The 2006 World Cup Awards
The awards for the 2006 World Cup have been announced and from the looks of the discussion taking place about Zidane’s selection as Golden Ball, not everyone agrees with the choices. I don’t either, so I have made my selections for the various awards. You’re welcome to do the same just as long as the players know that World Cup Blog will not be shipping them any trophies.
Golden Ball
Winner: Zinedine Zidane, France
My Choice: Fabio Cannavaro, Italy. The Italian captain was superb from start to finish this tournament. In a competition where no one player dominated, Cannavaro was in charge on a backline that propelled Italy to a championship. Forget Zidane’s meltdown in the final. He didn’t start the tournament strong and he really only had a couple of quality games.
Most Entertaining Team
Winner: Portugal
My Choice: Tie, Argentina and Ivory Coast. I’m not sure what the criteria is for picking the most entertaining team, but watching Portugal play never made me feel entertained. Argentina, however, put together some spectacular games and scored some of the tournament’s best goals. Ivory Coast also played an attractive style of football and I was never bored watching the Elephants play.
Best Young Player
Winner: Lukas Podolski, Germany
My Choice: No one. None of the young guns particularly impressed me, including Podolski. I like the concept of this award, which was handed out for the first time this year, but the reality was that this was not a tournament where a whole lot of young players had a chance to shine.
Best Keeper
Winner: Gianluigi Buffon, Italy
My Choice: Gianluigi Buffon, Italy. Buffon was solid throughout the competition and deserves to win the award. Special recognition should also go to Portugal’s Ricardo, Angola’s Ricardo and T&T’s Shaka Hislop. All three were outstanding on teams with defenses not nearly as good as Italy’s.
Golden Shoe
Winner: Miroslav Klose, Germany
My Choice: Klose did finish with the most goals so there is no disputing this one. I thought he had a wonderful tournament and will remember him just as much for his passing skills as I will for the five goals he scored.
Team Fair Play Award
Winner: Spain and Brazil
My Choice: This award seems like more of a joke than anything else. Spain and Brazil might have been sporting teams, but this tournament will be remembered less for its fair play than for its unfair play and shoddy refereeing. FIFA can try to feel good about themselves by endlessly promoting fair play, but until they hold the teams and players to a higher level it will mean nothing.
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Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 131 comments.
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By Carlos Raucci | July 12th, 2006 at 6:40 pm 
I completely agree with you man!
Posted from 
United States
By azzurro | July 12th, 2006 at 6:44 pm Hy guys, you are completely out of the mind!!! World Cup is in Italy and there will remain for the next 4 years. Do not make any dream. Rest in Peace
Posted from United States
By rohirrim | July 12th, 2006 at 7:09 pm Matterazi’s insults had got zz losing his cool and headbutt him. Thus zz got red card and bcos of that France lost.
Attemp that worked well by Italian team.
What France did with Spain, Portugal (dive to get PK) was also a strategy.. And they made it to the final.
Matterazi is the bad guy? Nahh.. he was doing whatever he could to let his team win. Fair play? Never!
So those who are pro-France and ZZ, get over it! It’s part of the game.. Both team did some ‘cheating’ along the way.. So why so bitter?! Just bcos France losed? LOL! Who asked ZZ to lose his cool? He got emotional, he lost!
Posted from 
Malaysia
By sooz | July 12th, 2006 at 7:10 pm 
Canada By Materazzi | July 12th, 2006 at 7:23 pm So I can tell now the story. ZZ told me ” if you want my shirt I can give you after the match” my reply was ” I prefer to get the shirt or even the panty of your wife” That’s all folk.
Posted from United States
By melissa | July 12th, 2006 at 7:36 pm HAHAHAHA IS THAT REALLY WHAT WAS SAID? IF SO, IT’S F*CKING FUNNY!
Posted from United States
By Pedro P | July 12th, 2006 at 8:41 pm @Sepp Blatter:
What I say can boil down to this: why are underdogs, that reach higher stages, usually appreciated and with Portugal is the oposite…?
Because we dive? What, the others don’t…? OH, actually we dive more. Really? My oh my… Just open your eyes, all of you!!!
I’ll write a bit more… The strongest case anybody could make against Portugal would necessarily be based on the Holland match. In which, though, 2 of the 2nd yellow cards that meant sending off were not by fouls/tackles. One was Costinhas (stupid) hand ball, the other was Deco’s stopping the ball (which didn’t hapen “just like that”, but OK). In my mind Figo also did exagerate when he fell, but there was an elbow in his face. Tiago also exagerate, to get the dutch a card, but there was a clear nasty foul there anyway. For the rest, there were some heavy fouls on our side.
