Second Set of Awards

The group stage has been setting up nicely, here is the latest set of awards:

Best Goalkeeper: Vladimir Stojkovic - Saved a German penalty, something most thought was impossible, thus the award goes to the Serbian keeper.

Best Defender: Ryan Nelsen - A rock at the heart of the New Zealand defence. Led by example, and as the only notable player, shone as New Zealand held Italy to a draw.

Best Midfielder: Dennis Rommedahl - Thought he played well last week, but with an assist and a wonderful goal, he grabs this award with both hands.

Best Striker: Diego Forlan - One of Europe's top marksman for quite some time and he showed his experience and class as he ran Uruguay's attack from just behind the front two.

Best Match: Cameroon 1 - 2 Denmark - Truly wonderful game with mistakes galore as Cameroon fought for World Cup survival but came unstuck against the best Rommedahl performance that I have ever witnessed.

Worst Match: England 0 - 0 Algeria - The worst game of football that I have ever watched at any level, yet alone the top level. Simply awful.

Surprise Player: Michael Bradley - To be honest, I didn't know a lot about Bradley apart from the fact that he is the coach's son. However, he has proved to me that he is by far the best American central midfielder that I have ever seen. He is good at everything and I wouldn't be surprised to see him make a transfer to a mid-table premiership club.

Best Manager: Bob Bradley - I was tempted to give New Zealander Ricki Herbert this award but I felt that Bradley made enough changes and seemed to give the team some oomph at the break to allow USA to come back from a 2-0 deficit.

Team of the 'Round':

-------------------Stojkovic--------------------

Maicon----Nelsen-----------Kjær----Coentrão

Rommedahl--Tiago----------Elano----Ronaldo

--------------Forlan--------Fabiano-----------

Predictions

Golden Boot: David Villa (previously Klose) - Villa is showing me that he is going to score lots of goals in this tournament, even if Spain do not make it that far, I think Villa will score at least another 3 goals in this World Cup. Klose is suspended but who knows what can happen in football?

Player of the Tournament: Maicon (previously Lahm) - Like for like, Maicon has the attacking flair to win over voters, as well as the fact that he will probably end up on the winning team.

Winners: Brazil (previously Germany) - I still think Germany will win, but Brazil look unbeatable despite lapses of concentration in defence.

Surprise Team: Mexico (previously Chile) - I think Chile may get knocked out at group stage despite amassing 6 out of 6 points so far due to their lack of goals. Mexico looked the real deal before the World Cup against England and have so far played very well.

Overperformers: Denmark (unchanged) - Still think they are going to make the quarter finals. They play open, attractive football and probably deserved their win.

Underperformers: Cameroon (unchanged) - They are out and they really should not be. Appalling result for the African team which had the best chance of getting out of their group.

Final Thoughts

The referees have been awful, it is time to simply use the best 32 refs in the world rather than picking refs from obscure countries with no professional league.