Favorite World Cup Players
With no games over the next couple days we will have plenty of time to talk about Italy and France. But it also gives us all time to reflect a bit on the 62 games we have watched this World Cup. As someone who enjoyed the tournament from a neutral standpoint, except for my undying support of Angola, I found it interesting that I ended up rooting for certain players to do well. I wasn’t backing their team and in some cases I had never seen them play before, yet their style of play won me over. He’s a smattering of players that I’ll remember from this World Cup.
Shaka Hislop – The Trinidad and Tobago keeper wasn’t even supposed to start for the Soca Warriors in their opening match against Sweden, but he did and he was simply fantastic, almost single handedly earning T&T a point.
Franck Ribery – The midfielder for France has been nothing short of amazing throughout the competition. He doesn’t have the body of an athlete, but his work rate is excellent and his skill on the ball impressive.
Cesc Fabregas – I loved him before the World Cup and I love him even more now. He is a fearless young player who will be a force to reckon with when Spain loses in the quarterfinals in 2010.
Phillipp Lahm – Another young player who knows no fear. He has to be the most impressive one armed player of the competition.
Zinedine Zidane – Zizou has further cemented his legacy by leading France into the final. Even the simple touch passes he makes can leave you saying “wow”.
Ricardo – Both keepers for Angola and Portugal were excellent. The Angola Ricardo was essentially a one-man defender. The Portugal keeper was a one-man penalty shoot out stopper.
Luis Valencia – The attacking Ecuador midfielder was a pleasure to watch.
Maxi Rodriguez – His goal in extra time against Mexico still makes my heart race, but he also played well throughout Argentina’s campaign.
Fabio Cannavaro - I’m still waiting to see if the Italian captain will ever make a mistake. He is amazing in the Azzurri backline.
Those are just some of the players that I’ll remember from the 2006 World Cup. Some may not come close to making the all-tournament team, but they have helped to make this neutral fan enjoy the competition.
Who are some players that you have enjoyed watching?
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Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 53 comments.
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By Tony | July 6th, 2006 at 4:49 pm 
My picks,
Buffon
Zambrotta-Cannavaro-Thuram-Miguel
Pirlo-Viera-Requelme-Roben
Klose-Torres
Subs
Lehman
Terry
Figo
Henry
Everyone says a strong defence makes for a boring game. I say defending well is very exciting, along with great ball movement. You don’t have to score plenty goals to enjoy a game. Imagine if a score was 6-5, I think that would be the dullest kind of game. A complete game has a good balance of both defending and attacking.
Posted from 
Canada
By TSN | July 6th, 2006 at 5:17 pm pletikosa of croatia
best goalie
Posted from Canada
By Internet Junkies » Blog Archive » Save the internet | July 6th, 2006 at 5:57 pm [...] Please read the full post at worldcupblog. [...]
Posted from 
United States
By NeutralObserver | July 6th, 2006 at 6:17 pm Here are some players that I think deserve praise for their outstanding effort in the World Cup.
Sagnol (France)
Has been consistently good throughout the tournament.
Maniche (Portugal)
Plays the length of the field and has a wicked long distance shot.
Nedved (Czech Republic)
One of the best players in the World Cup. Too bad the Czechs did not qualify for the later rounds.
Appiah (Ghana)
The entire Ghanaian team deserves praise for playing an energetic, fast-paced style of football. Appiah had a remarkable game against Brazil in the absence of Essien.
Tevez (Argentina)
Great game against Germany. Should’ve seen more playing time than he did.
Hargreaves (England)
The best player on an otherwise tepid English team.
Posted from United States
By Trapper | July 6th, 2006 at 7:38 pm Klose was wonderful for Germany.
Zidane will have gone out on a great note regardless of the result in the Final.
Posted from 
Australia
By Pras | July 6th, 2006 at 9:45 pm Well i feel we have had a great show in 2006 in contrast to 2002 which was drab.
Let me swing this in a neutral entertainment point of view. Let me make some pointers on few players that cross my mind.
C. Ronaldo…For ultimate passion plus acting plus what not. His over stylized play is enough to impress gals all over but nothing for score sheet.
Rooney…To me he looks a hulk with a bulk of sulk. Too big and overhyped player. Having had the ball many a time he nver looked threatening. And then his anger proved to be his nemesis. See yaa in 2010.
Lampard: 35 Shots on Target. Either he was in love with all the goalkeepers coz he never saw the net.
Ballack: Overhyped. He lost the possesion of the ball the moment he even touched it. And with 22 shots on target, he is the mini lampard.
Ronaldinho: Long hair and some stylized soccer, he is gone for 2006, strip his best player award as i type this.
Totti: Overall alrite but his antics in the game against Germany was more of a Broadway show and when he dived over Ballack..that looked such a overact.
Pauleta: He was sleeping in the striking position, i thnk he decided not to score deliberately coz and Ronaldoes passing made it even worse.
R. Carlos: When you are in the team to Defend, please Defend, dont belt the ball with ur huge thighs towards the gals sitting in 100th row of the stands. He was the reason that Brasil lost with France, he was standing with hands on his feet while Henry pushed the ball into the goal.
DONE!
Posted from 
India
By redheart | July 6th, 2006 at 9:48 pm germany: klose
Portugal:Ricardo
france vieira, ribery, zidane
italy: buffon
Posted from 
Portugal
By thomas | July 6th, 2006 at 10:19 pm I was most surprised of Germany’s David Odonkor. He didn’t play a single match for the national team before his nomination, and in the WC he did quite a good performance and became the darling of the German fans.