And what about them…? What everybody seems to forget is that on the 7th minute, C Ronaldo had his leg severally kicked twice (and in the second, the images show clearly what Boularuz’s intention was) and 2 yeallow cards (these were not fair, as the second should be direct red, but OK - this IN the 7 MINUTES of the game) for the dutch. 7 minutes…
Through it all, the suposed “clean and honest and I hate diving” dutch threw themselves on the floor more than anybody else in this WC, came in super heavy in every single tackle, etc…
However, nobody said anything against Portugal then. In this case, I also understood not a lot of people praised us. Doesn’t mean I agree, but it’s a free world.
Also, nobody even bothered to check Portugal’s previous matches in group stage - super clean, super smooth, not even 1 complain to the ref, nothing bad. C Ronaldo was a sand bag, so much battered he was, Figo got a boot in his face and there wasn’t even a card for anybody, etc…
About all this, be my guest to check the matches fully and prove me wrong.
Then there was the ENG match. A match Portugal didn’t manage to score, but neither did England. We beat them in penalties. So did Germany against Argentina. Is it any shame? Ricardo even broke the WC record. Is this any cheating? I see merit in here.
The result: Portugal was not praised for a win over England, after a disputed game between 2 teams that share the top 10 in FIFA’s ranking and all the galaxy of players both DO have. Portugal was, instead, cruxified for being cheaters and divers and people even tried to say C Ronaldo is a bad person, because he called the refs attention for the Rooney event. Something everybody does… Some even said he’s not loyal to his team for that. Mind his team is Portugal. NOT Man Utd. Rooney stepped on Carvalho’s balls. But was England considered a team with little fair-play? Of course not. Portugal was the obvious guilty party… The devil… If this isn’t an infantil attempt to kinda disguise what the english themselves did, at the expense of a cheap excuse and lies, then I don’t know what it could be… Blind discriminations against Portugal? Could it be? In the developed world? In the world were a french headblows an italian, IN A WC FINAL where millions watch the game, for assumingly racist comments? Nah…
You might not know, but I listen and read BBC (also wrote in their blog sometimes) and what I saw was a hate campaign. Not to mention what I hurde and hear in the dutch TV about the portuguese team, and ultimatelly about the portuguese.
By the way, C Ronaldo’s house in England was later thrashed by english “fans”…
So, when people talk about diving, I remember Henry who got freekicks and penalties with it, I remember some germans and some argentinians and some italians. When people talk about negative playing, I remember Rooney, I remember the dutch, etc…
But I also say: although it’s not right, you’ll always see it until you get a proper ref, and FRA and ITA, dives or not, did deserve their place in the final. And, like it or not, Italy DID deserve the victory.
You say you’ll remember seing Pauleta and C Ronaldo diving in the pool. First I must congratulate you, cos you actually managed to find Pauleta. I am portuguese and after the game against Mexico, I never really saw him again…
So… Everybody dives, to a certain extend, more or less.
I could hide behind Henry’s foul not being a penalty. Because I don’t think it was. Like Pauleta’s off side when running in excellent position to score, like other little “details”. But I won’t, cos these things always happen, no game is 100% fair for both sides, and Portugal SHOULD have been able to score against FRA. The way I see it, Portugal’s team was stronger and had that goal came in, FRA wouldn’t have the legs for the extra time. The backbone maybe, not the legs and they’d already substituted attacking players, to be able to get back in the game.
Still they won, and I still find them worthy oponents and worthy finalists. Like Italy. Like Germany or even Argentina - I’d wanted Portugal to have met one of these 2 in the final (not to mention Brazil), but at the end none got there.
Unlike Croatia in 98 (a super team, built of stars, people we’ll never forget) or Turkey & S Korea in 02, Portugal has been along the years consistently showing up at the highest level.
WORLD champions in 89 and 91 with the kids (the so called golden generation, of which Figo was the last survivor). Our players are in the best world teams. Final in EC04, semi’s in EC00 (also in 84), last 8 in 96. OK, we failed the WC qualification in 98 and 94. But hey, so did HOL in 02 and they still find themselves, like the english, each and every WC, natural contenders. At least France keeps a lower profile and shows more modesty, just like Italy who actually won it 4 times. Or Germany, who were super happy reaching 3rd, after all the doubts.
England won 40 years ago and Holland never did.
Just for the record, Portugal has especialized in loosing to France on a semi final, as it was the 3rd consecutive time… Also in beating England (also 3rd) and Holland (these we’ve been beating more often)… 
I can understand Portugal annoys these 2 a lot, especially if on top of threatening their positions in world football, we also usually beat them in direct confrontations.
