The roll of honour, according to me

Now that the World Cup is over, we can start looking back to see who did what better than the others. Below is a list of my favourites:


Best player: Fabio Cannavaro (Italy)

Although Zinadine Zidane was voted as the tournament’s best player, for me it is Cannavaro without a doubt. He was superb at defending and marshalling the Italian backline. Never once did you see him simply kick the ball out of the danger area. He always found space to wriggle out of danger and then pass the ball to another teammate. Though his immediate future with Juventus is in doubt due to the match fixing scandal besieging his club, he didn’t allow that to interfere in his game. Superb player with excellent attitude and deserved to lift the trophy for Italy.


Best goalkeeping moment: Richard Kingston (Ghana)

There were a handful of good keepers on parade at the World Cup. Italy’ Buffon was outstanding in several matches, Holland’s Edwin van Der Saar was superb against Portugal and Germany’s Jens Lehmann finally proved himself as his nation’s number one keeper. However for me, Ghana’s Richard Kingston was truly outstanding in the match against Brazil, especially in the final 20 minutes when he thwarted so many chances created by the Samba boys. If it wasn’t for him, Brazil would have had thrashed Ghana that night.


Goal of the tournament: Esteban Cambiasso (Argentina)

The tournament started on a bright note with the excellent goal by Phillipp Lahm for the Germans in the opening match against Costa Rica. This was followed by another thunderbolt by Torsten Frings in the same match. After that we saw some amazing long range goals. Joe Cole’s goal against Sweden was a beauty, so was Steven Gerrard’s strike against Trinidad & Tobago. The two Italian goals in their semis against Germany were superb and for Portugal, Maniche and Deco scored four amazing long range goals. Zidane’ solo effort against Spain was outstanding, so was Torres’ goal for Spain in the match against Ukraine. And then we had smart free kicks by the South Koreans and two from Beckham for England. Arjen Robben scored a wonderful individual goal against Serbia. Germany finished it off with two amazing long range strikes through Schweinsteiger against Portugal in the third place match.

But two goals remain a class above the rest. The first is the goal scored by Maxi Rodriguez from Argentina against Mexico in the second round. And the goal of the tournament has to be the one scored by Argentine Cambiasso against Serbia. That goal was a superb team effort, ending into the net after 24 passes and a cool finish.


Best inspirational player in the World Cup: Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast)

This will remain a World Cup in which no single player shined. We had some players having one good game and then going missing in the next. In the second stage onwards, perhaps Zidane made the difference for the French. And as I mentioned above Cannavaro was superb for the Italians. Cristiano Ronaldo had a good tournament for Portugal but disgraced himself by falling down too easily. Riquelme was the Argentine conductor and they did well whenever he player well. For Brazil, surprisingly the most effective player was the unassuming Ze Roberto. Apart from these well-known names, no one else managed to get a hold of the World Cup and claim to be the best player around. Biggest disappointment has to be Ronaldinho and Kaka from Brazil and Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard from England.

For me, two players caught my eyes in the first round. One was Stephen Appiah, the Ghanaian captain. He was everywhere in the field, He led by example and I think had a good World Cup.

The other was Didier Drogba for Ivory Coast. This player single-handedly sparked an amazing comeback in their matches against Holland and Argentina. He played as though he was possessed. He led the field and was hell bent in proving his team can play football. And he did that very well. Ivory Coast was unlucky to be in such a difficult group and they didn’t lose easily too. They came close in upsetting both Holland and Argentina as well, thanks to the amazing performance by Drogba.


Underachievers: Spain

Need I say more? They started well, played some good football but still managed to get kicked out. Argentina came a close second. They too started the tournament on fire, playing like champions, only to be kicked out on penalties.


Over-hyped team: England

Less said better about England They came into the finals as joint favourites but never showed us what they are capable of. Played some insipid football and went out on penalties to Portugal. The other one has to be the defending champions Brazil. They never looked like they can reproduce their magic here. Star players looked over-confidence and never really showed their talent. The only good thing to come out for them is Ronaldo’s record breaking goals.


Best match: Germany v Italy

With more teams playing with one striker, goals eventually dried up in the World Cup. We did however had an entertaining first round where teams played more of an open game. After that, it was a matter of teams playing not to lose and defensive mindset came into the picture. Still we had some entertaining clashes throughout the tournament.

So my choice of the best match of the tournament is the semifinal clash between Germany and Italy. Both sides were hell-bent in attacking and looking for that one goal that will take them into the finals. In the end however Italy managed that with two wonder goals in the dying minutes. This should have been the final instead. There were also other interesting matches earlier in the group stage. Holland and Argentina played a goalless match, but what a match that turned out to be. And let’s not forget the superb demolition job done by Argentina in their 6-0 thrashing of Croatia.


Worst match: Ukraine v Switzerland

This was a second round match and it nearly put me to sleep. No one wanted to attack, both keepers not tested and at the end Ukraine won 3-0 on penalties. Ukraine was involved in another boring match - against Tunisia in the group stages and managed to win 1-0 through a penalty. Earlier on Saudi Arabia and Tunisia almost played a similar boring match in the group stages, but still that match ended 2-2.


Worst refereeing moment: 16 yellows and 4 reds

That was the tally of cards dished out by referee Valentin Ivanov in the Holland versus Portugal second round stage. Close behind has to be Graham Poll who gave three yellows cards to a Croatian player before finally producing a red.


Sore losers of the tournament: Argentina

They were beaten on penalties by the Germans and they decided to go out fighting (literally) with the German after the match.


Surprise package of the tournament: Australia

Newcomers Ivory Coast and Ghana did well but I thought it was Australia which actually proved to be the unlucky one this year. They came from behind to defeat Japan, matched Brazil before losing out at the end and battled hard against Croatia for a draw which put them in the second stage. There, they held Italy until stoppage time when a dubious penalty sent them packing.