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Messi deserved the Golden Ball

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    #26
    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.

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      #27
      Messi deserved the Golden Ball

      four goals in the group stages - but who are you arguing with? i agree that the world cup was a failure for him.

      but i don't agree you can say that he just completely disappeared after the group stage. he was good against switzerland and belgium. you're going too far the other way - effectively saying that because he didn't play as well as we know he can, he was shit. so you're basically making the same mistake as the FIFA panel - viewing mess's performances too much through the prism of his reputation. messi wasn't as good as he would have hoped to be. he evidently wasn't fully fit. and as for other players also being tightly marked - messi is the only player who gets marked by three opponents.

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        #28
        Messi deserved the Golden Ball

        I never said he was shit, please don't put words in my mouth.

        I also said "three spectacular goals", not "three goals".

        He wasn't particularly impressive against Switzerland or Belgium. He produced one great moment at the very end of the Swiss game, but that's not my idea of giving a commanding performance.

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          #29
          Messi deserved the Golden Ball

          Defensive minded wrote: The problem with awards is that they're often given to the best player and not for what the award actually stands for. About two year ago Falcao had a fantastic season. He should have been the player of the year, but eventually Messi won it because he's a better player.

          The same case can be made about Manuel Neuer. He was probably the best goalkeeper at the World Cup in the same way as Messi was probably the best player at the World Cup, but I thought both the Mexican goalkeeper and Navas actually had a better tournament.
          Totally agree, it makes me laugh that people who are (quite rightly) deriding the choice of Messi as "Player of the Tournament" seem perfectly happy with Neuer as "Goalkeeper of the Tournament".

          Neuer had a good tournament but he won his award on 1) reputation and 2) being the goalkeeper of the winning team.

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            #30
            Messi deserved the Golden Ball

            Well, I don't want to bang on about kicker's ratings, but of the four goalkeepers in the semi-finals, Neuer was far and away the best. If FIFA's criteria included the requirement that the winning player must have played in the semi-final -- and I don't think it would be unreasonable -- then Neuer is the most deserving winner, on performance.

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