Messi deserved the Golden Ball
Garcia -- all the big stars at this World Cup were extremely closely marked, not just Messi. And the great moment you mention (which was indeed an excellent piece of play) was two seconds of action out of an otherwise barren 120 minutes against Switzerland, a deeply moderate side who struggled like hell to beat Ecuador and were annihilated by France.
It was a nice bit of skill but hardly the basis on which to be anointing someone player of the tournament. Nor is "some great touches" against Belgium, another mediocre team. On that basis they could have named Maradona the best player of Italia 90 for the infinitely more spectacular thing he did against Brazil.
Given what we already know Messi is capable of doing against the strongest club teams, this tournament can't be seen as anything other than a let-down for him. He scored three spectacular goals in the group games against bad teams, then faded away after that. For most players that would be a good/great return, but not for him. And even in those early matches he was going missing for lengthy stretches of each game, especially against Iran.
This particular World Cup was supposed to be the one where he was going to wipe the floor with everybody at long last. He'd had two cracks at it already as a younger man to get himself familiar with what the World Cup is like, he was at his supposed peak age this time (27), and the event was being staged in Brazil -- what better incentive for him to shove it up everybody's arses? But in the end it just didn't happen.
Garcia -- all the big stars at this World Cup were extremely closely marked, not just Messi. And the great moment you mention (which was indeed an excellent piece of play) was two seconds of action out of an otherwise barren 120 minutes against Switzerland, a deeply moderate side who struggled like hell to beat Ecuador and were annihilated by France.
It was a nice bit of skill but hardly the basis on which to be anointing someone player of the tournament. Nor is "some great touches" against Belgium, another mediocre team. On that basis they could have named Maradona the best player of Italia 90 for the infinitely more spectacular thing he did against Brazil.
Given what we already know Messi is capable of doing against the strongest club teams, this tournament can't be seen as anything other than a let-down for him. He scored three spectacular goals in the group games against bad teams, then faded away after that. For most players that would be a good/great return, but not for him. And even in those early matches he was going missing for lengthy stretches of each game, especially against Iran.
This particular World Cup was supposed to be the one where he was going to wipe the floor with everybody at long last. He'd had two cracks at it already as a younger man to get himself familiar with what the World Cup is like, he was at his supposed peak age this time (27), and the event was being staged in Brazil -- what better incentive for him to shove it up everybody's arses? But in the end it just didn't happen.
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