He slipped my mind, but I definitely wanted to rate him, his partner on the left was good as well, they were very important in CR style of play. Fullback Cristain Gamboa (Costa Rica) ** Junior Diaz (Costa Rica) *
I liked watching both Aguilar and Herrera of Mexico. They linked up extremely well together on Mexico's right hand side. Whether either, or both, would warrant inclusion individually I'm not 100% certain but I'd give both a * star. Also, I thought Ivan Perisic was one of the better performers unfortunately eliminated with his team mates after the 1st round of group matches.
In the first half i had De Vrij one point above Vlaar, so i think is fair to said to i should give De Vrij also a 7 this match. About Robben i see him having less involved in the whole game, in comparison to previous matches. But as you said, he created the chances of all three goals. And honestly, in all the "few" moments he could run, we can smell that another goal has been coming. So it fair to claim an 8 for him.
Yes, he also said he was exhausted (not helped by only two resting days) and totally empty. He also showed his legs directly after the game (he wanted to make the point he's no 'pussy'). I had the same impression as you, but strangely OPTA showed this. 91.9 - Arjen Robben completed 91.9% of his 37 passes vs Brazil, the highest percentage of all Dutch players. Precise.— OptaJohan (@OptaJohan) July 12, 2014 67 - Arjen Robben had 67 touches vs Brazil, the most of all Dutch players. Industrious. pic.twitter.com/ik9RqW9dkW— OptaJohan (@OptaJohan) July 12, 2014 http://forums.bigsoccer.com/threads/world-cup-2014-player-ratings.2006312/page-8#post-30723888
Nice ranking, Tom. My thoughs: - I'd give 1 star to van Persie, due to his last matches. - Di María, arguably 2 stars. I think, Lavezzi deserves 1 star. - I tend to rate Messi and Oscar as equal, more than 2 stars gap. - Arguably, Vidal also 2 stars. - I don't see Lahm's first matches. But for KO rounds he deserves 3 stars. - Garay played as good as the top CBs. Demichelis deserved a mention. - Bravo needs to be in the GKs list.
I went back and forth on RVP with 1 or 2 stars. I would be more likely to raise Oscar a star than drop Messi. Although I don't think Messi should have won the golden ball I feel like he definitely deserves *** as the top chance creator of the tournament and having multiple game deciding moments in a weak offense for a team that made the final. I thought Vidal was great against Brazil but the first two group stage games he was very average and still recovering from an injury, not enough for ** imo. Lahm and Garay were both borderline *** for me, I went back and forth on their ratings. Demichelis is another one I struggled with, as he only played three games. But seeing they were the most important ones and he played well in all of them I would agree * is appropriate. Looking back Bravo and Enyeama should probably both get * for goalkeepers.
It's good to mention Oscar indeed. He had a weak match against Mexico and Chile to a lesser extent but I think he finished the tournament strong (last two/three matches where he was best midfield/forward player of Brazil; even against Germany).
L'Equipe's team of the tournament Navas; Lahm, Hummels, Yepes, Guardado; Schweinsteiger, Rodriguez, Di Maria; Robben, Neymar, Muller Fairly bizarre choice of Guardado at left-back.
My own team of the tournament: Navas; Zabaleta, Hummels, Vlaar, Blind; Kroos, Mascherano; Muller, Rodriguez, Robben; Messi Subs: Neuer, Lahm, Garay, Gonzalez, Rojo, Schweinsteiger, Khedira, Cuadrado, Neymar, Sanchez, Benzema
Some more teams of the tournament: Daniel Taylor: (4-2-3-1): Neuer; Lahm, Vlaar, Hummels, Blind; Mascherano, Kroos; Robben, Neymar, Rodríguez: Müller. Barney Ronay: (4-2-3-1) Keylor Navas; Philipp Lahm, Ron Vlaar, Mats Hummels, Júnior Díaz; Javier Mascherano, Toni Kroos; Lionel Messi, James Rodríguez, Arjen Robben; Thomas Müller Paolo Bandini: (4-2-3-1) Tim Howard; Philipp Lahm, Mats Hummels, Ezequiel Garay, Ricardo Rodríguez; Javier Mascherano, Toni Kroos; Thomas Müller, James Rodríguez, Lionel Messi; Neymar http://www.theguardian.com/football...cup-2014-guardian-writers-best-moments-brazil Match of the Day: Neuer; Lahm, Gonzalez, Hummels, Blind; Kroos, Mascherano; Messi, Rodriguez, Robben; Muller http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/28256147
The top 20 by the largest sportspaper over here. It's biased to Dutch players, but one sees that with many sports publications: I agree with them though that De Vrij was overall as good as Vlaar... as also 'WhoScored', 'OPTA' and Fifa their Castrol sponsored metrics/algorithm all independently agree. Vlaar has currently the EPL and 'badass' bonus though (and some media maybe like to keep newcomers/Eredivisie small?). 11 - These players have made the Opta top eleven for the #WorldCup2014. Outstanding. pic.twitter.com/mmSMUt4JYD— OptaFranz (@OptaFranz) July 14, 2014 http://www.whoscored.com/Articles/o...ow/Team-Focus-World-Cup-2014-Highest-Rated-XI http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/statistics/castrol-index/index.html
This is the team of the tournament as selected by "Süddeutsche Zeitung" (Germany's largest national subscription daily newspaper): ----------------------------------------------Müller ----------------------Neymar -----------------Messi------------James----------Robben -----------------------Kroos---------------Mascherano ----------------Medel------------Hummels-----------Vlaar -------------------------------------Neuer This is their "worst team of the tournament" (4-5-1) Casillas - Azpilicueta, Ramos, Piqué, Alba - Alonso, Xavi, Busquets, Silva, Iniesta - Costa
By the way (don't know where to post this), on Kicker's website all of the "World Cup preview special issues" are available in full (since 1970). http://e-paper.kicker.de/ee/kicker/default.php?pSetup=sonderheft Issues can be selected at the top left under "Jahrgang".