Best players:
Germany: Klose, Frings
Portugal: Ricardo
Italy: Buffon
France: Vieira and Zidane
Argentina: Messi, Rodriguez
Posted from 
Germany
By Dragan | July 6th, 2006 at 10:57 pm ITALY
Overrated: Totti
Haven’t seen him do much with the football, though he gives terrific performances while writhing on the ground.
Underrated: Pirlo
The midfield general who orchestrates the attack for Italy.
FRANCE
Overrated: Henry
Spent most of his time being offsides. For all the hype and with terrific ball feeders around him (Zidane, Viera, Ribery), has done little.
Underrated: Ribery
Virtual unknown has come into the spotlight with his terrific showing.
GERMANY
Overrated: Ballack
Could be seen laboring on the pitch, probably due to injury. He did not play well against Argentina and Italy.
Underrated: Lehmann
Hero of the penalty shootout against Argentina and gave a terrific performance in the Italy game, before the late goals.
PORTUGAL:
Overrated: Ronaldo
Lot of dazzle in midfield, leading to nothing. Also a skilled actor.
Underrated: Maniche
A workhorse player that transitions well from defense.
BRAZIL
Overrated: Almost the whole team, but we’ll say Roberto Carlos.
I think he made the team purely on reputation, not on merit.
Underrated: Ronaldo
For being labelled fat and lazy, still was a goal-scoring threat and far better than Adriano.
ARGENTINA
Overrated: Crespo
Virtually invisible on the field. Amazing that he started every meaningful game, given the amount of talent on the bench (Messi, Tevez).
Underrated: Heinze
Rock in the middle of the defense.
ENGLAND
Overrated: Lampard
What did this guy do? Blasted footballs into orbit and clogged up valuable space in the middle of the field. England would’ve been better off without him on the field.
Underrated: Hargreaves
Vindicated his selection with spirited performances.
Posted from United States
By Antonio | July 6th, 2006 at 11:23 pm Dragan I agree with u 100 percent. In Portugal I would add as underrated Miguel.
Posted from United States
By Arthur | July 7th, 2006 at 1:14 am Germany: Frings, Lahm, Klose, Lehmann
Italy: buffon, Pirlo, Cannavaro, Gattuso (destructive, but effective)
France: Zidane, Viera, Ribery
Argentina: Messi, Tevez, Ayala
Portugal: Rodriguez
and from other, less succesful nations:
Ghana: Appiah, Essien, Kingston
Yorke, Hislob (TRI), Tymoschuk (UKR), Drogba(CIV), Robben, (NED), Hargreaves (ENG), Kewell (AUS)
By Arthur | July 7th, 2006 at 1:24 am I have to add Valencia(ECU), Barnetta(SUI),Isaakson(SWE) Fabregas (Spain)
By Ms. Catenaccio | July 7th, 2006 at 1:29 am Cannavaro
Ricardo (Portugal)
Buffon
Miguel
Lehmann
Posted from United States
By sourav | July 7th, 2006 at 10:29 am Agree
would add c ronaldo, if only he could score goals as well as he dribbles and dives, but great to watch
how abt the real jokers in the pack: did f all
The brazilian team, the english team specially Beckham,pauletta and quite a few more …. to boring to type
Posted from India
By tiiiit | July 7th, 2006 at 6:22 pm Comme il le dit lui même:
“je le mérite”
http://franckyribery.blogspot.com/2006/07/je-le-mrite.html
Posted from 
France
By vinoma | July 9th, 2006 at 5:18 am For England,Hargreaves has always been underrated.I think the English fans now know better than booing him.
Italy will be world champions.The current defence marshalled by Cannovaro,Materrazi…etc,reminds me of the walls Baresi used to marshall.The French will need a digging tool to break through!
The ivory Coast need to learn to score as they play!
Posted from 
Uganda
By alien | July 10th, 2006 at 11:35 pm Zidane: best player in the whole world. single handedly made brazilians look like little kids, the twists and turns, the passing after that and the free kick on which Henry scored, AWSOME!!!
Zidane was the best thing happend in the later stages of the world cup.
Materazzi is hateful.
Italians are soo good at diving, making drama, provoking, and they always get away with it. Cannavaro, Buffon and Pirlo were great and disciplined, otherwise almost all of them cheat and dive. shame.
By rohit | July 11th, 2006 at 5:12 am oye guys we are talking about individual plyaers here all of u missed the guy who’ll be kiking ass for the next 6 years thats Robin van Persie
Posted from India
By SAMMY | July 13th, 2006 at 10:56 am RICARDO
LOUIS FIGO
ZIDANE
AYALA
TORRES
Posted from United States
By Sawvy | July 19th, 2006 at 9:07 am I adore Zidane of course!! He is the best, such a cute football hero, a pity that he ended up like that (((( Klose and Lahm - respect too… Sure Bob - now we all have nice time of remembering all teams up and downs…BTW, I found a nice source for it - 3dgoals.com for us football freaks 
Posted from 
Russian Federation
By Kruman | July 19th, 2006 at 9:40 am Is this poetry or magic?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYUtKKbBTkw&search=zidane
Posted from United States
By kecik | August 12th, 2006 at 7:40 pm my idol………..phillipp lahm
Posted from 
Malaysia
By kecik | August 12th, 2006 at 7:41 pm germany for life
Posted from Malaysia
By Carmen | August 22nd, 2006 at 10:38 pm A very like Phillipp Lahm .
A girl !!!
My idol ..Lahm !
The same as Germany !
Best wishes to them!!
Posted from 
China
By Carmen | August 23rd, 2006 at 4:40 am I just like Germany’s player!!
1>Lahm
2>小猪 NO.7 ,(sorry,I can’t spell his name ..because that’s too long)
3>ballack
4>klose
5>kahn
6>podolski
Posted from China
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