The Official Brazil 2014 FIFA World Cup thread

[beer baron]

Messi as player of the tournament  I'm as big a fan of his as anyone but that's ridiculous.I agree with the lad praising Schweinsteigers performance,himself and Hummels will be in pieces today but they'll hardly give a feck 

What a goal by Gotze too 

[deiseach]

My wife was like Vesuvius last night. I think the English need to mature as a nation.

[beer baron]

I'd say his Daddy's as happy as i am this morning

I hope the young lad gets a cool toy 

[dec]

Wish I was German.

From 1966 to now there have been 25 major international tournaments for European countries, 13 World Cups and 12 European Championships. Germany have appeared in 13 finals (3 WC wins 4 runners up, 3 Euro wins 3 runners up). The biggest gap between final appearances in that time is 6 years.

[AQMP]

Disgraceful decision to award Messi the golden boot. Probably sponsor driven with FIFA getting a nice cut.

He wasn't in the top 10 players in that tournament.

[Walter Cronc]

Would a better way not be some sort of online poll where the fans get to choose the top player?

[Sea The Stars]

Golden Boot is decided on by the journalists I think. They vote on the award before the final.

[dec]

Golden Boot is decided on by the journalists I think. They vote on the award before the final.

Messi was man of the match in 4 out of the 6 games he played before the final.

[Boycey]

I'd not have had Messi in my team of the tournament let alone player of the tournament... I do wonder however how much people read into these things. Will anyone know/care who was the player of the tournament in a few months?? I could name every winner/finalist back to 1930 but I've no clue who was player of the 2010 tournament other than he was probably Spanish??

[Sea The Stars]

I'd not have had Messi in my team of the tournament let alone player of the tournament... I do wonder however how much people read into these things. Will anyone know/care who was the player of the tournament in a few months?? I could name every winner/finalist back to 1930 but I've no clue who was player of the 2010 tournament other than he was probably Spanish??

Diego Forlan.

[beer baron]

Messi's embarassed himself i'd say.

[Billys Boots]

Soccerway.com's team of the tournament was:

Neuer
Lahm Hummels Gonzalez Blind
Mascherano Kroos
Robben Messi Rodriguez
Muller

Hard to argue with any of that I suppose.  Possibly Dimichelis or Garay instead of Gonzales, but that would be marginal IMHO. 

[Billys Boots]

The tournament in number - interesting (to me anyway):

136 - Goals scored in the group stage; the best of any tournament since expanding to 32 teams and the best goals-per-game average since 1958

8 - Knockout games decided in extra time or by a penalty shoot-out; more than any tournament since expanding to 32 teams

35 - Goals scored in the knockout stages

10 - Red cards; fewer than any World Cup since 1986 with the record of 28 having been set in 2006

1 - Yellow cards shown for diving; the first one was handed out to Brazil midfielder Oscar in the third-place play-off

4 - Months Uruguay striker Luis Suarez was banned after biting Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini. He was also slapped with a nine-match ban from competitive international appearances

382 - Minutes that Argentina goalkeeper Sergio Romero went without conceding a goal in Brazil before Mario Gotze beat him in the final

24 - Fouls conceded by Brazil before they were shown their first yellow card in their 2-1 quarter-final win over Colombia

401 - Seconds between Germany's second and fifth goals versus Brazil in their 7-1 semi-final thrashing

30 - The amount of seconds it took United States captain Clint Dempsey to open the scoring against Ghana; the fifth fastest goal in World Cup history

6 – Goals scored by Colombia's James Rodriguez, winner of the tournament's Golden Boot

[Kickham csc]

Messi

I don't understand how anybody could be overly critical of Messi's performance last night or in the whole World Cup.

I thought the man who the German's clearly had game planned for, was the centre of most of Argentina's attacking play last night. The fact that the German's controlled the ball for long periods shouldn't negatively impact the opinion of Messi's performance (i.e he went missing for long periods when his team didn't have the ball). Compare how well Messi did to Muller etc, who played on a team who controlled the ball, and had less impact.

As an attacking player, with the exceptions of Lavezzi, he was the only one between Germany and Argentina who performed anything close to expections. He nearly got two passes in the box to players in better positions, only for great last second German defending. Had one shot saved off the line after an amazing run. Gave a great pass to the winger who crossed for the offside goal, and of course missed the one on one.

He was the only man in the tournament to be marked by three players all the time, yet significantly contibutedin every game .

For example, Switzerland, layed on the pass for the final goal. Belgium, amazing skill and pass which resulted in the blocked shot that was volleyed in. Holland, put a couple of players through who should have scored

And for the comments comparing him to Maradonna, does nobody remember the 86 final. Maradonna was totally played out of the game, except for two passes for goals. But Messi's performance last night was better that Maradonna's in 86, and was getting on the ball and challenging the Germans.

Last point, instead of talking about Messi, the whole conversation should be around Lavezzi, why was he taken off? He was creating space for Messi, that was missed once he was taken off

[muppet]