been there, Bosnia, Nigeria, Iran, Belgium, Switzerland would had beat them, period. If you look at all the teams Argentina played, they had it the easiest to reach the final from the beginning, everyone else got to face higher caliber opponents. How many goals did Argentina scored in total? 6? smh...
Great game. Arenting played good considering their injuries and missing DI maria. Argentina Def are the true Champs being robbed a penalty which would of sealed victory and red card that was supposed to go to German. Oh well until there are camera reviews it will continue being a refs mistake that wins matches.
England can't do that.. playing for England don't mean jack to our players anymore. Everything in English football is to the Club (ever since the inception of the Premier League) and those Club loyalties extend to the National team.
Case in point, 1990, England got to the WC semi, only losing on penalties (finished 4th).. since the Premier League came about in 1992, England have done exactly jack-shit in WC. Quarter-Final appearances are not good enough.
Also, would it kill the FA and the Clubs for that matter to freaking shorten the playing season in England.. August to May is far too long. Real change needs to happen in English football.
I expected A LOT more from the English team, for Gods sake they have one of the best club leagues in the world, and they could handle Uruguay, Costa Rica and Italy smh...
That penalty wasn't clear cut like the one the keeper pulled. And that red on Aguero was due to the game being in overtime and the rush of it while the German did it in first half I believe. And that one was pure intent no ball. So ya I'll go selective when even the announcers were screaming penalty u can't hide.
germany deserved it and were my pick for the ultimate winners long before the final, although credit must go to argentina, i thought they wold get steamrolled
I had lots of faith in Argentina's defence and predicted 1-1 for actual game time and Germany to win in penalties. I wasn't that far off in my guess. Now as for what I would have _wanted_, it was more goals. It would have been exciting to see one more goal from both teams.
They're all crying.
Congratulations Germany, best team of the tournament!
Great match! Congrats to Germany. Soon as Goetze came on I had a feeling they had a goal in them. It was pretty much Bayern against Argentina at that stage. Argentina's first mistake at the back and Goetze hammers it home, well taken. Argentina didn't take their chances. Pity they have to play Messi so far back. Gutted for him at the same time. Fantastic World Cup overall.
What a great game, both sides played aggressively. But the team i was supporting won.
Congrats to Germany, best team in the tournament... Clearly not on the night. Argentina were superior in the 90 minutes, just Über wasteful. ;) Messi's final freekick was laughably bad though.
This however, guarantees Ronaldo getting Ballon d'Or.