So, I hope the world will be more attentive with everything not related to Portugal (I also believe that if people gather to see the matches, even if it’s just to put us down, I guess you might like us just a bit) and friendlier TO Portugal… Cos, quite honestly, you don’t imagine how hard it is to get up there (not being a “usual suspect”); moreover with the world against us… Those guys gave everything they had, some are some of the best players in the world - which is very special for us as a country, not being a member of the WC winners/usual suspects - and we were 100 times more hindered than helped, and the world STILL feels it’s fun to chose one to be the “ugly kid” and just put down…
ps - About Zidane I guess everything is said and done. It’s wrong, he did it and took the price, Italy won the WC. FIFA denied CRonaldo the award for diving. So they gave it to a guy who dives a bit less but it’s a much more limited player. At least they could have given it to Messi… They wanted to give it to Zidane for his career, because Blater (the real one) dislikes italians and for having lost the final. But then he does that and they still give Zidane the award. I mean, I guess they’ll (FIFA) never win the Nobel prize, right…?
Cheers to all.
Posted from 
Netherlands
By Con Ber | July 13th, 2006 at 1:45 am Pedro….Well said…I think you spoke for many others…Portugal did what it was suppose to do…”even when it seems the ref’s were on the other teams”)..Portugal played the game …like others…but they were punished each time they won…because they won…I guess it is difficult for many to think a “small” country should/could win…….c-u @ next wc…
Posted from United States
By Sepp Blatter | July 13th, 2006 at 5:26 am Pedro, excellent retort & you do have some merit. I’l agree you have probably been villified by the English media for various reasons.
Podolski isn’t a 1/4 of the player Rondaldo is so obviously Fifa took Ronaldo’s antics very hard not to give him the award.
My other can of worms of offer is that Zidane didn’t lose the WC, Henry did.
Someone should explain to me how week in week out he tears apart defences at Arsenal, & for 10 mins he did so against the Italians. For the other 80 he was a passenger & he seems to do this a lot in big matches. Sometimes when your a superstar you need to stand up and be counted. He never does for France. Everyone can accuse Zidane’s madness as the excuse, but if guys like Henry played with Ribbery’s passion & running France would have lifted the trophy in normal time.
Ok everyone, get ready to slam me. Remember though Zidane left with 8 minutes to go, not 80.
Posted from 
Australia
By Pedro P | July 13th, 2006 at 11:42 am Henry is a bit like Pauleta: a “fierce animal” with the club shirt, a shadow of himslef with the national jersey. Although, Henry is far better than Pauleta, I never understood if Pauleta just chokes in the final stages or if he’s just not good enough or somewhat old. He does score, even against hard teams. Just not when it matters…
But you also have the oposite case… Nuno Valente is far better playing for Portugal, than for his club in England… Ricardo is a 5 star goalie for Portugal and at Sporting (Lisbon) he sometimes makes me wonder if it’s the same guy…
Going back to Arsenal, it is true Fabregas is going there, just like Kuyt, right…? Man Utd just blocked CRonaldo’s possible tranfer (I’d love to see the guy at Barca, but they’ve already got Messi for the same role and Real is NOT a good club to go to, right now).
Posted from Netherlands
By Pedro P | July 13th, 2006 at 11:50 am This is super hard on Owen… The man isn’t guilty of getting injured…
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=373649&root=worldcup&cc=5739
For obvious reasons, I couldn’t help smiling a bit… 
Posted from Netherlands
By Pedro P | July 13th, 2006 at 3:41 pm Some more outrageous portuguese dives… It would be funny it wasn’t so sad…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeaJXMmJfcM&search=portugal%20world%20cup%2006
Posted from Netherlands
By Pedro P | July 13th, 2006 at 3:42 pm Let’s forget the headblows…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GW8Z1a-h-wg&search=portugal%20world%20cup%2006
Posted from Netherlands
By Pedro P | July 13th, 2006 at 3:56 pm And some “portuguese classic rock”…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9u4VPSZ1wk&mode=related&search=portugal%20world%20cup%2006
Posted from Netherlands
By Keepcrying | July 13th, 2006 at 8:10 pm Portugal should never have gotten past Holland…I was in Nuerenberg that night, they killed my buzz (but not completely because……HOLLAND RULES anyway!!!!!!)
Even after that loss, the Dutch were GREAT!!! Very honourable losers…I reminded the Germans in Dortmund after Italy smoked them…..thanks Holland!!
