Friday 29 June 2012

A Tale of Tradition

Best Goalkeeper: Gianluigi Buffon - Was perhaps kept the busiest out of all the goalkeepers but it was a close run affair between Buffon and Patricio.

Best Defender: Pepe - Has been the best defender in the competition so far but his run comes to an end as Portugal go out on penalties. Showed his experience of the Spanish game with a very good display that kept the Spanish out of his net. His Madrid counterpart, Sergio Ramos, could have also won this award as well as Leo Bonucci.

Best Midfielder: Mesut Özil - Despite his team being knocked out, the German magician created many chances for his teammates as well as cooly slotting home from the penalty spot but it came far too late to affect the match's outcome. His passing was superb as was his dribbling and, perhaps more surprisingly, his defending. There were many great performances from midfield with Moutinho, Pirlo and Montolivo all playing well.

Best Striker: Mario Balotelli - Will there be a more defining image from this tournament than Super Mario standing strong after scoring a marvellous goal? He's a mercurial talent and the German defence just couldn't handle his pace and power. This could spur him on to greatness within the game.

Best Match: Germany 1 - 2 Italy - A game with a great goal from a fantastic player. Italy's midfield really outplayed Germany and they made Gomez look extremely ordinary. Both matches were of a similar standard so this was quite a difficult decision. 

Worst Match: Portugal 0 - 0 (p) Spain - Portugal definitely deserved to go through but the Spanish machine just keeps on rolling. They consistently perform to a level good enough to win tournaments and this match was no exception.

Surprise Player: Joao Moutinho - It's not the fact that Moutinho is an unknown player because he is a very efficient and consistent midfielder but the fact he put in his best performance of the tournament against the Spaniards was a little bit of a surprise to me.

Underachieving Player: Cristiano Ronaldo - He played well until he had to shoot. Had his finishing been stronger yesterday, Portugal would be through and Spain would be going home early from a tournament for the first time since Germany in 2006.

Best Manager: Paulo Bento - Portugal were tactically too strong for Spain and countered superbly. Unfortunately for them, as mentioned before, their talismanic winger and captain just didn't finish well today. His only bad decision was leaving Ronaldo until the fifth penalty in the shootout meaning that he didn't even get the opportunity to score.

Team of the Round:
--------------------------Buffon-------------------------
Arbeloa-------Ramos---------Pepe-------Coentrão
Moutinho--------Pirlo----------Montolivo--------Özil
--------------------------Cassano--------------------
----------------------------Balotelli----------------------
Honourable Mentions - Patricio, Pereira, Piqué, Bonucci, Alba, Busquets, De Rossi, Kroos

Predictions
Golden Boot: Mario Balotelli (Previously Mario Gomez) - I'm not really sure who will get the Golden Boot at this rate but I plumped for Balotelli as he still has the final to come but in truth it could be anyone. There hasn't been a phenomenal goal scorer at the tournament so far.

Player of the Tournament: Andrea Pirlo (Previously Mesut Özil) - For me Özil has probably been the best player but seeing as he has been knocked out of the competition, Pirlo could win it despite the fact that Spain will probably win the trophy at the end of it all. He's been instrumental in Italy's wonderful cup run and is a bit of a media darling.

Winners: Spain (Unchanged) - Italy could pull a surprise if they use the same tactics as they did in their first game against the champions (where they played three at the back including De Rossi) but I have a feeling that Prandelli will play four at the back in which case Spain will comfortably win the final.

Surprise Team: Portugal (Previously Greece) - Portugal played extremely well which was surprsing as I hadn't really given them a chance against Spain though if they played as well as could be hoped for and still got knocked out maybe they really didn't have a chance!

Final Thoughts - Mario Balotelli is on his way to superstardom if he hasn't reached that peak already but the Italians should use this momentum, even if they do not win the final, to build another World Cup winning side. They have a lot of talent but they also have a fantastic manager, maybe even the best manager in the competition.

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