Re: World Cup 2014
 

Re: World Cup 2014
 

the cheating Argies should have been down to 9 or 10 men, but yet again a ref with no balls

Re: World Cup 2014
 

How has Messi won the golden ball!?! What an absolute joke. He wouldn't even make my team of the tournament!

Re: World Cup 2014
 

Yeah bit weird that. Messi was a contender until the QF stage I think. He faded away a bit later in the tournament. He didn't seem to happy to collect it either, almost mocking him.

Re: World Cup 2014
 

He wasn't even Argentinas best player in the tournament IMO. I'd be surprised if he keeps that trophy haha

Re: World Cup 2014
 

Well he seemed to drag them single handedly though the group stages but yeah faded away. Still I think he probably was their best player. They really were awful for the first four games with Messi bailing them out. It's only later more of their team started to show themselves. I doubt he cares about the trophy, all it does is allow people to rip into him for something he had no control over.

Re: World Cup 2014
 

Golden boot award and goal of the tournament goes to James Rodriguez :clap:

---------- Post added at 23:13 ---------- Previous post was at 23:11 ----------

check this out... https://twitter.com/FifNdhs

Re: World Cup 2014
 

It's probably just some idiot that writes a bunch of possible scenarios out and then deletes the ones that didn't happen.

Re: World Cup 2014
 

lol i was just thinking that but he/she must have gone through an incredible amount of possibilities

Re: World Cup 2014
 

Messi is still a world great up there with the best despite not lifting the World Cup in my opinion.

Re: World Cup 2014
 

If they must give an Argentinian player the Golden Ball for whatever reason then at least give it to Mascherano since he ran that team throughout the whole tournament.

Re: World Cup 2014
 

I think the reaction to Messi's performances have been a bit harsh to be fair. A sort of over-correction to the fact didn't deserve to win the Golden Ball.

For a start Messi did carry the team in the earlier stages, scored a great free kick to win against Iran, and did a good job to set up Di Maria to score the only goal against Switzerland. He was Argentina's top scorer and the 4th top scorer in the Tournament. A lot of that team was woeful for the group stages and no one, even yesterday, took advantage of the space created by Messi being marked out the game. He didn't manage to do in the later stages but it's not entirely certain, indeed maybe unlikely, they would have gotten that far without him. Even stats wise (i.e chances created/dribbles created) are pretty good: http://www.whoscored.com/Regions/247...World-Cup-2014. His passing was great for most of the tournament.

The fact that this is seen as a failure is the fact people were expecting so much from him. He only failed by his own standards. He didn't deserve the Golden Ball but he also doesn't deserve the criticism he is now getting because of it. People are acting as he was awful or one of the worst players at the tournament. There is nothing to justify that. Even yesterday he was one of the better players despite three or four German players being on him whenever he had the ball.

Re: World Cup 2014
 

I'm sure I read he didn't even have a shot on target in the entire knock out stage. If that's a case, and you're a forward, you haven't had a good tournament IMO

Re: World Cup 2014
 

I certainly didn't see him as best player of tournament. Not even sure if he would make my top 10

---------- Post added at 15:49 ---------- Previous post was at 15:48 ----------

He never showed it in this tournament. Which is a shame, but that is life

Re: World Cup 2014
 

I won £82 on the final