Before my recap, here are few superlatives from this World Cup...
MOST SURPRISING DEVELOPMENT: Attacking Germans. For decades, German soccer was equated with boring, efficient play. Yet coach Jurgen Klinsmann made them into a free flowing, attacking outfit. If a country for long synonymous with robotic play can have their mentality changed so thoroughly, then this offers hope for the future of the sport. It would be the one positive development from this tournament. Even Italy, with an equal reputation for defensiveness, finished its semifinal with four forwards on the field.
MOST DISAPPOINTING TREND: Besides diving... the fact that nearly all the meaningful games tended to be boring, defensive affairs. With a few exceptions, the most breathtaking games were the games with nothing at stake. First round matches between already eliminated teams (Poland-Costa Rica, Ivory Coast-Serbia & Montegnero) and the third place match (Portugal-Germany) were three of the most back-and-forth games of the tournament.
BEST PLAYER: Italy's captain Fabio Cannavaro. Though Zidane got the golden ball as the tournament's top player, that honor really belonged to Cannavaro. I'm usually partial to creative attacking players like Zidane and I've pooh-poohed the notion that defending can be an art. But Cannavaro showed that when done right, defending can be something to watch. Defending will never match the beauty of Zidane or Ronaldinho gliding past players like a slalom skier but it can be artful on rare occasions. Furthermore, Zidane missed one match due to suspension and was sent off in another. Cannavaro not only played every minute of every match, but he spent most of the tournament shoring up a defense missing his world class partner: the injured Alessando Nesta. Perhaps even more impressive, he didn't pick up any cards in a ournament where they were thrown around like confetti.
BEST GAME
First round: Argentina 2-1 Ivory Coast. Great match. Lots of attacking soccer.
Knockout stage: Argentina.2-1 (aet) Mexico. It's a cold day when I give Mexico any credit but they did themselves proud.
MOST DREADFUL GAME
First round: Argentina 0-0 Holland. That two teams this talented could produce such a pathetic spectacle is a crime against soccer.
Knockout stage, Ukraine 0-0 (aet) Switzerland. Sadly, this match represents 2+ hours of my life I'll never get back.
BEST UNDERDOG EFFORT
First round: Ghana 2-0 Czech Republic. Astonishing result. Could've been much worse for the supposed #2 team in the world.
Knockout stage: Italy 1-0 Australia. Socceroos knocked out by a dodgy late penalty.
MOST ONE-SIDED MATCHES
First round: Spain 6-0 Serbia & Montenegro. S&M looked like they were victims of S&M. How the Balkan side went undefeated through European qualifying and then looked like a group of schoolboys playing Brazil is beyond me?
Knockout stage: Italy 3-0 Ukraine. Clock strikes midnight for Shevchenko and company.
BEST INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE
First round: T&T goalkeeper Shaka Hislop vs Sweden and Kasey Keller, keeper for 9 man USA vs Italy.
Knockout stage: Portugal's keeper Ricardo saving three penalties against England (and getting his hand on the fourth).
MOST ENIGMATIC PLAYERS
Zidane. Lots of excellence and a moment of madness.
Juan Roman Riquelme. When he's on, Argentina is virtually unstoppable. But too often, he looks like his dog just died.
MOST DETESTED TEAM: dirtycheatingportugal (TM). The less said about them the better.
MOST AMAZING STAT: Italy scored 12 different goals via 11 different players. Talk about everyone pitching in!
1 comment:
Agreed to most of your thoughts. Klinsmann has certainly done a marvellous job with Germany. Unfortunately, he has stepped down. So what's next for German footie?
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