Revista Placar Golden Ball: Arjen Robben 1 Robben 7,29 7matches 2 Messi 7,21 7matches 3 James Rodríguez 7,20 5matches 4 Schürrle 7,20 5matches 5 Müller 7,14 7matches 6 Götze 7,13 4matches 7 Kroos 7,07 7matches 8 Navas 7,00 5matches 9 Hummels 6,92 6matches 10 Schweinsteiger 6,92 6matches Team of the Tournament: Keylor Navas; Lahm, Hummels, Vlaar, Blind; Schweinsteiger, Mascherano, Kroos, James Rodriguez; Messi, Robben http://placar.abril.com.br/materia/conheca-a-selecao-placar-da-copa-do-mundo-2014
My Team: Navas; Lahm, Hummels, De Vrij, Blind; Mascherano, Kroos; Robben, Rodríguez; Neymar; Müller Cheating slightly by moving Kroos back but with Mascherano holding he would have freedom to move forward.
While browsing this 1970 issue I noticed an interesting comparison between the 1954 outfit and the 1970 outfit of the German national team. It was noted that the 1954 shoes weighed 400 gram. The 1970 shoe only 240 gram. A difference of 160 gram may not sound like a big deal but as experts had calculated back then, carrying an extra weight of 160 gram with every step meant that a player in 1954 carried an extra weight of more than one tonne compared to a player in 1970 (accumulated over 90 minutes). This is another setback that "modernists" do seldomly take into account when commenting on football of the past!
Looks pretty consistent and agreeable. We're spoilt for choice with a few keepers and the full backs are up for debate but I can't argue with the consistent Mascherano-Kroos pairing and Hummels at centre back. Benzema and van Persie had their moments and of course Klose hit his landmark but I agree that there is no stand out natural striker this time so some permutation of the other four makes perfect sense. Neymar would be the fifth. I think what worked for Vlaar is not that we know and love him here in England but that we've never seen anything like that level of performance from him for Villa. It appeared as though he raised his game for the occassion and I think people have admired that while enjoying the surprise. Of course the same may be true of de Vrij but you can't appreciate the change if you didn't know him so well before. My team: ---------------Müller Messi--------James-------Robben ------Mascherano---Kroos Blind---Vlaar---Hummels---Lahm ---------------Navas B team: ------------------van Persie Di Maria-------Neymar-------Cuadrado -----Schweinsteiger---Pogba Rodriguez---De Vrij---Garay---Zabaleta ---------------Neuer A few honourable mentch: Ochoa, Howard, Romero Benzema Valbuena Alexis Sanchez Enner Valencia Marquez Gervinho Cahill Rojo Yepes Shaquiri Pjanic Boateng for his final Oscar for persisting Thiago Silva for putting up with David Luiz Cameroon for the laughs Honduras for sparing us our lives All of Algeria - Slimani, Fegouhli, M'Bohli, the left back who's name I forget, all fantastic And finally I've not read enough being said about Andre Schürrle - he was given less than half an hour in the groups, seeing out both wins. Then in 4 sub appearances in the knock outs he broke the deadlock against Algeria, saw out the win vs France, scored both goals after he came on vs Brazil including a bit of a screamer and set up the winning goal in the final. So 3 goals and an assist without even a start and the only two times was asked to make a difference he delivered.