Everyone has now played in the World Cup and it has been a fairly slow start BUT I am still going to try my hardest to find as many positives as I can find. Having watched every match so far I will give certain 'awards' to the stand out players and other staff so far (I will be excluding the S. Africa v Uruguay from this round up).
Best Goalie: Vincent Enyeama - There have been quite a few good keepers in this tournament so far keeping, excuse the pun, the goals to a minimum but Enyeama really did well against Argentina, keeping them to just one goal. They looked on fire, especially Messi, but he made some outstanding saves to earn himself this award.
Best Defender: Stephane Grichting - There were many players who could have won this award, especially as so many full backs have played exceptionally but Grichting was the key reason why Switzerland were able to beat Spain. He had an answer for everything that was thrown at him today and definitely deserves this award.
Best Midfielder: Mesut Özil - I had him down as the player to watch in this tournament and he has proved just that. Outstanding against Australia, being the playmaker that Germany have not had in recent times. They have been a team who have been effecient and have ground out results at recent World Cups, but Özil adds creativity to their midfield and allows Schweinsteiger and Khedira to guard their defence.
Best Striker: Lukas Podolski - Scored a goal, made a goal, got the ball into the box and even helped out in defence. His performance was the best I saw all week, plus he really got over his poor club form.
Best Match: Netherlands 2-0 Denmark - I was tempted to pick England's game, but I thought that this was the most open game with both sides having opportunities to win the game.
Worst Match: Japan 1-0 Cameroon - Cameroon looked lethargic and played really poorly. Japan were well organised and reminded me a bit of Fulham but an organised team against a team playing poorly often leads to a boring match. There were quite a few I could have chosen here.
Surprise Player: Hong Yong-Jo - He led the North Korean team out against Brazil and was pretty much the player which everything went through. Was maybe overshadowed by the dribbling of Jong Tae-Se but still had a fantastic game.
Best Manager: Ottmar Hitzfeld - Tactically spot on and got his players to execute against Spain to keep a clean sheet. Great performance and great win. Didn't expect Switzerland to play so well but they could be looking to go through. Chile might be a sterner test as they will feel they have a great chance of winning and could play more attacking football. If Switzerland do well, do not be surprised to see Hitzfeld take the reigns at Liverpool.
Team of the 'Round':
--------------------Enyeama-----------------
Maicon-----Grichting------Heinze------Lahm
Messi------Veron----------Özil-------Robinho
-----------Mueller----------Podolski-----------
Predictions:
Golden Boot: Miroslav Klose - Don't be surprised to see him win it again. He didn't have his shooting boots on but he still bagged a goal. His movement looked really good and with the service that he is getting he should be bagging 5/6 goals here.
Player of the Tournament: Phillip Lahm - World-class full back who can do it all. His crosses were pin-point accurate and it looks as though he could get an assist every game. Unstoppable.
Winners: Germany - Without a doubt they looked the best team in the opening matches. Even if they weren't playing well I still think that they could win it, it's in their blood and 20 years is too long for Germany not to win it.
Surprise Team: Chile - I do not think that many people really knew a lot about their team despite scoring the most goals in South America. Sanchez is the real deal.
Overperformers: Denmark - I was really impressed with the way that they played. I know they lost to Holland, but they should be able to finish second in that group on that performance. Bendtner looked good and Rommedahl played really well. I think they could easily make the quarter finals.
Underperformers: Cameroon - To me, they were the worst performing team in the tournament, even worse than Greece. They were appalling and for some reason they played Eto'o on the right when clearly he would be more suited being the focal point for their attack. Maybe they want him to be more involved in open play.
Final Thoughts :)
If you have made it this far than I thank you for reading this really long article. I thought that two referees looked very poor. Marco Antonio Rodriguez is a referee who loves to give out red cards and proved this when he gave one to Tim Cahill for no good reason. Even Bastian Schweinsteiger admitted that this was the wrong call (typical German). The other referee was the one from Seychelles who refereed Hondurus v Chile. Eddy Maillet was appalling and should not be allowed to ref another game at this tournament. He could not even get the simple decisions correct.
COME ON ENGLAND!!!!!!
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