Posted from United States
By Exodus | July 13th, 2006 at 9:11 pm Pedro,
Total agree with you.
Could not understand why the English blame C.Ro for Rooney’s red card. Thie Rooney man is known for his temper, his bad reputation. At any match, his teammates need to make sure he is not enaged in any arguement with the oppennents and the ref. At that momoent, even a few secs before that, the English should get Rooney away, out of the ref’s sight. Instead of doing that, they let this guy standing in front of the ref, and pushing C.Ro right under the nose of the ref. That is called stupid. The English.
Posted from 
Germany
By Dr Jay Tarenld | July 14th, 2006 at 5:57 am Any consideration of retracting the Golden ball award from Zidane will be worse than what the terrorist #1 of European and Italien Soccer Marco Materazzi have said to provoke such a great player to act the way he did.
In fact FIFA must do all it can to control the racism plaguing the european clubs and fields. It is a human right issue.
Jay
Posted from United States
By Dr Jay Tarenld | July 14th, 2006 at 6:02 am For Mr refree of the final: did not you notice that Canavarro hit hard Henry within the 1st minute? Henry surely was not acting! Then did you not notice that the same Canavarro later came hard against Zidane?
FIFA MUST MAKE SURE that the 2006 extreme mediocrity should never fre-occur again! It truly ruined this world cup which I consider as a ttal failure given how the final ended: the less deserving team won. It is wrong. 100% wrong. And has the referee was good things could have ended differently.
Posted from United States
By Pedro P | July 14th, 2006 at 6:41 pm Here’s some more of things nobody is really proud of… Just notice the english comentator… Little did he know…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU-EaTDx7vo&mode=related&search=portugal%20world%20cup%2006
I just hope if POR and HOL meet again we’d have as good a match as all the times we’ve met before. And EuroCups are never so much defense obcessed as World Cups…
Posted from Netherlands
By Pedro P | July 14th, 2006 at 6:55 pm With spanish soundtrack…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGLFdLAl_sE&mode=related&search=portugal%20world%20cup%2006
Posted from Netherlands
By Pedro P | July 14th, 2006 at 7:21 pm And now, with portuguese soundtrack… People, this almost made me feel like I was listening to it in the radio, with the comentators freaking out, like it was Sporting vs Benfica (Lisbon derby)…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmEvaXIpT8A&mode=related&search=portugal%20world%20cup%2006
All in all, POR had a better team in 2002 and played like s##t, much better individuals in 98 (much better flowing and attacking football) and failed to qualify… Some called us cheats and divers, others called us entertaining… C Ronaldo didn’t get a prize he deserved for diving, but Zidane got the golden ball after throuwing Materazzi on the floor with a head blow… Buffon (for me, still the best goalie in the world) took the Lev Yashim award but Ricardo broke the record in WC penalty saves and took just that back home…
BTW, please correct me if I’m wrong, but speaking of attacking football and etc, I believe the last hat-trick in a world cup was Pauleta in 2002, against Poland… Pitty he was kinda sleepy this time…
Quite honestly, who cares about these awards… This time we went 4th and nothing can take that away. Portugal is super proud of its team and its achievment.
Posted from Netherlands
By Pedro P | July 14th, 2006 at 7:25 pm Something that I just couldn’t find at the “ihateronaldo” site…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lpvQaBdiXc&mode=related&search=portugal%20football
And this one… This one’s just tooooo funny…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ku57D1k78Vo&mode=related&search=portugal%20football
Posted from Netherlands
By irene titi | July 16th, 2006 at 7:29 pm i p’pple should stop critizing ZZ,he had really done a lot 4 d soccer world is just on fortunate dat he can control his temper cos is human.And what mater.had said to him must be terriblly bad.
Posted from United States
By andrea | July 17th, 2006 at 2:55 pm —–Zidane hits Materazzi—–
Press and journalists and Chirac: poor Zidane.. he is a man, the guilty is that bastard italian that provoked him
—–Materazzi hits Zidane—–
Press and journalists and Chirac:
Those bastards italians are not able to play football and have to headbutt great players
YOU HYPOCRITES !!!!
SHAME ON YOU!!!
YOU ETERNAL LOSERS !!!!
Posted from 
Italy
By joe new jersey | July 23rd, 2006 at 10:34 am The finals was bittersweet.As an Italian American I have seen the response,and criticism.But the patriotionism sung during the national antheum said it all.The French players were not like other countries .Basketball was revelation .Argentina,Lithuania beat the United States in Basketball.Matterazzi is Sicilian,Zidane is Algerian,Sicilians are very emotional.But instinctual.
Posted from United States
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